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dsbear
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08 May 2009, 10:16 pm

I used to be a fairly strong Christian. But then I moved and got to know non-Christians as well. It has been my experience that my Christian friends make a lot of empty promises. They want to think they are great and tell you all this stuff that makes them great. But in the end they end up hurting you. It's my non-Christian(or not as committed Christian) friends that seem to accept me the best. When I would think it should be the opposite. I still go to church, but these experiences have really started turning me off to Christianity.



Haliphron
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08 May 2009, 10:28 pm

dsbear wrote:
I used to be a fairly strong Christian. But then I moved and got to know non-Christians as well. It has been my experience that my Christian friends make a lot of empty promises. They want to think they are great and tell you all this stuff that makes them great. But in the end they end up hurting you. It's my non-Christian(or not as committed Christian) friends that seem to accept me the best. When I would think it should be the opposite. I still go to church, but these experiences have really started turning me off to Christianity.


If you're attending a fundamentalist church I wouldnt be surprised.



z0rp
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08 May 2009, 10:52 pm

Well don't make such a large judgement based on so few people. (Unless you're friends with every christian in the world) At the same time though, remain open minded. Maybe try a different church?


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gbollard
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09 May 2009, 2:20 am

Dedicated Christianity is by definition a closed group.

I haven't seen a dedicated Christian group which doesn't take the following phrase literally.

Jesus in John 14 (I think) wrote:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7If you had known who I am, then you would have known who my Father is.* From now on you know him and have seen him!”


Essentially most Christian groups take this as a reason to either convert or dismiss anyone of other faiths.

Many other faiths have similar exclusion clauses - but not all. Take Buddhism for instance where having lived a good life is the goal. The atheists, agnostics and theo-apathetics don't care about such exclusion clauses. Everyone is welcome.



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10 May 2009, 9:03 am

The fundies are pretty mean, but most Christians are, well, not very Christian at all actually, so most are nice.

And there are mean atheists too.


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pandabear
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10 May 2009, 9:24 am

There is a joke that goes something like this:

If you are going fishing, and you intend to invite a Baptist friend to accompany you, then you should also invite a second Baptist. The reason being that if you invite one Baptist, then he will drink all of your beer. But, if you invite two Baptists, then he won't drink any of your beer.



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10 May 2009, 9:25 am

The thing you have to remember about Christianity is that they have 10 commandments, and none of them are "don't be a dick". Christians aren't primarily concerned with being nice or good people. They're primarily concerned with following a set of rules that roughly correlate (some or most of the time) with being a decent person. The problem is, those who study Christianity the closest know exactly what's covered and what's not, and this leads to a sense of moral justification to do as they please, without regard to others, in any situation that's not explicitly discussed in their little rule book.



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10 May 2009, 12:35 pm

Obres wrote:
The thing you have to remember about Christianity is that they have 10 commandments, and none of them are "don't be a dick". Christians aren't primarily concerned with being nice or good people. They're primarily concerned with following a set of rules that roughly correlate (some or most of the time) with being a decent person. The problem is, those who study Christianity the closest know exactly what's covered and what's not, and this leads to a sense of moral justification to do as they please, without regard to others, in any situation that's not explicitly discussed in their little rule book.


Aww, so right.



phil777
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10 May 2009, 1:49 pm

The fundies are often the most dangerous ones, as with any religion. The casual practionneer might be a bit more laid back and rational.



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10 May 2009, 2:19 pm

Obres wrote:
The thing you have to remember about Christianity is that they have 10 commandments, and none of them are "don't be a dick".

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."
Translation: "Don't be a dick."

Quote:
They're primarily concerned with following a set of rules that roughly correlate (some or most of the time) with being a decent person. The problem is, those who study Christianity the closest know exactly what's covered and what's not, and this leads to a sense of moral justification to do as they please, without regard to others, in any situation that's not explicitly discussed in their little rule book.

You're describing legalism, not Christianity. Christianity specifically opposes legalism.


Be careful about generalizing too much -- it's easy to find some nutjob or jerk to make fun of who happens to agree with whatever position you're trying to debunk. That doesn't mean the rest of the people who think that way are nutjobs or jerks.


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Henriksson
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10 May 2009, 2:45 pm

Ancalagon wrote:
Obres wrote:
The thing you have to remember about Christianity is that they have 10 commandments, and none of them are "don't be a dick".

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice."
Translation: "Don't be a dick."

Huh? I didn't know that one was part of the ten commandments.


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Ancalagon
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10 May 2009, 2:51 pm

Henriksson wrote:
Huh? I didn't know that one was part of the ten commandments.

It's not. But we were talking about Christianity, not the ten commandments.


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10 May 2009, 4:11 pm

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."
But I digress. What country do you live in? If you're living in a country or town with a Christian majority, then chances are you're going to meet more Christians, and then have a higher chance of meeting people who are jerks who just happen to belong to the majority religion. I've met self-righteous, judgmental, first-to-throw-the-stone people from all religious backgrounds, and I've concluded it's more a problem of the individual's interpretation of the religion than the religion itself.



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10 May 2009, 4:35 pm

I don't think that Christians as a group are particularly meaner than any other group. I know that when I was an atheists I could be just as mean and dogmatic as Richard Dawkins, who once compared the idea of God to a virus and said that humans should find software to eradicate it.


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z0rp
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10 May 2009, 6:09 pm

JetLag wrote:
I don't think that Christians as a group are particularly meaner than any other group. I know that when I was an atheists I could be just as mean and dogmatic as Richard Dawkins,

So you weren't very dogmatic at all then?

JetLag wrote:
who once compared the idea of God to a virus and said that humans should find software to eradicate it.

And is that at all irrational? Look how viruses spread.


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gassy
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10 May 2009, 7:57 pm

I've met lots of Christians and havent met a bad or "mean" one yet. Thats not to say there arent any as there are, like you'd find in almost every group in society. I've found that there are many who like hearing about other cultures and religions and help give them a better understanding of them and remove misconceptions they might have, even though they don't agree that they're the right path.

The same has to be said for Muslims i've met too.

But what i've heard is that people mis-intepretate what the Bible/Koran is saying (or only read what they want to read) and live their lives in a contradictory way as a result, and from those Christians/Muslims I've met, they don't necessarily believe that these people are "true" Christians/Muslims