My beliefs have been affected, but in ways I never expected.
My opinion on the honesty and integrity of (the more traditional)believing Christians has been destroyed. The Attitudes I've seen on here have been very dissappointing to say the least. When challenged to any real degree the tone very quickly turns sour. The posts become personal, the comments become sniping and the responses become diversionary and dishonest IMHO.
I expected to find some people who genuinely believed what they believed, but with good reason to back it up, with well thought out arguments, and a genuine willingness to share these beliefs.
My View of the Christian God (as defined by 'fundamentalist' Christians) has also changed dramatically.
I was brought up to believe that God loved us all, wanted us to be safe, wanted us to be Good, and wanted us to love in return.
The fundamentalist view as I see it now seems to be:
-We cannot save our selves.. God does that.
-God may not decide to save you, thus condemning you to eternal damnation
-God Possesses all the worst frailties of the human condition. rage, jealousy, spitefulness, callousness, indifference, pride.
-To Be a fundamentalist christian requires one to possess all of the above characteristics along with a large dollop if smugness and self importance.
My understanding and knowledge of the bible has increased hugely, I lurked here originally merely trying to see the creationist/christian viewpoint, to understand what made them believe, what I found was Creationists unable to support or refute some of the most basic contradictions in the bible. unable to support their own arguments. Unable to behave in a Christian manner.
That last point was shocking to me. I expected some peace loving Christians espousing the golden rule and tolerance. What I found was a religion for a large part represented by bigotry, intolerance, calls for the destruction of islam, the exclusion of homosexuals, and seemingly content with Gods apparent random punishment of innocents.
It has moved me towards a conclusion the religion really is simply a mechanism whereby people can shrug their shoulders, take no responsibility for the bad things in the world and blame them on satan or God's wrath.
I have found this to be both facinating and disturbing
the out and out willful ignorance on topics such as geology, cosmology, genetics etc has astounded me. Hundreds, thousands, indeed, millions of scientists branded liars or dillusional when they have spent their entire careers challenging their own, and others theories and expanding their own, and our, understanding of the world based upon observable evidence. real tangible evidence which refines and specifies theories with each passing discovery. All this pitched against the bible, a 2000 year old, collection of folk tales which bear little truth in their description of the natural world. Which call for bigotry, exclusion, mysogyny amongst other things.
I read with amazement on a daily basis the depth to which our planet has been studied, and examined and observed. The level of understanding we have is breathtaking and if I ever understand fully more than a fraction of it I'll be amazed.
I remain, however an agnostic, as agnotsic as I was when I first read these pages. Who knows what is out there FLying Pink unicorn, Spaghetti monsters, green lanterns, Vishnu, Allah, God. Who the hell knows.
we all will find out someday.
Edited by Creavolution, : spelling
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