(I have a high possibility of negative comments for this post)
It's hard to be a Christian in this world.
Why?
1.) We base everything off the bible and get ridiculed for doing so.
2.) There are many "types" of Christians in the world today, and it's hard to know what's what.
3.) Christians go to church (most of them, at least). And church can be a place of hypocrisy when it comes to the principles of Christianity.
4.) It's hard to be a Christian and remain "open minded" in the world.
5.) It's hard to trust God and have faith.
I am not stupid. I am not ignorant. I strive to remain open minded.
I have many questions for God. Some things don't make sense to me. I get ridiculed for believing in something that I don't have "evidence" on.
But you see, I have finally let go of the cliff. I've put all my trust in him. I can't help that my mind wanders and that I have intelligent people on my back telling me I'm stupid for believing in what I believe in. But I can help where I place my trust. And I trust in God.
I find that Christianity is attacked a lot on this site. Why is that?
I'm sorry, but it's just confusing for me. Many are very willing to be understanding of other subjects. Be understanding of Christianity, please.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
"3.) Christians go to church (most of them, at least). And church can be a place of hypocrisy when it comes to the principles of Christianity."
I dont think Christians should have to go to church. I am a Christian, but I prefer practicing my religion in private.
Christianity tends to pick up a negative connotation that's getting up there with terms like feminist and such. Terms that don't deserve such negative feelings toward. When people hear the word Christian, words such as: hypocrite, liars, haters, judgmental, close-minded, etc. pop up in their minds in correlation to the word.
I feel it's getting just as bad that people are stereotyping Christians as a whole. You and I are a different breed of Christian. Open minded and wishing to seek knowledge. We seek knowledge to better serve our God. I'm not quick to judge people and I love on everyone I encounter. In fact is states in the bible that we, as Christians, aren't supposed to judge outside of our own brethren.
Plus my friend, there is evidence. The evidence is in us. The best way to describe God is this: God is like the wind. We know that the wind exist but why? We know because we can feel the wind. Not only can we feel the wind, but we can see the effects of the wind. However you can't physically see the wind. I'd like to see someone say that the wind doesn't exist just because they can't see it.
As for my brother who commented to you, it's not so much the act of going to church. It's more the act of fellowship and drawing strength from your Christian family. Church just allows you to fellowship, worship and to learn. It's your choice to go or not. I would advise you keep up with your fellowship though.
-----
"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."-Socrates
"Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to
contemplate."- Saint Thomas Aquinas
Thank you for your encouragement.
I get frustrated a lot. I didn't become a Christian until last year despite the fact that my dad is a pastor and I was practically raised in church, revivals, and bible studies.
I've searched. I've thought and considered other religions/lifestyles.
But I know for certain that I'm in the right place right now.
I'm still searching and learning, but I have a secure foundation.
When people hear the word Christian, words such as: hypocrite, liars, haters, judgmental, close-minded, etc. pop up in their minds in correlation to the word.
You read my mind....
And that whole wind comment, Hello(echo), I didnt have to get taught about it to feel it cause its real.
Had you been raised by open minded people(i know you'll say you're were, sorry) in a place where you never heard of faith, Dont think you'd feel god, or even recognize the word.
----
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
I'm in a similar boat as you are my friend. I've grown up as Christian and that's how my parents raised me. With all the information that comes in on you while in high school and college, it's discouraging. However when I was in 6th grade I went to a Christian camp that I'll never forget. My foundation was set at that time. I experienced God in the most intimate and pure way. It was right before I hit puberty so I was still pure enough to experience all of God's love and power.
Don't lose hope. Always hold on. I know He's there and He always will be.
-----
"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."-Socrates
"Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to
contemplate."- Saint Thomas Aquinas
To be nice I'm keeping this to 2 words
Get real.
---
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
for being the first negative comment.
congrats. woo hoo. oh joy.
Sorry to rain on your wonderday acceptance parade, go to church if you want ppl like you to except you, thats what ppl use it for. You're a spec on a spec, not even a special race, Get Real.
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
I wasn't asking for an "acceptance parade". I wanted to bring awareness to the progressiveu community.
I read all these taboo topics like on various topics of sex, war, and homosexuality. And there's immediate openmindedness in response. But within these entries, there's a lot of attacking christianity.
You spelled accept wrong.
