Why NOT Choose Christ?

Question

I've read a lot of answers, from Atheists in particular, who have been very quick to put bulletholes in the belief of God and in Christ.

While I am a Christian myself, and not seeking any other doctrine or lack thereof, I am in search of some understanding. from those who push organized religion to the wayside, and who embrace the theory that there is no God, or Heaven or Hell, or salvation in Christ.

Instead, what do you believe? What has brought you to these conclusions? What has proven to you that the Christian belief is erroneous?

It should be known that I am not judging you, or condemning your belief system, but simply trying to create a venue for you to clear up any misinformation about your convictions. I believe it is important for us all to understand each other. Also, I don't believe that it is fair for any one of us to make claim against another without fully understanding (not necessarily agreeing with) another's side.

BA to the most insightful answer.

The grammatical comment below is ridiculous. Read the following dictionary entries:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/christ

My use of language is just fine, thank you.

Answer 1

Thanks for the well put question.. it's a rare commodity in this category.

Hmm.. where do I even start? I guess with what I believe.. I am a spiritual Agnostic who follows no set system of doctrine or dogma. I believe in Nature to put it simply.. Mother Earth and Father time figuratively speaking. I believe in the circle of life and death that binds us all, I believe there are no god/s or goddesses of any kind. What brought me to this conclusion and to these beliefs was nature itself... I have great love for the world around me from the tiniest creature to the largest and everything in between.. animate or inanimate. I love this earth and all its cruel beauty.. and in that love I have never seen nor felt the touch of something more. I have read the bible and I have talked with people of many different religions and none of it made me feel what I feel from nature.. the only feeling I get from the bible and religion is intense dislike, just as I have an instant intense dislike for anything man-made.. from the greatest architecture in the world I only see it as a scar upon the beauty of the earth. I see religion in the same way.. like a blemish upon the face of all that nature gives us. What I read in the bible made me feel that man had written it and in typical egotistical style.. put mankind above nature and the wild from whence we truly came. I tried to see into religion and find anything in it that made me feel the way nature does, none of it touched me in that way.. I get more spiritual guidance, joy, wisdom and contentment from watching a bee pollinate a flower. I understand that for other people they get all that from their religion.. and I am ok with that, I have no illusions that what I believe is any more correct than what any other person believes. i simply feel what I feel and I think what I think and that has led me to disbelief in god/s and religion. I can't often explain the feeling I get, it's like revulsion? or maybe scorn?? when I experience something to do with organized religion such as the bible.. when I read it.. I feel repulsed, and I have the unwavering conviction in my heart that it is wrong. When I look at a tree or a bird, or the sky I feel enthralled, reverent and serene.. this earth is my bible, and all of nature my doctrine... anything else is meaningless to me.

Maybe Robert Service said it better than I ever could..

Prelude

I've little time to talk with men,
For I must talk to trees;
Or blades of grass, or blossoms when
They frolic in the breeze.
I worship sun and sea and sky
And with a simple mind,
I've so much love for Nature I
Have little for mankind.

PS So why not choose Christ? because I have already chosen Nature... nothing could make me choose otherwise. Especially when I have been told that no matter what good you do if you don't let God into your heart, you will be burned in eternal damnation. That right there strengthens my resolve to such an extent that if tomorrow the existence of God was proven I would still not ascribe to his religion. I believe that doing good is the all of life, no matter what you believe.

Answer 2

Actually, I know a lot of people personally, who claim to be Atheist or Agnostic and, although some are genuine, many of them are not true to the label they apply to themselves. I have found that many of them fall into the following categories:

1. Angry at religion--usually had a bad childhood experience with religion. Do not realize that religion and having a personal relationship with one's creator are world's apart.

2. Angry at God--usually had a painful life experience that they could not reconcile with the idea of a loving God. Cannot understand why, if God is good, there is so much evil in the world.

