Thank you for your special poem and the time that you took to share. Thank you for the chance to read and grow.
May many blessings be given to you and family, may safety and God’s Grace be made known to you, how important, and priceless you are. Safety always and thank you.
Bill
After starting this thread, there were a lot people concerned about whether or not this thread would get erased. I’m very happy to see that everyone has been able to speak their minds freely about the subject and talk about it without any major disruptions to the thread.
@Dawn I thank you for allowing this thread to stay.
I thank everyone from the community for joining in.
Hear, hear. Being an Atheist myself, in the South no less, there are certain challenges that I would say a Christian doesn’t have that an Atheist does. I’ve been a social pariah due to my lack of belief in a deity, and have lost jobs over it. Mind you, I don’t go around pushing my lack of a belief in a deity, but I don’t back down if cornered, bullied or lie if someone asks. I was born and raised a Christian, and it surprises me the amount of Christian’s that don’t actually know anything about the bible that hasn’t been spoon fed to them. It took me over a decade to reach the conclusion that I have no belief in a deity, through research, study, and trusting my own gut. I’m a happier person knowing that all good things and mistakes I do in my life are squarley on my own shoulders, and I have no scapegoat to blame. As far as what I believe about what happens after death, I simply reply to people that ask me that “Do you remember what happened with you before you were born?” I always get a “no.”
Well, that’s what I believe happens after you die. You become non existent again. It’s a hard pill to swallow for some people that this is all we have, in my opinion, but I don’t judge anyone for what they believe as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone I love, myself, Innocents or society as a whole.
So what you are saying is because some, if not most, Christians don’t know the Bible as they should, all Christians are ignorant and bullies. I was pounded on this very site for making “generalizations” about the police.
I have been a Christian for 40 years. Through research, study and trusting other than my gut I’m a joyful person knowing that all the good things and mistakes I do in my life are squarely on my shoulders and that, through the sacrifice of Jesus, my sins are forgiven.
Being born in a Christian home doesn’t make one a Christian. A personal decision to accept the offer of God, Jesus’ sacrifice, makes one a Christian.
And you are blind to your own hypocrisy where your attitude towards Christians is concerned.
NO, that is not what I said. It’s a fact that most Christian’s I meet do not know what their own religious texts say. I wasn’t being a bully, I was pointing out in my own personal experience. Did you even read the part where I said " I don’t judge anyone for what they believe as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone I love, myself, Innocents or society as a whole."
Obviously you didn’t. You’re reply is exactly what I mentioned about being a social pariah due to my lack of a belief in a deity, and it seems that you’re one of those people that would happily try to ruin my life and my livelihood due to me not confirming to your idea of what is “correct.”
As far as you being “a Christian for 40 years,” good for you. I repeat, I do not judge anyone for what they believe.
You do. Your insulting reply to my post just backs that up. I’m not being a hypocrite. You’re definitely being a hypochristian, though.
Slinging mud at me for your delicate feelings getting hurt claiming I stated that “all Christian’s are ignorant and bullies.”
Go ahead, show me in my post where I said that. I’ll wait.
That’s right, you can’t because I never said that. You said that, and tried to put words in my mouth.
Have a great day. 
Your entire post is full of judgment. Good Day.
Yours is as well, and also putting words in my mouth that I didn’t say. As I said, show me where is said “all Christian’s are bullies and ignorant,” like you accuse me of saying.
Again, I repeat, you can’t. I didn’t say that, you did.
Edit- forget it. I’ve had enough of these conversations in my lifetime to know when I’m being judged wrongfully and having words put into my mouth.
You do you, I’ll do me.
Again, have a great day.
I did not “Just accept” the Christian upbringing I had, I questioned it, I was not the favorite in the family, and I could see hypocrisy . Even after coming to the conclusion that life was too complex, inter-related, and on so many levels that an "accidental occurrence " was not believable to me, the question still remained, how did one know which faith, if any or all ,was true? After filtering through enough other faiths to see the profound difference in Christianity, a difference not found anywhere else, I found I agreed with the Bible, that the evidence of God is in his creation that is all around us. be that the world and it’s nature, or the inhabitants and their nature. But there was a long time when I didn’t know that for sure. But, his spirit was in me and never left.
