Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 37
Sin and Atonement 37 contradiction in their characters. Jesus as does not appear to be a true son of his Father, a genetic error again perhaps. Another important area of inquiry is the attitude of other relig- ions of the world towards sin and its consequences. Christianity is of course not the only religion to be a revealed religion. Numeri- cally, non-Christians largely exceed Christians. Thousands of years of the known history of man, before Jesus Christ as , saw many religions born and take root in different human soils in various parts of the world. Do these religions ever speak of a philosophy of forgiveness even remotely related to the Christian dogma of Atonement? What is their concept of God, or gods if they have now begun to believe in many? What is their concept of God’s attitude towards sinful humanity? Among the community of religions, the nearest to Christianity is perhaps Hinduism in this regard, but it is only partially so. Hindus also believe in an Absolute Just God, whose sense of justice demands that He must punish somehow every perpetrator of sin. But the resemblance ends there. No mention of a ‘Divine Son’ taking the entire consequences of the whole world of sinners upon his shoulders is even remotely indicated. On the contrary, we are told of an endless chain of crime and punishment in an endless number of reincarnations of the soul into animal flesh. Atonement only becomes accessible after the many times reincar- nated soul has incurred punishment exactly the sum total of the crimes it committed during all its fateful experiences of reincarna- tion. To some it may sound weird and bizarre indeed, but there is certainly some inherent justice in this philosophy. There is a