WAKE UP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist but without my judgement being clouded by god can see that OP is a naive idiot.

Christians are not required to allow themselves to be massacred by Islamic terrorists without fighting back.

NOT ON CHRISTMAS DAY. We fight back by showing them why Christianity is the best religion in the world. We exemplify the word of God. I said for anyone who knows Christ -- not you in other words.

Atheists often know Christ - many even believed in him once.

How can you be an atheist and know Christ? Sincere question.

Easily, as a pp said, many atheists were once Christians. So we know all about Christ. We were taught it, like any other Christian.

Plus, you don't even need to be a Christian to know Christ. He's famous. He has a religion named after him. People learn about him in school.

Actually, I’m not sure this is true. There is a major difference between hearing about Jesus in a church where your parents dragged you there and truly understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ in both your mind and heart in a way that changes you.

I know first-hand.

I grew up in a Catholic Church — 18 years, mass every week, all the other “Catholic” stuff. None of it made any impression on me. I heard the readings from the Bible but didn’t understand what any of it meant. My only take away was “do good, be good” and that type of religion became a major burden after awhile. I very much thought that the premise of Christianity was — basically be a good person - go to church etc — and maybe one day when you die, your cosmic positives outweigh your cosmic negatives and you make it to heaven. Or at least purgatory. After awhile, in my early 20s, I gave up on it all, became an atheist, and lived a life for the world — focused on career, work, money, travel, having fun, and getting laid, not always in that order.

In my early 40s, after a personal crisis, I very unexpectedly started to give religion a second look. I found the sermons of Tim Keller and they completely changed my life. The Jesus that Tim Keller talks about is NOT the same Jesus I heard about growing up. The fundamental message is different. Christianity is not trying to follow a bunch of strict rules so you can go to heaven. Rather, it is about our innate inability to follow the rules — and the need for a savior who followed the rules for us and us receiving a gift of righteousness from him purely on the basis of our faith in him. That’s a radically different motivation structure. I stopped doing a lot of crappy things in my life not because I was white knuckling it, but because I actively wanted to reflect back the love of Christ after seeing and believing what he had done for me and realizing how beautiful it was.

Also, there are many Christian hypocrites don’t get me wrong, but God truly blessed me by putting into my life a bunch of serious Christians who are living out their faith and are truly different from the other people I see in my life, mainly at work, but also in my Catholic family too. Those years of Catholic masses never rubbed off very much on my parents who constantly fought and my some of my grandparents who harbored a lot of racial animosity. My church is beautiful and diverse and seeing a group of people like this come together in the body of Christ every week truly is wonderful.

Maybe I am an outlier, but I feel like most Christians who leave the faith never truly understand the Gospel, nor are they around other Christians really living out their faith. I certainly didn’t and wasn’t. But the real Gospel and a true faith community changed my life.

Despite being brought up in a church that teaches for doctrines the commandments of men, you found your way to truth.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love (Ephesians 1:4)

Except she didnt find truth. Just stories created by men.

Wingardium leviosa! 😇

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist but without my judgement being clouded by god can see that OP is a naive idiot.

Christians are not required to allow themselves to be massacred by Islamic terrorists without fighting back.

NOT ON CHRISTMAS DAY. We fight back by showing them why Christianity is the best religion in the world. We exemplify the word of God. I said for anyone who knows Christ -- not you in other words.

Atheists often know Christ - many even believed in him once.

How can you be an atheist and know Christ? Sincere question.

Easily, as a pp said, many atheists were once Christians. So we know all about Christ. We were taught it, like any other Christian.

Plus, you don't even need to be a Christian to know Christ. He's famous. He has a religion named after him. People learn about him in school.

Actually, I’m not sure this is true. There is a major difference between hearing about Jesus in a church where your parents dragged you there and truly understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ in both your mind and heart in a way that changes you.

I know first-hand.

I grew up in a Catholic Church — 18 years, mass every week, all the other “Catholic” stuff. None of it made any impression on me. I heard the readings from the Bible but didn’t understand what any of it meant. My only take away was “do good, be good” and that type of religion became a major burden after awhile. I very much thought that the premise of Christianity was — basically be a good person - go to church etc — and maybe one day when you die, your cosmic positives outweigh your cosmic negatives and you make it to heaven. Or at least purgatory. After awhile, in my early 20s, I gave up on it all, became an atheist, and lived a life for the world — focused on career, work, money, travel, having fun, and getting laid, not always in that order.

