(December 1, 2015 at 1:39 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote:(December 1, 2015 at 1:33 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: When it comes to Christianity, my main issue is with Christianists, not with Christians who are otherwise normal.
What does otherwise normal mean? I consider the entire belief to be totally abnormal and absurd. If anything a non-practicing Christian, like most people say they are okay with, is even worse. It means that that person isn't capable of following through with their own beliefs or examining them deeply. How are you going to have any deep or meaningful relationship with someone like that? For me I need someone who is well versed in being able to examine religion and philosophy and able to have a conversation about it. Not someone who is 'normal.'
However as a note it's also not really all that difficult to find secular women where I live and my main social circle is almost entirely secular so I guess my situation might be a bit different.
There's nothing abnormal or absurd about believing what you were raised to believe, what everyone you're connected with takes for granted. That's how humans work, we absorb what we're told uncritically when we're very young, and it's very likely to stick for life. Props to anyone who thinks their way out of it, but why people believe isn't a mystery nor a psychological disorder. They are mistaken to hold that belief, but it's been the norm for all of recorded history. It's atheists who are bucking the norms, currently.
I live in SC, and I don't deny that non-availability of secular women may be a factor in my flexibility. My current gf is ex-Baha'i, currently vague 'Somethingist'. She sent me a cartoon that I think encapsulates her theology. It shows a man who believes in Bigfoot. Then it shows him crying into the forest, 'Bigfoot, I believe in you!'. Then it shows Bigfoot behind a tree, smiling because someone believes in him.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.