Why I am still a Christian.

[greneknight]

What do I think of those who are not believers, etc? No difference to me. I don't expect others to share my family name or follow my cultural traditions. Religion is extremely private and is for the individual to decide. If I had a brother and he wants to be an atheist, that's fine too. Or it's fine also if he wants to adopt some other religion but I'd rather he becomes an atheist. I don't feel so good about Islam because whatever people say about it, I don't really believe it's a religion of peace. It's like Christianity before the enlightenment when we burnt witches, etc. There's a lot of harm in that religion. But I'm ok with people who are in that culture, like the Arabs. But if I had a brother and he wanted to be an Islamist, I'd like to know why the devil he chose that religion of all the religions in the world.

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Most of your questions are best put to fundamentalist Christians. My church accepts evolution. We think a 6000 year old earth is stupid. We don't think Adam and Eve were historical. You are obviously an American with a set idea of the American Bible belt version of Christianity. It's not like this in Europe.

a church that accepts evolution,well i learn something new everyday.

What about contraceptions and condom use?

Homo sapiens, if you could just step out of the Bible Belt of the USA and go to more normal countries like ANY country in Europe, you will see that all churches here accept evolution. The Archbishop of Canterbury has opposed every attempt by creationists to introduce the nonsense of creationism in schools.

Yes, contraception and condom use is perfectly ok in my church. We are not RC. Only the RCs oppose these things.

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@ greneknight, who's concept of God have you accepted and what makes their concept the correct one. Because you believe in another's concept of God does not make that concept true, and the concept is not true just because someone else (members of your church) believes it to be true.

You are a Churchian, one who believes that the church offers them what they need, Christians know their needs are meet by Christ through grace, I agree with CBA222, you are not a christian. You have failed on all points to meet in the slightest the level of belief that is required to be a christian. Christ said to His disciples, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you could move a mountain, well they never did, all the mountains are in place, so what does this say about your belief. You use Christianity as a crutch or maybe it's more like an insurance policy, just in case hell is real. Look at it this way, if hell is real then so are the scriptures, and if the scriptures are real then you have failed and your insurance policy is no better than the concept you believe in, which is a complete failure.

Hi Godschild,

Let me be perfectly clear. I know hell is bunkum. I have not the slightest fear of hell or even the slightest anxiety that it might be true. I KNOW with every fibre of my body and every cell that has my DNA that hell is absolutely bunkum and I think it's idiocy to believe in it or to fear it. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that I need some insurance policy in case hell is real. It's not and it cannot be.

Heaven is another concept that is nice to believe in and I really wish it were real but I know heaven is bunkum. I don't believe it exists at all although I really wish it did. Come on, I'd love it if Narnia existed too but I know it doesn't. It's not that long ago when I believed heaven existed but then my timeline is rather short and it's not that long ago either when I believed in Santa Claus. So please don't say I want an insurance policy to get to heaven. I don't need an insurance policy any more than you'd need an insurance policy to get to Narnia.

Here, my answer will be for Napoleon too.

God is a concept that I haven't really formulated properly in my head. At the moment, I accept that there is no evidence whatsoever for God to exist and there is no rational argument in favour of God that satisfies me or that cannot be refuted by other counter-arguments. I'm almost tempted to say God is bunkum but so much of Western civilization and art are based on this concept of God that I want to give myself more time to formulate my idea about it. Right now, I can only honestly admit in my head that God is probably a personified metaphor for goodness and truth. My feelings are different but feelings are unreliable and unthinking. But in my head, God can't be a personal being with independent thought and will. But it's all very fluid and uncertain. I really haven't quite made up my mind. This idea is not the idea of my vicar. It's my own personal idea based on my own observation and examination of the evidence and the arguments.

Because of my culture as a Christian, this metaphor God is best expressed in its Triune form - in the formula that we are used to in the Western culture. So I have no problem with crossing myself when the name of the Holy Trinity is invoked.

But nothing is carved in rock yet. I'm still explorin[/size]g and forming my own ideas.

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You are 13 grene? Hmmm

I would hazard that you are on your way (as I was) to being an atheist. Seriously it is most liberating.

Xtianity is no different than islamism or judaism.... ALL religion is fucked and only a tool to control the masses ...end of story.

BUT..... you are young and I will not be surprised IF @ say 26 - 30 you state emphatically that ".... there is no evidence for ANY deity, it is ALL crap and I am going off to live a good life"

I would rather say 14 because that's what I would be by mid-December. Mathematically, 13.7 is closer to 14 than 13 but the forum record automatically puts me as 13.