3. Parents were Atheist, Agnostic, or non-religious. Never had exposure to any thing else and see no use to have exposure to any other ideology.

4. Unsure what to believe and find it easier to say they don't believe rather than to expend energy trying to figure it out.

5. Feel no need for a higher power because life is good enough to them without having to answer to or be responsible to a higher power. Figure that they might as well not complicate their lives.

6. Feels the Bible is too complicated or contradicts itself.

The first 2 scenarios are the hardest to deal with because there are anger issues involved. The issues go much deeper than a chosen belief system, because there is usually hurt underlying the anger, that must be dealt with and reconciled.

Answer 3

I don't believe in any form of a "God" and I don't follow any organized religion. I don't want to call myself an "atheist" because then that puts me in a group aswell. I have faith in Human kind because I honestly believe there are good people, and that there are bad people. I think good people are rewarded for their goodness, in life, I also beleive that bad people are punished. I do beleive in a form of Karma, but I am not Buddhist or Hindu.

My beliefs are these because I was raised in a religious free home, and my family has moved to many different countries all over the world. I have experienced many things that most people have not, and have witnessed many acts of faith from people from all different religions and you know what I've found? Just what I previously wrote, the good people (no matter what they believe) are rewarded and the evil people punished.

I don't need a book, or any person or fictitious hero to tell me that.

Answer 4

I love Christ. I absolutely HATE the Christian religion.
The religion castrates the core message Jesus had for people, which was to love one another, and by doing so to become a fully realized part of Christ.
I will always speak against hypocrites, and I find people of other faiths to be better company and far more open to truth than Christians.
I find many of the acts of love associated with Christianity disingenuous and shallow.
I say this because love doesn’t come without respect.
Respect people and let them work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Forgive people for the injustices they perpetrate.
If you have forgiven them there will be no guile or sarcasm from you, only the love of god.
It is not the message of Christ that people reject when they say they hate Christians, it is their religion, which makes Christians say bigoted things like they love the sinner but not the sin.
I may not be the best example but when I sit with people of other religions I totally respect what they tell me for I know that the same breath of life that god breathed into Adam lives in them and they follow their religion for a reason.
People becoming aware of the God within them inspired the creation of many religions.
Will you be so arrogant that you’ll believe that yours is the only way to acceptance and salvation? Jesus may or may not have said that “no man comes to the father except by him”, but even if he did say it he was speaking for the Christ spirit that lives within us all.

How else could a Pagan named Melchesideck have achieved enlightenment? How else could the “Magi” astrologers recognize the signs of the birth of Jesus if God didn’t speak to all peoples of every faith and persuasion?

God loves us ALL and anything less than complete acceptance of people as they are is not love.

Blessed Be!

Answer 5

I was raised a Catholic and converted to Buddhism. I do not believe in an angry God who condemns people who spend their lives doing good deeds to Hell simply because they do not believe him. I do not think a Supreme Being would be so petty and insecure with Himself that he would smite those who had other beliefs. Almost every religion has sects that teach their way is the only way to get into Heaven. They can't all be right. I did not find this in Buddhism. I found a religion that encourages free thinking and the open acceptance and studying of other religions to find the best way for you. That is why I choose it.

Pascal's Wager.
Cheers!

Answer 6

Thank you for seeking answers to others' beliefs with suspended judgment.

I have chosen to follow the Wiccan religion, because it promotes peace and a great sense of being responsible for one's own actions and because it encourages me to allow others to take their own path.

In fact, I used to be a Christian. Several things happened in my life to change my view, but more specifically it comes down to the people who are so unlike you. People who claim to be so Christian but do not practice what they preach. People who were once very close to me and betrayed me all in the name of "God."

In short, I could no longer stand the hypocrisy most Christians display on a daily basis. I understand that there are some Christians who are very good people and are the very best of their religion. You are one of those people and I am sorry that so many have made your choice seem "bad."