In my early 40s, after a personal crisis, I very unexpectedly started to give religion a second look. I found the sermons of Tim Keller and they completely changed my life. The Jesus that Tim Keller talks about is NOT the same Jesus I heard about growing up. The fundamental message is different. Christianity is not trying to follow a bunch of strict rules so you can go to heaven. Rather, it is about our innate inability to follow the rules — and the need for a savior who followed the rules for us and us receiving a gift of righteousness from him purely on the basis of our faith in him. That’s a radically different motivation structure. I stopped doing a lot of crappy things in my life not because I was white knuckling it, but because I actively wanted to reflect back the love of Christ after seeing and believing what he had done for me and realizing how beautiful it was.

Also, there are many Christian hypocrites don’t get me wrong, but God truly blessed me by putting into my life a bunch of serious Christians who are living out their faith and are truly different from the other people I see in my life, mainly at work, but also in my Catholic family too. Those years of Catholic masses never rubbed off very much on my parents who constantly fought and my some of my grandparents who harbored a lot of racial animosity. My church is beautiful and diverse and seeing a group of people like this come together in the body of Christ every week truly is wonderful.

Maybe I am an outlier, but I feel like most Christians who leave the faith never truly understand the Gospel, nor are they around other Christians really living out their faith. I certainly didn’t and wasn’t. But the real Gospel and a true faith community changed my life.

I grew up in the church too

Priest raped children at my parish one of their largest on Long Isand the church just moved them to another parish

Maga is hugely Catholic in NY racist since I lived there and my home town when the Catholic Church ruled still is. They even promoted Trump .

Maga claims to love Jesus dummy jelly roll is one of their leaders so is kid rock an illegal immigrant the hypocrisy is astounding from the Jesus loving shits.

[Anonymous]

Most atheists grew up in a church environment, even if not The Church. We are not ignorant of their beliefs, despite claims by ignorant belivers who dont even know their own religion. 😲

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most atheists grew up in a church environment, even if not The Church. We are not ignorant of their beliefs, despite claims by ignorant belivers who dont even know their own religion. 😲

+1. Church was all around us. I've met an atheist who went to Catholic school and tried and wanted to believe but just couldn't. I also met a protestant atheist who asked their parents to stop the facade of going to church - and they did! I've met a lot of Jews who've gone to synagogue but don't believe at all. They tell me so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist but without my judgement being clouded by god can see that OP is a naive idiot.

Christians are not required to allow themselves to be massacred by Islamic terrorists without fighting back.

NOT ON CHRISTMAS DAY. We fight back by showing them why Christianity is the best religion in the world. We exemplify the word of God. I said for anyone who knows Christ -- not you in other words.

Atheists often know Christ - many even believed in him once.

How can you be an atheist and know Christ? Sincere question.

Easily, as a pp said, many atheists were once Christians. So we know all about Christ. We were taught it, like any other Christian.

Plus, you don't even need to be a Christian to know Christ. He's famous. He has a religion named after him. People learn about him in school.

Actually, I’m not sure this is true. There is a major difference between hearing about Jesus in a church where your parents dragged you there and truly understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ in both your mind and heart in a way that changes you.

I know first-hand.

I grew up in a Catholic Church — 18 years, mass every week, all the other “Catholic” stuff. None of it made any impression on me. I heard the readings from the Bible but didn’t understand what any of it meant. My only take away was “do good, be good” and that type of religion became a major burden after awhile. I very much thought that the premise of Christianity was — basically be a good person - go to church etc — and maybe one day when you die, your cosmic positives outweigh your cosmic negatives and you make it to heaven. Or at least purgatory. After awhile, in my early 20s, I gave up on it all, became an atheist, and lived a life for the world — focused on career, work, money, travel, having fun, and getting laid, not always in that order.

In my early 40s, after a personal crisis, I very unexpectedly started to give religion a second look. I found the sermons of Tim Keller and they completely changed my life. The Jesus that Tim Keller talks about is NOT the same Jesus I heard about growing up. The fundamental message is different. Christianity is not trying to follow a bunch of strict rules so you can go to heaven. Rather, it is about our innate inability to follow the rules — and the need for a savior who followed the rules for us and us receiving a gift of righteousness from him purely on the basis of our faith in him. That’s a radically different motivation structure. I stopped doing a lot of crappy things in my life not because I was white knuckling it, but because I actively wanted to reflect back the love of Christ after seeing and believing what he had done for me and realizing how beautiful it was.

