A Question For Christians

[FrankLu99]

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The teachings and messages are what is important to any open-hearted Christian. If you were ever to really examine yourself a person of religious belief, the main reason one should be in a religion is because you agree with its teachings. Since this is a psychology forum, I'd like to mention that being able to act on a sense of justice and what is right is Kohlberg's final stage in moral development.

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The ethical teachings of Christianity are valuable. But I believe that being a Christian is essentially about having a relationship with God, and not about being taught what to do.

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i agree as well

[SNOWBALL138]

Nietzsche asks if there are gods, how can one bear to be a man? I have great pride in being a member of the most intelligent known species in the universe. The discovery that I lived in some deity's ant farm would trouble me.

As a former christian though, I can tell you that many christians I knew had no interest in the truth, and found it downright disturbing most of the time. Whether they were shown that islam, judaism, atheism, or b'haism were the correst faith wouldn't make much difference in the matter.

I know that when I lost my faith, it was a very difficult period for me. I felt as though the stars had fallen from the sky, and that life was meaningless.

[BluffTHIS!]

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It most cases the real reason is simply that they think straight and go where the evidence leads them.

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All throughout the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, it is made very clear that God credits FAITH as righteousness. If there were 100% incontrovertible evidence for belief in Christianity, then the repsonse of the believer would not be credited as anything since he would have been forced to accept the truth of it just as one is forced to accept the truth of the statement 2+2=4. Obviously an omnipotent god can make those he creates love him, but that is not what He wants. He created us so that we might love Him willingly and unreservedly and place our FAITH in Him. Which of us would value the friendship or love of another if that friendship or love for ourselves could somehow be forced upon that person?

[RJT]

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Either this man (Jesus) was, and is, the Son of God: or else he was a madman or something worse." [Mere Christianity]

I think your question is another way of asking what he talks about.

To me the answer would be C or D. Its really is hard to say for sure. I can have an opinion of something in the abstract, but that opinion after having empirical evidence can very easily be somewhat different. For example, I can think about my parents having sex. I know they have had it, I can deal with it. But from what I hear from friends who have walked in at the wrong moment - -I don’t think I have a real grasp on how I would feel.

[davelin]

I'm not sure how to answer this question because it's not merely just an intellectual uncomfortableness, but also determines my and everyone else's spiritual and eternal destiny. If I found out that Judaism was true but because I came "close" enough I'll still be allowed in heaven, I'd be thrilled. If it however meant that I'd be sent to hell, well that would really suck no matter how you look at it.

[RJT]

Good analogy, fimbulwinter. It isn’t exactly analogous, but thought provoking non-the less. It puts the question in a more tangible perspective.

[Girchuck]

But how does one distinguish divine revelation from hubris?
By what standard can you say "my FAITH is right and yours is not". By what standard can I say "your FAITH is right but his is not" if I had no FAITH and wanted to choose?
I don't know.

[Harv72b]

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"What if you found undeniable and irrefutable proof that God exists. In addition, what if you found out that Jesus is God and that the Bible is true and accurate.

How would that make you feel?"

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If I found out God existed, it would feel pretty much the same as having my flopped set of aces beaten by a runner runner straight with 72o. I'd cuss a little, laugh a little at the improbability of it, hand over my chips, and give God a "nice hand".

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But you are wrong if you mean to imply that all atheists would be happy if they knew Bible were true. There are a number of 2+2 posters who have said they would want nothing to do with God even if they knew He were real.

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If the Bible, particularly the Christian Bible, were true, it would make no difference what an atheist wanted after he had witnessed the revelation. He would be immediately and eternally damned for his lack of faith up until that point.

It's a common misperception that atheists shun the idea that God or a god could possibly exist. Admittedly, it's a misperception fanned by the never-ending stream of trendy so-called atheists who are really just anti-fillinreligionhere-ists. An atheists does not refuse to believe--he only refuses to believe blindly that which logically seems improbable at the least, impossible otherwise. He does not deny the possibility that he could be wrong, because he can no more prove that God doesn't exist than a theist can prove that He does.

I've been wrong before. I'll be wrong again. But I don't cling to my beliefs no matter what comes along to refute them, and neither would most atheists.

[felson]

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It's a common misperception that atheists shun the idea that God or a god could possibly exist. Admittedly, it's a misperception fanned by the never-ending stream of trendy so-called atheists who are really just anti-fillinreligionhere-ists. An atheists does not refuse to believe--he only refuses to believe blindly that which logically seems improbable at the least, impossible otherwise. He does not deny the possibility that he could be wrong, because he can no more prove that God doesn't exist than a theist can prove that He does.

I've been wrong before. I'll be wrong again. But I don't cling to my beliefs no matter what comes along to refute them, and neither would most atheists.

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Interesting. Could you please explain the difference between your position and that of the agnostic?

[Harv72b]

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Interesting. Could you please explain the difference between your position and that of the agnostic?

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As I understand it (and I am by no means an expert on agnosticism), an atheist believes that God or a god does not exist, usually for reasons based on science and logic. An agnostic believes that he does not know, and can not know, whether God or a god exists, again usually based on science and logic.

I do not believe in a higher being or beings, but I also do not discount the possibility that I am wrong. An agnostic neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of God or a god, and relies on the belief that he is wrong. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]