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Christians.....I have a Question?

OK, first let me put you in my picture.....

I was raised as a Christian until I was fourteen when I decided after some considerable thought that I no longer wanted to be a part of something that was and is in my eyes so hypocritical. As I sat there on my last ever day in church half listening to the apparent glory that is god, and looking at the people around me I just couldn't get it out of my head "what a bunch of hypocrites"! with their big flashy cars, posh houses, bragging about what they bought last week and how much it cost, standing outside damning them down the road for the way they live, what they wear etc. You do something bad, go to confession and tell a bloke who wasn't even there that you are sorry, he gives you 2 Hail-Marys and an Our Father and your saved....I'm not buying it.

What makes me laugh is that those who say they believe in god, think that that makes them a good person....why? I don't believe in god and I'm a much nicer person than some devout christains I know.

What makes you think that because you tell some person at your church that you are sorry for somethings that you are automatically saved?

How many of you can say in all honesty that you don't repeatedly break one or more of the.....

SEVEN DEADLY SINS (CARDINAL) for those not sure what they are (in short)....

1. Lust...excessive sexual desires.
2. Gluttony....over consumption of anything to the point of waste.
3. Greed....acquisition of wealth, anything obtained by disloyalty, betrayal. for personal gain.
4. Sloth...sin of sadness/despair, apathy, depression, failure to utilize ones talents/gifts.
5. Wrath...hatred, anger, denial of the truth to others/self, revenge, spite.
6. Envy...the desire to have something someone else has, to deny that person of having it because you want it.
7. Pride...the most deadly of all because it is the ultimate source from which all the others arise from. Excessive love of self!

It is these 7 things that turned me away, because nearly every single person in that church that day committed at least one of these on a daily basis, but that's OK because they confess to them every week....or do they? Then go out and do it all over again.

What is it that makes you believe that you can repeatedly commit these Deadly Sins and be continually forgiven for them, but the rest of us are damned?

*NOTE* This is an open topic for those for and against, everyone is entitled to their opinion and that opinion although open for debate must at all times be respected. Thank you.

 

I could never be an atheist, too many scary movies would become meaningless.

Nope, not singling you out nomo.

Just pointing out that the reason we've advanced so far as a species is that we stand on the shoulders of those before us. We inherit our knowledge.

Of the world's major religions:

Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, No religion (agnostics, freethinkers, humanists, secularists, etc.) that would have a population large enough to compare to each other, I bet you'd find nearly identical percentages of people that inherited their religion vs. came to their religion through personal discovery.

Buddhism, Atheists, New-Age Religions (think scientology, reiki, heaven's gate, etc) and Judaism have populations to small too really be comparable, but I wouldn't be surprised if combining them and comparing them to the major religions proved to have a nearly identical percentage of people who inherited their religion vs discovered it through serious exploration.

What I'm trying to say is that inheriting things, like our spiritual beliefs, is human nature and that only a smaller (likely reliable) percentage of the population is prone to thinking about such things and that exploring one's spirituality will not lead people to jesus any more than it will to dawkins.

It would be more likely distributed as a comparable percentage across all religions.

oh, well UUs stand on all those shoulders

I would think that some of the new religious movements haven't been around long enough to be able to test heritability?

 

in other words, you just played the "No Duh!" card. :)

Is Buddhism a theistic religion?

Original Post by kathygator:

I could never be an atheist, too many scary movies would become meaningless.

 They wouldn't become meaningless, just more humorous. 

Is Buddhism a theistic religion?

No
(brief overview)

Original Post by kathygator:

*weighs heather's anger blog against nomo's love-church*

tough choice, that. Intolerance and anger or acceptance and love. hmmm...

 Intolerance? I would ask you to read the blog.

Original Post by kathygator:

Is Buddhism a theistic religion?

Nope. Neither is atheism, reiki, or scientology for that matter. They're still religions of the world, albeit not in the top 5.

Heather, I did. Every aspect of anyone's faith pisses the girl off. Every response I can make to defend my belief that God exists is considered to be either arrogant or trite. Not much tolerance in anger, IMO.

Yet The Buddha is worshipped in many versions of Buddhism. How is that non-theistic?

Original Post by beanaparker:

Im 14 and my entire family is Christian... I even go to a Christian school. But I think Im going to turn Athiest. I find Christianity just too hard to believe. a) I strongly believe in evolution....i mean...its a proven fact! The bible contradicts evolution      b) Noah's arc??? i mean...whats up with that? were there dinosaurs on noah's arc? if not, where did they fit in? Plus, scientists have studied the ground layers around the world and especially where they believe the flood would have occurred. They didn't find any traces of flood damage...          c) Christianity is just another religion. It's just another story people made up...like Islam...Judisim... etc.  People want to think that they can do basically whatever they want on earth and get away with it as long as they believe in God. Just because they want to believe in "heaven" where they'll have happiness forever doesn't mean it exists.

a) Evolution and the bible are not mutually exclusive. The bible does NOT contradict evolution. I would suggest that anyone who suggests this is misinterpreting the purpose of Genesis 1-2.

b.) Many different civilizations worldwide have a comparable story of the flood (such as the Epic of Gilgamesh). This strongly supports the idea that there was a flood. The idea of a global vs. local flood is debatable and neither are inconsistent with the bible.

c). 1/3 of the world is Christian. Almost another 1/3 is Muslim. There are over 13 million Jews. All three of these religions make up most of the world and they all believe in the same God. Perhaps there is more to this than you give credit.

