Atheist becomes a Christian after 40 years

[Shadow Wolf]

"I believe, i dont believe i am agnostic" is singular. Which dogma must i hold to?

If we talk neurology which garbage region of neurology comes up with this nonsense? My daughter does not have this issue....

Thankk you for giving me an example of why I was only partly joking about axing labels being a saviour. Thats pretty much why I dont, because so many people insert their own nonsense.

 

[David T]

Thankk you for giving me an example of why I was only partly joking about axing labels being a saviour. Thats pretty much why I dont, because so many people insert their own nonsense.

a man is executed as a heretic in his culture. Around him a religion forms after he dies, it then 300 years later begins to kill those it deems heretics. Thats nuts! And normal! Personally i blame the individual who started the religion... Mary Magdelene!!!! Ha! OH YOU BETTER LAUGH!

 

[Shadow Wolf]

a man is executed as a heretic in his culture. Around him a religion forms after he dies, it then 300 years later begins to kill those it deems heretics. Thats nuts! And normal! Personally i blame the individual who started the religion... Mary Magdelene!!!! Ha! OH YOU BETTER LAUGH!

Mary Magselene most certainly did not start the Religion. It wasnt Peter, as claimed by some, and all Jesus did was teach. But add in Roman Conversion, Paul, and the Nicene Council and then we are seeing those who did start Christianity as we know it, as an organized and politicized entity.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Funny how the same facts of the Nicene Council were presented in my Christian homeschooling, but instead of using Jesus to refute it, as can rightfully and properly should be done, they use the Bible to defend man altering and adjusting the Word of God, forcing what would millions believe upon the masses.

 

[Thief]

The truth is that there is only one way for any human being to get to heaven and that is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

your post was good up to that last line

I don't call myself Christian
the description includes walking on water
raising the dead
storms go away by a wave of the hand
the hungry are fed
the blind see
etc etc etc

but the parables ARE the saving grace
upon your mind and heart you become a reflection of Him

 

[David T]

Mary Magselene most certainly did not start the Religion. It wasnt Peter, as claimed by some, and all Jesus did was teach. But add in Roman Conversion, Paul, and the Nicene Council and then we are seeing those who did start Christianity as we know it, as an organized and politicized entity.

Oh so he literally did rise from the dead? I hadnt considered that possibility! So he was the first to make the proclamation "he has risen" hadnt considered that! Oh he wasnt cowering hiding away with the others in a complete state of confusion! I hadnt considered any of that. I will have to rethink the entire story now.

HE IS RISEN
Is the oracle of the mysteries and thus the founder of that which was already the greek mysteries into human story. Archetype into life.

 

[Trailblazer]

He attributes his luck to a god ─ and there's some evidence that humans instinctively feel that certain kinds of good luck are somehow sent, giving rise to the dictum attributed to (D.G.) Rossetti. 'The worst time for an atheists is when he feels thankful and has no one to thank'. But that it was the Christian god must point to early indoctrination or acculturation or both.

(I know that feeling. When I drove a cab in my student days and had timely luck, I noticed myself more than once murmuring Thanks. T.G. ─ where T.G. stands for 'taxi god'. Quaint!)

Nobody knows what God is doing or what God did at any time. The actions of God are completely Unknowable. So people who say that God did this and God did that drive me completely insane... No, God did not get you a job, a house or a spouse... You got it yourself.

Have you ever noticed that on the news when someone is found alive after being lost in the wilderness they attribute that to the good God, but they never attribute it to God when someone dies.

These are some of the illogical things that give religion a bad rap.

I am not saying that God never helps people, but there is NO WAY to know if, when or how God does that, so people who think they know are just believing what they want to believe. It is ALL psychological. People believe what they WANT to believe, unless they really think about what they are believing and just want to know the truth, but these people are few and far between...

I have an MA in Psychology and I was a client in counseling for over 20 years so I know a few things about psychology.

 

[Trailblazer]

While not an impossibility, don't believe everything you hear..

I see no reason to question peoples' personal testimonies...
People DO become Christians after having been atheists.
That is usually precipitated by some emotional trauma, not a carefully thought out decision.

 

[Trailblazer]

Better for whom? And how does any of us know what is a "false belief" about a mythical character in some religious story? Seems to me that our beliefs either help us become better people, and live better lives, or they don't. "True" and "false" don't really have anything to do with it beyond our own ego. It's really all about positive functionality.

The Messengers of God are not mythical, they existed in reality. Whatever they revealed is God's Reality and it is the very Truth. Anything else we conjure up in our minds is only our imagination.