Also, there are many Christian hypocrites don’t get me wrong, but God truly blessed me by putting into my life a bunch of serious Christians who are living out their faith and are truly different from the other people I see in my life, mainly at work, but also in my Catholic family too. Those years of Catholic masses never rubbed off very much on my parents who constantly fought and my some of my grandparents who harbored a lot of racial animosity. My church is beautiful and diverse and seeing a group of people like this come together in the body of Christ every week truly is wonderful.

Maybe I am an outlier, but I feel like most Christians who leave the faith never truly understand the Gospel, nor are they around other Christians really living out their faith. I certainly didn’t and wasn’t. But the real Gospel and a true faith community changed my life.

I don't think you were every truly an atheist. You were disgruntled with religion. As many people do in our younger days, you were searching for your place in the world. It appears you were still searching for meaning in your life when you came across Keller. You found someone that you agree with their interpretation. There are many other interpretations. Nearly every christian I have known thinks their interpretation is the "right" one.

I am the person who posted the longish message.

First, every person has a belief about what they think is “true” or “right” — every atheist does, every Christian does. And if you ascribe to the position that we cannot know what is true — then that’s what you believe is true. It’s the same thing.

Second, I was very much an atheist. So don’t doubt that part of my story. I actually really didnt want God to exist because I thought that would constrain my freedom in wanting to have lots of sex and do other things. So I decided God didn’t exist and I could just live my way any old way I wanted to live it. In the process, all of those other things became unforgiving counterfeit gods — yes including sex.

Also, when I was an atheist, I would claim I didn’t need any “faith” — I would just run on science, reason, etc. And yet I had all kinds of beliefs and views about the world which could not be scientifically proven and were based on faith. It wasn’t religious faith, just a different type of secular faith if you will. But it was no different from religious faith at its core. When I realized this, I knew I needed to rethink my entire way of looking at the world.

[Anonymous]

A lot of people understand that its better for society to have an aim to do good to themselves and others and to have some discipline to get there. They see Jesus or God as a type of positive energy they want to harness and give off themselves.

I think the reason the atheist turned Christian on here is doing better is that they are focused on doing good now rather than rebelling. Whatever works. They've matured enough to have some discipline and some care for others. It doesnt really matter the path. Whether you are an athiest or religious, if you are on the path to being a positive force in the world, you will be healthier than anyone not on that path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist but without my judgement being clouded by god can see that OP is a naive idiot.

Christians are not required to allow themselves to be massacred by Islamic terrorists without fighting back.

NOT ON CHRISTMAS DAY. We fight back by showing them why Christianity is the best religion in the world. We exemplify the word of God. I said for anyone who knows Christ -- not you in other words.

Atheists often know Christ - many even believed in him once.

How can you be an atheist and know Christ? Sincere question.

Easily, as a pp said, many atheists were once Christians. So we know all about Christ. We were taught it, like any other Christian.

Plus, you don't even need to be a Christian to know Christ. He's famous. He has a religion named after him. People learn about him in school.

Actually, I’m not sure this is true. There is a major difference between hearing about Jesus in a church where your parents dragged you there and truly understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ in both your mind and heart in a way that changes you.

I know first-hand.

I grew up in a Catholic Church — 18 years, mass every week, all the other “Catholic” stuff. None of it made any impression on me. I heard the readings from the Bible but didn’t understand what any of it meant. My only take away was “do good, be good” and that type of religion became a major burden after awhile. I very much thought that the premise of Christianity was — basically be a good person - go to church etc — and maybe one day when you die, your cosmic positives outweigh your cosmic negatives and you make it to heaven. Or at least purgatory. After awhile, in my early 20s, I gave up on it all, became an atheist, and lived a life for the world — focused on career, work, money, travel, having fun, and getting laid, not always in that order.