Original Post by kathygator:

Heather, I did. Every aspect of anyone's faith pisses the girl off. Every response I can make to defend my belief that God exists is considered to be either arrogant or trite. Not much tolerance in anger, IMO.

Yet The Buddha is worshipped in many versions of Buddhism. How is that non-theistic?

 She is angry. Yes. That's the point. Atheists should be angry. You wouldn't call a black person that they are being intolerant when they are angry because of racism, would you?

Yet The Buddha is worshipped in many versions of Buddhism. How is that non-theistic?

But he's not worshipped in the same sense as a god.

1/3 of the world is Christian. Almost another 1/3 is Muslim. There are over 13 million Jews. All three of these religions make up most of the world and they all believe in the same God. Perhaps there is more to this than you give credit.

All of these came from Judaism. Chrisitianity broke off first, then Islam. Also, many of the Christian beliefs, practices and holy days were taken from the pagans.

So maybe the credit should be given to the groups of men who obtained power through promoting (or enforcing) these 3 religions onto the masses.

Original Post by simwaves1:

1/3 of the world is Christian. Almost another 1/3 is Muslim. There are over 13 million Jews. All three of these religions make up most of the world and they all believe in the same God. Perhaps there is more to this than you give credit.

 While I agree that the characerization of the largest world religions by beanaparker is overly simplistic and off the mark, argumentum ad populum isn't the best response to it, IMO.

"Buddha" means enlightened one. Anyone can become a buddha. The original Buddha said not to worship him. Worshipping Buddha isn't what Buddhism is about. Self-enlightenment is.

Though some sects of Buddhism believe that he was born from a lotus flower, and that then he took seven steps in ten directions and everywhere he stepped lotus flowers sprung forth from the earth.

Eh. Just depends on who you ask.

Original Post by simwaves1:

Original Post by beanaparker:

Im 14 and my entire family is Christian... I even go to a Christian school. But I think Im going to turn Athiest. I find Christianity just too hard to believe. a) I strongly believe in evolution....i mean...its a proven fact! The bible contradicts evolution b) Noah's arc??? i mean...whats up with that? were there dinosaurs on noah's arc? if not, where did they fit in? Plus, scientists have studied the ground layers around the world and especially where they believe the flood would have occurred. They didn't find any traces of flood damage... c) Christianity is just another religion. It's just another story people made up...like Islam...Judisim... etc. People want to think that they can do basically whatever they want on earth and get away with it as long as they believe in God. Just because they want to believe in "heaven" where they'll have happiness forever doesn't mean it exists.

a) Evolution and the bible are not mutually exclusive. The bible does NOT contradict evolution. I would suggest that anyone who suggests this is misinterpreting the purpose of Genesis 1-2.

b.) Many different civilizations worldwide have a comparable story of the flood (such as the Epic of Gilgamesh). This strongly supports the idea that there was a flood. The idea of a global vs. local flood is debatable and neither are inconsistent with the bible.

c). 1/3 of the world is Christian. Almost another 1/3 is Muslim. There are over 13 million Jews. All three of these religions make up most of the world and they all believe in the same God. Perhaps there is more to this than you give credit.

To be fair, there are more Atheists then Jews and the other third of the world is Hindu or doesn't follow any religion, so perhaps there is more to that as well.

Re #92: No, that is true. But this isn't that. She had me while outlinging injustices. She lost me when she called me arrogant for adhering to no religion, save my own set of beliefs, which include my supposition that God exists.

She very much wishes to have it both ways. Her message seems to be 'Allow me the right to believe as I wish - but don't tell me you feel the same way unless you can point to a religion that agrees with you' .

93: He is prayed to. This means that the belief exists that He has the power to answer prayers. pretty close.

Original Post by kathygator:

Re #92: No, that is true. But this isn't that. She had me while outlinging injustices. She lost me when she called me arrogant for adhering to no religion, save my own set of beliefs, which include my supposition that God exists.

She very much wishes to have it both ways. Her message seems to be 'Allow me the right to believe as I wish - but don't tell me you feel the same way unless you can point to a religion that agrees with you' .

Quoting that for emphasis, because that was my take on it too.

What she wants is for people that don't think like her to ascribe to themselves things that neither she nor they think makes any sense, so that she can play gotcha.