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Please note: This is not a thread in which you are being asked why you don't believe Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Catholics or anybody else is not a Christian. Please don't turn in into one. The questions to be discussed are:
Why does it matter so much to you how I self-identify?
How does the way in which I choose to describe myself affect you personally in any way?
Would I be honest if I were to deny what I believe myself to be?
I really want to discuss these questions. Moderator cut: deleted
Last edited by june 7th; 06-19-2013 at 03:37 AM..
Reason: Reports need to be made to mods, vs. member's directives.
Please note: This is not a thread in which you are being asked why you don't believe Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Catholics or anybody else is not a Christian. Please don't turn in into one. The questions to be discussed are:
Why does it matter so much to you how I self-identify?
How does the way in which I choose to describe myself affect you personally in any way?
Would I be honest if I were to deny what I believe myself to be?
I really want to discuss these questions. Please do not attempt to derail this thread.
You can call yourself a jelly donut for all I care, but if you claim to be what I am and you proceed to say stuff that is opposite of what my beliefs are......one of us is wrong. If you continue to claim you are the same as me you are then calling me a liar. That bothers me.
You can call yourself a jelly donut for all I care, but if you claim to be what I am and you proceed to say stuff that is opposite of what my beliefs are......one of us is wrong.
Trust me, Vizio. No way in hell do I want to be lumped in the same group as you.
So, I'm gathering from your response, that my self-identifying as a Christian is the same thing as calling you a liar. That's really interesting because it hadn't even occured to me to call you a liar. And even if I were to call you a liar, you'd know better. I think maybe it's that you're afraid that someone might believe me. Isn't that really what it gets down to?
Anyway, the reason is because humans have a nearly impossible to resist need to categorize EVERYTHING in their world so they can make sense of it.
Take animals for example; defining and categorizing all the different species is logically pointless because all life is ultimately interrelated and deciding where to draw the lines is essentially arbitrary. We're still not even close to categorizing all the insects and they make up the bulk of non-plant biomass on the planet.
Likewise with people; we make "races" based on skin color and/or the general shapes of eyes and noses when genetically we are virtually identical.
So it comes as no surprise that we want to know where someone is from or what religion they identify with.
I suppose it's so they can make snap judgments like "oh that's a lion, it might eat me" or "that lizard isn't a Gila Monster so it's not poisonous" or that person is a Mormon so they aren't gonna offer me a beer, better go to that other person. Not very smart, but humans in general have always seem to only be just smart enough to get ourselves in trouble.
You can call yourself a jelly donut for all I care, but if you claim to be what I am and you proceed to say stuff that is opposite of what my beliefs are......one of us is wrong. If you continue to claim you are the same as me you are then calling me a liar. That bothers me.
People are different and categories aren't absolute. Beliefs are just beliefs and people believe all sorts of things that may conflict with their belief structure despite being born and raised within it.
You might as well claim to be Chango... and if just the thought of being me doesn't bother you enough, I'll post a picture.
Please note: This is not a thread in which you are being asked why you don't believe Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Catholics or anybody else is not a Christian. Please don't turn in into one. The questions to be discussed are:
Why does it matter so much to you how I self-identify?
How does the way in which I choose to describe myself affect you personally in any way?
Would I be honest if I were to deny what I believe myself to be?
I really want to discuss these questions. Moderator cut: Orphaned
Moderator cut: accusatory
How you identify yourself is your choice and any other opinion is a moot point because it is their opinion not your truth. Why waste time worrying with it? It seems the issue should not impact the entire scope of your life however, from your post it appears to be an important issue for whatever reason.
Just a side note though, if you are going to refer to yourself as a donut (as suggested in another post), please don't make it a "jelly donut", I don't like jelly donuts....
Please note: This is not a thread in which you are being asked why you don't believe Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Catholics or anybody else is not a Christian. Please don't turn in into one. The questions to be discussed are:
Why does it matter so much to you how I self-identify?
How does the way in which I choose to describe myself affect you personally in any way?
Would I be honest if I were to deny what I believe myself to be?
I really want to discuss these questions. Moderator cut: Orphaned
With Christianity being attacked from every conceivable direction, I cannot fathom why people would get all offended if/when a decidedly very non-traditional religion chooses to identify itself as Christian. People wanting to be called Christians rather than regarding it like an insult like so many people tend to do -- I'd say that's a good thing. To me, "Christian" has always meant somebody who believes in and follows Jesus Christ, aka that guy who grew up in Nazareth and ministered and taught in Judea from about 30 AD to 33 AD.
I don't understand making it any more complicated than that.
Actually, very little of my time is wasted worrying about it. And I wouldn't even use the word "worrying," because I am actually quite confident that I am what I claim to be.
Quote:
It seems the issue should not impact the entire scope of your life however, from your post it appears to be an important issue for whatever reason.
It probably doesn't seem like it to you, but I'm actually more curious about it than anything else. I mean I just don't really care all that much about how other people self-identify, but it seems to really drive some people crazy that I self-identify as I do.
And of the three questions I asked, the one I am most interested in hearing people's response to is, "Would I be honest if I were to deny what I believe myself to be?" It seems to me as if I would be. If I genuinely believe myself to be one thing, wouldn't I be a hypocrite if I were to deny it?
Quote:
Just a side note though, if you are going to refer to yourself as a donut (as suggested in another post), please don't make it a "jelly donut", I don't like jelly donuts....
Don't worry. It hasn't even crossed my mind.
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