4 ms·

I live in the middle of one of the most highly concentrated christian areas in the south of the US (at one point we were the most concentrated christian area in

by toolz 10y ago

I live in the middle of one of the most highly concentrated christian areas in the south of the US (at one point we were the most concentrated christian area in the world a few years back). I've baptized more people than probably 99% of the christians you know. I've done mission work in probably more countries than 99% of the people you know have even visited. I was exactly what the church wanted me to be and that didn't make me happy. I believed in God with such a strong conviction and faith that I took it by his words to test the spirits and that's the only reason I allowed the thought into my mind that God might not be real because I decided to test the spirits like instructed in 1 John 4:1. Only outside of this self persecution of faith that tells everyone they aren't worthy and they should relinquish all ideas that they could ever handle something on their own just builds guilt upon guilt. Jesus take the wheel? Oops I drove my own car today, I guess that's just one more subtle way I didn't have faith, because remember just a small amount of faith can move mountains but I don't have even enough for God to drive my car. Luckily, I'm outside of that now and it's pretty easy to see all the subtle emotional warfare the church perpetuates regularly and without shame. "You're useless without me"..."If you don't love me I'll allow you to suffer (in hell none the less)"..."You need to understand how stupid you are and how the beginning of you ever knowing anything is to accept how insignificant you are and that I'm all that matters" Sound like church or an abusive psychopath? Hard to tell the difference when you put all these subtle common church teachings side by side. So forgive me when I call total bullshit on you for suggesting that faith is a sure way to find happiness, because I had more faith that anyone I know and I can say that while being surrounded by more christians than you know (likely, statistically speaking). edit: also, what do you tell rape victims? God wanted that to happen to you? Do you tell them he knew it was going to happen before they were even born and that it was part of his plan? Do you tell them that he was capable of preventing that kid from being born with a disease that killed him slowly and painfully, but he allowed it to happen? I'm not interested in your opinions. I'm interested in what you actually tell the victims, because I'm confident you apologize and console them and say that was bad while fully acknowledging your God knew that would happen before he even created mankind. Your idea of God is portrayed in many places as making/allowing good people to suffer because that's part of his plan - but yet you never tell rape victims to chin up because maybe that was supposed to happen, do you?

humanrebar 10y ago
> I'm interested in what you actually tell the victims, because I'm confident you apologize and console them and say that was bad while fully acknowledging your God knew that would happen before he even created mankind. I tell them I love them because God loves me. I pray for them. And I be there for them as well as an imperfect human can be. And I tell them I do it because God loved me first. If we're all random atoms, that's a huge waste of time though.
toolz 10y ago
(can't reply to your comment because hacker news hates discussion) so you only tell victims nice things to make them feel better? Interesting. That's exactly what everyone does regardless of faith. It's almost as if that's a universal human trait and not something exclusive to your religion. But keep telling yourself that your actions make sense because you have the context of christianity and no one else has any idea wtf is going on in this world.
- humanrebar 10y ago
  The fact that mankind shares common decency doesn't invalidate any particular theology. If anything, it sort of undermines physicalist philosophies, since common decency is just an illusion or evolutionary trait (and at some level involuntary) if reality is just random matter plus time.
  - CamperBob2 10y ago
    Socialization is perfectly adequate as a basis for everything you've talked about, though. Otherwise, you couldn't trust your dog not to kill and eat your family the moment your back is turned. And some ongoing research has even suggested that pure altruism exists in a cross-section of the animal kingdom. No need to postulate supernatural forces when we can't say we fully understand the natural world yet.

by toolz 10y ago

humanrebar 10y ago

> I'm interested in what you actually tell the victims, because I'm confident you apologize and console them and say that was bad while fully acknowledging your God knew that would happen before he even created mankind. I tell them I love them because God loves me. I pray for them. And I be there for them as well as an imperfect human can be. And I tell them I do it because God loved me first. If we're all random atoms, that's a huge waste of time though.

toolz 10y ago

(can't reply to your comment because hacker news hates discussion) so you only tell victims nice things to make them feel better? Interesting. That's exactly what everyone does regardless of faith. It's almost as if that's a universal human trait and not something exclusive to your religion. But keep telling yourself that your actions make sense because you have the context of christianity and no one else has any idea wtf is going on in this world.

humanrebar 10y ago
The fact that mankind shares common decency doesn't invalidate any particular theology. If anything, it sort of undermines physicalist philosophies, since common decency is just an illusion or evolutionary trait (and at some level involuntary) if reality is just random matter plus time.
- CamperBob2 10y ago
  Socialization is perfectly adequate as a basis for everything you've talked about, though. Otherwise, you couldn't trust your dog not to kill and eat your family the moment your back is turned. And some ongoing research has even suggested that pure altruism exists in a cross-section of the animal kingdom. No need to postulate supernatural forces when we can't say we fully understand the natural world yet.