RE: Christians
September 5, 2009 at 9:13 pm
(This post was last modified: September 5, 2009 at 9:15 pm by Ryft.)
(August 29, 2009 at 5:30 pm)Darwinian Wrote: I just wondered, of all the Christians here, how many actually believe the following ...
The difficulty I have with answering such questions is the host of hidden assumptions at back of them. Allow me to explain.
From what I have gathered so far during my time here: (1) most of the participants are non-Christian; (2) of those, nearly all are atheist; (3) of those, many are ex-Christian; (4) of those, a vast majority abandoned Christianity during their youth; (5) for nearly all of those, the Christianity they abandoned was a fundamentalist sort; i.e., the words of the Bible are literal truth, Jesus died for everybody's sin, reason is anathema to faith, if you pray the Sinner's Prayer you are saved, hell is a place that exists and people are burning there currently, etc. Consequently, I have good reason to be highly skeptical about the level of theological literacy found at this site.
Subsequently, I have no confidence in what you are thinking as you frame those questions—what you understand heaven to be, what you understand about who goes there, what you understand being a Christian means, why you think heaven and hell co-exist, etc. That is to say, I immediately suspect the probability that your questions mirror a Christian fundamentalist conception of these matters, given the aforementioned observations. What I can see happening is, I answer "yes" to these questions according to my level of theological understanding WHEREAS you interpret that "yes" according to your level of theological understanding (be what it may) and, for all I know, I have then said something I had no intention of meaning. Hence, the difficulty.
It is a discussion I enjoy exploring with fellow Christians because there is no antithesis at work, but with atheists who may be ex-Christians from an early age it is an equivocal minefield that I hesitate to step into. I would explore it in a sincere, private discussion conducive to a suitable pace, but not in a public arena where vociferous anti-theists can drown authentic dialogue with vitriolic invective.
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when
called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
(Oscar Wilde)
called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
(Oscar Wilde)
