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Christianity is complex because God deals with the individual in a relationship where the Holy Spirit Jesus provides is teaching the individual.
This personal attention God spends on one whom is desperate to know Him ,transparent in their relationship with Him both in ones prayer life and one's activities through out the day .
If you confuse academic or superstitious christianity there will be nothing but confusion, of which the world is loaded, neither of which Jesus intended .
Um … same experience here. I took that as an answer: God doesn't want me to believe in Jesus as my savior. So, there you go. God exists and God thinks it's great that you are getting past needing to be saved from God's "wrath". You're on the right track.
Well, I understand. I went into a state of deep grief when I realized what I'd believed about Jesus and all that jazz wasn't true. At some point it occurred to me that the bible and Christian doctrines not being Truth with a capital T wasn't the end of the story and I started looking for a different perspective that made more sense. And I got out of the habit of trying to make it fit with the bible/Christianity. Funny thing, once I did that, some (not all, by any means, and certainly not in a literal way) of the stuff from the bible/Christianity made more sense.
Anyway, back to the God communicating thing. If the only thing that would be meaningful to you is to find out that Christianity is the be all and end all of what God is and how God interacts with people, that might be why you're not hearing from God. You've already gotten your answer, so why keep looking for that answer to be negated?
I didn't explain myself properly. I already know that Christianity is NOT "the be all and end all of what God is and how God interacts with people". I found that out simply because God never communicated with me at all. It's NOT a question of "Did God communicate with you in any meaningful way?"
The truth is God didn't communicate with me in any way at all...meaningful or not.
I suspect many former Christians here will say the same thing, which is why they left Christianity...because to them God was completely absent in their lives, contrary to what the scriptures represent: "Draw near to me and I will draw near to you".
Now a little further down this thread arleigh says Christianity is extremely complex. I have to ask: WHY?
Why should Christianity be extremely complex....unless it was MADE extremely complex from something initially very simple. Why? To hide its failures, obviously. Very often in religion, in order to cover up the reality that Christianity doesn't work, that Jesus doesn't communicate with us, that God doesn't move in our lives...to cover up all these failures the churchmen deliberately and nefariously muddy the waters with excess garbage to divert people from realizing that God DOESN'T communicate with us through Jesus, or through any visible means at all, only through mind-games which you see Christians around here playing all the time. But it's all just illusion. It's not real. I don't know about other religions because I never experienced them, but I am very familiar with Christianity.
So if I had to bulletpoint all this:
* OBJECTIVELY Christianity fails on all levels.
* SUBJECTIVELY Christianity succeeds marvelously because all its successes can only be detected in the minds of those who claim Christianity is real. Outside their minds we former Christians or non-believers don't see a thing. We see them having feel-good ecstasies by themselves but we ourselves don't feel a thing, not do we see any objective manifestations of some powerful supernatural force at work such as miracles, or supernatural events like people being cured of diseases after being prayed over by church members.
* So Christianity is good basically for social functions. It draws like-minded people together in communion with each other i.e. raffles, church events, picnics, outings, Bible studies etc. But gather everyone together and have them pray over a sick individual as James commands and Christianity fails spectacularly.
This is why I say if Christianity makes you feel good or gives you purpose in your life--something to live for--then by all means stick with it. I'd much rather see a person getting high on Jesus than getting high on heroin. The effect is all the same but the mechanism (Jesus) for getting high doesn't harm the body the way drugs do. In this way, Christianity is a positive thing.
I didn't explain myself properly. I already know that Christianity is NOT "the be all and end all of what God is and how God interacts with people". I found that out simply because God never communicated with me at all. It's NOT a question of "Did God communicate with you in any meaningful way?"
The truth is God didn't communicate with me in any way at all...meaningful or not.
I suspect many former Christians here will say the same thing, which is why they left Christianity...because to them God was completely absent in their lives, contrary to what the scriptures represent: "Draw near to me and I will draw near to you".
Now a little further down this thread arleigh says Christianity is extremely complex. I have to ask: WHY?
Why should Christianity be extremely complex....unless it was MADE extremely complex from something initially very simple. Why? To hide its failures, obviously. Very often in religion, in order to cover up the reality that Christianity doesn't work, that Jesus doesn't communicate with us, that God doesn't move in our lives...to cover up all these failures the churchmen deliberately and nefariously muddy the waters with excess garbage to divert people from realizing that God DOESN'T communicate with us through Jesus, or through any visible means at all, only through mind-games which you see Christians around here playing all the time. But it's all just illusion. It's not real. I don't know about other religions because I never experienced them, but I am very familiar with Christianity.
So if I had to bulletpoint all this:
* OBJECTIVELY Christianity fails on all levels.
