LafayetteLady
Posts: 7683
Joined: 5/2/2007 From: Northern New Jersey Status: offline
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ORIGINAL: SuzeCheri First of all, thank you for the links, I will check them out. quote:
My personal religious beliefs have no dogma that is contradictory or impossible. Then your personal religious beliefs are at variance with the teachings of Christianity, just as are mine. quote:
I have given myself as evidence that I am a Christian but do not adhere to your idea of the nature of God. Not my idea of the nature of God, but that of the Christian religion. That is the whole point of this thread, that I reject Christianity because I do not share that idea of the nature of God. quote:
I have given myself as evidence that I am a Christian but do not adhere to your idea of the nature of God. Again, not my idea, and if you don't share your religion's idea of the nature of God, then you really aren't that firm an adherent are you? Now, if your church doesn't hold that god is all-knowing and all-powerful, and a loving, caring, and just god, then please tell me which denomination that is, I really would be interested in learning more. quote:
As has been pointed out in this thread, your questioning is not new. Your apostasy is not new. Man has pondered and argued these very concepts for centuries. I never said it was new, nor does that make it invalid. In fact, if you ask me, the fact that so many wiser and more learned people than me have been pointing out these inconsistencies in Christian doctrine for centuries really only goes to show how real they are. Just a question, and Treasure pointed this out earlier, but I guess you missed it or the relevance of it. You say that you haven't rejected the idea of God's existence. Do you believe that Jesus existed and was the son of God? I am what is commonly referred to as a "born again Christian." I'm often met with shocked faces when I tell people that. Why? Because there is a common misbelief that being "born again" means that one runs around preaching the bible and trying to convert everyone. Yes, sadly, there are many that do that. I'm obviously not one of them. The fact is that to be "born again" means nothing more and nothing less than that you believe in God, that Jesus was the son of God and died on the cross for all of our sins. That along with the fact that as a person who has reached an age of understanding (old enough to make some decisions basically, so figure somewhere over the age of 10 or so), that you can make that proclamation of your own free will. So if you do believe those three things, guess what? You are still a Christian. One that doesn't believe in organized religion, or feel a need to feel the bible is the be all/end all of organized Christianity, but Christian all the same. Catholics to this day are not accepting of divorce, birth control, homosexuality or divorce, although there are some "modern" Catholic churches that aren't so rigid. Many Catholics are homosexual, use birth control, have had an abortion or gotten divorced. That doesn't make them "less" Catholic. My point is, that if you choose to, you can be Christian and still not hold to every tenent that your Catholic upbringing or some other religion ascribes to. As mentioned earlier, although I am Christian, I don't believe my way is the only "true" way, and believe that when I die, in Heaven I will find people of all religions living happily together without all this arguing over which faith is right or wrong. No, I wasn't taught that in a Bible Study Group, it was a conclusion I reached myself, and it doesn't change the fact that I am still a Christian. I had an aunt who was VERY born again (raised Catholic and it probably made her mother spin in her grave). She also was very active if writing in her church's newsletter/pamphlets. We had a discussion once about attending church and where one "should" pray. She was very open about the fact that attending church was certainly not "required" and that if you felt closest to God while sitting on the toilet and that is where you prayed, it didn't matter. In her opinion, as long as you reached out to God, that was all that matters.
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