In my early 40s, after a personal crisis, I very unexpectedly started to give religion a second look. I found the sermons of Tim Keller and they completely changed my life. The Jesus that Tim Keller talks about is NOT the same Jesus I heard about growing up. The fundamental message is different. Christianity is not trying to follow a bunch of strict rules so you can go to heaven. Rather, it is about our innate inability to follow the rules — and the need for a savior who followed the rules for us and us receiving a gift of righteousness from him purely on the basis of our faith in him. That’s a radically different motivation structure. I stopped doing a lot of crappy things in my life not because I was white knuckling it, but because I actively wanted to reflect back the love of Christ after seeing and believing what he had done for me and realizing how beautiful it was.

Also, there are many Christian hypocrites don’t get me wrong, but God truly blessed me by putting into my life a bunch of serious Christians who are living out their faith and are truly different from the other people I see in my life, mainly at work, but also in my Catholic family too. Those years of Catholic masses never rubbed off very much on my parents who constantly fought and my some of my grandparents who harbored a lot of racial animosity. My church is beautiful and diverse and seeing a group of people like this come together in the body of Christ every week truly is wonderful.

Maybe I am an outlier, but I feel like most Christians who leave the faith never truly understand the Gospel, nor are they around other Christians really living out their faith. I certainly didn’t and wasn’t. But the real Gospel and a true faith community changed my life.

Unfortunately you are an outlier because you are trying to live the faith. Most Christians in America are not. It's a lot of lip service. They LIVE their life in a way that is antithetical to the teachings of Christ while crowing loud and long about what faithful Christians they are and how much the looooooooove Jesus. Honestly they make me sick to my stomach. They use Jesus' name to justify hatred and cruelty. It's outright evil. They do not understand the first thing about grace or forgiveness. They are all talk. And they are part of why so many people turn away from Christianity in this country. Let's face it, we, people, are the Church. If the flock behaves like a bunch of nasty hypocrites, what decent person isn't going to say this is BS and go elsewhere for community?

I am genuinely glad for you that you have found a community where people try to follow the teachings of Jesus. But yes, you are an exception.

And I would add, I found a lot of meaning in going to the Catholic Church as a child and teen. The service and the readings were not hollow to me, I felt them deeply, maybe because of my mother, who is a very kind, accepting, and spiritual person who lives Christ's teachings. But as I got older and looked around me, reconciling what has been done by clergy and what some supposed Catholics do has been hard to deal with for me. The dissonance between the teachings and the behavior of people is, frankly, infuriating.

I was the long poster. I understand the sentiment about corrupt church leaders. It’s hurtful and wrong and leaves many people disillusioned with church.

But ….

Christianity comes down to one issue — did Jesus rise from the dead? If the answer is yes, then he is the son of god and everything he says mattered. If the answer is no, then nothing he said matters at all. Everything turns on that question.

If you believe the answer is yes — then corrupt church leaders don’t really matter too much. They have nothing to do with whether Jesus was the son of God.

Also, when you truly grasp the concept of sin, you can recognize that everyone is a sinner. Some people use religion as a way to cover up their sinful lives. Or they do religious “things” as a way to try to show the rest of the world how “holy” they are. But when you do that, you are being your own savior as opposed to looking to Jesus as your savior.

Framing it this way has helped me get past the hurt that comes from flawed church leaders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people understand that its better for society to have an aim to do good to themselves and others and to have some discipline to get there. They see Jesus or God as a type of positive energy they want to harness and give off themselves.

I think the reason the atheist turned Christian on here is doing better is that they are focused on doing good now rather than rebelling. Whatever works. They've matured enough to have some discipline and some care for others. It doesnt really matter the path. Whether you are an athiest or religious, if you are on the path to being a positive force in the world, you will be healthier than anyone not on that path.

Here’s the problem with this line of thought —

If all that ever happened was one day milllions of years ago a fish found itself on the land and we have been evolving ever since — and at some point all of us will die to nothingness, the whole world is going to burn up and explode, and waste away — then nothing really matters. Nothing.

It doesn’t matter if you are a good person or a bad person or live a good life or a bad life.

It certainly doesn’t matter if you try to help people.

It doesn’t matter if there is justice.

Love doesn’t really exist — it is purely a function of your brain playing a complex trick on itsel to get sex, affectionate, or as a way to repay your parents for protecting you.

