Why do you believe that 'your' God is the correct one?

[Justanaverageguy]

 

54 minutes ago, Wiseman2 said:

Agree. This sounds more like the teachings in destructive cults.

I think I have provided multiple responses to clarify specifically what I meant - which seem to be deliberately ignored because it would mean you cant use the straw man argment any more. I've never seen someone take a one line Rumi quote and run with it out of context so far even when specifically told thats not the meaning intended.  What your arguing and what I said - aren't even close to the same thing.  To quote how I responded ....

On 12/13/2020 at 11:36 AM, Justanaverageguy said:

Sorry that wasn't the meaning I intended. I didn't mean it as God deliberately inflicts immense pain one someone with the intention to enlighten them. Rather I meant it as the reverse of this. I meant when people inevitably go through extreme pain and trauma as part of life they are often offered and receive spiritual grace as they pass through it. Its not that God sent them pain so they will be enlightened. Rather God comes to enlighten and help  them to relieve the pain of the traumatic experience.

Its the equivalent of you saying that I said that "Doctors go out and deliberately injure people so they have a chance to heal them"  ......... where as I actually said "When people are injured and in pain a Doctor will often come to offer healing to relieve them of their pain." This is the difference between the two statements.  And I said because of this often people who have been "injured" in life and experienced healing - they have a better understanding/closer relationship with the "doctor" (God) -  then people who have never needed or received that healing before.  

Edited December 14, 2020 by Justanaverageguy

[Ellener]

16 hours ago, major_merrick said:

I believe in a very literal heaven and a literal hell, but I agree that the worst part of hell will be what people make for themselves there. 

That's not what I meant at all! I think if there were a literal hell what we did on earth would influence whether we go there then there would be nothing to do but suffer.

Gehenna was a place where child sacrifice was made:  they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind; therefore, behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter. ( Jeremiah 19:3-6 )

People would not live there, believing it cursed, children's bones were there, so it is thought to have become a pit for burning the refuse of Jerusalem. To be thrown there after death against Jewish death rites would be for the worst people I guess. 

[Ellener]

7 hours ago, Justanaverageguy said:

I will be friends with them - only if they never talk.about their spiritual beliefs and if they are willing to listen to my beliefs without sharing their own, disagreeing or criticising them. That's kind of one sided no ?

I don't know, most of us ring-fence aspects of our life we don't want to talk about. It's part of boundaries in relationships. I don't mind an open discussion on aspects of religions but I would probably not wish to be around someone who introduced one topic incessantly! They'd have to be an absolute poet about it ( like Rumi! )

As for attempting to convert me to their particular faith, that's a bit insulting at times. When people proselytise I think I don't know how many people you've convinced but how many did you put off?!

I think we all get a bit stuck in our own mindset at times though. 

[Justanaverageguy]

53 minutes ago, Ellener said:

I don't know, most of us ring-fence aspects of our life we don't want to talk about. It's part of boundaries in relationships. I don't mind an open discussion on aspects of religions but I would probably not wish to be around someone who introduced one topic incessantly! They'd have to be an absolute poet about it ( like Rumi! )

As for attempting to convert me to their particular faith, that's a bit insulting at times. When people proselytise I think I don't know how many people you've convinced but how many did you put off?!

I think we all get a bit stuck in our own mindset at times though. 

Sure I agree.

I was merely pointing out thats its not one sided. Flows both ways and generally speaking most Christians I know will share faith if someone is open to it or asks them about it specifically. But they aren't out their forcing it down peoples throat who aren't interested unprompted. I have friends from many faiths due to living abroad and we discussed it at different times but no one was trying to force others to convert and generally no one even brought it up unless offered an opening to do so.  I actually find today in modern times aside from a very seldom visit from an over eager door knocking Jehovas witness - from my experience the aggressive in your face proselytising and evangalizing is primarily done by atheists belittling people of faith. Laughing at or calling people of faith "stupid", "unintelligent", "unscientific" etc etc. The script has flipped from what you saw 30 years + ago. 

Edited December 14, 2020 by Justanaverageguy

[Trail Blazer]

13 hours ago, major_merrick said:

According to my specific beliefs, Muslims do not follow the right path.  They specifically deny that Jesus died and rose again in substitutionary atonement for our sins.  No other belief will do.

From what I understand (and correct me if I am wrong) the path to heaven in Islam is through right action, and that your good deeds need to outweigh your bad deeds.

