How do I deal with you guys?

Impossible said:

This is going to be a strange question, I know. Let me give you a little backround information, then Ill lay out my problem.

First, Im am not really non christian, however I do not fall into any denomination or really any organized church. I was raised Lutheran (yeah, I know, a rebel from the start), got confirmed, but after that I just stopped going to church. I know its a conflicting view between me and you, but it hit me that nothing you do at church is ever going to help you. Dont get me wrong, if you want to go around for an hour and a half celebrating your joy of religion that is perfectly fine with me, I just dont believe it will in any way make you a better person, so I stopped going. I see no point in singing songs, listening to bible verses/sermons that relay incredibly simple lessons that are supposed to teach morals that I already live by, all that good stuff. My personal belief system consists of this- I believe in God, and my big plan is just to help people and dont do anything I consider wrong. To me, people that think that they are somehow pardoned from what they do during the day by memorizing bible verses at night are completely wrong, as are people that do things just to score brownie points with God.I dont see why knowing Biblical history has any use to man other than giving him morals, which I really have no use for because they were passed down to me by my parents in the first place. God isnt going to ask me to recite verses from the bible, nor is he going to ask me about Jesuses life. All that matters in the end is how good of a person you were and the good deeds you did, and I think thats something that nobody tends to see.

Now to my problem- I know a good amount of people that are very strict into mainstream christianity and log lots of hours at their church (Im going to leave out the specific denomination, it really doesnt matter). They have a pretty involved youth group going, and I have been spending time with them both at non church related events and a couple mild church meetings. Religion was never a huge discussion topic in the beginning and we have never just sat down and said, "Here is where you stand, and here is where I stand", but as we spend more time togeather and I get thrown into these religious debates, it becomes more and more apparent that we have some fundamental differences in belief and I really dont want things to get out of hand. They are trying to convert me by trying to somehow disprove my beliefs, and the only thing that worries me about that is that its going to get more and more intense until it becomes out of hand.

So my question to you is, How do I calm this whole thing down and be able to cool off the flames without compromising my position? How can I present my beliefs to them in a way that wont make things get incredibly intense?

Click to expand...