h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

SoRB asked me elsewhere how I became a Christian and what God saved me from. This, I feel, merits a separate discussion.

I have been a Christian now for 8 years. I got saved at the age of 11, after attending an open air meeting by the great preacher, Michael Reid. I was fortunate in that most of my family were already saved, so I am more fortunate than most in that we have a home based around Christian values and living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So what was I saved from? In short, the answer is SIN. The Bible teaches that all men are born in sin, and will also die in sin unless they repent and be born again. I was no worse than most children of that age. I used to catapult buses and steal sweets from the supermarket pick 'n mix, but nothing out of the ordinary. It is true to say that the Lord uses many personal crises to bring people to him. Often people need a short, sharp shock to wake them up to the unsaved state of their soul and the imminent need for salvation. With me, it was not quite like that. The Lord simply called to me at that gospel rally one Saturday night in May 1997, and I responded.

You too can know the truth about the risen Christ if only you open your eyes. Your sin is slowly killing you. It is strangling your soul, and eternity in an everlasting fire awaits unless you repent!

It is not a popular thing to say this, but the truth of this statement cannot be denied. Repent now and be baptized! Ye must be born again.

Interesting. Adherents of your virulent brand of christianity are usually people who were converted in adulthood. To hear of a child being indoctrinated into it saddens me.

You have my pity, Sam.

Ditto. They tried to get me, but I already had control of my own mind.

You are a sound example of my disgust for people who indoctrinate and *brainwash* children into their religion, which in your case is a thinly veiled reason to be bigoted and prejudice against everyone who doesn't act like a mental clone of *you*.

I would pity you, if I hadn't been intelligent enough to be able to use my own brain and free will to figure out that christianity is a load of bulls**t when I was younger than you were.

I have just learned that the French for "christian" is the root of the English word "cretin".

Sometimes (just sometimes) I am tempted to give credance to synchronicity.