(May 25, 2011 at 5:25 pm)Emanuel Wrote: I'm going to summarize it.
When a person become a Christian, that person experiments something which we call "salvation". We are all sinners thus in enmity with the God of justice. When one becomes a Christian he receives forgiveness, and is given the privilege of being "born-again" and becoming more like Christ, thus lives a life of righteousness. Thus that person comes from death to life. It is pretty much the greatest tipe of salvation one can acheive.
When one becomes an atheist there isn't such a thing called "salvation". There is no "saving" experience for the atheist like the one the Christian experiences. He just encounters the crude reality. It isn't anything like what the Christian experiences. Now since the Christian received 'salvation' -the most beautiful thing from his point of view, and since he is instructed to love his neighbor as himself- it is only natural for him to want to share it.
Perhaps with an analogy you would understand be better? Imagine that two friends are lost in a desert with no water. They get separated for a while and one of them finds a pool with water, an oasis. He drinks and is satisfied and then he goes on. He meets his friend again. Now, wouldn't it be wrong if this person wouldn't mention the oasis to his thirsting friend? This is how it is from the Christian perspective. The dying one is the unbeliever, who's dying of thirst. The other one would be the Christian. Since the Christian found life, it would be wrong for him not to want to share it and let the others die.
I hope I did not write this in vain.
FYI... I was raised an atheist. I have attended a few churches along the way in my life and not one has ever come close to converting me. It's simply the absurdity of it all.
Even as a boy, I could not get past the idea that here is this omnipotent being somewhere out wherever it is gods hang out, doing nothing. It's like the Earth was this great toy that this so-called god created one day and then abandoned because Adam and Eve pissed him off. Then later, this god puts in another appearance and floods the place, killing everyone but this dork named Noah who was nothing but bootleg shipwright and an animal hoarder. And then the poor Jews! Wow. Talk about getting the shitty end of the stick... They think they're this god's favorite people, but yet this god leads them out of a desert into a worse desert where they end up having to kill everyone else around for untold centuries until the Romans show up with a better army and puts a stop to the wholesale murder by Gods Chosen People. Then to add insult to injury, this god-person finally send the poor Jews a messiah, then forgets to tell them and so what happens? They crucify the man. Then his followers decide to form their own religion so that they can feed starving lions in Rome for decades to come, even while they still pay homage and untold trillions in wealth to the very god who hasn't really done a damn thing for mankind since planting that garden so long ago.
I'm sorry, Emanuel, but today's Christians are more concerned about getting that ticket to heaven than this desire to share the happiness of being saved with me. And that's what saving people is actually all about, if you were to be honest here. The more converted scalps you hang on your belt, the greater your reception in heaven. A reward something not unlike those 72 virgins in heaven waiting for a Muslim martyr is the Christian goal... a place at the right hand of God.
And this "righteousness" you mention... A Muslim can't be righteous? A Jew? How about a devout Buddhist or one who follows Tao? Is "righteousness" solely the domain of the Christian? I don't think so. Just like I don't think it takes religion to be moral. Loving one's neighbor is not a purely Christian ideal, either. In fact, most of the positive attributes you could claim as coming from Christianity can be traced to much older religions and societies.
To reiterate... I don't give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut why anyone would try to convert me. I just want them to stop.
After all... Religion is much like masturbation. It should be practiced in private and not discussed in public.
