you send yourselves to hell

[Jacob(smooth)]

Aw Sheesh, here we go again! I can just see rayaan sharpening his ritual disemboweling cutlass again.

I consider myself a Christian for two reasons.

1. I had what I considered to be a spiritual experience of God. Now I know that a spiritual experience of God is pretty hard to distinguish from an experience of being Batshit crazy. But I choose to believe the former because it is more comfortable, and because it's reproducible to a degree. Since this experience was in the context of Christianity it is irrevocably tangled up with Christianity.

2. I've experienced a far better life following the laws and moralities I've cherry picked from the new testament.

My Christianity is functional. I tend not to evangelise because my reasons my Christianity are almost entirely argument from personal experience and thus only really apply to me. I did have a go at intellectualising those experiences from a purely psychosocial point of view and although that fit perfectly well, I did not like it much. So on the basis that I get to believe whatever the hell I like I recanted my flirtation with Atheism and reverted to my old framework.

I can hold my hands up to a charge of intellectual dishonesty here, choosing to believe that something objectively less likely is true because it feels good to do so. My only defence to that is "Fuck you" . I consider it akin to believing my kids are the best kids in the world. It gives me pleasure to believe so and so long as I don't give you a hard time because your little shits lick windows and eat paint, I don't see a problem with that.

[truthBtold]

Aw Sheesh, here we go again! I can just see rayaan sharpening his ritual disemboweling cutlass again.

I consider myself a Christian for two reasons.

1. I had what I considered to be a spiritual experience of God. Now I know that a spiritual experience of God is pretty hard to distinguish from an experience of being Batshit crazy. But I choose to believe the former because it is more comfortable, and because it's reproducible to a degree. Since this experience was in the context of Christianity it is irrevocably tangled up with Christianity.

2. I've experienced a far better life following the laws and moralities I've cherry picked from the new testament.

My Christianity is functional. I tend not to evangelise because my reasons my Christianity are almost entirely argument from personal experience and thus only really apply to me. I did have a go at intellectualising those experiences from a purely psychosocial point of view and although that fit perfectly well, I did not like it much. So on the basis that I get to believe whatever the hell I like I recanted my flirtation with Atheism and reverted to my old framework.

I can hold my hands up to a charge of intellectual dishonesty here, choosing to believe that something objectively less likely is true because it feels good to do so. My only defence to that is "Fuck you" . I consider it akin to believing my kids are the best kids in the world. It gives me pleasure to believe so and so long as I don't give you a hard time because your little shits lick windows and eat paint, I don't see a problem with that.

Wow. I like ur response. First time a Christian talked about being a Christian and swore... u potty mouth.. im still sticking with atheism..

[Esquilax]

2. I've experienced a far better life following the laws and moralities I've cherry picked from the new testament.

I don't see why you'd even bother putting this one in: if you're self aware enough to admit to cherry picking, then surely you understand that whatever moral strictures you do place yourself under are, at most, a shadow-christian morality informed by your own mind, in terms of what you accept and what you object?

You'd be taking your cues from the bible, but what you believe would not be christianity in any real sense, so why bring this up as a reason you believe?

[Jacob(smooth)]

2. I've experienced a far better life following the laws and moralities I've cherry picked from the new testament.

I don't see why you'd even bother putting this one in: if you're self aware enough to admit to cherry picking, then surely you understand that whatever moral strictures you do place yourself under are, at most, a shadow-christian morality informed by your own mind, in terms of what you accept and what you object?

You'd be taking your cues from the bible, but what you believe would not be christianity in any real sense, so why bring this up as a reason you believe?

Weird init.

Can't tell you. Other than when I wasn't trying to follow anything I loused things up, and when I'm picking the bits I like from the bible, which is most of the red letters, I don't. Or at least not so much. And yes I know there are not many behaviours I could NOT justify with scripture. But somehow I don't.

Go figure.

[Mudhammam]

Aw Sheesh, here we go again! I can just see rayaan sharpening his ritual disemboweling cutlass again.

I consider myself a Christian for two reasons.

1. I had what I considered to be a spiritual experience of God. Now I know that a spiritual experience of God is pretty hard to distinguish from an experience of being Batshit crazy. But I choose to believe the former because it is more comfortable, and because it's reproducible to a degree. Since this experience was in the context of Christianity it is irrevocably tangled up with Christianity.

2. I've experienced a far better life following the laws and moralities I've cherry picked from the new testament.

My Christianity is functional. I tend not to evangelise because my reasons my Christianity are almost entirely argument from personal experience and thus only really apply to me. I did have a go at intellectualising those experiences from a purely psychosocial point of view and although that fit perfectly well, I did not like it much. So on the basis that I get to believe whatever the hell I like I recanted my flirtation with Atheism and reverted to my old framework.

I can hold my hands up to a charge of intellectual dishonesty here, choosing to believe that something objectively less likely is true because it feels good to do so. My only defence to that is "Fuck you" . I consider it akin to believing my kids are the best kids in the world. It gives me pleasure to believe so and so long as I don't give you a hard time because your little shits lick windows and eat paint, I don't see a problem with that.

I understand where you're coming from actually. Still, on some level, you must feel that it can't really be more than a comforting delusion...no?

[Jacob(smooth)]

I understand where you're coming from actually. Still, on some level, you must feel that it can't really be more than a comforting delusion...no?

Oooo, you're SO warm

No, I FEEL that its real, relevant and helpful.

I often THINK it can't be more than a comforting delusion.

See what I did there?

[Mudhammam]

I understand where you're coming from actually. Still, on some level, you must feel that it can't really be more than a comforting delusion...no?

Oooo, you're SO warm

No, I FEEL that its real, relevant and helpful.

I often THINK it can't be more than a comforting delusion.

See what I did there?

Sounds like you're conflicted.

[Jacob(smooth)]

Oooo, you're SO warm

No, I FEEL that its real, relevant and helpful.

I often THINK it can't be more than a comforting delusion.

See what I did there?

Sounds like you're conflicted.

You'll be telling me we can destroy the sith next...

[Rayaan]

2. I've experienced a far better life following the laws and moralities I've cherry picked from the new testament.

...

I can hold my hands up to a charge of intellectual dishonesty here, choosing to believe that something objectively less likely is true because it feels good to do so.

If you're going to cherry pick from a particular book, and doing that only because it makes you "feel good," then why don't you also cherrypick things from the Quran, Vedas, Torah, Dao De Jing, Meshaf Resh, Guru Granth Sahib, and other religious books all at the same time to make yourself feel even BETTER? You may as well go ahead and mix up all the different books of morality in a cherry-picked fashion to make yourself feel better, if you don't care about being objectively correct.

[shep]

if you're going down the route of cherry picking you'll always end up with a severe case of cognitive dissonance somewhere down the line.