Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well, the more sympathetic and kinder responses to my mentions of this have come from atheists who were former believers, so I am not sure you are correct. Perhaps it is simply that those who have never had a crisis of faith can't fathom that it could happen, and hence the rote responses.
Interesting enough, I learned about that phenomenon from phycology and not the religious poem.
It starts with maybe dropping the obnoxious snark and maybe being willing to have an actual conversation. There are some here that are reasonable, but so many are just here to belittle others.
There was nothing obnoxious or snarky in what you're responding to. It's a perfectly neutral question. In essence, would not an all knowing god know that you are not truly believing? That you are just hedging your bets? There are other problems with Pascal's Wager, but that is I think the core one.
There is a certain mindset that there are all types of things we atheist can't understand. Such as I've been told I can't understand love because it comes from God. God has to love you first...
Another common trope is "you can't possibly understand the delicately nuanced theology under discussion because you aren't a Christian".
As one who was a Christian for over three decades, it never fails to amuse when people assume I wasn't a Christian or didn't study the Bible and in fact have some formal training therein. To the point that they feel the need to wave that away as some kind of elaborate act on my part. Because their god is so compelling that no one in their right mind would actually leave him.
I am definitely a problem for that sort of person. I am used to the gaslighting though.
Another common trope is "you can't possibly understand the delicately nuanced theology under discussion because you aren't a Christian".
As one who was a Christian for over three decades, it never fails to amuse when people assume I wasn't a Christian or didn't study the Bible and in fact have some formal training therein. To the point that they feel the need to wave that away as some kind of elaborate act on my part. Because their god is so compelling that no one in their right mind would actually leave him.
I am definitely a problem for that sort of person. I am used to the gaslighting though.
To be fair, at least as it applied to me, I couldn't understand the nuance either. I wasn't taught nuance, I was taught black/ white. It wasn't until I listened to Christians that I could. That was true of me as a believer and as an atheist.
I just remembered I used to do nuance but they trained it out of me. The JW term for nuance is "wishy-washy". I got in trouble for that several times. Thanks Mordant.
This verse is what you have to lose. Serving a deity who if you tick him off even a little, will squash you like a bug. Kissing him, so that his fragile ego is not wounded -- not because you actually like, much less love, him.
Mordant, do you really think that this is the may most Christians relate to God, or are you just trying to make a point? This is seriously so far from how I see God that it's not even funny.
Mordant, do you really think that this is the may most Christians relate to God, or are you just trying to make a point? This is seriously so far from how I see God that it's not even funny.
I am not mordant, but he was directly responding to the OP's reasoning for her thinking that you have nothing to lose by believing in Christ because of this specific verse:
Quote:
I was reading Psalm 2 yesterday and when I read the following, I have to say, I think I made the right choice.
“Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little."
She is indeed clearly saying that you should try to believe in order to avoid the chance that you will incur God's wrath.
It is EXACTLY the way Christianity was presented in the church in which I was raised, but not those that I found later in adulthood. God is always watching what you do and you do not want to anger him, or he will get you for it. It is not the belief of every Christian, but it apparently is that of the OP, and that is to whom mordant was responding.
I am not mordant, but he was directly responding to the OP's reasoning for her thinking that you have nothing to lose by believing in Christ because of this specific verse:
She is indeed clearly saying that you should try to believe in order to avoid the chance that you will incur God's wrath.
It is EXACTLY the way Christianity was presented in the church in which I was raised, but not those that I found later in adulthood. God is always watching what you do and you do not want to anger him, or he will get you for it. It is not the belief of every Christian, but it apparently is that of the OP, and that is to whom mordant was responding.
Proving that much(not all) of Christendom is fear based. I would put this question to the OP, can you imagine being a Christian your whole lifetime and embracing such fear based beliefs, only to find our it really never was the way of God to hold beliefs based in fear , and that the heart of the Father towards the people, far exceeds what we could ever imagine or think?
The tears wiped away I believe is more about this than anything else. All that he is, is ours now, but that is just to mind blowing to accept.
Some may see the throwing of dead branches into the fire as punishment.
I don't
What do you see it representing?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
