"I don't like even being around them"

[Pearl]

I have many non-Christian friends as well and what you describe is pretty accurate. There are indeed lots of reasons to not believe Christianity. The most common reason I hear from friends is similar to mine....it just doesn't make sense.

Once you ask the Holy Spirit to show you, it would make perfect sense. There is a scripture that says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."1 Corinthians 1:18 And there are those who have set out to prove that the scriptures are wrong, only to end up being captivated by Jesus. As I said in a previous post it doesn't make sense to my son either and he was brought up with it. We all have our own path in life and I wish you well and hope one day you find your way to the love of God through Jesus.

 

[quietthinker]

If there is no thirst…...if there is no hunger……if there is not a sense of need its just a bunch of talk with no power.

 

[bbyrd009]

I'm sure you guys know this word agnostic is defined as ignorant.

ah, i recall seeing that one a while back; fairly out there, for a def i think? Who is defining it that way btw? ty

 

[Jay Ross]

agnostic
/aɡˈnɒstɪk/
noun

1. a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God.

Google search for agnostic. To say that agnostic is defined as ignorance is an arrogant put down, probably by a "Christian."

 

[Cristo Rei]

Agnostic means "one who does not know," one who is ignorant of what is true. I have always found that a person who applies the moniker to themselves, takes pride in the fact that they are an Ignoramus!

Though one can say that they are "unsure," if they argue passionately from that position they are really no longer "agnostic" but uncommitted "atheist's." Either God exists or He does not. Living and believing in a way that does not reflect that God exists, is unbelief, not some fanciful neutral "middle ground."

This is the black and white logical fallacy that i used to always get from both theists and atheists when I was agnostic
Either God exists or he doesn't as u said but that doesn't mean one is limited to one or the other
Their is no error in being unsure. In many ways the agnostic position is the most honest, certainly in terms of empirical observation

 

[Cristo Rei]

"I don't like even being around them"

aw c'mon, Christians arent universally that terrible, are they?
You can do it for two hours a week, cantcha, i mean that's about all theyre ever out anyway?
:)

Cmon mate did u even read the opening post.
Obviously not cos that isn't what he is saying, that is what he heard a Christian saying about non-Christians

 

[bbyrd009]

Cmon mate did u even read the opening post.
Obviously not cos that isn't what he is saying, that is what he heard a Christian saying about non-Christians

ah, my bad

 

[Cristo Rei]

I hold contempt

Please don't. It manifests itself into anger, hate and aggression. U know that God frowns upon it
It takes a certain degree of pride to hold contentment or resentment
Jesus said we must forgive 77 times and love our enemies
Am i a good example of this, certainly not, and i feel like a bit of a hypocrite actually writing this
Follow in the steps of Christ

 

[Cristo Rei]

As a former committed Atheist, I have problems logically with Agnostics... I am not sure if they exist!

@Justadude this is what i was talking about before.
People always seemed to want to force me to chose one side or the other.
They couldn't accept the agnostic position for what it is. It really frustrated me when I was agnostic

 

[Cristo Rei]

Whether gods exist or not has never struck me as a meaningful question, since no one can really say what a "god" is in a useful way.

Yep. The question of God was not important to me either for a while.
I was particularly interested in the subject of morality form a long time and still am

Religion has always seemed like faith-based magical thinking to me, and I just don't work that way. So in all the years I was taken to church, I was mostly baffled by the whole thing.

I know what u mean. I found religion to be almost like a barrier and still do at times. I don't know who was taking u to church.
A person is rarely converted by people and such attempts often serve to further someones skepticism

What are your thoughts on the big bang theory and the theory of evolution? Are they true or false or somewhere in between?

 

[Cristo Rei]

I remember when my then-girlfriend, now-wife, went to her first family reunion with my Amish family.

So u grew up in a Christian family as well. My path was similar to yours. Have u ever considered yourself to be an atheist?

 

[lforrest]

whom He has chosen, or we have chosen tho

and seems like your contempt just did an about-face?

Please don't. It manifests itself into anger, hate and aggression. U know that God frowns upon it
It takes a certain degree of pride to hold contentment or resentment
Jesus said we must forgive 77 times and love our enemies
Am i a good example of this, certainly not, and i feel like a bit of a hypocrite actually writing this
Follow in the steps of Christ

I'm not so sure God frowns upon anger and hate when directed towards the powers and principalities in this dark world. If it were to bleed over to contempt for people that would be ungracious and hypocritical, as everyone in this fallen world has fallen under some form of corruption, myself included.

 

[Cristo Rei]

It's very astute of you to mention science, since that's what I do. I've always been inclined towards empirical thinking, and I'm convinced it's the main reason I'm not religious.

