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Believing Vs Claiming to Believe
#1
Believing Vs Claiming to Believe
The more I talk to self proclaimed Christians (outside of AF), the more I get the feeling that most of them pretend to believe. When pressed to give a description of their belief, they either can't provide one and would rather not talk about it, or chalk it up to the way they were raised, and humbly admit they don't know very much about it.

The latter are easier to converse with but it makes me wonder how many people are actually just pretending to believe, and what is their motive for doing so?

Status quo?

Fear of disappointing family members?

Desire to conform?

Lack of exposure to alternative views?

I have no doubt that each person holds their belief in different degrees of certainty. Some people have deeper seeded roots to their belief, and while they may not give it much thought, it remains fixed in the deep recesses of their mind, wrapped safely within a protective cacoon that they themselves can't explain. It's like a house of cards that has been standing since before they can remember. Something made them think that this flimsy structure is very valuable, and they are only made aware of the importance of protecting it when somebody gets close enough to breath too heavy in its direction.

As we've all seen, no two Christians get the same understanding of what their God wants from them.

No two Christians believe that the same parts of The Bible are literal while others are either metaphors or to be discarded completely.

This inconsistency in interpretation is quite understandable when we examine the texts. There's every reason to endorse the altruistic parts, and zero reason to endorse the barbaric parts.

Christians are no different from anyone else with regards to their innate sense of morality. It is this very trait that makes the perversive absudities they discard apparent to the reader. What I don't understand is how they are able to do this without recognizing that the same God is supposed to be promoting all of it. Why pretend as though these blatant contradictions do not have serious implications to the tenets of their proclaimed religion?

In the end, it doesn't really matter. But it sure is a standard of behavior I find particularly mystifying.

Otherwise good moral people, claiming to derrive their morals from a God that is described in a book, using their own moral intuition to recognize the parts that portray His inherent evil nature, choosing to ignore them, and then pretending as though they don't exist in order to preserve a level of comfort they derrive from the pages their moral compass determines as good.

There are reasons we have terms such as self deception, and delusion. Do they not consider themselves susceptible to such things? If not, how can they be sure? Afterall, isn't it true that those who fall victem to these realities are not themselves aware? Isn't the state of being unaware kind of the crux of it all?

It seems that if one is at the stage of simply claiming to believe, they are standing on the line that separates delusion from reality. The moment the claim has made enough copies in the brain and fixes itself firmly to the mind as a representation of reality, seems to be the moment one crosses into the abyss of delusion. One need not look much further than the posts from a few of our resident theists to recognize the impossible task of attempting to reason someone out of something they did not reason themselves into. An obvious sign of delusion.

Some people just insist on wearing their foil hat, and it seems that only Spock himself can conince them otherwise.
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Messages In This Thread
Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by The Reality Salesman - November 8, 2013 at 10:24 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Raeven - November 8, 2013 at 10:52 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 8, 2013 at 12:45 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 8, 2013 at 1:31 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 8, 2013 at 1:59 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 8, 2013 at 4:12 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by freedomfromforum - November 8, 2013 at 4:34 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 9, 2013 at 3:10 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by freedomfromforum - November 9, 2013 at 3:29 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 9, 2013 at 10:23 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Esquilax - November 9, 2013 at 1:43 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 9, 2013 at 4:00 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by freedomfromforum - November 9, 2013 at 5:45 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 9, 2013 at 6:03 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Brakeman - November 10, 2013 at 10:24 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 13, 2013 at 11:27 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 13, 2013 at 11:31 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Brakeman - November 13, 2013 at 7:06 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 8, 2013 at 11:09 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Ben Davis - November 8, 2013 at 12:02 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Raeven - November 8, 2013 at 11:33 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Minimalist - November 8, 2013 at 11:41 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Fruity - November 8, 2013 at 11:45 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 9, 2013 at 10:42 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Whateverist - November 10, 2013 at 10:50 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 11, 2013 at 7:50 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 12, 2013 at 4:53 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 13, 2013 at 7:00 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by The Reality Salesman - November 13, 2013 at 10:56 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 14, 2013 at 1:40 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by The Reality Salesman - November 14, 2013 at 10:08 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 14, 2013 at 5:47 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 14, 2013 at 8:48 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 15, 2013 at 2:02 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by LostLocke - November 15, 2013 at 2:17 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 15, 2013 at 2:46 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 16, 2013 at 5:18 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Esquilax - November 16, 2013 at 6:11 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 16, 2013 at 6:23 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Esquilax - November 16, 2013 at 6:30 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 16, 2013 at 8:50 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 17, 2013 at 6:29 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 17, 2013 at 6:43 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 17, 2013 at 7:37 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 17, 2013 at 7:49 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 18, 2013 at 2:37 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Esquilax - November 18, 2013 at 2:49 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 18, 2013 at 3:49 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bob Kelso - November 16, 2013 at 10:47 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 17, 2013 at 7:17 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 17, 2013 at 7:26 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 17, 2013 at 7:42 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bob Kelso - November 17, 2013 at 9:35 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 18, 2013 at 3:31 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Esquilax - November 18, 2013 at 4:04 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 18, 2013 at 4:31 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 18, 2013 at 6:16 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 18, 2013 at 8:51 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bob Kelso - November 18, 2013 at 1:30 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 18, 2013 at 7:38 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bob Kelso - November 18, 2013 at 9:15 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 19, 2013 at 1:07 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Brakeman - November 18, 2013 at 9:32 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Brakeman - November 16, 2013 at 1:28 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by The Reality Salesman - November 15, 2013 at 12:35 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 15, 2013 at 3:03 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Esquilax - November 12, 2013 at 9:28 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Doubting Thomas - November 13, 2013 at 11:57 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 13, 2013 at 12:10 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by ronedee - November 13, 2013 at 1:48 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 13, 2013 at 3:10 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 15, 2013 at 3:19 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by LostLocke - November 15, 2013 at 5:06 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Godschild - November 17, 2013 at 7:45 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Esquilax - November 17, 2013 at 7:48 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Foxaèr - November 17, 2013 at 7:43 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 19, 2013 at 3:58 am
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Brakeman - November 19, 2013 at 1:50 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Bad Wolf - November 19, 2013 at 1:55 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by freedomfromforum - November 19, 2013 at 2:16 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Neo-Scholastic - November 19, 2013 at 2:26 pm
RE: Believing Vs Claiming to Believe - by Tonus - November 19, 2013 at 2:53 pm

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