Why did you accept/reject Christianity?

[otseng]

Why did you accept Christianity or why did you reject it? If you are of another belief system, why did you accept that?

This thread is only to gather individual answers and not to solicit any debate on what others have posted.

[StephTrex1]

Well I believe the bible is the words of our father in heaven (GOD) I believe he sent his son (Jesus) to earth to teach us and to die for our sins. I believe if we open our harts to him and except him and his word then we will live in heaven for eternity. I am labeled a christian because of my beliefs, so if what I believe is considered christianity then that is what I am.

[sue]

Why did you accept Christianity or why did you reject it? If you are of another belief system, why did you accept that?

1.) The feeling that my values were out of sync with what I felt that some Christians were asking of me. Admittedly, this is not the best reason to reject a label because if all Christians' values were perfectly aligned, there would be no need to split the religion into different denominations. So this is the lesser reason.

2.) As a divorced woman, I can either be celibate for the rest of my life, or be an adulteress. I don't understand the sin of remarriage.

Until the second issue in particular is resolved, I cannot call myself a Christian.

[Jester]

Why did you accept Christianity or why did you reject it? If you are of another belief system, why did you accept that?

I feel that I'm constantly re-examining my beliefs, so this answer tends to change as I do.
Currently, I'd say that I accept Christianity for many reasons, but all coming back to the fact that I don't see redemption through anything other than God giving it to me through no merit of my own. (That would be my Christianity vs. other religions answer. As for Atheism:) I have my facts and studies, but, personally, Atheism to me is synonimous with Nihilism. I have a hard time believing that anything has any value if we all dissapear completely as we die- and the universe does not notice or care.

[SimonH]

I reject religion because it is clearly an antiquated way of looking at the world.

I reject religion because the stories are clearly made up by man.

I reject religion because the stories frequently don't make sense to me.

I reject religion because science has proven the stories to be false.

I reject religion because the bigotry they encourage creates wars and conflict and hurt.

To me the more interesting question is: "What makes one person believe and another reject god/gods?"

Because if a god created us, what is it in us that he has created which makes one person choose and another reject.

It's not reall as simple as "Why?"

Jester shows that he cannot accept atheism, not because it doesn't make sense or because it cannot be true, but merely because he doesn't like the idea there is no apparent purpose to llife. Jester wants Christianity to be true, no matter what the evidence tells him.

Most Christians simply ignore the evidence if it doesn't suit them.

Christianity is what gets Jester through the night - as someone once said, religion is the opium of the masses.



What I want to know is - If your god created us all, what is it in us that either accepts or rejects him? And where does that come from?

If your god created everything, he must then also have created the part in my mind which rejects him; He has designed me to reject him.

Or is it just random? - like marbles falling down a shute, some go left, some go right.

It has to be one of these two doesn't it?

[theleftone]

Jester shows that he cannot accept atheism, not because it doesn't make sense or because it cannot be true, but merely because he doesn't like the idea there is no apparent purpose to llife. Jester wants Christianity to be true, no matter what the evidence tells him.
...
Christianity is what gets Jester through the night - as someone once said, religion is the opium of the masses.

The personal comments directed at Jester are unnecessary.

[SimonH]

OK, substitute "Jester" for "Christians", if you find my comments so offensive...

[Goat]

I was brought up in a Jewish household, and I had various attitudes about religion instilled in me.

When i was in college, some "Crusaders for Christ" tried to convert me. They asked me if I wanted a personal god to be with me always. I said "NO".

Aside from the issue that I couldn't just 'turn on' the belief, I felt that the concept of the 'personal god' they were promoting was a way to avoid personal responsibility. Rather than have to look at a situation, and make up their own mind, and take responsibility for their own decisions, they would pray to God to give them the answer.

The concept that someone had to be sacrificed for any mistakes I made to 'cleanse' me of them was a concept I personally found abhorrent also. My mistakes are my own, and I should not purposely dump the consequences of them on someone else.

[Jester]

Jester wants Christianity to be true, no matter what the evidence tells him.

Actually, I have a very long reasoning process involving my belief system, and was really speaking more informally. To clarify, what I meant by "I can't see" was "this is my shorthand for giving you a 100 page essay on why this concept doesn't make sense." To that end:

I reject religion because it is clearly an antiquated way of looking at the world.

I reject religion because the stories are clearly made up by man.

I reject religion because the stories frequently don't make sense to me.

I reject religion because science has proven the stories to be false.

I reject religion because the bigotry they encourage creates wars and conflict and hurt.

There is far too much high level debate about religion for it to be clearly anything. I've no problem with you arguing that it is an antiquated way of looking at the world, but bear in mind that this statment will require a strong support.

Stating that religious stories are clearly made up by man seems inadequate, even myths are based on some degree of truth. Certainly, this statment should either be proceeded with an "I believe" or followed with evidence.

I can understand the slowness to believe something that doesn't make sense, if you were giving this as a personal comment, my sympathies for the frustration there. This is, however, very simmilar to the mistake of which you were accusing me, refusing to believe something because it seemed daunting or difficult.

Science has not disproven "religion" nearly so far as many people seem to believe. It can be very easilly argued that science and religion have very little to do with one another. As for the stories of religion, there is far too much open to historical mystery, interpretation, as well as the scientific inadequecy of humans for science to have much to say- this is not to mention the scientific evidence which seems to back certain religious stories.

I would argue two things to this last comment: 1) humankind tends to use religion as its excuse for bigotry, not its reason for it. 2) This is not really a proving point. It says nothing about whether or not religion is true.

[McCulloch]

To all: this is a General Chat forum not a debate forum. The topic here is not one for debate, it is a personal expression and it is too broad for meaningful debate. If there is a question that comes up from this discussion that anyone feels merits real debate, by all means start a debate topic.

Tips on starting a debate topic