pixel said:
Southstar, that's interesting. I know what you mean about the "mountain top experience". I also felt I had a "calling".
Such an emotion is so overwhelming that I actually pitied people who told me I was deluded or were critical of my reasoning.
That's where we're a little different. I read the Bible, but often encountered stuff I found "off" and unlike the loving spirit, and so I quietly pretended not to see these things. So overall, I half avoided the Bible (and most especially the Old Testament). But like you, I was far more blissful at that time.
I did much of the same thing by reasoning and justifying God's at-times harsh punishments, where the punishment obviously did not fit the crime. For example, ordering the all out slaughter of a people for the so-called crimes performed by their ancestors 500 years before
My favorite cop-out though was "God's mind is above ours. We just can't understand his reasoning and motives because of our limited capacities".
I think c20 is acting out of very kind intentions -- he wants the rest of us to feel what he feels.
Yes, but he still thinks it is according to the Holy Spirit. As I look back now, it appears more likely than not that such an endearment to Church and "godly living" is a result of environment - Christian parents, going to Church every Sunday (and Wednesday if you're Baptist
), listening to Christian music, Christian friends and so on. The mentality just sets on us and we start to think inside the box unwittingly.
That is not always the case, as in the case of Paul, where a traumatic experience may also lead to a change in lifestyle. Lost loved ones, alcohol and drug problems, financial woes, broken marriages - all these can cause us to turn to God when it seems that no one is on our side and we have nothing to lose.
EDIT: What he also fails to see is that this "enlightened" mindstate enjoyed by Christians is not at all exclusive as they claim, but is shared by other religions like Islam, Buddhism as well.
BUT -- I think mere reason DID pull me from such joy. I think knowledge and experience along with pure reason led me away from (what I now consider) a happy childhood delusion.
Same here. Sometimes I secretly hope I had never become a skeptic and had always been staunch in my faith. It tears my heart when I smile with my Christian friends - I haven't told them I am no longer Christian because I'm a coward - and go to church occasionally and sing hymns rather dully. At least before, I was blissful in my ignorance - now harsh reality leaves me out in the cold.
It seems a certain degree of spiritualityy however is necessary (to some more than others) to have some degree of hope. Despite me not being able to intellectually able to accept the Bible anymore as truth, I occasionally have strong urges to pray in times of trouble when no one else can help me. The very idea is loathsome to my mind and yet - faith is such a powerful thing.
