In your opinion what causes christians to believe in Jesus

[The Grand Nudger]

"God is love" isn't that hard to understand emotionally, even if it makes no real sense rationally.

Is that what you guys are calling propaganda? There has to be room here for people to hold beliefs that are different than yours without perceiving it as manipulation or coercion.

Some people think chocolate is better than vanilla.  That's a difference of belief.  There's no difference of belief between the fact that christianity has a long history of overt and covert propaganda aimed at people of all ages, especiailly children, and notably aimed at all of the things you claim to believe in about the human mind and how our beliefs are formed...and your need to minimize that for no reason whatsoever. That's just you whining again.

Yes, god is love is and has always been propaganda. John was a propagandist. This is a known known. Believe whatever looney shit you like, that won't change.

[Alan V]

Per Google: "Propaganda is information, often inaccurate, that is deliberately spread to influence public opinion and promote a specific agenda or cause. It often involves biased or misleading information and can be used to manipulate beliefs, thoughts, or actions."

So if atheists think theistic ideas are not true, we must also think that the methods used to spread them are propaganda.

But the real test of whether something is propaganda or not is in the inaccuracy or accuracy of the misinformation or information being promoted. This is why atheists keep asking theists to support their positions. If they can't, and they never seem to be able to, then they should not be promoting their ideas until they can verify them for themselves.

I personally tried to verify theistic claims through a study of mysticism and failed, which is part of the reason why I am confident that it is likely impossible. If theists retreat into saying they have faith without really knowing, that would be more honesty from my point of view.

[The Grand Nudger]

Closer to the value set proposed by such beliefs, too. It's pretty obvious that it's not the christian god that disfavors belief in the face of incredible odds and circumstances and appearances. Neither in the fairy tale, nor in reality. It's contemporary secularized christians arguing with atheists on the internet who get uncomfortable letting faith be faith.

[Alan V]

"God is love" isn't that hard to understand emotionally, even if it makes no real sense rationally.

Is that what you guys are calling propaganda? There has to be room here for people to hold beliefs that are different than yours without perceiving it as manipulation or coercion.

I respect people who understand that their faith is just faith, since each person learns at their own rate.

I am much less convinced that religious leaders who make all sorts of positive and unlikely assertions are really being honest with themselves and others.

[HappySkeptic]

Is that what you guys are calling propaganda? There has to be room here for people to hold beliefs that are different than yours without perceiving it as manipulation or coercion.

I respect people who understand that their faith is just faith, since each person learns at their own rate.

I am much less convinced that religious leaders who make all sorts of positive and unlikely assertions are really being honest with themselves and others.

Just like the requirement for a job in the Trump administration is to agree to the statement "Biden stole the 2020 election", a Christian leader must agree with the statement "Jesus died for our sins, rose into heaven, and will judge the living and the dead".

Most don't believe it, but all will espouse it to get the job.

[Thumpalumpacus]

So you think a three-year-old child is going to catch on to the fact that they're swimming in Christian propaganda, and reject the lessons for that reason?

What are you calling Christian propaganda? A three-year-old is barely putting sentences together, so no they're not exactly parsing the sermon at church.

How about parents talking about Jesus as if he's real and if you piss him off you're in trouble? A three-year-old won't understand a triune god -- and let's face it, you don't either -- but a three-year-old certainly understands trouble.

You're clearly not a parent. Your denialism would be funny were it not so sad to watch you doing pretzel-logic to defend your own programming ... which actually rather accentuates my point. Because I am sure you didn't study the various religions of the world and decide that 7DA horseshit is better than the other horseshit.

You were raised in your religion, and you've very defensive about it, that much you've made plainly clear. You're much more transparent than you think.

"God is love" isn't that hard to understand emotionally, even if it makes no real sense rationally.

Is that what you guys are calling propaganda? There has to be room here for people to hold beliefs that are different than yours without perceiving it as manipulation or coercion.

When it lands upon people who haven't -- as even the Catholic Church calls it -- reached the age of reason, yes, it is indeed manipulation.

The fact that you can't see it calls into question your psychological "insight", no matter what courses you claim to have completed.

[The Grand Nudger]

The religious economy makes sense of the novel combination of fervor and cynicism as you ascend the ranks of any institutional hierarchy. It basically boils down to whether or not a person agrees with the notion that unregulated markets have a tendency to privilege bad actors. Leaders who shuffle around pedos aren't doing it for love. We could bicker about What Word Do until the heat death of the universe and it won't change any essential that informs a singular and accurate conclusion.

If we accept...especially if we accept... john's jingoist "god is love" framing, those leaders and those religious institutions and those religions aren't leading for or from god. Propaganda is often associated with untrue things, but it needn't be. Even if, as we see in the hypothetical above, the underlying premise is true, a phrase can still find it's expression and use in propaganda that seeks to possess but not exemplify some true statement the phrase leverages. John preaches tolerance and acceptance from a pulpit of contempt - and this is precisely what john set out to do, in order to correct the synoptics and chastise rome.

[Sheldon]

"God is love" isn't that hard to understand emotionally, even if it makes no real sense rationally.

Is that what you guys are calling propaganda? There has to be room here for people to hold beliefs that are different than yours without perceiving it as manipulation or coercion.

The claim "God is love"  is not propaganda, it is a deepity, it means nothing in any objective sense, and little that people offering the claim can ever express cogently, without a large helping of word salad.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Is that what you guys are calling propaganda? There has to be room here for people to hold beliefs that are different than yours without perceiving it as manipulation or coercion.

The claim "God is love"  is not propaganda, it is a deepity, it means nothing in any objective sense, and little that people offering the claim can ever express cogently, without a large helping of word salad.

This nonsense is what is meant by ‘divine simplicity’. God doesn’t have qualities, God is qualities. It’s a linguistic trick that tries (and fails) to overcome arguments about God’s non-existence. We know love exists, and since God is love, God must also exist.

It’s even more cynical than the ontological attempts to define God into existence.

Boru

[John 6IX Breezy]

What people usually mean by propaganda is largely nonsense. It is based on false and antiquated beliefs about the mind, like brainwashing or mind control.

Do bad actors attempt to persuade the masses of an ideology by disseminating information unethically? Obviously, but attempting to and succeeding at are two different things. And of course, nobody here actually thinks propaganda has worked on them, they just think it's worked on everybody they disagree with.