(September 13, 2015 at 4:04 pm)Rekeisha Wrote: I think you missed read me again I said that faith in God is not based in feelings. I believe you when you say that you felt on fire for God. I am saying that faith in God transends emotions and feeling. If I had to rely on my feelings then I wouldn't believe. I don't believe because it makes me feel good, I believe because it is the truth and I know God. My foundation is God, christ His crucifixion and ressurection for the forgiveness of my sin. That doesn't make me fanatical just a christian.
When I was in college I was in gross sin and that is one of the most painful times of my life. Partly because the image I had about myself was being destroyed and partly because I hated my sin. I hate sin it ruines everything. I hate seeing it in me and I hate the affects it has on this world. If the only difference between you then and you now is your lack of religion then you weren't born again. You were never changed. If you were truly born again then you would be a new creation. Your desires change and slowly or quickly you become more christ like. God doesn't just save us from the wrath of God but also from the hold on sin on our lives.
To tell you the truth, it makes me pretty angry that you would say I was not "really" saved, when I am sitting here telling you that I felt just as you do, that I had the same delusions I can see clearly in your words. If you had spoken to me six months before I deconverted, not one word I said would have been a shred different than the phrases and ideas you are using, now.
No honest person says that they have evidence of Christianity. Otherwise it would not require faith. Even theologians say this.
You don't get to say it's "not based in feelings", then say it "transcends" feelings by describing your faith as something other than a feeling. Faith is a feeling, and based on feelings, not actual evidence. Even Paul described it as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen". Hope... a feeling. You believe because you feel it is the truth. You do not have proofs, in the mathematical or logical sense, or it would not be faith, it would be proof. Faith would become irrelevant.
What you are really saying here is that because you feel so strongly the things you feel, that makes them rise to the level of evidence. But it's just not how it works. Indeed, your entire response is rife with "the feels". Let's have a look:
"your desires change"
"the image I had about myself"
"I hated my sin"..."I hate sin"
Clearly, you have a strong emotional attachment to the guilt-trip that is inherent to your form of religion, a religion that has convinced you that you are an evil person, and that it has the solution if you will only accept what a terrible person you are. This idea has been drilled into your head until you cannot even see yourself another way. You are the voice of psychological breakdown and Stockholm Syndrome-type programming, worshiping the very thing that has crippled you. It breaks my heart for you!
They tell you you are a terrible person, and you believe them. They tell you they have the answer, if you will just Obey, and you believe them. Your beliefs are indistinguishable from those of a cult. I dare you to consider that possibility for a moment.
But here's the real Good News: there is nothing wrong with you!
Nothing! You're just a normal, conscientious, decent-and-flawed human being. Your mind has been clouded by control cults that sell conformity in the name of Godliness.
But if you look closely--the definition of "what is Godly" has changed over time, by those very same church leaders, to suit whatever will make their flocks feel most guilty and therefore penitent, plient, and pacific. At one time, "God" said it was okay to own slaves. At one time, "God" said that genocide was okay. At one time, "God" said that a woman who was raped was just damaged property, and recompense could be paid to her father (or if she was engaged, to the betrothed). And much, much more. So many horrible things.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