Its cause everyone in the US that’s not "with you" is sick of your ignorant preaching and your cult trying to force itself on everyone. Your faith has been around for 4000 year and the universe has been here 13.7billion(estimated) yet you want to think at some point from monkey to us we suddenly got some "soul", and let me ask you what do you think your soul is? "well its the me that goes to the afterlife", Then its not "YOU", You is the chemicals in your head that contain your memories and the concept of what you view yourself as and the schema you have on how you view the world. That’s all in your brain in patterns formed in the receptors which decide your preferences. This heaven you which to go to, make I ask what you believe that to be. A place free of matter where your bubble self conceptual personality floats around? That’s what I thought, and this hell your faith invented to punish people beyond death when you couldn't strike enough fear into them, a place with fire without oxygen, a place with oceans but no land, a burning place which you believe to be full of these bad "souls" which have not bowed to your "God". A intelligent creator would never seek reverence, like if you created a live art project, would you want it to praise you if you instilled love and all these other great things within it? NO, it wouldn't be self-centered if it was smart enough to create you. I'm sorry monkey man, you die someday, you need to face it, you can believe you live forever all you want. "Believing bullshit does not make it come true"-My bumper sticker I'm sorry to break it to you kid, but I went thru the whole thing even more so then you did and I was pissed when I looked into the history and realized it was all fabricated. I felt betrayed when I had been fed fluffy marshmallow flavored poison by a bunch of power hungry creeps that wanted to rule my life thinking they could keep me fooled. Not Going to Happen. You're twisted transforming evil cults not going to fly anymore. You can kill all the people(“his creations“) you want, its not going to gain you God's acceptance like you believe it will . You know that 90% of the wars of mankind are due to religious differences, cause your magic beliefs believe that since they don’t believe like you its justified to kill them. Like your war on "terror" right now, where you invented a propaganda machine to demonize a people that were killing less people than you are, you oil burning wasteful earth crippling fiends. Let me break down what the reality is in this situation, in which your way of thinking blinds you to.
Since the beginning of time, everything that has occurred has been a chain reaction from the last event, galaxies and planets form do to laws of nature and gravity.
Species form due to the fact that energy consumption is a law the universe expanded upon. These species eventually grow complex enough to react to the environment by forming a brain, perspective, consciousness. This consciousness reacts to its surroundings based on what the chemicals within it decides as a response. These species get more and more advance and eventually it builds a rationality high enough to have thoughts and concepts of life and death. It has a hard time believing its loved ones could just decay and be gone, become one with the surroundings. So it invents a afterlife so it can sleep at night, not being able to bare the loss. Eventually after it becomes more civilized, members of the group realize they can capitalize on this weakness, and by making rules on how to get into this afterlife make the other members yield to them in the hopes that they can "join the club" and live forever. This power trip goes on for years and years and grows in corruptness to shield itself from being revealed. The war between non-believers and those in this group begin. This group justifies killing them with the concept that those not in their group are "heathens" beneath them and not from the same gene pool. They fail to realize they are just killing someone born into a different environment which just as them, had no choice in what it was to become. It was born, and it chemically reacted to its environment, and then was persecuted by those who lacked the perspective to see there is no need, and no logic in hate. And this hateful group is you.
You, the one who preaches of giving to take
You, the one who preaches peace to get troops for war
You, the magic believing unreceptive cult that feels superior
You, that will never be able to realize what I'm telling you
You, that was brought up by surrounding that chose this for you
You, the one preaching of unity, and causing our division
The you with not enough perspective to ever realize we are all 1 piece of the same body, there is no gaps between me and your matter, no gaps between my energy and yours, we are all connected to everything in the universe, and for you, this concept is impossible
Have fun persecuting and preaching with your cult of hypocrisy, sorry for offending you, hope you're ready to debate
------
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
Are you attacking Christianity, or are you attacking religion in general? From what I read and perceived you were across the board in your ideas. So I'm going to ask you a series of questions to get some clarity out of this.
The first question above needs to be answered. You say all people from cults (Christianity?) attack people. Is this not a stereotype? If you were referring to Christianity, than I have to say not all Christians are killing for their faith. In fact, the core of Christianity is love. However humans are corruptible by things in this world and history has shown they twist my faith and religion into a political crutch.
As for heaven and earth, I doubt it's even fathomable to describe composition of the two places.
Another interesting thing for you to think about is, nature seems to have a perfect balance. Indeed, it is perfect. Since God is perfect, wouldn't it be logical if God produced the earth?
A question next, how much do you know about Christianity? Have you read the bible?
Before I go any further we'll start with that.
-----
"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."-Socrates
"Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to
contemplate."- Saint Thomas Aquinas
To the first question, all religions that war over god, basically all but buddism that I know of.
It is not meant to be a stereotype, it is the general conduct which differs from a non-religioust person, I know there are plenty who dont push it on ppl, and who do it to cope with a life altering event. To the "not all killing" obviously , the popes never went to war in the crusades nor did the women and children, or even all the men. The christian right pushed for this war and slanted the facts and payed off some big people to "get rid of the muslim problem" cause they want to try to "fix" the region. Yes a core is love, which is not evocated nearly ever, love making is banned until you got documents. Also the love is never shown when it forces wars, just like its sharing and giving which it preaches are not a 50th of its profits(takings). The reason your religion gets tied in with these horrid deeds, genocides, murders ect... is because it did influence and assist its happening.
