Cabra West
17-06-2005, 08:55
That's a question I have asked for most of my life, I never got a satisfactory answer so far.
I was raised Christian (Catholic, to be precise), but I have been encouraged to think critically all my life, both from my parents and from school (Catholic school run by a convent). I was taught to respect other religions and to respect people without religion, to answer them with my own opinion about god if asked and only if asked, but never to pretend what I believe in would be the absolute truth, never to judge them in any way, never to feel superior to them in any way or to pity them.
I've been reading all those threads about Christianity those past few days and I saw some posts that more than shocked me. There were "Christians" telling agnostigs smuggly that they felt pity for them because they would certainly go to hell, there were "Christians" who angryly had a go at others telling them that they can't recognise the truth because their hearts are closed to it, there were "Christians" all over the place trying aggressively to convince everybody who was not of their opinion that they had to repent their sins, there were even "Christians" judging other Christians for their lifestyle and trying to exclude them because they were gay.
I also realised that a fair number of atheists were abusing Christianity and all other faiths, but then no atheist ever claimed to follow Jesus and love all of mankind. It doesn't make this kind of behaviour any better, it just makes them less hyporict.
So, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, church of Lemon Meringue....
I'm not asking if god exists or not. Let's start this considering he/she/it does or they do. But what makes you so sure that your path is the right one, that you feel you are in a position to converse others?
I was raised Christian (Catholic, to be precise), but I have been encouraged to think critically all my life, both from my parents and from school (Catholic school run by a convent). I was taught to respect other religions and to respect people without religion, to answer them with my own opinion about god if asked and only if asked, but never to pretend what I believe in would be the absolute truth, never to judge them in any way, never to feel superior to them in any way or to pity them.
I've been reading all those threads about Christianity those past few days and I saw some posts that more than shocked me. There were "Christians" telling agnostigs smuggly that they felt pity for them because they would certainly go to hell, there were "Christians" who angryly had a go at others telling them that they can't recognise the truth because their hearts are closed to it, there were "Christians" all over the place trying aggressively to convince everybody who was not of their opinion that they had to repent their sins, there were even "Christians" judging other Christians for their lifestyle and trying to exclude them because they were gay.
I also realised that a fair number of atheists were abusing Christianity and all other faiths, but then no atheist ever claimed to follow Jesus and love all of mankind. It doesn't make this kind of behaviour any better, it just makes them less hyporict.
So, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, church of Lemon Meringue....
I'm not asking if god exists or not. Let's start this considering he/she/it does or they do. But what makes you so sure that your path is the right one, that you feel you are in a position to converse others?