There is such a thing as Truth and falsehood and the purpose of this life is to discover Truth, which means rejecting that which is false.

 

[Riders]

I listen to Christian radio on my bike and between songs people call in and tell stories. A few weeks ago a man called in with a story of how he had just become a Christian after 40 years of being an atheist.

Is it better that this man at least believes in God now? I am not so sure. I think it might be better for atheists to remain atheists rather than becoming Christians because I believe that the doctrines of the Church are false. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against belief in Jesus and all His wonderful parables and teachings, but that is not what Christianity teaches. It teaches that Jesus is God, original sin, being saved and forgiven by the cross sacrifice, and the bodily resurrection, ascension and return of Jesus from heaven on some poufy clouds.

Whereas I believe in the cross sacrifice, I do not believe in original sin, so I do not believe there is anything to be saved from except our attachment to selfish desires and the world. Moreover, I do not believe in heaven and hell as places we go to, contingent solely upon whether we accepted Jesus as our Savior. I believe that the Christian doctrines are false, and not what Jesus taught. They are concoctions of the Church which came about as the result of misinterpretations of scripture, not to mention the influences of Paul, which changed the course of Christianity.

So, in my opinion, Christianity as it is believed by most Christians is a false religion. At least there is hope that an atheist might someday find another pathway to God, and even if he didn’t, I think that if an atheist has good principles and characterand leads the life that Jesus taught, he can receive the mercy and pardon of God in the afterlife and come to believe in God.

I apologize if I hurt any Christian’s feelings but I have seen far too many atheists who have been damaged by the Bible and Christianity and I have empathy for them. Christianity is the primary reason there are atheists.

I cannot side with Christianity because it has hurt so many people. Some of these atheists are good friends I met on forums and I have known them for years. They escaped Christianity, so they are doing just fine, they are good people. There is no reason they have to believe that Jesus died for their sins in order to have a chance at heaven. Websites like the following are beyond disgusting…

How To Get To Heaven

How to get to heaven - Believe the truth!
The truth is that there is only one way for any human being to get to heaven and that is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you know how many I Christians I've known that dropped out of church? Proves nothing. There are many Christians who turned to ATheism. I am an ex Traditional Christian ex Pentecostal although I do believe in Unity's version of Christianity.The inner Christ self, Jesus is not God.

 

[Riders]

I probably cant say anything you havemt heard before (such as having periods of hatred amd resentment towards the Church and Christians following thier escape). Really, I do wish more people would listen because Richard Dawkins is one of the main spokes people of the damage the church can do to people, and he does tend to come off as stand offish towards religion in general and not reflecting everyone who has escaped Christianity (myself, for example, am not an atheist but believe nothing specific because I truly dont know what to believe). This really doesnt help because it gives weight to the claim ex-Christians are god hating atheists.

I am an ex Traditional Christian no loner believe Jesus as God, but I do believe in the prophet Jesus and one God, although I am somewhat a panantheist one God but different names, Hare Krishna Buddha etc..........I believe also in the inner Christ self, or inner Godself.I am somewhat of a New Ager................but yea ex Fundy Christian ex Pentecostal here not ATheist.


I am also a Zen meditation freak! AM open to Yoga meditation.

 

[Trailblazer]

It is in our human nature to be attached to selfish desires, that is original sin.

Correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that the Christian doctrine of original sin states that sin came into the world as the result of Adam and Eve disobeying God by eating apples from a tree. Before that happened man was purely good. Then God sent His only Son to sacrifice Himself in order to remove that sin of Adam and Eve, as if it had never happened. In other words Jesus paid the price for the sin of Adam and Eve and washed our sins away, and now all humans are free of sin.

I do not believe that sin began with Adam and Eve. I believe that we are born good but we have two natures, a higher spiritual nature and a lower material nature, our sinful nature. Humans can make free will choices to act according to their lower material nature or their higher spiritual nature.

Obviously, the cross sacrifice did not remove sin from the world because sin still exists. So what was the point of the cross sacrifice? What did it accomplish? Sin still exists because man still has a lower material nature, and man has free will so he has the ability to choose to sin.

The Church existed before Scripture, Scripture is the product of the Church.

I guess you are saying that the Church collated the manuscripts that were written and then they became what we now consider Scripture.

I was referring to the doctrines of the Church when I said "They are concoctions of the Church which came about as the result of misinterpretations of scripture, not to mention the influences of Paul, which changed the course of Christianity."