To me, the meaning of life is that very choice, The reason for life is to make a real choice possible, to acknowledge and accept, choose to belong to God, be a part of his family, or, to reject God, by refusing him, in what ever way one chooses to do that. As to why God would do it all this way, I have one simple answer, a personal answer I have not vetted as a biblical one fully, but it’s this.
God could create an endless supply of angel like worshipers, but as we all know, someone who chooses to love us and be with us, when they had significant and legitimate “other choices” has a special meaning, a special value. We can choose God, or not choose God, and there is an actual “other choice” we can choose, so it’s not like the choice is “really not a choice” . You could sum it up by saying we can choose to be our own God, deciding our own rules, morals, and values, or we can accept God as God and, with coming to know God, love God for his amazing and wonderful qualities, not the least of which is his own Love.
As for others, even those who reject or hate God. He tells me his instruction to me about them is to love them, as he does. I can hate evil, as God does, yes, but I am not free to hate a person because they do evil, even as I may be standing against that evil.
I had no contact with Christianity until I was 15 and didn’t give it much, if any, consideration until after I got out of the Marine Corps (where I met more Christians than you can shake a stick at). I started looking beyond myself and this world after the death of my Dad. I studied and considered the words of the Bible, became a Christian on my 25th birthday and learned early on that I had to “study to show myself approved” when I was being covered over with odd teachings others were claiming… I also learned that God is not afraid of questions and welcomes them. Without questions, there is no real learning or growing.
I again, say, though, that is nor any social media is the place for this topic simply because of the vastness of the topic.
Social media has become a place where people live out huge amounts of their lives now, and because of the USCCA community, I have had my first taste of how that could be. It has the achilles heel of failing to convey tone of voice, facial expression, and body language, and misunderstanding seems particularly frequent, even more so than usual. I did not think this thread wold be allowed, so your opinion is one I can easily understand.
You are a wise and discerning person.
Ah, you are too kind, but even if I could hope that were true, I often think of how the wisest man who ever lived STILL committed some terrible and seemingly obvious errors. I used to pray for wisdom often, now I pray to know God as he wants me too, and to be ready when it’s time to go home. I am content to let God be wise and allow me to barrow it from time to time.
^^^ My philosophy exactly! Faith in self/God/gods is a personal thing and people can believe what they want/need to believe as long as it doesn’t hurt others IMO.
And I think @Ogre and @Danny28 might be talking around each other and probably have very similar views on a lot of things (outside of religion) as both said the same thing:
Please remember we don’t know each other except through text here and there are no interpersonal cues through text (facial expressions, body language, prior interpersonal interactions).
We won’t agree on everything - which is GOOD! Life is more enjoyable with variety!
Yes he is.
WAS a Catholic. Got born again, joined a bible thumping Baptist church, and have learned so much. Catholics are taught the way to heaven is thru your works, but the ONLY way is thru Jesus and Faith. Catholics only hear a little bit of a gospel, but we actually go thru books of the Bible. Someone asked me when I converted, and I told him I never “converted”, I just learned. So much happier now.
Yeah that’s what my ex said.
I agree the thread has remained respectful which speaks to the quality of the persons posting thoughts here.
My last post was maybe 50 posts back and I have been trying to catch back up.
I see we have what appears to me mostly Christians of various denominations, an atheist (Congratulations and thanks for interjecting, you would be amazed how much we have in common because of our beliefs) and a Jew (Me, I know of, any others?)
I have mostly read all the posts since my last post but will listen in for a bit before interjecting anything "significant/challenging. I appreciate all of you and respect all of your beliefs. As a Jew, we believe you are judged by your kindness and actions to others. Seems we have a lot of good people here.
OK, I couldnt stay shut up long… : ) I was just curious, I had assumed you, Justin47 started to post but was unsure so went back and looked. I totally agree with your idea on the purpose of this thread, to learn, not convert and discuss why the reasons we believe differently exist since all of Christianity is derived from the Jewish Bible. We have the same starting point and original reference to draw from.
So, I have a question, and if this is out of line just ding me and it will disappear, and I will go back to watching a bit before jumping back in…however if I might ask, if there is only one G-d, how does the trinity come abouts? I have heard many answers but am curious for yours.
As a “starter” Reference: Isaiah 43:10
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. 12I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. 13Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
From: King James Version (KJV)
