[anishift]

I have a few questions.
Aren't we ALL supposed to be the sons and daughters of God? Why did Jesus have to die for our sins? What does that even have to do with ANYTHING? What about before Jesus died? Did the people who died before that not get the forgiveness we do? What is the point, anyway? Why did Jesus have to die, and why couldn't we just be forgiven in the first place. Sure, a loving father would be disappointed if his children were not keeping with the values he gave them. But I know that even if I went out and started "whoring" myself, my Dad would still want to know how I was doing all the time and he would still love me, even if he didn't like what I was doing. My parents wouldn't kill me if I didn't do what they wanted or if I didn't worship them. I can tell you that if I were to create a universe and a species I would not expect them to worship me. I would want them to lead lives of respect and honesty, not expect them to have faith that I didn't program into them in the first place. I mean yea, we're supposed to have a "choice" but how much of a choice is it when we're faced with the fire of eternity if we don't do what he wants? Apparently knowledge of good and evil are programmed into us, why not faith too? God is a perfect God, so why couldn't he just forgive us? What does letting his son die have to do with anything?