Do Christians live with a pick and choose mentality?

Question

I have noticed that most Christians live their lives with a pick and Choose mentality. They pick what fit's thier lifestyle but ignore what contraidicts it.
Ex. I am a nurse and I got into a small debate with a patient who is morbidly obese. They claimed to me that the only reason they were obese is because of genetics. Their Parents passed the genes onto them and as a result they are obese, But when I asked him what he thought of the fact that we shares 98% of the same genes with the Chimpanzees. He said that there is no way this could be true because the bible says nothing about this. So does he just have this opinion because of his religion? And why is it so easy to accept one thing but not the other?

Answer 1

Sounds like you are doing the same thing....you are PICKING ONE unintelligent person to frame your entire philosophy AGAINST the Bible ...how childish. ...and foolish.


If you want to know God why don't you keep you eyes off what people do and turn to Jesus?

Answer 2

Wouldn't that apply to just about everybody and not just Christians in particular?

Don't most people pick and choose?

As for the monkeys - that fact that we have 98% of the same genes with the Chimpanzees could indicate that:

A. We had a common ancestor

or

B. We all had the same Creator and designer and he didn't see the need to reinvent the wheel with each species of a similar type - so we have many features in common and it's the differences that are important and make us who we are.

Either explanation would fit that genetic evidence equally well, so it neither proves nor disproves either side of the argument.

Your patient however was wrong that if something isn't in the Bible then it isn't true, because truth can exist outside of the Bible. For example the Bible doesn't say that 2 + 2 = 4 but we all know that it does and that truth can be proven mathematically.

The space shuttle isn't mentioned in the Bible either, but I believe the space shuttle is true.

The Bible was never intended to be the complete encyclopedia of all knowledge and neither was it intended to be a scientific text book.

Answer 3

Well I would say his answer was a little naive, I might have said yes and we are 90 + % the same a banana as well. And would have informed you that if we were to take that 2% difference and write it down it would fill enough books to hit the moon. The similarity's between us and Chimps in the genetic code mean nothing. If one wants to do a comparison then they have to look at the fact that we share nearly the same amount with cockroach and bananas as well. I am a Christian but I have reasons for not believing in that outside the bible as well. I understand what you are saying though allot of Christians will pick and chose just like some evolutionists will when evidence is put forth against there case, its human nature. It hard to be honest with one self if something contradicts what you believe. I try my best to find reason to give though, as I fell most people should.

:)

Answer 4

Christianity, like the other three major monotheisitic religions, quickly degenerated into a "cafeterria" style of religion. (In a cafeterria, one goes down the line and takes some of this, two of those, none of that, skips that one , too, and then takes some of that, etc. The same is being done with religion.)

What you are pointing out is a two fold problem, at least.

One, the indiviudal with whom you were speaking has little to no knowledge of modern science and what has been learned by and is being taught by the same.

Second, the mind set that if it is not in the bible it can't be true represents a huge problem. Air planes, cars, atomic bombs, microwave ovens, telephones, bicycles, skateboards, space travel, modern medicine and dentistry, shoe laces, potato chips and a few million other things are not mentioned in the bible. However, they not only exist, they are being used everyday. The illogic of such a frame of mind is amazing.

Many persons deliberately choose ignorance and practical stupidity over utilizing and employing the ability to think, reason and discover with understanding (all of which, if one chooses to believe in god, would be gifts that the same would have and must have given to them as all thing supposedly come from god, as well as being gifts that such a god might well hold the individual accountable for, especially in regards to why said person failed to use the same.)

The person with whom you were speaking was partlly correct in that he/she may well have a genetic pre-disposition towards obessity. However, such is easily controlled as even with such a gene, if one will eat sensible amounts and exercise regularly, one need not become morbidly obeses.

The thing that the peson with whom you were speaking missed (and apparently you did as well) is that genetic traits, the double helix formation of our chromozones and genetics in general are also not mentioned in teh bible but they cited them, using them as an excuse for their own gluttony and lack of self control.

May it all be well with you.

Answer 5

Poster never said humans originated from monkeys, just the scientifically proven FACT (there are many details, if you're interested, look it up) that we share 98% of their genes. Sounds like the answer about a pick and choose mentality is a resounding YES, as evidenced by the answers here and the inevitable thumbs down I will get for this answer from all the 'pick and choose' christians. There is no connection about the person being fat, it was just an analogy.

Answer 6

What it amounts to is people have their own morality that is normally significantly influenced by their upbringing. Whatever religion they have or moral code they are taught, they will do what they can to find excuses for their behavior within the religious texts.
As an example... racist Christians often point to Noah's son, Ham, as having a "mark", which they call being black, as justification for their racism.
Many Christians very much enjoy the proscription against homosexuality in the old testament, but when asked about other things in the old testament, say "but that's the old testament... Jesus changed that."
Well... so are the 10 Commandments, the proscriptions against homosexuality and witchcraft, and many other things they point to as being sinful, while ignoring the proscriptions against touching a woman on her period or wearing clothes made of blended fabrics, or even selling willful daughters into slavery as being "changed" now, because those are inconvenient, or they find them personally distasteful to follow.

They cherry pick laws from the old testament and from the new testament, and follow only those that they agree with or that are convenient.
So, yes... they live with a pick and choose mentality.

Answer 7

It isn't just some Christians who have a "pick and choose" mentality. It's human nature.

And obesity is sometimes a result of genetics. That has nothing to do with us sharing 98% of our genes with chimpanzees. Don't we ALSO share DNA with carrots? LOL.

Answer 8

Most people, no matter what their religion (or no religion) live with a pick and choose mentality.
They pick what they are concerned about and choose to ignore other ideas.

What does having genes that predispose one to be obese have to do with our having some of the genes of chimpanzees? (95% is the correct statistic, as has been recently shown).

Some people choose to think that getting drunk every night is cool but that it is bad to smoke. Some people think smoking pot is wrong but cigs are great.

Answer 9

Quite a few health issues are related to genetics in current scientific opinion . What this has to do with chimpanzees and how you made that correlation is beyond me . You may be descended from a chimp , but I for 1 am not .

Answer 10

It sounds like you are picking one uninformed opinion and basing the belief system of all Christians on it.

A little hypocritical don't you think?

Christians are forgiven.... not perfect. Not all Christians understand 100 % of the Bible. You can choose to follow God and His understanding will come in His time.


And seriously.. as a nurse, you should know your biology better. We do not share 98% of DNA with chimpanzees. At least get your facts straight. There is greater than 90 "homology" or similarity between the DNA strands, NOT shardes alleles. There is no way I would want you talking to my patients.


Homology is not evidence for common ancestry (evolution) as against a common designer (creation). Think about a Porsche and Volkswagen ‘Beetle’ car. They both have air–cooled, flat, horizontally–opposed, 4–cylinder engines in the rear, independent suspension, two doors, trunk in the front, and many other similarities "homologies". Why do these two very different cars have so many similarities? Because they had the same designer! Whether similarity is morphological (appearance), or biochemical, is of no consequence to the lack of logic in this argument for evolution.

Answer 11

Sounds like your patient was denying his or her responsibility in their weight. It is common for us to not to want to accept our own responsibility in negative situations.
My father is an alcoholic (which he denies) and it looks like my sisters are headed that way too. I have chosen not to drink knowing that there maybe a predisposition for alcoholism.
I guess I picked (Jesus) and choose (not to drink) too.

God made DNA and put it together the way he saw fit to create animals. It stands to reason that much of the human DNA would be similar or the same as other creatures.