What we see in the White House every day now is a perfect encapsulation of that world view. Donald Trump is an atheist at his core and the way he acts and comports himself is a reflection of a world without Christianity or God. It is the most significant irony ever that some of his strongest supporters are Christians and strongest detractors are atheists when in fact his true worldview is more aligned with an atheist understanding of the world. It’s all about him and why not? If we came from fishes and the sun is going to burn us all someday, there is no moral obligation to treat anyone with kindness, love, or empathy. Make it all about yourself. Why not?

Despite all the atheists who post on this board — the number of people who actually truly believe that are very small. A lot of people reject religion but still want all of the social goods that religion produces. So they live with a certain cognitive dissonance that they cannot fully explain. Richard Dawkins even admitted this not too long ago. He’s an atheist who wants to live in a Christian society. Why?

Of course, that begs the question — if your worldview is actually unliveable and intellectually dishonest, then maybe you should reconsider your worldview?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people understand that its better for society to have an aim to do good to themselves and others and to have some discipline to get there. They see Jesus or God as a type of positive energy they want to harness and give off themselves.

I think the reason the atheist turned Christian on here is doing better is that they are focused on doing good now rather than rebelling. Whatever works. They've matured enough to have some discipline and some care for others. It doesnt really matter the path. Whether you are an athiest or religious, if you are on the path to being a positive force in the world, you will be healthier than anyone not on that path.

Here’s the problem with this line of thought —

If all that ever happened was one day milllions of years ago a fish found itself on the land and we have been evolving ever since — and at some point all of us will die to nothingness, the whole world is going to burn up and explode, and waste away — then nothing really matters. Nothing.

It doesn’t matter if you are a good person or a bad person or live a good life or a bad life.

It certainly doesn’t matter if you try to help people.

It doesn’t matter if there is justice.

Love doesn’t really exist — it is purely a function of your brain playing a complex trick on itsel to get sex, affectionate, or as a way to repay your parents for protecting you.

What we see in the White House every day now is a perfect encapsulation of that world view. Donald Trump is an atheist at his core and the way he acts and comports himself is a reflection of a world without Christianity or God. It is the most significant irony ever that some of his strongest supporters are Christians and strongest detractors are atheists when in fact his true worldview is more aligned with an atheist understanding of the world. It’s all about him and why not? If we came from fishes and the sun is going to burn us all someday, there is no moral obligation to treat anyone with kindness, love, or empathy. Make it all about yourself. Why not?

Despite all the atheists who post on this board — the number of people who actually truly believe that are very small. A lot of people reject religion but still want all of the social goods that religion produces. So they live with a certain cognitive dissonance that they cannot fully explain. Richard Dawkins even admitted this not too long ago. He’s an atheist who wants to live in a Christian society. Why?

Of course, that begs the question — if your worldview is actually unliveable and intellectually dishonest, then maybe you should reconsider your worldview?

So... many... flaws... in this thinking.

False equivalenceafter false equivalence built on bad straw men arguments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an atheist but without my judgement being clouded by god can see that OP is a naive idiot.

Christians are not required to allow themselves to be massacred by Islamic terrorists without fighting back.

NOT ON CHRISTMAS DAY. We fight back by showing them why Christianity is the best religion in the world. We exemplify the word of God. I said for anyone who knows Christ -- not you in other words.

Atheists often know Christ - many even believed in him once.

How can you be an atheist and know Christ? Sincere question.

Easily, as a pp said, many atheists were once Christians. So we know all about Christ. We were taught it, like any other Christian.

Plus, you don't even need to be a Christian to know Christ. He's famous. He has a religion named after him. People learn about him in school.

Actually, I’m not sure this is true. There is a major difference between hearing about Jesus in a church where your parents dragged you there and truly understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ in both your mind and heart in a way that changes you.

I know first-hand.

I grew up in a Catholic Church — 18 years, mass every week, all the other “Catholic” stuff. None of it made any impression on me. I heard the readings from the Bible but didn’t understand what any of it meant. My only take away was “do good, be good” and that type of religion became a major burden after awhile. I very much thought that the premise of Christianity was — basically be a good person - go to church etc — and maybe one day when you die, your cosmic positives outweigh your cosmic negatives and you make it to heaven. Or at least purgatory. After awhile, in my early 20s, I gave up on it all, became an atheist, and lived a life for the world — focused on career, work, money, travel, having fun, and getting laid, not always in that order.

