Servant says...

[_Paloma]

Ceeboo says......

I consider them Christian not because of the church they go to on Sunday, but because of how they treat their fellow human beings.
Peace,
Ceeboo

Sig line worthy.

Indeed!

[_Doctor Steuss]

If those whom your God condemns (or who condemn themselves, as religious rhetoric may have it) exhibit a greater capacity for love than your God does, maybe it’s time to wonder if you’re worshiping the right deity.

[_Runtu]

If those whom your God condemns (or who condemn themselves, as religious rhetoric may have it) exhibit a greater capacity for love than your God does, maybe it’s time to wonder if you’re worshiping the right deity.

Beautifully stated. You're not a fan of Ayn Rand, are you?

[_Doctor Steuss]

Beautifully stated. You're not a fan of Ayn Rand, are you?

LOL. Well, Anthem is up there in my list of favorite books... but so are Wuthering Heights, The Bell Jar, and Breakfast of Champions.


[This Space Reserved for Psychoanalysis]

[_Runtu]

LOL. Well, Anthem is up there in my list of favorite books... but so are Wuthering Heights, The Bell Jar, and Breakfast of Champions.


[This Space Reserved for Psychoanalysis]

Tell me about it. I absolutely love Sylvia Plath's "Daddy." I wonder what that says about me.

[_huckelberry]

Ceeboo says......

What can be found at the very core of what Jesus taught while amongst us on earth?

Love
Compassion
Helping
Forgiveness
Humility
Humbleness
Patience
Understanding

For anyone trying to follow his example/teachings - the attempt to be Christ-like (yes, we all fail miserably at times), I would suggest that they are Christians.

for what it's worth, I have engaged several Mormons over the years who I consider my Christian Brothers and Sisters (I've told a few that I think Mormonism is Christianity on steroids). I consider them Christian not because of the church they go to on Sunday, but because of how they treat their fellow human beings. MercynGrace (over at the MDDB) is a great example of what I'm trying to suggest.

In short, I think the Christian churches/religions are loaded with people who loudly proclaim (demand in many cases) the personal privilege and authority of labeling who is Christian and who is not.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, the cement they often use to wildly apply these labels on and across individual human beings (as well as entire groups of human beings) is cement that they have mixed together, using ingredients that they chose to place in the wheel-barrel. Perhaps, this is why the cement is weak and thus has so many challenges in the binding process.

in my opinion, we "Christians" all ought to throw our cement and wheel-barrels away and replace them with water and wheel-chairs....just in case we cross paths with someone who is thirsty and/or could really use a lift.

Peace,
Ceeboo

ceeboo's post is like a bowl of water and a cloth to wash our feet of the dirt and grime of the journey.

[_Sethbag]

So, then you are confirming that it isn't grace or the atoning blood of Jesus that saves, but rather it is having the correct conception of the nature of God that saves.

Why do I find this flavor of Christianity so utterly dispiriting?

Which flavors of Christianity do you find acceptable and not dispiriting? Don't give me that New Age crapola, but you likely will.

Does it follow from what he said that he finds any flavor of Christianity acceptable or not dispiriting?

By the way, I find any flavor that says that a human sacrifice magically absolves me of things that I've done to be inherently unacceptable and dispiriting. That kind of rules out any but the most New Agey of Christianities, methinks. Oh well.

[_Sethbag]

I like religions that focus on helping people become better people. I'm not interested in religions that harp on minutia. If that's new age crapola, I suppose I prefer new age crapola.

Whoda thunk? An Ayn Rand acolyte.

Religions exist to worship God, not to improve the human condition. If one worships God, the human condition improves. But the converse is not true.

Religions exist to enhance the status or living conditions of those who appoint themselves to direct others in the practice of said religions. Worshiping God is merely the distraction offered up by these self-appointed directors to obscure the fact that what they are really doing is focusing the efforts and attentions of their adherents upon themselves.

What kind of God needs or desires to be worshiped anyway? Seriously? Is Elohim really gratified by a bunch of ignorant people on Earth bowing and scraping towards him, and constantly telling him how awesome he is?

oh God, you're the crap! You are so freaking awesome, God! I just can't believe how great you are! I'm nothing, I'm a worm, I'm like the muck that people wipe off the soles of their boots using those little metal things mounted to the floor next to the entrance in those old timey buildings, while you are the most awesome, powerful, all-knowing, all-singing, all-dancing Creator of the Entire Universe that the Entire Universe has ever known!

Oh God, I truly suck, but you don't; you're fantastic! You're great! While I toil away here on Earth, proving with my every breath just how worthless and crappy I am, you are up there in Heaven just radiating Awesomeness through the entire Universe! It's simply unfathomable how freaking insanely great you are. I could throw in every positive adjective known in my language, then learn every other language on Earth and add the superlative forms of all their positive adjectives, and I would still fall infinitely short in my summation of just stupendously, fantastically awesome and great you are!

Now, having said all that, here's my list of requests for you...

[_SteelHead]

Does it follow from what he said that he finds any flavor of Christianity acceptable or not dispiriting?

By the way, I find any flavor that says that a human sacrifice magically absolves me of things that I've done to be inherently unacceptable and dispiriting. That kind of rules out any but the most New Agey of Christianities, methinks. Oh well.

How bout one the makes you swear vengeance on the government and promise to slit your own throat or disembowel yourself?

Improves the conditions of humans through said worship?

[_Sethbag]

Does it follow from what he said that he finds any flavor of Christianity acceptable or not dispiriting?

By the way, I find any flavor that says that a human sacrifice magically absolves me of things that I've done to be inherently unacceptable and dispiriting. That kind of rules out any but the most New Agey of Christianities, methinks. Oh well.

How bout one the makes you swear vengeance on the government and promise to slit your own throat or disembowel yourself?

Improves the conditions of humans through said worship?

You know, the idea that someone else had to be murdered in order to "atone" for things that I myself have done is bad enough. That there are secret handshakes and passwords that I will need to know in order to "pass the sentinels that guard the way into Heaven" is just the icing on the silliness cake.

Truly this religion never really deserved to be believed. That I thought it did is powerful evidence of the corrupting influences of religious thought. The same thing, mutadis mutandis, applies to pretty much every other religion out there, from what I can tell.

Religious people: that is why you fail.