Christian to Atheist, one woman's experiences

Jaebius said:

Yeah, it def seems to me that you're just looking for an argument

Click to expand...

That's dah Bate ... like that woman that put her character down the hole ... buried what she was really after ... control of your being!

That's dah Nous ... the US Ness ... people have trouble bothering themselves with the connections ... they just don't desire to ...

Few make those kinds of connections to the nodes ... it is nodable! Hang you r head down and listen ... in the Eyre it is a mystical wind. --- Burl!

My journey started in a non church family. My grandfather read his Bible daily and that was it. My brother and I were invited by the Anglican minister as he went door to door in a new subdivision to Sunday School. We were curious and went. I was 9. We liked it and went every week. I took catechism to be confirned in grade 9. I learned many of the words but did not really understand them. In the Spring I had an intense personal spiritual experience while writing an exam. A presence or presences told me not to worry. "We are watching over/looking after you."

That experience erased seeing God as human like. The story of the adultJesus was and is foundational to me. Many incidental encounters with edgy spiritual books stretched my mind to giving lots of space for the Holy Mystery to be whatever it is.

Part of the mystery is why I am certain I was called/volunteered/strongly invited/directed into ministry and assisted past potential barriers to responding.

I cannot even begin to address it clearly because of the complexity and red stringers ...

WhyCzar said:

The diversity of Christian belief is so various that it borders on absurd.

Click to expand...

Logical, actually, given that the religion stems from Judaism, famous for its "12 Jews, 13+ beliefs" reality.

WhyCzar said:

Christianity has been worn thin by countless denominations, endless interpretations, and the cheapening effect of modernity.

Things which the Christian allegedly must renounce are all the things necessary for a people to survive and thrive in the real world.

To renounce them and depend wholly on the idea that you will be granted personal immortality in heaven as a reward seems a bit selfish to my way of thinking.

And that the fate of your kin and the unchristian FOLKS will be to burn in hell for all eternity - I just can't buy into that.

I have never professed to be a Christian and never will.

That doesn't stop me from praying like my life depends on it.

I just can't define who or what it is that I am praying to - I sure hope it is not a True Christ -ian.

The diversity of Christian belief is so various that it borders on absurd.

Click to expand...

You say, WhyCzar, you hope you're not praying to the "True Christian" God.

I suppose my response would be that if the true God exists and is as gracious as we Christians claim, He's less offended by an honest seeker than by someone who pretends certainty they don't possess.

Whether you ever call yourself a Christian or not, I respect your struggle's honesty.

Honest questions are closer to faith than comfortable indifference

And with a little tension, exists within our Wednesday morning bible study. We have me, a retired minister who served at First in Van and his partner, also a VAM, but focussed on indigenous issues, as well as a couple of ladies from the posh united church and a dear friend from the very orthodox Christian Reform church and another from a Baptist/Anglican background. Gets a little argumentative.

BetteTheRed said:

And with a little tension, exists within our Wednesday morning bible study. We have me, a retired minister who served at First in Van and his partner, also a VAM, but focussed on indigenous issues, as well as a couple of ladies from the posh united church and a dear friend from the very orthodox Christian Reform church and another from a Baptist/Anglican background. Gets a little argumentative.

Click to expand...

Can help you out here. In all things theological, your dear friend from the very orthodox Christian Reform church's most probably correct

God and his henchmen love a good fight while the other demons lie back and observe ... other wise there'd be no one to report wise-on being not right (Y'sn-up)!

If Christianity divides and splits ... is there anything else better to go on and on about? Split*hation as short on divination?

Thus a multitude of parts and pieces ... wandering about in atdoms hidden places ... the Latin esh sigh 'n (Zi-n)? Just for the fun of disrupting what thought it was in the all together ... micro participation? It is a small and humble thing going on subtly ... often stretched like heat intemperate at the solar boundaries ... 30K degrees? Its the little things ... that shock when popping up 9 periods later as ... squared!

Hard to understand if you're not into figures and baffling figurines ... A'? An "H" with inclinations ... that is leanings to get into something or ... other that at present is an-un familiar expanse ... opening up or shutting down ... given what we've learned about this alien abode for s crapping's ...