Hey, guys and ladies. Wanted to shake the cage a bit. Everybody is always Christians are this and that. Well, folks I have some unique question for y'all to answer. Make sure you really think about the answers. 1. Why outside of Japan are nations who are predominately Christian more progressive in the way of human rights than other nations? 2. Why aren't other faiths as charitable per capita as Christians are? 3. Why are people who do evil things that call themselves Christians speak on the philosophy as a whole more than people of other philosophies or religions when the do evil? 4. Why is it so hip here to bash Christianity? Acceptance and tolerance except for followers of Christ? Hmmm. That should get things shakin' here a bit. Dave thank me later.
They're not necessarily. Europe is pre-dominantly materialist,not xian. America doesn't have a good human rights record. South America and Africa where c/anity is very big have terrible human rights records. Because the xian capitalists, or those who pose themselves as xian like GWB etc control most of the wealth Don't understand this question Maybe it's not hip - but why should people not criticize that whith which they strongly disagree. How hip are xians? Not very.
A previous thread asked Why am I a Christian? There were good answers, but the way the question was phrased may prompt people to give the good reasons rather than the real ones. I can list at least nine reasons why Christians I know became Christians: (1) their parents were, and they were raised that way; (2) they were in a recovery program that stressed surrender to a Higher Power, which is typically identified (particularly in the Bible Belt) with the Judeo-Christian God or Jesus; (3) their friends or significant others are; (4) they felt a sense of emptiness, meaninglessness, and confusion and happened to turn to Christianity for answers and a sense of purpose; (5) they had a religious experience, spiritual awakening,moment of clarity, etc., in which they came to see the world in a new way;(6) to find a source of comfort and hope when confronted with death of a loved one,serious illness, or other loss; (7) they were inspired by the example of people they admire who are Christians; (8) they ran into a minister or read a book by a Christian author like C.S. Lewis who convinced them.Jesus was "The Way, The Truth, and The Light. In my case, it was "all of the above". It's also possible that somebody(not I) arrived at Christianity by reason, evidence, or reading the Bible, without any of the above. Are there other any I'm leaving out? What about the rest of you, if there are still other Christians on this site?
You are talking about moral issues. human rights, charity, etc etc. That doesn't really support your beliefs as a Christian. If you have some free time watch the first 35 minutes of this movie http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
I am a Christian because I learn from Jesus, who had gathered the Christ Conciousness, via the practice of meditation/yoga and the eventual connection with Om (Holy Spirit), how to receive the love God has externally pushed us out from, and how to discipline myself to continue working on gaining that very Conciousness myself. In my opinion, being a Christian has nothing to do with loving Christ as a god more than the rest of humanity, blindly following his mistranslated and misunderstood teachings, and using dogma as an excuse to behave in a slefish manner. Resurrection? Gabriel blowing a trumpet and lifting dead, rotting corpses out of the ground in which souls are trapped until the "last day"? A bit disgusting, morbid, and utterly bizarre if you ask me. How can a God of love be given such attributes? The trumpet is the sound Aum, calling our souls of of the delusive first level of astral/causal planes, moving us into the light of ascending the higher spheres of spiritual existance. At least, that's whay I understand it to mean. Besides, in the Bible, it never even says exactly that Gabriel will blow the trupmet anyway. The closest statement would be that an archangel blew a trump, which makes some sense considering angels are thought to exist in the astral plane. -
In that case, you're doing the Lord's work, brother! You just might be a little clearer about the distinction.
I was raised Christian and I said fuck that when I was 15. Have not looked back since. I'm much happier now that I have the freedom to think for myself and I'm very happy with my belief system: Respect for everything and everybody = tolerance, no violence, harmony etc. Granted, it doesn't always work that way, but it works for me. Most Christians I have known in my life have not been pleasant people that I had any respect for. They tended to be judgmental and made me feel like a project. Like there was something wrong with me just for being me, and that I had to be like them. I have to say though that one of my best friends is a Christian and she is nothing like the Christians I've encountered in the past. She's very open-minded and I can be myself around her, short of cursing but I have no problem showing deference to her. She's the most accepting, loving person I've ever met and has been like a mother to me. If more Christians were like her, there would be less opposition towards the religion. But I say to each their own.
Wow! Dave . . . This is one of the best things I've read on these forums. You and I sometimes appear to disagree, but I have always believed your arguments were an understandable response to an abused ideal. It has always pained me that such a simple and good set of ideas has been so grossly misinterpreted (intentionally or not) as justification for inherently antithetical acts. How did "Love God, love your neighbor, love your enemies" become an Anti-intellectual approach to science, protesters who carry signs that read "God hates fags," and war in Iraq? How did the idea of everyone taking care of one another, especially the poor, the meek, the humble, and the helpless, become the "every man for himself" ethos of the Conservatives? Who told the "religious right" that their resources were sacred, that their wealth, power and fame were more valuable than one's humanity? If you're looking at Christianity as a way to communicate (to as many people as possible) the ideals of an unrealized but perfectly sane civilization, then it does seem to fail as often as it succeeds. If, however, you think of Christianity as those ideals themselves, then there is hope that the collective unenlightenment that plagues humanity may one day (sooner than later, I hope) give way to a simple realization. Thank you for the post. Peace and Love
Yeah, it amazes me that the folks who make the biggest deal about being Christian seem 180 degrees from the teachings and example of Jesus presented in Scripture (whether or not he existed; let's not get into that again), and in fact seem much more like the Pharisees he challenged. I think Christianity went seriously off the track in the first few centuries of its existence, as Saints Irenaeus, Augustine, and Athanasius tried to impose a unified creed around some difficult doctrines, and the Church fathers climbed into bed with Constantine. On the other hand, without those developments, Christianity might not have made it as a world religion.