That could certainly be true. It was when I was studying engineering that I was most atheist.
Seeing i asked your opinion on the big bang theory and the theory of evolution u may as well tell me your field, mine is engineering

Not everyone who has studied a scientific subject is agnostic or atheist.
When I was in hospital for a week i did my own little survey and asked doctors and nurses weather they believed in God.
Most nurses did but i was surprised, at the time, how many doctors believed in God. About half of them

 

[Cristo Rei]

I'm not so sure God frowns upon anger and hate when directed towards the powers and principalities in this dark world. If it were to bleed over to contempt for people that would be ungracious and hypocritical, as everyone in this fallen world has fallen under some form of corruption, myself included.

I was confused there for a minute and had to read your original statement again
I hold contempt for the pride people place in their social identity

So it's not the person you hold contempt for but pride. Sorry i misunderstood you

On another note, and not meaning to pick on you, does God frown upon the resentment of objects and concepts?
It's a question i have asked myself for a while now
I was sent to prison without having committed a crime.
I had a huge resentment towards society/justice system but I started to feel like it was spiritually unhealthy

How about Satan. I despised Satan but then I read that the use of anger is an ineffective way to combat the evil one, that only righteousness can defend his attacks. Becoming angry at Satan is only playing into his hands

But we are talking about hating sin which I hadn't really thought about before. I remember reading that there is a time and place for anger.
Without anger we wouldn't be able to punish people, teach people, discipline people. So there is a place for anger
And so i think a healthy dose of hate towards sin is justified...

Peace

 

[lforrest]

I was confused there for a minute and had to read your original statement again
I hold contempt for the pride people place in their social identity

So it's not the person you hold contempt for but pride. Sorry i misunderstood you

On another note, and not meaning to pick on you, does God frown upon the resentment of objects and concepts?
It's a question i have asked myself for a while now
I was sent to prison without having committed a crime.
I had a huge resentment towards society/justice system but I started to feel like it was spiritually unhealthy

How about Satan. I despised Satan but then I read that the use of anger is an ineffective way to combat the evil one, that only righteousness can defend his attacks. Becoming angry at Satan is only playing into his hands

But we are talking about hating sin which I hadn't really thought about before. I remember reading that there is a time and place for anger.
Without anger we wouldn't be able to punish people, teach people, discipline people. So there is a place for anger
And so i think a healthy dose of hate towards sin is justified...

Peace

I think you're right about it being unhealthy. It is not a burden man was meant to bare.

 

[Cristo Rei]

The most common reason I hear from friends is similar to mine....it just doesn't make sense

I would say it makes sense that something created what we see. I don't know of any random processes that can create something complex
For example a watch cannot be assembled without a watchmaker
The same way that the entities in a computer simulated program have no idea how they got there

So for me believing in God wasn't that difficult. Believing in Jesus and everything else in Christianity is much more difficult

 

[Cristo Rei]

In my opinion, agnosticism is the most honest position one could take on the issue of God. After all, agnostics are being more truthful than the atheists or believers. In truth, believers do not know there is a god, they believe there is a god. Same with atheists; atheists do not know that god does not exist, they believe that god does not exist.

Thank you. My thoughts exactly

 

[Cristo Rei]

I'm sure you guys know this word agnostic is defined as ignorant.

Aren't we all ignorant of something? Can u tell me the size of the universe or where exactly heaven is situated?
Can tell me about all of the known and unknown?

Socrates said "One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing"
It's hyperbole and tells us that we don't know everything. Do u know everything?

 

[Waiting on him]

Aren't we all ignorant of something? Can u tell me the size of the universe or where exactly heaven is situated?
Can tell me about all of the known and unknown?
Uh, I think ignorant just mean that you've not been taught, the word doesn't mean that you can know nothing. I'll give you an example, I Know Christ..... crucified/resurrected
And I'll know this till the end.

Socrates said "One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing"
It's hyperbole and tells us that we don't know everything. Do u know everything?

 

[Justadude]

The idea behind neurolinguistic programing is that the words we use, and are used with us, are what form the thoughts in our minds, and those thoughts are influenced by our word choices.

A simple example is, "Don't forget the dry cleaning", you end up associating "forget" and "dry cleaning", and then don't pick it up. "Remember the dry cleaning" according to NLP is more likely to help you to remember.

Much love!

Ah, like the lesson one of my coaches taught years ago about positive thinking, where we worked on thinking about and envisioning what we wanted to happen in the game, rather than what we wanted to avoid. As an illustration, he'd say "Don't think of an elephant" and then point out how the first thing all of us thought about was.......an elephant. So when we'd do our pre-game visualizations, we tried to focus on making great plays rather than something like "don't mess up".