growing up Christian Options

[eunie03]

I've lived a pretty dogmatic life. I haven't known much else. I started talking to a friend who's a philosophy major, and he up and tells me he thinks we just disappear after this. We have no soul, no spirit. We just live and die, and decompose. Like we never existed.

It's kind of pointless then. To live a Christian life.

I've been trying to get away from it since the end of high school. Christianity, I mean. But no matter how hard I try, it's so hard for me to believe that this is it. That there's no heaven or hell. Then I think about all the years I've wasted going to church and essentially just talking to the ceiling in my room.

It's just as easy for me to doubt it all.

Anyway, the point of my topic. If you've grown up in a church, you've probably noticed how much stronger the fire is in the newborn Christian. Growing up with it... it just makes everything mundane and routine. Have you ever denounced Christianity, just so you can have that newborn fire? Do you think it's a sin? To want to experience the world and gain some sort of insight before blindly following the faith?

[ParanoidAndroid]

Um your friend isn't 100% correct just to point out... you say he's a philosipher right? It's his job to think about that kind of stuff.. no one is 100% about where we're going once we die...

I grew up as a roman catholic, a very strict life. When I turned 12 I started doubting the church. As I read the bible, I noticed that they contradict themselves WAY too much. I mean it says that it's ok to sell your daughter.... and they also say if you ask for forgiveness, you'll be forgiven, but in leviticus there was a verse that kind of says that homosexuality is an UNFORGIVABLE action and status...... Plus when I go to church, I kind of get the feeling they're after the money. And is God really here? My sister said it was God who provided my parents' jobs... Did it ever occur to her that it was THEM who got the jobs? It was THEM who worked hard to get their specialty in medicine.. god didn't do shit. You think it was him who convinced the boss to hire them? HELL NO! Isn't it obvious that everyone chooses for their own free will? So how on earth does he provide my parents' jobs and other living necessities? People say it is god who grows crops on earth but in truth it was the farmers who tended for the crops and the climate to rain and stuff...And to live life for atonement and worshipping? THAT IS NOT WORTH IT. Once I go to heaven what am I gonna do? Sure it's a paradise... to do what? NOTHING BUT WORSHIP EVEN FURTHER! I'd rather stay on Earth and struggle.

To me all these religions are CRAP. I am sorry if I offended anyone here, it's just me and my "beliefs"

[eunie03]

Um your friend isn't 100% correct just to point out... you say he's a philosipher right? It's his job to think about that kind of stuff.. no one is 100% about where we're going once we die...

I grew up as a roman catholic, a very strict life. When I turned 12 I started doubting the church. As I read the bible, I noticed that they contradict themselves WAY too much. I mean it says that it's ok to sell your daughter.... and they also say if you ask for forgiveness, you'll be forgiven, but in leviticus there was a verse that kind of says that homosexuality is an UNFORGIVABLE action and status...... Plus when I go to church, I kind of get the feeling they're after the money. And is God really here? My sister said it was God who provided my parents' jobs... Did it ever occur to her that it was THEM who got the jobs? It was THEM who worked hard to get their specialty in medicine.. god didn't do shit. You think it was him who convinced the boss to hire them? HELL NO! Isn't it obvious that everyone chooses for their own free will? So how on earth does he provide my parents' jobs and other living necessities? People say it is god who grows crops on earth but in truth it was the farmers who tended for the crops and the climate to rain and stuff... My mom thinks I am still a catholic, but in truth, I forsake all religion.

He isn't 100% right according to whom? Your truth? His truth has just as much weight as yours. For all we know, he could be right and we'll just be gone like we never existed. Just the same, there might be a heaven and hell, or just some purgatory. You're right, no one knows. But anyone can be right.

The Bible was a work in progress. Times were changing, and the stories and lessons did too. The only thing that remains constant is God as himself. Like on Paul's letter about regarding homosexual practices. He condemned it like nothing else, but you have to understand, at that time homosexuals were mostly prostitutes. There's also a verse on how women have to keep quiet at church. But in that context, the church going women were raucous and incosiderate. It doesn't mean women in modern times have to hide behind curtains and be silent around their men.

Homosexuality is a sin, yes. All sins are forgivable, and thus so is homosexuality. If you keep doing it, with no remorse or without repenting, of course he won't forgive you. He won't forgive you until you actually change.

If this god hadn't created your friend's parents, they wouldn't have had a chance to get the jobs they got. If he hadn't created the boss, there would be no job to earn.

We do have free will. God just knows what choices we make. Just because he knows our path doesn't mean he makes it for us. Sure, I'm sure he has a 'plan' that he'd like us to take, but we won't. Because we're foolish foolish creatures.

This is all Christian beliefs. It's not necessarily mine.