As the times change, so do I.

[Leat]

I used to be a hardcore Christian. I've become an agnostic theist. I've also lost my desire to really pursue spirituality. I watched a special on science channel recently that had scientists challenging the possibility that everything in Exodus happened. Everything was explained perfectly, and made perfect sense due to science. Yet the timing was completely too close to be just a weird natural disaster mini-series or something. So there's definitely a God IMO, albeit you cannot prove He exists because His evidence is nature itself, whereas you cannot explain why the laws of the universe according to science exist the way they do. But people have abused religion to the point I'm not even sure Christianity is nothing more than another false religion now. I believe we have come into a new-age of Christianity, where it's all about what time you're there, out for lunch, we go and help people, we build kingdoms of our churches, and we build multi-million dollar buildings so we can shout and joy and whatnot on TV so everyone can watch us be righteous. I feel as if it has become a self-righteous religion in and of itself. Although there is a difference between a religion and a personal connection to God, I believe I've only met one guy who was really in tune with God that he made almost no sense to me, yet I could tell this guy was with our Creator. But I would say he was NOT a Christian, but he read the bible. Say what?

I believe The Church, needs to be formed again, no longer called a Church. It needs to start fresh, it needs to be the People of Faith. Which would not be as uptight and old-fashioned as Christianity. But it would be a bible-believing body of believers. No strict rules or a main theology, there's no point. To understand God you would have to be as great as God.

Do you know what Denomination is defined as? It is by the context of itself with it's prefix and suffix, it means to be unelected for an award or prize. The prize is Heaven, you gotta keep your eye on the prize. Spirituality needs a revolution.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

I am skeptical of bible based Christianity in a strict sense. Use it for influence yes of you see fit, but not as a source of absolute dogma which people must adhere too and never contradict. I am not sure that a prohibitive holiness that states "you should not deliberately quesiton or judge" the bible, or any article of faith, or institution, is relevant to positive human development. I'm not implying that's your opinion, you seem more liberal than that, I just wanted to make the comment. BTW the unitarian church sometimes comes recommended by freethinkes and skeptics as the more respectable.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Christ knows who his sheep are, and his sheep know who their shepherd is. Nuff said.

 

[Resha Caner]

Sorry, but the OP sounds like typical YA angst to me. Just a guess since age isn't listed, but it's pretty typical for some disillusionment to occur as people emerge from beneath momma bird's wing to experience the real world for the first time.

 

[Paradoxum]

I used to be a hardcore Christian. I've become an agnostic theist. I've also lost my desire to really pursue spirituality. I watched a special on science channel recently that had scientists challenging the possibility that everything in Exodus happened. Everything was explained perfectly, and made perfect sense due to science. Yet the timing was completely too close to be just a weird natural disaster mini-series or something. So there's definitely a God IMO, albeit you cannot prove He exists because His evidence is nature itself, whereas you cannot explain why the laws of the universe according to science exist the way they do.

You think there definitely is a God because alot of coincidental disasters happened that allowed the Jews to escape Egypt. I have heard that the plagues could have been natural, but I don't know enough about it to know how well it relates to the existence of God. I doubt something like this could be convincing though.

But people have abused religion to the point I'm not even sure Christianity is nothing more than another false religion now. I believe we have come into a new-age of Christianity, where it's all about what time you're there, out for lunch, we go and help people, we build kingdoms of our churches, and we build multi-million dollar buildings so we can shout and joy and whatnot on TV so everyone can watch us be righteous. I feel as if it has become a self-righteous religion in and of itself.

It really depends what you mean by Christianity. I know that people do silly and ignorant things in Christianity, but I still believe the essence of it is good. The teachings of Jesus and the more moderate-liberal side of things.

Although there is a difference between a religion and a personal connection to God, I believe I've only met one guy who was really in tune with God that he made almost no sense to me, yet I could tell this guy was with our Creator. But I would say he was NOT a Christian, but he read the bible. Say what?

Sadly I have never met someone who appeared to be way above me in their understanding and relation to God. I would like to. I don't know if it is fair to say they aren't Christian just because they aren't the average conservative-moderate. That is, assuming he claims to be Christian.

I believe The Church, needs to be formed again, no longer called a Church. It needs to start fresh, it needs to be the People of Faith. Which would not be as uptight and old-fashioned as Christianity. But it would be a bible-believing body of believers. No strict rules or a main theology, there's no point. To understand God you would have to be as great as God.

People have tried this before. Back to basics, back to the Bible. The Reformation for one, though there are probably individual denominations who believe they went back to basics. I also think Christianity should change, but not by trying to go back to the faith of the early Church. It should be a faith of the 21st century that emphasises the spirit of beliefs rather then the content. Of course such churches already exist.

Then again, I'm just blabbing cos I don't really know what I believe.

 

[serenity now]

Yet the timing was completely too close to be just a weird natural disaster mini-series or something. So there's definitely a God IMO, albeit you cannot prove He exists because His evidence is nature itself, whereas you cannot explain why the laws of the universe according to science exist the way they do.

This is quite a jump: a bunch of disasters happened within an arbitrarily small range of time, therefore we were all created and are guided by a multidimensional super-entity.

To the rest of your post I'd say simply that whether a belief is true or not is entirely independent of the actions of those who believe it. They're still human no matter what they believe.

 

[Leat]

Ok, so for everyone to understand a little better, I did a lot of research and studying and was leaning towards Calvinism at one point, then I became angry. And there's only 2 things that I became angry about. Pretty much one thing was predestination, we have no choice in whether we go to heaven or hell, and that was pretty much true, in what we have to go by; there's an older gentlemen who has/had a story on near-death.com about his experience. He said he was an Atheist. He was having I think heart problems, so he was laying in bed and pretty much died, and he got up and walked around and was in his house, but saw his body standing there. Then he heard voices calling to him through a door, and he could see because beyond the door was blackness. He went along though, and kept going, he said what felt like hours and miles of walking, he stopped. The voices soon came to him, sodomized him, beat him, everything horrible that he remembers[it's been awhile since I read it]. And he called on Jesus and he was taken to heaven[can't be saved after death, you say?]. He watched his entire life go by, and the angels were happy when he was showing love, and sad when he was showing hate or anger. Now he's a reformed preacher/evangelist.

So I became angry about predestination, from what I gathered about this story, and about Calvinism, as well as The Bible itself, nobody has a choice of where they go. We are all pawns in God's scheme to glorify Himself. I know He has the right and power to do whatever, however He wants. But why did He have to do it in such a cruel way? God created everything in the universe, right? Why did He create Lucifer? God is all-knowing, He knows everything before and after it happens and all after-effects, and yada yada. So God created Lucifer, an entity that He knew would turn against Him. Who would cause His "most loved" creation on Earth to fall into mortality and immorality and sin.

So God created Evil. Simply to glorify Himself.

Answer me this, why would He have to do something so sinister?

 

[Resha Caner]

Answer me this, why would He have to do something so sinister?

He didn't.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Sorry, but the OP sounds like typical YA angst to me.

I thought he was a Roman Catholic in disguise. Eternal truth, unchanging church etc.