Hi, I'm a Christian

[greneknight]

Hi folks,

I'm a Christian and an altar boy in the Church of England. I'm currently in another country because my dad is in the foreign service and he has to come here.

Actually I'm already fed up with Christian Forums which I joined two weeks ago and got a 3-day ban for not being fundamentalist enough. My vicar warned me that US Christians are largely fundamentalists and they're extremely judgmental and unkind. I experienced it firsthand. My only crime was I offended fundamentalists by raising points I read from Bart Ehrman's book. They accused my vicar of being a wolf in sheep's clothing because it was he who lent me the book.

Anyway, I have this niggling feeling that atheists are nicer people than fundamentalists. Anyway, I have a liberal education and [/size]a liberal upbringing so I like diversity in life.

Glad to meet atheists in this forum.

Cheers,

greneknight

Hi, friend. Welcome.

Thanks!!!

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Hi, Greneknight. I'm another newbie here. I've found the place is pretty welcoming and friendly so far, so I'm hoping you will, too (and that it will continue to be friendly and welcoming after everyone here realizes I'm completely insane).

The usual question that I get asked is why I am a Christian. It's obvious. I was brought up a Christian and I've been an altar boy since I was 5. Naturally I would be a Christian. If I had been born in Saudi, I'd be a Muslim altar boy today. Anyway, this simple truthful answer offended many Christians in Christian Forums. I can't understand why it should offend anyone. They are also furious with me because I said there was no evidence or logical argument for religion and faith is totally blind. I was surprised by their anger and asked them what evidence they had. They became even angrier!!! I've never offended so many people in so short a space of time as I did in CF. I'm glad I don't live in the US if the Christians there are so weird.

I love those answers you gave them! I've told a lot of people over the years that I'm far less concerned with exactly what a person believes as much as why they believe it. I've talked to Christians who will chalk up evidence of their faith to some goofy coincidence that they're going to blame on divine intervention or something. I've talked to ones who seem to fall for Pascal's wager. I've fallen for others who, after hearing their description, don't even realize they've fallen for the same brainwashing techniques used by doomsday cults.. So to hear someone who has actually been able to ask themselves those hard questions and come up with honest and intelligent answers is extremely refreshing.

And, honestly, I've seen the damage fundamentalists can do. It's easy to just make fun of them and hate them, but I don't know if I have that luxury. See, my partner, who I love very much, well, he's a trans man and he comes from a fundamentalist Mormon family. He's not out to them yet and it hurts him, but he's terrified that when he tells the, his family will abandon him. As much as it frustrates me to see him go through that kind of pain, he still loves his family and I can't demonize them for that. I guess it's good in that it gives me a little balance in my perspective of them and it's good to note that they aren't as extreme as they could be (they point out the extreme branches of the Mormons like the FLDS church s examples of extremism that they don't subscribe to and that they think are crazy). It's kinda interesting that most fundamentalists, and not just religious fundamentalists either, can always point to another fundamentalist and say "I might be extreme, but they're even worse!" Wonder what the people at the end of that chain say?

Hi,

Thanks and welcome too (since you're new too).

I'm sorry I'm quite ignorant about many things. I'm still in school. What's a tran man? Did you mean "train"? He works on a train? What's a Mormon? I know I should do a search on google but I'm really lazy to do that. Isn't a Mormon one of those chaps who wear a white shirt with a black badge and they go round preaching but they are very nice and good-natured?