beyond reason or a doubt

reading xiaxue and junhao's post i was starting to have some questions about religion again and thought i should consolidate my own thoughts. well, the last thing i would want is for anyone to be offended in any way by what's written in this post, so my apologies if it does... haha, may dont' read lar! :) shoo. hehe. ok anyway it's the thoughts i gathered from reading the posts and what i can gather of my thoughts at this moment are:

1. i'm totally not irritated/annoyed/angry at whatever's been said. i like these arguments and think they're quite constructive. cause to me no matter how u try to dispute tt the earth is square, it remains a fact tt the earth IS round.
2. christianity IS just 'blind faith' if your would have it. there's no scientific, publishable evidence tt proves without a doubt tt god does exist.
3. yes, according to the bible, anyone who does not confess tt jesus is god will go to hell. which is the only reason why i sometimes try to preach to close friends who mean alot to me. i am wary of how pple may perceive me as being too 'fervent' or 'extremist' tt's why i usually don't talk about chritianity stuff to friends... but i respect their freedom of choice. like the chinese proverb, "you can only bring the horse to the waters edge; can't force it to drink"
4. in my entire life as a christian, i've only tried to 'convert' 3 friends. who were very close and dear friends to me. the only reason i even try is because i love them alot. cy, sw, and icsy. i shared with them about christianity, but anyway none of them converted.
5. the thing about giving 10% (tithing) is your income to church is not a law. as in, you don't have to do it. my family doesn't tithe to the church even till now. but i do of the allowance i have. tithing is entirely optional. god doesn't love you more or less if u do it or not.
6. god loves the paedophilliac priest as much as he loves anyone else.
7. i don't go to church merely for friends, cause they are not the reason, although they are a real blessing by helping me to grow and i treasure the friendships tt i've forged. even if there was no one to attend church with me, i would still go. in fact the first 2 years of attending ncc i sat in service totally alone, 1 person. but still i went cause i found what i was looking for in church.
8. 'bad' things happen for a reason. my family has been through the worst of times, but as i look back things really work out for good. it's difficult to tell anything other than from 1st hand experience. it's up to the christian to believe if god is in control or not. the reason why 'bad' things still happen in this world is because the world is a fallen world. ever since the fall of man in the garden of eden. man committed high treason by giving control of earth over to the devil, which allowed sickness/poverty/plague to come. [ok enough liao]
9. i disagree with my pastor sometimes too about the points tt he makes. out of reverence maybe i just don't understand or realise his points at these times.
10. the entire essence about christianity is not about making sure you don't sin and do good, or to preach to people and "convert everyone around you". cause sometimes i think it's distasteful to impose your religion on others.
11. yes, there are 'evidences' in the bible but i would stop short of naming any at the moment. but trying to qualify christianity robs the meaning of it. i don't base my faith on these empirical evidences and even if they didn't exist i would still believe in god.
12. haha the whole crap about dinosaurs... anyway it is recorded there in the bible... i think 2 lines? but what's recorded is what's important. for our daily lives... no dino's going to spring up to eat me. :)
13. it's sad to see how some christians cause unhappiness through some things tt they may not yet have understanding of. but no condemnation.
14. religions require you to serve your god and do good. all religions teach you to do good, so in a sense, religions are beneficial for the government and for the health of the society. christianity doesn't require you to do good at all. you will still go to heaven if you go out right now and kill and murder and rape and sodomise [and whatever you can think of] if you are a christian. don't be shocked, yes you WILL go to heaven. but if you understand how much god loves you and what he did for you, there's no desire to do those rubbish.
15. it may be a blind faith to some, something tt will seem totally irrational to others. to me, it doesn't make sense too. to me, it is the perfect faith beyond reason or a doubt. which is why christianity is my faith. something junhao mentioned about using the "unexplainable to explain the unexplainable"... very interesting, i shall ruminate over it.