Where's everyone coming from
- Thread starter wartknight
- Start date
Please define the first 2.
Could have only 2 choices that are different groups that include everyone.
Believer or non-believer?
Saved or unsaved?
Those going to heaven or those going to hell?
But alas, many people including myself find it tough to face the obvious choices available and want to lean on ourselves for another, easier answer to be politically correct. Both choices are unpleasant but our separation of church and state mind-set allows people to believe there is some sort of inbetween choice that is appropriate and will let us be in God's will. Actually it is easier for the choices to be a black and white difference with NO grey.
Could have only 2 choices that are different groups that include everyone.
Believer or non-believer?
Saved or unsaved?
Those going to heaven or those going to hell?
But alas, many people including myself find it tough to face the obvious choices available and want to lean on ourselves for another, easier answer to be politically correct. Both choices are unpleasant but our separation of church and state mind-set allows people to believe there is some sort of inbetween choice that is appropriate and will let us be in God's will. Actually it is easier for the choices to be a black and white difference with NO grey.
Cyclonepride
Thought Police
I was raised with Christian principles, though not directly stated, and we did not attend church on a regular basis. The impression I get from my dad is that his parents were very strict, and that may have turned him off to it in a way. So I think he taught me the principles in a more accepting way, which made perfect sense when I got around to reading the New Testament in recent years.
I was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran. We went to church regularly (probably 85% plus of the time). I taught a vacation bible school class after my junior year and subbed at the Sunday school for the first part of my senior year. While preparing for one of those Sunday school classes I read part of the Old Testament which struck me not as the word of God, but as a people making excuses for their violent behavior. My faith declined steadily after that and I was comfortable calling myself an atheist by my sophomore year at ISU.
Cyclonepride
Thought Police
Not trying to convert you back here, just curious. Does it have to be all or nothing? I struggled with some of those same issues for most of my life. I came to the conclusion that the Bible has been written down, and translated by man, man is fallible, therefore you sometimes have to read between the lines. Reading the New Testament, I found some things that just didn't seem to fit along with the rest. It became my opinion that the Truth is there, and some that is written may have served the purposes of the church at the time. So eventually, after many years of struggling with my faith, I decided that my problem was that I needed to put my faith in God, rather than man.
No. My confidence in my beliefs is primarily derived from various formulations of the problem of evil argument. I think that there is an essentially air-tight argument against a typical Christian worldview which includes a tri-omni (all powerful, knowing, and good/loving) God and people who spend an eternity in hell. However, I can't formulate a similarly air tight argument against more vague conceptions of a supreme being, so I'll concede that one possibly exists. I personally just don't find it very likely.
I'm not sure if that even addressed what you were trying to ask, but you got it anyways. :rolleyes5cz:
It all depends how the words are defined. I've seen too many arguments over it and am really fine with either one. If asked the question "Do you believe there is a god?" I would answer no. I figure this qualifies as atheist. If asked if it is possible for there to be a higher power of some type I would answer yes. Synthesize those into whatever label works. I went with agnostic atheist for a while. Something to keep in mind though is that a Christian who admits the possibility that there is not a god could be labeled an agnostic too if it is defined loosely. I've never heard the term agnostic Christian before, but it could make sense.
Good points...I tend to go by the roots of the word agnostic, which translate to "without knowing". I can't rule out either way if there is or isn't a higher being. Many times I find myself an apathetic agnostic...don't know, don't care. (Stole that from some T-shirt I saw!)
I think that A god started it all, but that organized religion is more of a "feel good" story. With how divisive the religions are, I find it hard to believe that a true god would tell us that we have to worship him a specific way, and live by numerous odd "laws" or we get to spend an eternity in an Inferno. I mean, was Jesus a man with schizophrenia, a prophet, a real son of god, a complete story, or what? I can't figure things like that out. The whole organization of religions seem to rely too much on scaring me out of hell and into heaven for me to take it too seriously.
I'm not sure where you're getting this, but it's not what I (or most Christians, I would think) believe. We can't earn our way in by doing certain things or our way out by doing other things. We can only choose to believe or not.
As for the inferno, I think that has been reserved for satan. Those who expect nothingness after death may be correct, while those of us who believe in heaven may also be correct. I believe the "fire and brimstone" rhetoric and scare tactics to be human elaborations.
There is no such thing as buying your way into heaven.
It's pretty cut and dry in the New Testament-Admit to being a sinner. Believe that Jesus died for those sins to pay the price and then rose again. Do your best not to sin again.
It's pretty cut and dry in the New Testament-Admit to being a sinner. Believe that Jesus died for those sins to pay the price and then rose again. Do your best not to sin again.
I was raised as a practicing Christian.
I still believe in God and follow a lot of Christian morals and ideals but I think organized religion is sham for several reasons. I think there are other ways to practice Christianity without going to church and a pastor/church telling you what to do and how to act.
I still believe in God and follow a lot of Christian morals and ideals but I think organized religion is sham for several reasons. I think there are other ways to practice Christianity without going to church and a pastor/church telling you what to do and how to act.
Interesting perspective, because I find it impossible to not beleive that existence is very likely. For many reasons - matters preference for the disorganized to belief in signs and miracles that have happened and continue to happen and many others.
When I went through confirmation, my pastor said two things that stuck out in my mind:
1) You can cuss, just don't do it all the time (like rappers)
2) A church is not a building. A church is wherever people gather to worship God.