* SUBJECTIVELY Christianity succeeds marvelously because all its successes can only be detected in the minds of those who claim Christianity is real. Outside their minds we former Christians or non-believers don't see a thing. We see them having feel-good ecstasies by themselves but we ourselves don't feel a thing, not do we see any objective manifestations of some powerful supernatural force at work such as miracles, or supernatural events like people being cured of diseases after being prayed over by church members.
* So Christianity is good basically for social functions. It draws like-minded people together in communion with each other i.e. raffles, church events, picnics, outings, Bible studies etc. But gather everyone together and have them pray over a sick individual as James commands and Christianity fails spectacularly.
This is why I say if Christianity makes you feel good or gives you purpose in your life--something to live for--then by all means stick with it. I'd much rather see a person getting high on Jesus than getting high on heroin. The effect is all the same but the mechanism (Jesus) for getting high doesn't harm the body the way drugs do. In this way, Christianity is a positive thing.
Christianity (or religion in general) failing for you and I is not the equivalent of God not existing. That's all I'm saying.
I didn't explain myself properly. I already know that Christianity is NOT "the be all and end all of what God is and how God interacts with people". I found that out simply because God never communicated with me at all. It's NOT a question of "Did God communicate with you in any meaningful way?"
The truth is God didn't communicate with me in any way at all...meaningful or not.
I suspect many former Christians here will say the same thing, which is why they left Christianity...because to them God was completely absent in their lives, contrary to what the scriptures represent: "Draw near to me and I will draw near to you".
Now a little further down this thread arleigh says Christianity is extremely complex. I have to ask: WHY?
Why should Christianity be extremely complex....unless it was MADE extremely complex from something initially very simple. Why? To hide its failures, obviously. Very often in religion, in order to cover up the reality that Christianity doesn't work, that Jesus doesn't communicate with us, that God doesn't move in our lives...to cover up all these failures the churchmen deliberately and nefariously muddy the waters with excess garbage to divert people from realizing that God DOESN'T communicate with us through Jesus, or through any visible means at all, only through mind-games which you see Christians around here playing all the time. But it's all just illusion. It's not real. I don't know about other religions because I never experienced them, but I am very familiar with Christianity.
So if I had to bulletpoint all this:
* OBJECTIVELY Christianity fails on all levels.
* SUBJECTIVELY Christianity succeeds marvelously because all its successes can only be detected in the minds of those who claim Christianity is real. Outside their minds we former Christians or non-believers don't see a thing. We see them having feel-good ecstasies by themselves but we ourselves don't feel a thing, not do we see any objective manifestations of some powerful supernatural force at work such as miracles, or supernatural events like people being cured of diseases after being prayed over by church members.
* So Christianity is good basically for social functions. It draws like-minded people together in communion with each other i.e. raffles, church events, picnics, outings, Bible studies etc. But gather everyone together and have them pray over a sick individual as James commands and Christianity fails spectacularly.
This is why I say if Christianity makes you feel good or gives you purpose in your life--something to live for--then by all means stick with it. I'd much rather see a person getting high on Jesus than getting high on heroin. The effect is all the same but the mechanism (Jesus) for getting high doesn't harm the body the way drugs do. In this way, Christianity is a positive thing.
Although I am not an Evangelical or a Fundie, this pretty much reinforces their claim that somebody who leaves Christianity "was never a Christian to begin with"!
As it stands I dispute their assertion, which they say is supported by Scripture , and how they explain to their members how anyone could leave the flock. (which is what JWs do as well)
This is a typical atheist mistake. Refuting any specific religious beliefs ABOUT God does NOT disprove the existence of God.
That's not what I got from his post at all. And I don't see atheists here saying that. There are no all-encompassing posts either pro or anti god. Too big a topic...even for your ego.
Although I am not an Evangelical or a Fundie, this pretty much reinforces their claim that somebody who leaves Christianity "was never a Christian to begin with"!
As it stands I dispute their assertion, which they say is supported by Scripture , and how they explain to their members how anyone could leave the flock. (which is what JWs do as well)
Well, you can't blame fundamentalists for trying to stick lipstick on a pig to make it look more attractive.
Which is not to say God is a pig by any means. Rather it is just to reinforce what everyone except fundamentalists are cognizant of: that to keep insisting Christianity is the one true religion based on facts found in the Bible is about as fruitless as it is embarrassing, except that they aren't aware the whole world is laughing at them when they believe it is taking them seriously. One day in the next 40 years when their numbers have dwindled to nothing they may wake up and realize what a disastrous public relations debacle this whole, "I'm right, you're wrong" approach has been but by then it will be too late.
This is a typical atheist mistake. Refuting any specific religious beliefs ABOUT God does NOT disprove the existence of God.
...and babbling incoherently about superstitious nonsense does NOT prove the existence of gods.
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You're on the right track.
This is a typical atheist mistake. Refuting any specific religious beliefs ABOUT God does NOT disprove the existence of God.
