A serious factor that must be realized now: assuming that Christianity provides the path of 0% risk, you have to take into consideration that within Christendom there are thousands of denominations which claim that “their path” (church, doctrine etc.,) is correct. So if Christianity is really the way of no risk, then deciding which of the Christian denomination (or non-denomination) is correct turns that 0% risk into an astronomical mountain of risk.

For example, let’s take the four largest denominations of Christianity in theUnited Stateswhich are according to News from the National Council of Churches: The Catholic Church, The Southern Baptist Convention, The United Methodist Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Let’s pretend that those were the only denominations within Christianity. Factoring this in, a person’s risk is not 0% at all; his risk is actually 75% (25% success rate).

In reality though, there are a reported 38,000 different Christian denominations, (Christianity Today – General Statistics and Facts of Christianity Today). That risk is now greater than a 99.997% chance of losing an eternal reward if one settles in with the wrong denomination just within Christendom alone! So, if there is a God how does he expect us to find the correct path amidst such confusion and turmoil?

In my opinion, if there is a God, and he is everything the Christian Scriptures say he is, then He would not be the God of so much confusion, and make it that difficult to find the correct path.

With a 99.997% chance of failure, it would seem a whole lot simpler just risk it on the coin flip as Tony did! Religion can be so confusing, and sometimes down-right hypocritical, and uninviting. So, if the odds of success are really less that .003%, a person could spend his entire life searching and never find the correct path? Would a supposed loving God really be that way? If he was, personally, I wouldn’t even want to try. It is no wonder that so many people are turned off from religion these days; it seems so fruitless on top of overwhelming!

Now we have to ask the question: “Is there one path, or does it not matter which path I take?” If it doesn’t matter which path you take, just so long as you are Christian, then that would make life pretty easy. But if there really is just one path, then you are still facing the daunting .003% chance of success as stated before. Seems to me like that would be a good place to start.

To find the answer to that question you can’t take my word for it, you can’t take any man’s word for it; we are all biased. You will have to investigate that matter from the Holy Bible yourself, with the hope that it is God’s word. If you would like some scripture references, post, and I can give you a few, but I won’t give them unsolicited, to keep this as unbiased as possible. Like I said before, I am not trying to convince you that God exists, or that the path I follow is correct. The purpose of this these letters is a hope I have that you will investigate for yourself which path is correct and follow your logic without bias as well.

But I do not fault the reader for being apprehensive or skeptical. I myself by nature am a skeptic. I question everything. In fact, if I didn’t have knowledge I have now, I doubt that I would even listen to me. I don’t need to look much father than what I have learned the so-called Christians of the 2nd through 18th Centuries have done in the name of their God to see corruption, disunity, bigotry, intolerance, hate, and unrighteous dominion. Those things are completely contrary to what Christ taught, yet they do those things in His name.

Let me demonstrate what I mean with a song, and this will lead me into what we are to discuss in “To the Agnostic Part 3.”

This is a popular song from 2003 by the country music artist Phil Vassar. In it he writes from the perspective that God is speaking to the world.

“Hey, this is God; could I please have your attention? There’s a need for intervention. Man I’m disappointed in what I’m seeing. Hey this is God; you fight each other in my name. Treat life like it’s a foolish game. Well I say, you’ve got the wrong idea.

 “Oh all I’m asking for is love. Well I’ve seen you hurt yourselves enough. Oh I’ve been waiting on a change in you.  

“Hey this is God; I’ve given everything to you. Oh, but look at what you do to the world, that I created. This is God; what’s with this attitude and hate? You grow more ignorant with age. You had it made, now look at all you’ve wasted.

 “Oh all I’m asking for is love. Well I’ve seen you hurt yourselves enough. Oh I’ve been waiting on a change in you.

 “I know your every thought, your heart and soul and every move. There are so many consequences to the things you do.

 “Oh all I’m asking for is love. Haven’t you hurt yourselves enough? Oh I’ve been waiting on a change in you…A change in you…This is God…”

Surely, if there is a God, he is disappointed in what he’s seeing. But that doesn’t mean that there is no hope. If there is a God, he has provided a way to sift through the chaff, and find the grain that we need to succeed. But how? Well, Jesus Christ said “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). We’ll look into this in more depth in the next segment.