WP a place for Christians, too?

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I'm no christian, but I'm no atheist either. I'm not exactly agnostic either. My mindset is religious, but I don't have a specific faith. If anything, I belong to my own, 1-man religion.

As I see it, however, it doesn't matter very much what you call your faith. For all we know, the different religions may all be praying to the same god. I'm not saying this to offend you guys, just to show my view on things.

Anyway, I think TheGreyBadger made a good point here. If you think about religion with the same mindset that you had when you were solving a maths problem, you won't get far. It's an entirely different domain, as you put it.

Hate to break it to ya, but it's a 2-man band now! I reckon it's the same bloke, different hairstyle that we're all praying to as well.

Heh, feels good to know that I'm not alone.

I'm a christian, not sure what category, maybe a bible believer with a strong interest in the Nag Hammadi.

I wonder if churchgoing is overrated. In the end they all have a creed you have to follow and they all stick their hands out for money. I try to avoid the pitfalls of others who have to interpret the scriptures for themselves.

I think I like the shakers best of any 'church' but there's not really much shakersism left and it never reached this country anyway.

Christian... no category. I think denominations are stupid, anyway. It's the same God.

I find Christianity quite logical, if you are willing to agree that you can't really tell for sure that God exists. Instead, you believe that it is very likely that he exists, and have agreed that, if he does exist, to take him up on his offer to declare you to be truly good. Faith is necessary to bridge the gap between "probably" and "definitely".

I wonder, somehow, whether Aspies are less capable of "faith" than other human beings. Perhaps they simply have to do as I do and accept that something like God's existence or non-existence simply cannot be proven absolutely true, any more than a scientific theory can be proven absolutely true.

Thus, they must decide to act as though their system of belief is "absolutely" rather than "probably" true. I think this probably holds for any worldview, including atheism but perhaps not agnosticism, as even atheism takes a small amount of faith to believe that God does not exist.

The definition of faith: Knowing that you cannot know something absolutely, but deciding to act on it anyway.
Logical faith: Acting on something only when you know it is probably true, but cannot be proven to be absolutely true.

I hope that made sense.

All right, I can respect that.

But how does this line of thinking lead you to Christianity? By that logic couldn't Islam, Judaism, or even some of the Eastern religions work just as well?

I'll guess that you live in America, (or another predominantly white Christian majority country.) could it be that you had a need for spirituality and just found Christianity to be the closest option, both literally and figuratively?

I wish i was religious so i could admit to the unreligious people that i practice a religion, and i practice MY religion for very specific reasons.

One of those reasons could be, "So far i'm uncomfortable with the concept that after death i shall stop existing, so i'm going to assume life exists after death so i can live in greater happiness. And since it cannot be disproved(since if i stop existing after i die so i wont know i'm wrong), i can't lose."

Or

"I'm christian as opposed to buddist because if i practiced buddism my family would be annoying to me. And right now i attain a greater net amount of pleasure(or avoid a greater amount of pain) by going along with them and not being myself, than i would by being myself and not going along with them."

I think perhaps, that if the "flaming" of one view point or the next didnt happen Christian aspies would feel more comfortable.....

Just my opinion

I am also a Christian. (You're all so surprised, right?) But I'm a very traditional exclusionary, only one-way, Jesus Christ is THE only God kind of christian. So, this does not win me many friends on a forum like this. My thought is this: Today's christianity, many times, is really pantheistic. That's not traditional or original christianity. I don't like religion. I don't attend church (regularly) and can't seem to find a denomination that studies the Bible logically and intelligently. (I don't accept the view that the Bible is a mystical book.) So, I have a hard time finding like-minded believers. As a result, I have friends with many different belief systems. Of course, if they want to be correct, they will come along to my way of thinking.

What is your (non mystical) view of the bible?

I believe that God is a very logical entity; after all, He ordered the universe; and I believe that the Bible should be taken literally, if at all possible, except in cases of parables, analogies, metaphors, and other literary devices.