In likeness to this situation: ill or no eduction, the burning times, some perceptions of what is said in the Bible, and Hollywood's drastically wrong portrayals of Witches and the Craft do the same for my religion. There are a few who make the rest of us look bad and most people do not bother to educate themselves on the real doctrine of Witchcraft.

I do not believe that the Christian belief is erroneous. As a Witch, I am obligated to respect each person's path to the divine, even if I do not agree with their teachings. I have no right to say what is right or wrong for another person, only for myself.

However, the issue most Pagan-believing followers have with Christianity is that it does not allow us the same courtesy. As a general principle, we are branded as evil. This is why many Witches feel so strongly about Christianity. It only allows for one way and to have a different belief than that one way is unacceptable.

I hope your path is always blessed.

Answer 7

Atheism is NOT a "... belief that there is no god." Atheism is defined as the ABSENSE of a belief in god. Atheists simply find that the so-called 'evidence' that purports to support the idea that magical, all-powerful, invisible sky-fairies (gods) actually exist is not compelling, and is therefore insufficient to initiate and/or sustain a mental state of 'belief'... for EXACTLY the same reasons that you do not believe in Thor, Garden Gnomes, Bridge Trolls, monsters under your bed or an invisible herd of pink unicorns that cavort in your back yard under the light of the full moon, atheists do not believe in god. Atheists simply do not find any reason to think that the myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions of an ignorant gaggle of Bronze Age fishermen and peripatetic goat herders represent some kind of Holy cosmic 'TRUTH' pertaining to fundamental matters of existence and reality.

Also... does it not strike you as vaguely amusing, that people who believe that a cosmic Jewish zombie, who is his own father, can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced to eat from a magical tree by an infinitely sadistic being, disguised as a talking snake with legs... (etc.)... think that there is something horribly and tragically wrong with people who ARE NOT stupid and gullible enough to believe such obviously ridiculous codswallop?

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Answer 8

Organized religion on the whole teaches willed ignorance of scientific fact and an inflexible moral compass based on doctrine. Ergo, Christian belief is deliberate distortion of independent thought, and promotes the delusion of "talking to god" through the wish fulfillment processes, and in more fundementalist forms, bigotry and hatred of anybody who doesn't conform to their sexual morals. Kinda like a more happy clappy version of islam.

I believe that people should have to earn their respect beyond the basic respect I give to their life and liberty, I believe that noone should be able to govern what people do in private or condemn practises as "immoral" if they do no harm and do not promote harm, and I believe that people do not and should not need to place their faith in some random, fictional deity to be mentally and physically healthy.

People should have the right to practice religion, certianly, in their own home or places of worship, but no right to propagandize in state institutions or incite hatred of anyone who doesn't agree. Nor should religious institions be allowed to be in loco parentis of children outside of the family unit, this promotes indoctrination.

Hope that covers everything, and good luck.

Answer 9

Simply, there is nothing to recommend belief in the God of Christ over belief in any of the other thousands of gods people have invented over the years. There is no reason to believe in the existence of god, and no need for a god - it is possible to be moral without god, and there is no value in a belief in an afterlife. So we work with the basics, are content to let others believe what they want in peace, and start very few wars.

Answer 10

No matter how many different angles I approach it from, the whole Jesus thing just makes no sense. WHAT does the fact that a man was crucified 2000 years ago have to do with me? How could he have “died for my sins”—I wasn’t even born yet. Exactly HOW does him dying on the cross “save” me? Exactly what did that accomplish? If God wanted to forgive mankind for his sins, why didn’t he just DO it instead of this whole crucifixion thing? If you ask me, Jesus was a popular public figure that was put to death because he wasn’t forming a revolution against the Romans like the Jews expected him to. Like the deaths of all beloved public figures (Kurt Cobain, Elvis, etc.), the public couldn’t just let it go, and myths and stories evolved about him. It had nothing to do with “sin”, and there’s no reason I should feel guilty about it.