Way of the Mind

So, this post is a reply to this post, which is a reply to this post of mine, which was itself a reply to… yes, confusing, I know.

Anyway, here goes nothing…

Because the majority of Christians are not even Christians in the real sense of the word. And because the majority of people operate and live as if God doesn’t exist. Just look at a typical day in the life today and contrast it to the life and times of Jesus and His followers. The differences are huge. That’s why I say that atheism is all around us. Where there is no belief in God being expressed, there is a belief that there is no God being expressed. More about this down below.

First, it’s the “No true Scotsman” fallacy again. If we asked them, they’d say they are Christians.

You say they aren’t, for a reason: they’re not fanatical enough. To you, it’s not enough to believe in God and try to follow the usual tenets of Christianity. No, to you, you have to live for God all the time, doing everything in terms of “does God want this?”. Any entertainment you watch must praise God, any book you read must be about God, any movie you watch is “atheist” if God isn’t mentioned every 5 minutes.

As I said before, to me, that’s no more than a death in life. And only someone who hates his own life would choose to “live” like that.

The sad thing is that there are some Christians out there to whom you aren’t a true Christian either, because you’re not fanatical enough. They’re the ones like this nutcase. Or the ones who bomb abortion clinics.

The Bible knows it too. It often states that the sheep of this age are in desperate need of a shepherd. And it tells us to let Jesus be our shepherd.

Thanks, but I don’t need a shepherd. I’m not a sheep. I’m a human being. I think for myself, instead of just following others.

The true meaning of Christianity is becoming lost in this bombarding age of distractions.

Like I said above. Anything which doesn’t mention God or Christ or salvation is, to you, a “distraction”. You must really hate this world and this life, don’t you?

For the only good Christian is Christ. And no one can or ever will compare.

From everything I’ve read about Christian history, Jesus was everything but a Christian. Christianity was founded by Paul, who never even met Jesus, and whose writings, while repeating to exhaustion how Jesus was divine, ignore completely any of Jesus’ teachings, and anything he ever did or said. This is not some “evil heresy” from an atheist; it’s right there in your Bible.

You choose to deal with your perception of reality, not reality. We have no proof of what reality is. We cannot prove that what we live is in fact real. Fooled by the experience, we believe that we’re alive and this is reality.

So, you accept that it’s likely that you didn’t really write the above in your blog? How can you be sure that you did? You cannot prove it. Maybe you only think you remember it.

You know, in the Dark Ages, peasants lived in fear of the unknown, “seeing” demons and spirits in every darkened corner. They had no idea of what was real and what wasn’t. Reality, to them, was something fluid, ever-changing, and unknowable.

Then the Renaissance came, and it took man out of the Dark Ages. However, some of us still choose to deny reality…

The Bible is over 2000 years old and still holds true when talking about society and the world around us. The times have changed but they really havent.

The Bible promotes slavery and the inferiority of women. In fact, many Christians fought emancipation due to that.
Most liberal Christians (which you’ll call “untrue Christians”) accept that the Bible reflects the prejudices of the times. But there are some who take it literally.

Do you really wish to go back to slavery and women as inferior beings?

If not, I hope you’ll also accept that the Bible does not hold true when talking about society and the world around us.

Time is an illusion.

Lunchtime, doubly so. (Never say such a thing to a Douglas Adams fan! :))

Just read through portions of it. Clearly, its not the thinking of man that has gone into this book. It’s the thinking of a God.

Oh, I did. More than you imagine. That’s why I know that no god would be so incompetent to write - let alone allow himself to be represented by - a book so prejudiced, so self-contradictory, and which paints a picture of such a small, jealous, childish, spoiled god.

No, but I meant that an Atheist would engage in self-indulgent social gatherings more than a real Christian would. By attending and being attentive, you’re giving glory to the sport. And, unless you work there, if you’re attending a sports stadium more often than you would be attending a Church, then you’re probably not being Christian-like.

Again, I don’t think you really know any atheists. You simply use that word for any Christian who doesn’t praise God every 10 seconds. Fact is, most people in such sports gatherings are Christians. In fact, I’d say that the percentage of Christians there is greater than outside.

That’s the problem with humans. If it’s common, its believable. The minute it evades our tangible spectrum of reality, we take it as being impossible.

Not quite. We simply ask for evidence. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And there is none.

Having an imagination is a necessary component for faith. We were all given an imagination for a reason.

Oh, but I have an imagination. I love fantasy. However, I don’t confuse it with reality.

I don’t mean that there are more atheists than Christians. Though there are more Christians than atheists, most Christians live and operate in a way that is more atheist than Christian-like.

To you, it may seem that way. To me, it’s the opposite.

You say they are like atheists because they don’t give up everything in their lives - their joys, their dreams, their goals, their very right to live - for God. Because they don’t praise God every minute. Because they don’t live for God, even though they believe in him and pray to him. Because they don’t go to church every day, only on sundays.

To me, they’re Christians. They believe in God, they pray, they believe they will go to heaven, they accept things on faith without questioning, and they think atheists are “evil unpatriotic monsters”, or some other garbage. They aren’t curious. They don’t want to learn more. They aren’t interested in science or truth, they just want to go on living their comfortable fantasies.

They’re Christians. They simply aren’t as fanatical.

But, believe me, they’re much closer to you than they are to me. They’d see you as perhaps a bit strict and unyielding, but an altogether good example to follow. They’d see me as trouble, and would forbid their daughters to date me. Don’t believe me?

Christianity is a love for all of mankind and a hate toward human nature, which is sin.

No, it isn’t. I don’t even believe in “human nature”; I think we make choices. Each and every one of us.
“Sin” implies the existence of a god. I don’t think there’s one. And, anyway, that belief is nothing more than a source of guilt and self-hatred.

I really don’t understand how someone can be free and love life, and then some preacher comes and says “you’re a sinner, your nature is evil, and you must repent and hate this world and your life and…” Really, how can anyone be so blind as to accept such rubbish? That preacher just turned someone’s full, healthy life into a world of guilt and suffering; who’s really “evil”, here? Why are we sinners? Even if the Bible was correct, we’d be sinners because of what some ancestor did? Since when is anyone culpable for the actions of someone else? What distorted “justice” is that? That’s monstrous… and yet we’re supposed to accept it as true?

Without a god, we are free. Our lives are our own. I don’t understand how people can give that up.

If I was never told about God then I would use words such as comfort, peace, hope, love, security, guidance, light, and joy, to describe what I felt. And would you look at that. What a coincidence. They’re all the things the Bible says God is, and more.

So, the god of the OT, who, in temper tantrums, killed not only the offender but, usually, everyone around him… the god who said that people who worked on saturdays should be put to death… the god who tortured the innocent Job just to prove how great he was… the god who (it’s right there in the Bible) “hardened” the Pharaoh’s heart just so he could perform all of his murderous pyrotechnics, including killing all the cattle of Egypt several times (!), and every first born, including innocent children…

… was that a different god?

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Related posts:

1. Christianity without the Bible, part 3
2. "True atheists" and redefining words
3. Is Christianity to blame for Bible-inspired sexism?
4. A Reply to An Open-hearted Christian Reply to Atheism (part 1)
5. Christianity without the Bible