Why does the message about changing yourself a hard pill to swallow?

Question

Would rather just change everyone else according to our view? Isn't that want most people dislike about religions that try to convert someone?

Isn't that truly self-centered and naricistic?

Changing yourself is a sacrifice.

What do you think?

Answer 1

I need changing so very bad.

A Buddhist friend of mine told me that one the basic principles of Buddhism is that all our pain and disappointments in life stem from our desires not being fulfilled.

I never heard anything truer. I can't seem to find what I want so I try to make myself not want it. If only I actually could get it out of my mind.

Great expectations cause great sorrows. Yes, they surely do.

Answer 2

Changing yourself is to destroy yourself.

Imagine changing your body to a different body. What happened to the old body? It's gone. The same happens with the mind. That's very frightening for the mind, so of course it resists change.

The problem I find in Christianity, though, is that Christians want to be like Jesus or turn their lives over to a personal God. That's a real change of personality--a literal change from one personality to another.

Such changes can never last. The new identity will always fall away like the old.

Have you heard of "incomplete Jews"? Some Christians believe that Jewish people are halfway there, but they have to accept Jesus to become fully saved. That's about how I look at Christians--they may be halfway there, but they have to accept that God and Jesus are fantasy before they can become fully saved.

Christians reject the idea of God and Jesus being fantasy perhaps even more strongly than atheists reject the idea of their own personalities being fantasy.

Answer 3

Everyone wants to change themselves, but they don't want to think they're doing the same as someone else, it's something the media has brought upon us because for all the anthropology I've seen, I don't know why people are acting like they do now.

Answer 4

Christianity is about spreading the word of Jesus. We want all possible to go to heaven. It is possible for anyone to change, maybe not completely but surely in their way of being touched by the Lord and your soul and believing. We weren't all Christians before, but we have been touched and felt the presence and love of God. If you don't study it or learn, you won't understand it. But if we can help save one person, it is worth everything to us. We are servants of Jesus and we are to work and help him show others the way to know HIM and guide them to heaven.

Answer 5

Your question poses a false dichotomy, either change your religion or ask other people to change theirs.

I think the people who try and force people to convert are the ones are truly self-centered and narcistic.

I don't want anyone trying to force, or persuade me to change by beliefs, and I have no desire to force or persuade anyone else to change thiers.

Live and let live.

Answer 6

I think it's hard to change and even harder to see things in ourselves that need changing. Yes, pretty much everyone wants people to fit into their liking. It is self-centered. I think we need to recognize what we need to become to be better for ourselves and society and then do it. It's not good to change to suit selfish people around us though.

Answer 7

Changing yourself requires a lot of effort and sacrifice; trying to get others to change doesn't...

"Take the log out of your own eye before trying to get the speck out of someone else's eye" -- guess who.

Answer 8

Great point. I totally agree. When I first came to the Lord that was one of the first things He taught me. I expected Him to make people be what I wanted them to be. I don't mean to do my will. I mean if they were wronging me, I didn't except that and wanted God to show them "the error of their ways". Boy did He show me that He allows people to err, to be human. And that's what forgiveness is all about.

Answer 9

I would say since it is almost truly impossible for a person to really change, they would like to live life vicariously through someone else who might actually be righteous deep down inside. =)