In my early 40s, after a personal crisis, I very unexpectedly started to give religion a second look. I found the sermons of Tim Keller and they completely changed my life. The Jesus that Tim Keller talks about is NOT the same Jesus I heard about growing up. The fundamental message is different. Christianity is not trying to follow a bunch of strict rules so you can go to heaven. Rather, it is about our innate inability to follow the rules — and the need for a savior who followed the rules for us and us receiving a gift of righteousness from him purely on the basis of our faith in him. That’s a radically different motivation structure. I stopped doing a lot of crappy things in my life not because I was white knuckling it, but because I actively wanted to reflect back the love of Christ after seeing and believing what he had done for me and realizing how beautiful it was.

Also, there are many Christian hypocrites don’t get me wrong, but God truly blessed me by putting into my life a bunch of serious Christians who are living out their faith and are truly different from the other people I see in my life, mainly at work, but also in my Catholic family too. Those years of Catholic masses never rubbed off very much on my parents who constantly fought and my some of my grandparents who harbored a lot of racial animosity. My church is beautiful and diverse and seeing a group of people like this come together in the body of Christ every week truly is wonderful.

Maybe I am an outlier, but I feel like most Christians who leave the faith never truly understand the Gospel, nor are they around other Christians really living out their faith. I certainly didn’t and wasn’t. But the real Gospel and a true faith community changed my life.

Unfortunately you are an outlier because you are trying to live the faith. Most Christians in America are not. It's a lot of lip service. They LIVE their life in a way that is antithetical to the teachings of Christ while crowing loud and long about what faithful Christians they are and how much the looooooooove Jesus. Honestly they make me sick to my stomach. They use Jesus' name to justify hatred and cruelty. It's outright evil. They do not understand the first thing about grace or forgiveness. They are all talk. And they are part of why so many people turn away from Christianity in this country. Let's face it, we, people, are the Church. If the flock behaves like a bunch of nasty hypocrites, what decent person isn't going to say this is BS and go elsewhere for community?

I am genuinely glad for you that you have found a community where people try to follow the teachings of Jesus. But yes, you are an exception.

And I would add, I found a lot of meaning in going to the Catholic Church as a child and teen. The service and the readings were not hollow to me, I felt them deeply, maybe because of my mother, who is a very kind, accepting, and spiritual person who lives Christ's teachings. But as I got older and looked around me, reconciling what has been done by clergy and what some supposed Catholics do has been hard to deal with for me. The dissonance between the teachings and the behavior of people is, frankly, infuriating.

I was the long poster. I understand the sentiment about corrupt church leaders. It’s hurtful and wrong and leaves many people disillusioned with church.

But ….

Christianity comes down to one issue — did Jesus rise from the dead? If the answer is yes, then he is the son of god and everything he says mattered. If the answer is no, then nothing he said matters at all. Everything turns on that question.

If you believe the answer is yes — then corrupt church leaders don’t really matter too much. They have nothing to do with whether Jesus was the son of God.

Also, when you truly grasp the concept of sin, you can recognize that everyone is a sinner. Some people use religion as a way to cover up their sinful lives. Or they do religious “things” as a way to try to show the rest of the world how “holy” they are. But when you do that, you are being your own savior as opposed to looking to Jesus as your savior.

Framing it this way has helped me get past the hurt that comes from flawed church leaders.

Not only did Jesus not rise from the dead, he wasnt ever a real person, just like Harry Potter or Iron Man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people understand that its better for society to have an aim to do good to themselves and others and to have some discipline to get there. They see Jesus or God as a type of positive energy they want to harness and give off themselves.

I think the reason the atheist turned Christian on here is doing better is that they are focused on doing good now rather than rebelling. Whatever works. They've matured enough to have some discipline and some care for others. It doesnt really matter the path. Whether you are an athiest or religious, if you are on the path to being a positive force in the world, you will be healthier than anyone not on that path.

Here’s the problem with this line of thought —

If all that ever happened was one day milllions of years ago a fish found itself on the land and we have been evolving ever since — and at some point all of us will die to nothingness, the whole world is going to burn up and explode, and waste away — then nothing really matters. Nothing.

It doesn’t matter if you are a good person or a bad person or live a good life or a bad life.

It certainly doesn’t matter if you try to help people.

It doesn’t matter if there is justice.

