Faithful

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yes i know i wrote it , however you just seem to want to argue about 'evidence' where as i called the topic 'faithful'.

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The problem with this, mike, is that people were comparing "belief" in God with belief in WWI in an effort to point out, I assume, that we believe all kinds of thing without being "firsthand witnesses", or something. I was just pointing out that this comparison isn't valid, because the reason I believe that WWI happened is because we have a lot of physical evidence.

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o.k stay and share your faith story, which is what its about.

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I was raised Catholic and believed in God up until my mid-twenties or so. The Catholic tradition was way too backward, guilt-dependent and sexist for me to relate much to it, and my image of God wasn't the Christian one at all, but I still believed.Then, the more I really thought about it, I realized that there was no actual evidence for the supernatural. I had been around people in college who had gone through religious conversions and it all just seemed to be a crutch for them. These were mostly people who were emotionally needy or damaged in some way, or socially marginalized, so they latched on to this ready-made community of instant acceptance.It also occurred to me that it was really ridiculous to argue about which religion was the "true" one, because what religion a person is is pretty much determined by where they live and what they were raised to believe.So, eventually I came to the realization that I was Agnostic; I don't know if God exists or not.

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I had been around people in college who had gone through religious conversions and it all just seemed to be a crutch for them. These were mostly people who were emotionally needy or damaged in some way, or socially marginalized, so they latched on to this ready-made community of instant acceptance.

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Or in the words of Dennis Miller, "No one ever finds Christ on prom night."I was raised Catholic too. My father has acknowledged that his reason for belief in God goes like this: If there's no God, he's wasted seventy years by believing in Him. If there is a God, he'd waste an eternity by not believing.This is so much more materialistic and cynical than simply admitting you have no faith. I've only-half-jokingly suggested that my atheism has kept me alive through various trials. If I had thought I would be headed anywhere different, I might have checked out. Try putting that on a "Footprints" plaque.As it is, there's meaning in this life insofar as it's not just the rehearsal for eternity. It's what makes the suffering of the innocent so tragic, or the loss of loved ones so difficult. It's why we have to work to understand as much as we can, love with all our hearts, and make sure tolerance and compassion are better represented in the old meme pool after we're gone.------------------
Quien busca, halla

'You seem very eager to chat with other Christians, Mike - but when a non-Christian wants in, they get 'thats absolutely fine, thanks'?'listen , i have always mostly discussed and debated on this forum with evolutionists, ask Crashfrog for example.
all i meant is that your faith story is fine and i thanked you for sharing it , i dont have an ulterior motive , sorry to dissapoint you .

'I was raised Catholic and believed in God up until my mid-twenties or so. The Catholic tradition was way too backward, guilt-dependent and sexist for me to relate much to it, and my image of God wasn't the Christian one at all, but I still believed.'i thank you for sharing this , but this is about religion and how religion has effected you , what i mean is faith , you see i dont go to church because i think it is boring , nor do i let chuch goers or catholics or any other religion affect my faith in God.i only look at Jesus' words , i am not sexist but i believe in God and have faith.i am not guilt dependent either .
so you basically abandoned your faith because of others ? or have you ever tried placing faith in God ?

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i thank you for sharing this , but this is about religion and how religion has effected you , what i mean is faith , you see i dont go to church because i think it is boring , nor do i let chuch goers or catholics or any other religion affect my faith in God.i only look at Jesus' words , i am not sexist but i believe in God and have faith.i am not guilt dependent either .
so you basically abandoned your faith because of others ? or have you ever tried placing faith in God ?

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You make a good point about religion vs. faith.However, I think I mentioned that the end result of all of this thinking and self-examination was that I didn't see any evidence for the supernatural, and I am a person that requires evidence to accept the existence of something. I cannot quite say that it is impossible for God to exist, so I am not an Atheist. I am an Agnostic. I don't know.I don't think of myself as having "abandoned" my faith. It felt more like I outgrew it.And yes, I spent many years "putting my faith in God." Other than being a lot happier, my life hasn't changed much since I stopped doing that. Now, I have questions for you, Mike.You say above, "nor do i let chuch goers or catholics or any other religion affect my faith in God.i only look at Jesus' words".If you are a follower of Jesus' words, aren't you letting religion affect your faith in God? Aren't you letting the Christian religion influence you?Doesn't your rejection, more or less, of evolution indicate that you are quite strongly influenced by fundamentalist or evangelical Christian traditions?------------------
"Evolution is a 'theory', just like gravity. If you don't like it, go jump off a bridge."

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If you are a follower of Jesus' words, aren't you letting religion affect your faith in God? Aren't you letting the
Christian religion influence you?

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That pre-supposes that Christian religions follow the words
of Jesus ... I haven't seen much of that in most christian
religions myself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------If you are a follower of Jesus' words, aren't you letting religion affect your faith in God? Aren't you letting the Christian religion influence you?Doesn't your rejection, more or less, of evolution indicate that you are quite strongly influenced by fundamentalist or evangelical Christian traditions?
----------------------------------------------------------well good response Schrafinator , i admitt you explained fully,as for the 'christian' religion a lot of them do believe in evolution,however since Jesus believes in the old testament as truth i being a follower agree with him.i too was forced to be catholic but now i am older i can see how completely wrong the church is in some of its interpretations of the new testament. may i give an example :Jesus says do not repeat prayers all the time thinking by your much speaking God will hear you, but in church (i used to work in churches ,fixing organs)i had to suffer this prayer ritual , something like 50 hale maries, i can tell you i was utterly bored and my ears were shot!lol

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Crashfrog said:
When I was a Christian I never had a prayer answered with anything that wasn't going to happen anyway.

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This reminds me of a routine in a Terry Pratchett book. He describes priests "proving" their gods existed by throwing rocks off cliffs and then quickly praying to their gods for the rocks to fall down.It made me laugh, anyway...------------------

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All the boys think she's a spy

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