The heaven and earth thing isn't fathomable because its not scientifically possible.. and explain what you believe your souls is to me.. and how it has anything to do with "you".
Yes, there are some great cycles, that is how things regulate, and adapt. Chaos can only last near the start, everything in nature mellows over time, and is a constant do to larger forces(not a magical one) and few if none are perfect.
Yes, I have read the bible, and read the "instruction manuals" to other faiths as well, I have read the history in depth of many of them. This is why I know they are all man made opiates to masses, most built for control.
Fire away with any other questions..
----
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
don't understand how or why people are Christians, I don't think it's right to group us into categories. Why are you talking about popes...and stuff. I'm not them.
It's like saying all black people have a thief like nature because of past statistics! How ridiculous. Yeah, sure, past circumstances blah blah. That doesn't mean all black people are like those who made mistakes. It's ridiculous to think that way.
It's like saying all Germans are like Hitler.
You say it's not stereotyping. But it is.
I don't push religion on anyone. And to be honest, it seems like you're pushing your beliefs onto others.
Also, as much as you don't agree with Christian ways, you can be sure that Christians think the same of non christians. However, I know that you have perfect, logical reasons why you believe in what you believe in (or don't believe in). And so do Christians.
I have absolutely no problem with the majority of Christians. However, every once and a while, there will be one who 1) wants to make a law to force others to follow the Christian moral code (homosexuality is immoral because the bible says so, so obviously we shouldn't make it legal in this country) or 2) will not give up the pursuit when someone disagrees with them about religion (person A says 'I have spent years searching and find that I do not believe in god', person B will sit there and explain god over and over and over as if their comments are new ones).
These two types of Christians are the source of the majority of the 'attacks' on Christianity.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
...in a much more polite manner that I probably would have.
percivale
-------------------------
Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.
mvenus929, I agree with you. Yeah, there are some christians like that. But it's stereotyping!!! Not all Christians are that way.
Also, I'm perfectly fine with homosexuality. I'm not gay. But it's one of the topics that I have major questions about with my religion.
Even though I don't necessarily believe homosexuality is right, I don't attack homosexual people. I treat them the same because I know they're human as much as I am and it's not like their sexual preference makes them an alien. And just because I'm Christian, doesn't make me an alien.
Why can't there be a same kind of acceptance with Christians? Just because you aren't Christian doesn't mean that you have to act so harsh. I'm generalizing. Not all people act the same towards Christians. But you have to admit, there's a lot of hatred towards christians. There's a lot of hatred towards homosexuals.
I just hope that even though there are people who do things you don't believe in or have a religion that you absolutely do not agree with, that people will be able to put differences aside and be understanding.
There's a lot of hatred all around, but I'm willing to bet you've never had stones thrown at you because you're a Christian. My boyfriend has, because he's Jewish.
Again, most people have no problems with Christians. Percivale is a very vocal atheist, and I'm a deist (best way to describe me). We get along fine most of the time, just as in any discussion except those where religion becomes very involved. I never said all Christians were as I described, I said that's where the majority of the 'attacks' on Christians on this site come from. The others, for the most part, don't attack Christians, but rather Christianity, and the morals and such associated with it.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Want the highest rated list to change? RATE those blogs, then!
there is a lot of hatred...
I'm sorry that I generalized. Yes, I know that a whole bunch of people are accepting of Christians, and that it's a bit ridiculous that I'm harping on this topic.
But it's just frustrating.
It's like racism. People say sometimes that it's gotten so much better from the past extremes. But the subtle attacks hurt and are noticeable. Racism. It's still here. It's just hidden.
I just feel like if we didn't have the ability to hide hatred....imagine how horrible people would be to each other. I don't understand this hatred.
And I feel like if people stopped hiding their hatred for Christians, there would be great persecution. And, no, of course, I've never been stoned for what I believe in (how horrible!), but I do feel subtle hate attacks. They hide underneath words, looks, and small actions.
HATRED. ugh. I hate hatred.
Am I fighting for a lost cause?
Every case is different.
People bash and are hostile to many things for many reasons. Since the vast majority of the people in our society have identified themselves as Christian in recent history it is no suprise that most of those bashing have been 'Christian' and often used the supposed righteousness that imbued them with to judge others, even though such behavior is forbiden by the teachings of Christ. The backlash created by that unChristian behavior is one of the main arguments used against the faith.
A second source for the hostility is a hatred for moral rules that is natural in people that want to do whatever they desire without guilt. As the most prevalent source for those rules Christianity makes some people feel guilty, and that leads to hostility.
Jesus predicted this 2000 years ago:
John 15:17-19 (King James Version)
17These things I command you, that ye love one another.
18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
19If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Luke 21:16-18 (King James Version)
16And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
17And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
18But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
Back then they killed him for it, so remember the nature of men is not naturally good:
Matthew 10:16 (King James Version)
16Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
A Fact is Always Better Than an Ideal.