Hello.
My name is 小林英樹 or Hideki Koboyashi in English. I am 14 years old and live in Kobe of the Hyogo perfecture in Japan. My mother was originally American before moving here so English is spoken in our house between me and my mother on occasion. I also read many English books so luckily I have a good vocabulary, comes in handy when prowling English websites. Anyway, I seem to be drifting from my topic.
In Japan, religions are all kind of mixed and mashed. For example, my father is a Buddhist and a Taoist and we attend many festivals but celebrate Christmas and stuff. Here, all religions are true. Or the ideas behind them, most Japanese would identify themselves as non-religious. However I learned something new today, not all religions are connected, or something along that line. There was some missionaries today by my school talking about Jesus. It was kind of hard for me to fathom Jesus as separate from other religions but now I have been doing research and I see it is a separate religion. I was taught this in school of course but like I said, here religions all carry the same merit of being possible or together.
Anyway, the missionaries gave me a bible and some tracts and other things to read about Jesus and Christianity. However, this book seems to be too intelligent for me.
Why is the beginning as it is? I am currently reading the story of the creation of the Earth, which is pretty interesting, but what does it mean? Unlike our stories, I am having a hard time deciphering any symbols and the like. Care to help also explain your religion please.