I don't think that by flipping throught the pages and landing your finger on a verse with your eyes closed, you can find out what God has for you today.
I don't think that one portion of scripture means one thing to one person and something completely different (sometimes nearly opposite) to another. I believe God says what He means and it has the meaning that He intended no matter what we "feel" that it means to us.
I don't believe the Bible should be overly spiritualized just because we cannot figure out the meaning. Simply by reading the Bible we cannot grow because you don't learn by osmosis but by putting into practice what is learned. I believe that the Bible is not "veiled" but is intended by God to be understood by us.
That's what i mean by the statement that I don't believe the Bible to be a "mystical" book; and certainly not on the same level as other religious books.

Bland.

I do agree with your opinions. I'm a christian myself, one of the reasons why I avoid this forum at all costs. I'm glad someone's spoken up about this though.

Sorry for not replying to that post Bland, I had read it, but didn't quite know what to say. I've read it again and I'm still not sure what you mean, but that's ok too.

I guess I probably go with more of a living word of god notion which is probably more a mystical notion of the bible. I felt that it came alive to me when I was reading it, I found it impossible to put down at the time I was becoming a christian and totally absorbing, beautiful.

I don't mean to imply that the Bible isn't personal, beautiful and life-changing. But the notion that it means different things to different people is somewhat fallacious. God definately had something to communicate and imparted this knowlege to men to write in a book. He meant to disclose Himself and His plans for different peoples at different times and He had a particular meaning. If we take the stance that the scripture could mean just about anything we want it to, than we may as well read Dr. Suess instead. (at least it has pictures)
Of course, sometimes we see a correlation to our lives from some of the historical, Bible characters but that makes sense, since God told us that "these are written for our example".

On a different note, It is beyond me why people with AS should have a difficult time believing in God or His Word. I found that the Bible is historically and scientifically accurate. The validity of the Bible has been proven by Texual Criticism. (This is a fascinating study) No other book can come close to being its equal. Also, the Bible has been proven historically correct many times over, through acheological findings. I have even heard that if the evidences were presented in court, according to our own laws and requirements, the case for Christ is easily won. (have not studied this personally)
I find it more difficult to believe that people who are AS would fall for evolution. The impossible problems and the liklihood of evolution taking place, excludes it from the realm of reason and puts it in the same class with fairy tales. (why so many cannot see this amazes me; unless it's just systematic brainwashing) I think that if you presented evolution to a culture who had never heard of it, most would think it was ridiculous. Everyone knows that what you see has been made. That's the problem. If we can't start from a logical base, things that should be elementary, than how can we come to any understanding with one another? And if we cannot say that there is absolute truth and some things are right and other's wrong, than how can we believe in anything or define anything at all? If we live under the false assumption that truth is relative, then we end up nowhere because there is nothing definate in that framework of thought; therefore, one person's opinion is just as legitimate as another's so why bother discussing anything?
The theory of relativity works great scientifically, but cannot be applied, in the extreme, in a moral setting anymore than we would apply Darwin's theory of evolution, particularly the notion of 'survival of the fittest', to an extreme in our society. These concepts utlimately bring about anarchy and chaos; the opposite of an ordered universe.
Well, sorry I went on so long. One thought leads to another.
Having said this, I don't want to imply that I don't like those with differing views. I may not like their views, but it doesn't mean I can't be friends with them. I have friends from many branches of Christianity and New Age. (no Satanist friends, however) I also have friends who are not religious or spiritually inclined at all.

Bland, I could have used Your thoughts on evolution a few months back. There are a lot here that do believe in evolution here.. I was getting pretty beaten up sometimes. I have gone to other forums an asked about the Big Bang and how that was created with or without God ie Intelligent Designer. What could cause the the Big Bang just to come to be. Nobody has yet given a good answer on the Big Bang. Oh Well!! ! Do You have a good answer for Me.

Yes, my friend, Kevv729, I have an excellent answer for that question.

The really BIG BANG is yet to come!! Giant, universal fireworks, massive destruction and all on a really large scale! Now that will be a sight!

You see, the evolutionists have got it backwards. Maybe if they work backwards from the big bang theory, they just might get it right! Or maybe not. Who can tell in the end.

It's tough to stand alone, Kevv, and you are respected for it on WrongPlanet.