[Urendi Maleldil]

Religion means nothing. All that matters is what is true. If something is true, it's true for me, true for you, and true for any Martians out there.

Since religions are beliefs about what is true, a religeon must be believed in order to be followed. Few people follow something they believe is false.

It's a bad idea to let your friend go on believing something false about something so important as life, the universe, and everything.

If I believe there is no God, and after you die there's nothing, who cares what other people believe? In my world there's only pleasure and pain. There's no such thing as absolute right and wrong. If I believe something is right, it makes me feel good. If it's wrong it makes me feel bad. Live and let live. That's what I say. The guy down the street believes something else? Don't rock the boat. He should believe what he feels is true. This works for me. I don't push my beliefs on others. That hurts. Both me and them. We can be friends without our opinions getting in the way.

If I believe God is true, then I believe we're in deep doo doo. God is just and justly destroys pride, prejudice, and all the rest of them. We're prideful and prejudicial. Unless God gives us a way out, we're bound for loneliness and sorrow-- utter destruction of your self. All your hopes and dreams shattered for infinity. But God, filled with compassion, provides a just way out. It's a narrow way, but it's straight like a laser. He took the destruction and on himself to set you free from the justice you deserve. My friend down the street doesn't believe this? He's in deep trouble. I have to help him.

In the first instance, I don't really care about what other people believe. I don't believe it's important. You die, you die. That's it. The guy down the street pisses me off 'cause he's always trying to push his "religion" on others. It's a personal thing. I believe there is no God. It's my opinion. All he's doing is causing other people pain.

In the second instance, I care very much about what others believe. It's important because the guy down the street is headed for destruction. I care about this guy. I don't want him to wind up regretting his life for the rest of infinity. If I really care about this guy, I'll do whatever I can to convince this guy that the destruction is real, and that God is real, and that Jesus is real. No matter the pain. Rocking the boat hurts? Suck it up, hombre.

So the degree to which someone will try and convince you of something is proportional to how important they believe that thing to be and how much they care about you, because that's how much pain they will be willing to endure to convince you of it.

Look at Jesus. That's not pain for pain's sake. That's pain for you personally. He must have a five gallon bucket of knowing something up there, 'cause that's a lot of pain. Men like that don't suffer pain for no good reason.

It's tough to believe in because love is so simple. It's easy to think too hard about it and miss the point completely. Children can understand it easily, while some of the greatest minds end up wrestling with it for their whole lives.