Love doesn’t really exist — it is purely a function of your brain playing a complex trick on itsel to get sex, affectionate, or as a way to repay your parents for protecting you.

What we see in the White House every day now is a perfect encapsulation of that world view. Donald Trump is an atheist at his core and the way he acts and comports himself is a reflection of a world without Christianity or God. It is the most significant irony ever that some of his strongest supporters are Christians and strongest detractors are atheists when in fact his true worldview is more aligned with an atheist understanding of the world. It’s all about him and why not? If we came from fishes and the sun is going to burn us all someday, there is no moral obligation to treat anyone with kindness, love, or empathy. Make it all about yourself. Why not?

Despite all the atheists who post on this board — the number of people who actually truly believe that are very small. A lot of people reject religion but still want all of the social goods that religion produces. So they live with a certain cognitive dissonance that they cannot fully explain. Richard Dawkins even admitted this not too long ago. He’s an atheist who wants to live in a Christian society. Why?

Of course, that begs the question — if your worldview is actually unliveable and intellectually dishonest, then maybe you should reconsider your worldview?

Richard Dawkins is an atheist who DOES live in a Christian society. And he didn't "admit" anything - he simply said he is a "cultural christian". So am I. I was raised a Christian and sang Christmas carols and Christian music growing up. I celebrate by decorating at Christmas and singing old Christian music written by the masters, which I prefer to modern Christmas carols. Like Richard Dawkins, I am an atheist. Listen to what he says in the interview: "I actually think what Christians believe is nonsense." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COHgEFUFWyg at 5:05. He didn't say anything about Cognitive dissonance.

[Anonymous]

Thought Christians weren’t supposed to hate. Love thy neighbor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people understand that its better for society to have an aim to do good to themselves and others and to have some discipline to get there. They see Jesus or God as a type of positive energy they want to harness and give off themselves.

I think the reason the atheist turned Christian on here is doing better is that they are focused on doing good now rather than rebelling. Whatever works. They've matured enough to have some discipline and some care for others. It doesnt really matter the path. Whether you are an athiest or religious, if you are on the path to being a positive force in the world, you will be healthier than anyone not on that path.

Here’s the problem with this line of thought —

If all that ever happened was one day milllions of years ago a fish found itself on the land and we have been evolving ever since — and at some point all of us will die to nothingness, the whole world is going to burn up and explode, and waste away — then nothing really matters. Nothing.

It doesn’t matter if you are a good person or a bad person or live a good life or a bad life.

It certainly doesn’t matter if you try to help people.

It doesn’t matter if there is justice.

Love doesn’t really exist — it is purely a function of your brain playing a complex trick on itsel to get sex, affectionate, or as a way to repay your parents for protecting you.

What we see in the White House every day now is a perfect encapsulation of that world view. Donald Trump is an atheist at his core and the way he acts and comports himself is a reflection of a world without Christianity or God. It is the most significant irony ever that some of his strongest supporters are Christians and strongest detractors are atheists when in fact his true worldview is more aligned with an atheist understanding of the world. It’s all about him and why not? If we came from fishes and the sun is going to burn us all someday, there is no moral obligation to treat anyone with kindness, love, or empathy. Make it all about yourself. Why not?

Despite all the atheists who post on this board — the number of people who actually truly believe that are very small. A lot of people reject religion but still want all of the social goods that religion produces. So they live with a certain cognitive dissonance that they cannot fully explain. Richard Dawkins even admitted this not too long ago. He’s an atheist who wants to live in a Christian society. Why?

Of course, that begs the question — if your worldview is actually unliveable and intellectually dishonest, then maybe you should reconsider your worldview?

It sounds like you're saying that life only makes sense if a guy 2000+ years ago died for our sins. Talk about sick.

[Anonymous]

I haven't studied Dawkins but my impression from watching his lectures is that he thinks Christianity is an evolved cultural response teaching how to live better compared to other religions but still understands the absurdity of it and how its not true. He understands the need for some people to have religion in life to give them something to aim towards and follow as a leader and how teaching people how to live well when they are surrounded by bad actors is good thing for society. I think he also hoped we would evolve into something better than religion for society.

[Anonymous]

Unity has a metaphysical understanding and interpretation.
https://www.unitylansing.org/what-does-unity-believe#:~:text=20%20Questions%20