What are your reasons for believing whatever you may believe about Christianity?

[Machaty]

I'm all for gays and that crap, though I'm against gay parentage. Atheists are typically arrogant mongoloids in my experience,
however I don't mind people not believing in a god. Basically I believe in a higher power, but I'm too lazy to worship it.

"I don't mind people not believing in a god, but people who don't believe in God are arrogant mongoloids."
What? Isn't acceptance a part of Christianity?

There was a post a few pages back that claims that evolution is possible, but not on a scale to cause large changes. That's basically saying that you can count from 1 to 10 but not from 10 to 100. A bunch of small changes equates to a large change. The book "The Greatest Show On Earth" by Biologist Richard Dawkins talks about why macro evolution has been proven and is accepted by every reputable scientist. Definitely worth reading.

[Ad Bot]

[SWAT One]

I just have a balanced center of being, and I feel like I am guided at my strongest, and carried at my weakest.  To those who are not Christians, it may be hard to understand God's presence.  From my experience, it's soft like a gentle wind, but carries a promise with the force of getting hit head-on by a freight train.  It's awe-inspiring, fulfilling, and I only feel weak when I am without God.  I believe it because it has been made evident to me, and it is a great joy to experience.

Additionally, unlike other religions, where the focus is about mankind trying to seek a God, Christianity is about God's search and struggle to redeem mankind.  It's also about having a relationship with the Father (It is much like a relationship with a good father-like figure) who means no ill, and is gracious, good, and lovely.  I crave that relationship.

If you are interested in hearing more, you may PM me.

[Darryl McKoy]

From my experience, it's soft like a gentle wind, but carries a promise with the force of getting hit head-on by a freight train. 

Sounds like a fart to be honest

[Skig²]

because i've been forced to sit through plenty of church services, countless "biblical" studies over how men should be slave drivers to women or about doomsday conspiracies (the EU is secretly satanic, either putin or some dragdi dude is the antichrist, pope francis is the false prophet), sat in on plenty of sunday school services full of old people believing that the government will execute christians for not marrying gays, gone to enough youth services full of teenagers trying to disprove dinosaurs and adults saying fingerprint identification is the mark of the beast, etc etc. also they think they're the most persecuted people group in the world and simply adore the slippery slope fallacy.

my dad (a very solid christian) doesn't believe in mental illnesses or psychiatrists/therapists, either. he thinks that all mental/emotional issues should be handled by the church family and god and no one else. and i also got death threats because one time i accidentally left "under god" out of the pledge at school.

so yea that's why i'm not a christian and generally think they're a little cuckoo. i know some are worse than others but yknow.

yeah they're pretty crazy. it's mostly old white people who go there, but the one who led the 6 or 8 week "study" on the "biblical man and woman" was pretty young and gave stellar ideas like these:

the man should be a slave driver to the women of the house
women should not be allowed in leadership positions and should give them to men
women should not be allowed to work and should stay at home making babies
women should follow their husband's orders
if the woman works, all of her money should be given to the husband
if the woman earns more than the man, then the man is failing in his duties as a "godly husband"
the man always has final say, and if he gives up his position as "head of the house" then he's failing as a "godly husband"
women should not be allowed to teach in church, unless they're teaching young children
women may not preach or be deacons
women that are raped should not be allowed to fear other men but should be forced into groups of men

there was a bunch more and it was all sickening and i had to tune most of it out bc it made me feel physically ill to hear it

That's pretty sad. I am a Christian and don't believe any of that is true. Especially the part about no mental illness. That church sounds like a bunch of extremists who are so caught up their ways they just kind of make crazy stuff up as they go along. Their interpretation of the Bible is heavily based on their opinions, which is the case with a lot of "out there" versions of Christianity. It saddens me that you have given up on your faith based on that.

[SWAT One]

Sounds like a fart to be honest

Haha I can see why you'd think that.  I have synesthesia so it's kind of hard to explain.

That's pretty sad. I am a Christian and don't believe any of that is true. Especially the part about no mental illness. That church sounds like a bunch of extremists who are so caught up their ways they just kind of make crazy stuff up as they go along. Their interpretation of the Bible is heavily based on their opinions, which is the case with a lot of "out there" versions of Christianity. It saddens me that you have given up on your faith based on that.

Also this, carolcat.  I am sorry that mislead nuts gave you a poor and distasteful representation of what Christianity is supposed to be.

[ßløçks]

That's pretty sad. I am a Christian and don't believe any of that is true. Especially the part about no mental illness. That church sounds like a bunch of extremists who are so caught up their ways they just kind of make crazy stuff up as they go along. Their interpretation of the Bible is heavily based on their opinions, which is the case with a lot of "out there" versions of Christianity. It saddens me that you have given up on your faith based on that.

[Red Spy]

I'm against gay parentage.

Why, if I may ask, are you against that?

[Ipquarx]

The funny thing is in the bible, it never even says "You must disallow gays from creating a civil union," it just defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

[ABlockOfCheese]

The funny thing is in the bible, it never even says "You must disallow gays from creating a civil union," it just defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Well obviously it doesn't say anything about a civil union and that's because it was written in historical context and culture has changed since then.

With that said, although I am a Christian and do not agree with gay marriage, I at the same time understand that I have no grounds to force others who do not go along with my belief to live by my principles, therefore I have no authority to tell gays that they can't get married.

Call me a libertarian.

[Red Spy]

I find it funny, because most Atheists were Christians, Jews, JWs, Muslims, etc.
And the religious people say stuff like "you don't know how [insert religion here] works!"
Even though you were apart of it at one point :/

[ABlockOfCheese]

because i've been forced to sit through plenty of church services, countless "biblical" studies over how men should be slave drivers to women or about doomsday conspiracies (the EU is secretly satanic, either putin or some dragdi dude is the antichrist, pope francis is the false prophet), sat in on plenty of sunday school services full of old people believing that the government will execute christians for not marrying gays, gone to enough youth services full of teenagers trying to disprove dinosaurs and adults saying fingerprint identification is the mark of the beast, etc etc. also they think they're the most persecuted people group in the world and simply adore the slippery slope fallacy.

my dad (a very solid christian) doesn't believe in mental illnesses or psychiatrists/therapists, either. he thinks that all mental/emotional issues should be handled by the church family and god and no one else. and i also got death threats because one time i accidentally left "under god" out of the pledge at school.

so yea that's why i'm not a christian and generally think they're a little cuckoo. i know some are worse than others but yknow.

ok I have been going to church all my life and have been present in church services in multiple locations preached by multiple preachers and have never once heard any of that.  Please understand that the majority nowadays are not like that.

[Blockchip]

I was born and brought up in a family which was generally christian, and went to a church sometimes.

Whenever i had a question or doubt about Christianity, i'd ask my father (who is a theologian) or a church pastor/preacher about it, and they'd generally answer with what i considered to be a logical answer, clearing my doubt.

[ABlockOfCheese]

Just a thought I had but to be honest, arguing about religion vs no religion is about equal to arguing whether or not solipsism has any truth to it.  If you had only 2 religions and one was provable and the other didn't have any answers to questions about the universe/existence/anything, all the second would have to do is say "well my deity did it and we don't know how or why but that's not the point" thus leading to a standstill in the argument.  In short, there is no way to definitely prove that a higher power doesn't, or does in fact exist.

[XR-7]

^what

[WaterOre]

^what

it's part of a crappy forum Self Delete

EDIT: for those of you just joining us, there was someone spamming pictures of Riddler across various threads, and that was what XR-7 was pointing at

not what ABlockOfCheese was talking about