First Council of Nicaea

 

[Trailblazer]

I would word it differently. Christianity as it is taught today has some false teachings or doctrines. To say Christianity is a false religion is extreme and in contradiction with Baha'i beliefs.

What I said was "Christianity as it is generally taught by the Church and believed by Christians is a false religion" but maybe I should have said that I believe the doctrines of the Church are false, because that is what I meant.

As I said in my OP "Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against belief in Jesus and all His wonderful parables and teachings, but that is not what Christianity teaches."

Becoming a Baha'i has enabled me to find a theology based on the Gospel of Christ that makes sense and empowers me to walk a path of faith in the real world.

Becoming a Baha'i has enabled me to find a theology based on the Writings of Baha'u'llah that makes sense and empowers me to walk a path of faith in the real world. I never read one word from the Bible before I became a Baha'i in 1970; in fact, I never read one word from the Bible until about six years ago. According to Shoghi Effendi, the Dispensations of the past have been abrogated by the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah, so I have no need to read the Bible or any scriptures from any past Dispensations.

For me there is no Christianity or Baha'i Faith, just the one religion of God where is will and purpose has been progressively revealed. There is no contradiction between what Christ and Baha'u'llah taught. If you mistake man made doctrines for the Teachings of Christ, then problems become insurmountable.

That is true, there is no contradiction between what Christ and Baha'u'llah taught, but there are glaring contradictions between the man-made doctrines if Christianity and what Baha'u'llah taught.

 

[Trailblazer]

REALITY always trumps narrative and logic and over intellectualizing nonsense regardless.

The experiences people have are only their reality, they are not God's REALITY.

 

[Trailblazer]

I kind of figured the guy got bored. Having a religion gives you something to do.

Sheesh... I can certainly think of many other things I would rather be doing...

 

[Trailblazer]

I concede there. It does.

But it is not always what you want to do.

 

[ChristineM]

Mary Magselene most certainly did not start the Religion. It wasnt Peter, as claimed by some, and all Jesus did was teach. But add in Roman Conversion, Paul, and the Nicene Council and then we are seeing those who did start Christianity as we know it, as an organized and politicized entity.

I have head it said that christianity was started by john the baptised. The Nicene council cherry picked the bits that were beneficial in controlling the masses in their image

 

[David T]

The experiences people have are only their reality, they are not God's REALITY.

Sorry, i am Not a virtualist i am not into virtualism.

I actually breathe way under appreciated.

 

[Trailblazer]

Sorry, i am Not a virtualist i am not into virtualism.

I actually breathe way under appreciated.

What's virtualism?

 

[Kenny]

I listen to Christian radio on my bike and between songs people call in and tell stories. A few weeks ago a man called in with a story of how he had just become a Christian after 40 years of being an atheist.

Is it better that this man at least believes in God now? I am not so sure. I think it might be better for atheists to remain atheists rather than becoming Christians because I believe that the doctrines of the Church are false. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against belief in Jesus and all His wonderful parables and teachings, but that is not what Christianity teaches. It teaches that Jesus is God, original sin, being saved and forgiven by the cross sacrifice, and the bodily resurrection, ascension and return of Jesus from heaven on some poufy clouds.

Whereas I believe in the cross sacrifice, I do not believe in original sin, so I do not believe there is anything to be saved from except our attachment to selfish desires and the world. Moreover, I do not believe in heaven and hell as places we go to, contingent solely upon whether we accepted Jesus as our Savior. I believe that the Christian doctrines are false, and not what Jesus taught. They are concoctions of the Church which came about as the result of misinterpretations of scripture, not to mention the influences of Paul, which changed the course of Christianity.

So, in my opinion, Christianity as it is believed by most Christians is a false religion. At least there is hope that an atheist might someday find another pathway to God, and even if he didn’t, I think that if an atheist has good principles and characterand leads the life that Jesus taught, he can receive the mercy and pardon of God in the afterlife and come to believe in God.

I apologize if I hurt any Christian’s feelings but I have seen far too many atheists who have been damaged by the Bible and Christianity and I have empathy for them. Christianity is the primary reason there are atheists.

I cannot side with Christianity because it has hurt so many people. Some of these atheists are good friends I met on forums and I have known them for years. They escaped Christianity, so they are doing just fine, they are good people. There is no reason they have to believe that Jesus died for their sins in order to have a chance at heaven. Websites like the following are beyond disgusting…

How To Get To Heaven

How to get to heaven - Believe the truth!
The truth is that there is only one way for any human being to get to heaven and that is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

No hurt feelings... just rejoicing that another person looked beyond the church, beyond people and saw Jesus and found life.