Totally NOT a debate about the veracity of the gospels

[*Deidre*]

I appreciate you sharing that. I do. I'm not an atheist. I'm Agnostic, and the path for me anyways, led naturally there. I reject all forms of religion, and I don't believe there is proof of God. The Bible is not proof, but if a god exists, I'm open to the possibility. Mankind has been trying to solve the 'mysteries of life' equations for centuries. Long before Christianity, even. Long before civilizations, mankind has been trying to find answers to what he doesn't know. Christianity is one but many religions, discipulus. To think that it's real, and valuable, and relevant...and that it could mirror an actual God, is just...in my eyes, not genuine.

I did give my heart to God when I followed Christianity. I did believe. I wasn't going through the motions. I prayed often and fervently. You know don't me, but I know that I might come across as angry, but we're debating. lol In my offline life, I no longer struggle internally anymore. As much as I 'liked' being a Christian, and I did...I really did...I didn't like the angst that I felt, inside...because there came a point where I couldn't ignore truth. Real truth. This is what indoctrination does to people. You follow something long enough, you really think you believe it.

The Nazis were indoctrinated, and brainwashed for years, before they actually formed their group.

Anyway, I hear what you're saying, and if you have found a life in worshipping a god, that is your choice. But, don't assume that I'm thristing for what you are. I didn't have any crisis of faith, I'm not jaded. I'm angry at times, because I see what religion does to people, to countries. It has done more harm than good, and no matter what you say, you can't deny that. It has caused wars. It has hurt minorities, and gay people. It divides and it conquers.

That's what it does. You coming to a site like this in hopes of getting people to convert...is also your choice. But religion assumes that people need something more than this life. That hope is somewhere 'out there.'

Happiness and hope exist in us all...if we just tap into it.

But, anyway. I appreciate your sharing. I don't think you're an asshole, discipulus, for whatever that's worth.

I will be here for you in whatever way I can. I know you do not believe these words are from God, but they have encouraged me. I hope they encourage you too.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Let me ask. Why do you presume that mankind didn't come up with this, and ''assigned'' it to a Deity? (thereby creating a fictional tale) You can't develop a powerful following, if you just teach people to search within themselves for happiness, my friend. If you believe in Jesus' words, he even stated, that the 'kingdom of God is in each of us.' Yes?

Might that simply mean, in laymen terms...that the key to happiness lies within us?

If a god exists, he isn't any ''version'' that is out there 'on the market.' lol My opinion. The God that you worship, has the attributes of a petulent child one minute, and an ogre the next...and then in the NT, he becomes a man? Filled with love and mercy? Why? Why is this story necessary? Why does the Bible talk of talking serpents, and seas parting, and giants killing people, and so on...this doesn't sound like folklore to you? Because it's a 'popular' religion so you believe it? I'm honestly asking you, I'm not being rhetorical.

Believing in leprechauns are really not that far fetched, if you can believe all that. ;=)