Through conversation with multiple Christian's over the last few months I have come to a conclusion about why people do enjoy this belief, as I do feel that people tend to stray away from that which is not enjoyable and seek what is pleasurable in life... but that is another matter. Briefly tho I do feel the decline of the Catholic flavor of Christianity and the rise of the more liberal, less legal generic Christian faith is due to more of an enjoyable less worry some experience through practicing the religion, which has less laws and regulations and thus less stiff penalties for the many rules the latter imposes. Theres also marginaly less child rape conducted in the later.
So back to the topic, what I feel I have discovered, and part of my motive for posting this is to discover if this idea has been mulled around before ( I feel it may have ) is that although a Christian claims to worship an external God, by becoming a Theist one gets to " become god". What I noticed in my conversations was often a false humility proclaimed when getting to finer points with the answer of " It is not my view I am proclaiming, but that of gods! " when the target of my conversation reached a point he agreed'd with in scripture and revelation, and a list of logic and reasoning about why scripture and revelation he did not agree with is invalid.
For example this Christian, whom I believe is like any other Christian in this respect, has cherry picked the bible for verses that support their own morality, and dismiss verse which do not. When asked about abortion for instance the Christian will support the Idea that killing is wrong, a commandment given in the old testament, but when asked if eating shell fish is wrong, the christian will simply say that no it is not and give reasons, even going so far as to say that " people simply did not understand how to properly prepare them in that time which lead to superstition"
The obvious hypocrisy here, to claim a book that is the word of god absolute is only the word of god absolute whenconvenient is a point often made on these forums and other atheist communities, and is not the point of this post. The larger point is that by becoming a Theist one gets to become god so to speak. As there most likely is no god, and most likely all holy books are flawed and wrong, it allows the believer to proclaim false humility while making the most arrogant claims imaginable
ie that they know they will of god, which rules are to be enforced and which are not, with this I imagine comes a great deal of psychological empowerment where the views of the Christian move from being their own, and Instead transform into the absolute word of god and thus should and cannot be held to the test of critical thinking and reason.
Imagine the power of getting to claim the mind of god, especially to those who would believe it at face value. I think this is a major allure of religion that I do not hear discussed, the ego boosting aspect of getting to in essence become god. So remember, when dealing with a theist you are dealing with the closest thing that any of us will ever see when searching for god, as all religions are man made, all gods are man made and always the believer is made into god by backing up their own morale cherry picking with that of an imagined perfect entity that they in essence become, ergo god does exist -- as does man.

please do excuse me for the thread topic, but I do enjoy a statement that i imagined would grab the eye.

1- yes this has been done, several times, by threads of same name.
2- There are a lot of hypocrisy and cherry pickers on both sides, both are just as disingenuous, IMO.
3- statements starting or ending with "whom I believe is like any other Christian" will get your argument dissected and trashed quickly around here.
4- I don't think you logically supported your overarching point that Christians choose theism to become God or that the believer is somehow made into God by selectivity of any kind, very effectively, and would disagree with the premise and the conclusion.

What tack said.

(30th October 2011 18:34)darkblight Wrote:  So back to the topic, what I feel I have discovered, and part of my motive for posting this is to discover if this idea has been mulled around before ( I feel it may have ) is that although a Christian claims to worship an external God, by becoming a Theist one gets to " become god".

DarkMatter2525 makes the same point, starting at the 3min 55sec mark of this video:

I've never had that kind of reaction to an atheist, or used that argument. Although the symptoms of rejection might fit if you flip it around if you say some atheists are frustrated show resentment, anger,antisocial behavior and aggression towards theists because they feel rejected by God. It would definitely explain why Mn is so 'ornery

That's one of the reasons I so love this place as it's a chance for atheists to engage socially, vent some anger and resentment and aggression and hopefully come to understand why God hasn't rejected them. Did I stir the pot enough on this one

Quote:It would definitely explain why Mn is so 'ornery

Nah, I'm ornery because xtians annoy me with their bullshit, which as the OP said, consists of cherry-picking from the Holy Babble to support what they want.

They're real big on persecuting gays but always find a reason not to kill people who work on the fucking sabbath even though both "crimes" are mentioned in the same Book of Holy Horseshit.

Why do you suppose that is, tacky?

(12th November 2011 17:28)Joe Bloe Wrote:  

(30th October 2011 18:34)darkblight Wrote:  So back to the topic, what I feel I have discovered, and part of my motive for posting this is to discover if this idea has been mulled around before ( I feel it may have ) is that although a Christian claims to worship an external God, by becoming a Theist one gets to " become god".

DarkMatter2525 makes the same point, starting at the 3min 55sec mark of this video:

That is a fantastic video you have posted, I really need to study more psychology.

because they cherry pick the parts they like and are hypocrites min. Now care to comment on atheists feeling rejected from God?

I feel the same way about being rejected by god as I do abut being rejected by mickey mouse.

Can't happen because they are both fictional.

(13th November 2011 12:45)tackattack Wrote:  because they cherry pick the parts they like and are hypocrites min. Now care to comment on atheists feeling rejected from God?

Why do you believe that atheists feel rejected from god?