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One thing that occurs to me while reading comments here and elsewhere: some people who identify as Christians often have strong beliefs that have nothing to do with what Jesus (allegedly) talked about. A lot of admonitions that are cherry-picked from the Old Testament (while ignoring many others) and others that are cultural beliefs external to any holy book.
I say this, not intending to pick on anyone, but just because it often strikes me that people don't even know their holy book, but rather depend on someone else to tell them what to think.
Having said this, I think the idea of being religious is a separate issue from the complaints I just made.
My concern is that religious people often want others to follow their beliefs. That is why we have had and continue to have religious wars, witch hunts, inquisitions, blue laws, censorship, rewriting of history and a huge list of other atrocities.
One thing that occurs to me while reading comments here and elsewhere: some people who identify as Christians often have strong beliefs that have nothing to do with what Jesus (allegedly) talked about. ....
This is a very strong element that caused me to depart from evangelical Christianity after years of total commitment to it: my cohorts were much more committed to what "church leaders" said than Jesus purportedly said in the Bible. I felt that, in America anyway, the followers should be called not Christians but "Churchians" since the building of megachurches & the adherence to political philosophies that were pretty much the opposite of "...blessed are the peacemakers... the poor & poor in spirit..." & the parable of the Good Samaritan - taking care of a stranger who arrives from another society - has been perverted beyond recognition.
Also I began to learn that the god of the evangelical church, while all-knowing & wise, apparently was terrible at handling money & that we were continually supposed to be bailing out "his works" with more & more of our own $$$.
But once inside it is very hard to see the forest for the trees & since most of one's social community is inside the tent it's very hard to leave after a while. Now that I'm retired & near the end of the road that isn't straight & narrow anymore I don't feel the need to be thinking about some fanciful hereafter or whatever... But all should believe whatever gives them peace as long as they don't try to force that on the rest of us through legal or political hijinks.
Yes. Especially after I witnessed the decline and death of my parent.
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