For Non-Christians...?

Question

If you could pinpoint one reason why you struggle with coming to Christ, what would it be? The message? The messangers? Fear, pain, doubt? Other? Just curious....serious answers only:)

Thank you for you good and honest answers so far. Keep them coming!

I was not asking about religion. Religion has done nothing but hurt people from the beginning. I am talking about Jesus. Thanks again for your honesty, for me, I'm comfortable as well. I figure I'm on the better side of Pascals Wager. You need to understand I fully respect your opinions, even though I believe they fall short. As long as you can say you have done your research and are not reacting to some idiot with a bull horn passing out tracks. Thanks again for your thoughts.www.allaboutgod.com

Answer 1

I have read and studied the history of Jesus from both Jewish and Christian sources. I do not believe he fulfilled the prophecy of the Messiah and there is nothing to say the Messiah had to come again and I believe that is a Christian creation to reconcile why Jesus did not bring about world peace, rebuild the temple, etc etc.
No one was even sure if Jesus was all man, all God or something else and the trinity concept was voted on to unify the churches who held each believe. Once the concept of the trinity became the offical church dogma, the punishment for non believe in the dogma could be death and so those who did not toe the line could be executed. No where in the Torah does it say the Messiah will be a God or a spirit. He will be a human who is desended from the house of David. Jospeh was from the house of David but if he was not the real father and God was (God was his own father?) then Jesus was not from the house of David.
I also do not hold with a religion that contends "believe my way or you will perish". I don't think God believes that.
I would have to say I do not struggle with it. I simply reject it. I am Jewish so I do accept totally the concept of God but not Jesus.
I think the message is the same as it is in many religions ie, "live a good life and do good deeds" so the message does not scare me and that part of the Christian message I agree with.

Answer 2

I know the question is for non-Christians only, but I want to answer this upon my past experience as a non-Christian. The main reason that I struggled with coming to Christ was based on doubt. However, when I saw the lives of people who claimed to be Christians, I mean real Christians, I was curious to find out what was the reason for their changed lives. They had something that I wanted. I did not know what that was, but I wanted it. So I went in for the test....and I found out that their stories were real. There really is a God as they claimed who is real.

Answer 3

What makes you think 'non-xtians struggle with coming to" anything?
1. I was raised in a different culture and religion.
2.It's a good one.
3.I don't need another one!
4. The religious education I was given afforded me an excellent comprehension of my religion, thus I am very well aware of the qualifications for a messiah. Jebus didn't have them. Thus he is just another false messiah, although to his credit, he never claimed to be. Paul did that.
5. The messengers? Well as far as the messengers go, they don't help your case with most normal, well adjusted adults. (Although I understand they work wonderfully on felons, alcoholics and drug addicts looking to escape responsibility.) I mean, look at your question-
"why you struggle".
Why would you presume I struggle?
That in itself is rather annoying, and statements like that cause people to block you out as soon as they are out of your mouth.
You should not assume that people care so much as to 'struggle'.
I have a fulfilling life, personally, socially, religiously and spiritually.
I find it condescending and irritating that because YOU have had some sort of 'struggle', you assume others do.
Your baggage is yours, not mine.
And I'll bet that if you dropped such behaviors, you'd be perceived more positively.

Answer 4

There is no struggle. I think therefore I am an atheist. It is aninteresting messege, but most of it was made up as a political work to consolodate an empire. Most of the messengers seem to be incapable of conscious rational thought, especially on this forum. I have no fear. If I am wrong and am sent to eternity in hell for thinking then I do not want to be in a heaven where some one who would do that resides. I have no pain. I have no doubts. I am comfortable with myself and what I think.

Answer 5

The "Been there, done that" factor. I was raised Christian. It did not make sense to me in some very big ways.

Combine that with the news from a Born Again Christian that because my father died so young he must have done something "wrong" and was now burning in Hell.

My spiritual path makes sense to me, and is spiritually fulfilling. So it satisfies my needs and helps me make sense of the world. Christianity didn't do that.

I'm not worried that I'm "following the wrong religion" because I'm not Christian. There are so many differences of belief between denominations of Christianity that CHRISTIANS can't decide what the "right" answer is, even amongst themselves. So there's no reason to believe that they are any more correct than I am.

Answer 6

I don't struggle with coming to Christ. I abandoned that concept a very long time ago. The fact is, I do not believe in faith. I cannot see belief in the absence of evidence, let alone in the face of evidence to the contrary. There was a time when I envied my mother her faith, but gradually I came to realize I preferred being able to analyze truth rationally and not be hindered by such a concept as faith. That is, I believe faith scrambles up the very thought processes to the point where you can't do anything else with your brain.

I also think a great many people profess faith because it is expected of them, and if you could get them to be honest they would say they are more hoping for faith as God's grace and gift, not that they already have it. They don't so much have faith in God as faith in the people who claim they have faith.

Answer 7

Seriously, I struggle with it being imaginary. It's not real at all, neither is God, Satan, Heaven or Harry Potter. There is no evidence for any of these ideas being true. It is clearly the brainchild of primitive man, as are all the other THOUSANDS of religions in history. It's really sad that you struggle so hard with coming to reality. Just curious, why is that?

Answer 8

If you could pinpoint one reason you struggle with believing thousands of other gods exist, what would it be?


Nobody has ever provided any evidence that any gods, much less a specific god, exist. People believe in specific gods because of indoctrination from an early age, tradition, hallucinations, fear of torture (for gods sadistic enough to threaten it) and other similarly illogical reasons. But no gods exist in reality; these are all stories, created for people who were scared of the world long before we understood it. Now we have no more reason for these superstitions.

What's the harm in religion:
http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/harm.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_religion

How harmful the bible is in particular:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/
http://www.evilbible.com/

The origin of the Jesus stories:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa2.htm
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/jesus.html

How illogical religion is in general:
http://godisimaginary.com/
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

The alternative:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/
http://www.infidels.org/
http://www.positiveatheism.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism

Answer 9

I do not "struggle with coming to Christ". That's like saying someone is having a hard time loving broccoli. You might believe a certain way, but that doesn't mean everyone else has something wrong with them because they don't.

Answer 10

What makes you think we struggle with coming to Christ?

I finished that struggle back in roughly 1980, when I realized that Christ is long-dead. I set my standards far higher than those demanded by Christianity.