For the Christian, heaven is guaranteed by belief in Jesus' death and resurrection.  No counting or uncertainty.  Good works and a decent life are the response to that salvation, rather than a means to obtain it.

We pray to Jesus.  We ask everything in Jesus' name.  Specific.

 

The path to heaven for Muslims is to, in very broad terms, seek and follow the teachings of the Qur'an.  I haven't read it in 20 years, so my knowledge is rusty.

From what I recall, there is no black or white way to get to heaven, but that there are many ways to guarantee one will not gain entry.

Anyone who rejects Islam's teaching that Jesus is just one of God's many prophets and instead idolizes Jesus as the same as God, will not be entered into heaven.

Christians or other religions completely ignorant to the teachings of Islam will be shown 'some mercy' but will be called upon to explain (why an omniscient god would require an explanation is beyond me).

So, for my case, if I follow Jesus' teachings, believing he's the son of god, Allah will send me to hell.  If I believe Muhammad's teachings and reject that Jesus died as atonement then the Christian god will send me to hell.

You see, as a kid growing up, all I heard was threats.  Threats to burn in hell and be punished if I don't believe what some ancient book says.  Ancient books which were seemingly works of fiction.

I am an atheist because I see no sense in any of these books.  The Bible, the Qur'an... they're all the same to me.  They all reeked of B.S.

Notwithstanding the very fact that the claims are implausible, I refuse to submit to a god who shows prejudice towards certain people in a grographical area.  This is a huge bugbear of mine.  I've explained my reasoning for this in previous posts.

 

[Taramere]

On 12/5/2020 at 1:03 PM, Trail Blazer said:

As the title suggests, why is your God the God that everyone should worship? 

Why do you believe in the teachings of only one religious doctrine when there's an estimated number of religions in excess of 4,000 in the world?

I'm curious as to how everyone came to the conclusion that of all the religions in the world, why yours is the correct one?

Is it a simple case of believing what your parents believed, therefore you just believe it, too? 

Or, have you studied and compared many religions which has led to towards a conclusion that the religion which you've chosen to believe just resonated with you more?

With religious texts, we are relying on written accounts of - well, of what?   Historical events, folk tales, parables that aren't meant to be taken literally, prophecies.  Professional and amateur theists can no doubt talk or write for hours about it all.  I think it's very difficult to understand the letter of religious law as defined by ancient texts written in times very different to the ones we live in.  Texts that have been interpreted into other languages and then again into modern versions of those languages.  However, I do think that these writings can convey a certain spirit which, paradoxically, is harder to define but easier to grasp in a very instinctive way.

The assumption that if people identify with a particular religion then they must believe that religion is the only valid or correct one is an area where I think some of the more militant schools of atheism share common ground with religious fundamentalism.  Both are very concerned with literal interpretations of religious texts and with employing these as a sort of filter or test of their fellow human beings.  It's not my impression that Jesus was very keen on people doing that.  There's a strong sense in the New Testament that he was motivated to preach against the judgmentalism and hypocrisy of the Pharisees who were very much about shows of piety and knowledge of the letter of biblical texts without necessarily embodying the spirit of them.  However, we live in very different times today - and perhaps if Jesus visited Western in 2020 his focus would be on other types of negative behaviour.

I was raised in a culturally Christian household and attended a school where morning assembly would usually include New Testament readings and a prayer.  Teachers took turns in delivering this, and a lot of those teachers didn't come close to embodying what I'd see as the spirit of Christianity...but my attitude about that was always along the lines of "well, it's an ideal to strive towards rather than a state of being that is easily accomplished."   We all miss the mark more often than we'd like and probably far more often than we care to admit.  I would think the same is true of every religion.  I've worked with Muslims, socialised with them and had them as neighbours.  Cultural differences have tended to be a point of interest/conversational topic more than anything else, but in terms of aspiring to positive/healthy  qualities and behaviour, I've seen no marked difference.     

Bringing atheists into the equation...same thing.  A healthy, considerate and generally well balanced atheist is probably largely abiding by the spirit of the main religions even if they have no interest or regard for the letter of those religions.   So I don't think in terms of "Christianity is better/more correct than the other religions"...or, for that matter, better than atheism.  Religion does, however, offer some comfort to people in difficult times.  I know for that reason it's sometimes described as something of a crutch, but if it saves people from going down a wrong path, or helps them turn back from that wrong path, then that's a crutch worth having. 

The danger is, I suppose, that when people are newly converted to any sort of belief system they will sometimes embrace quite an extremist version of it.  Almost like a "young soul" sort of thing.  Years ago I stopped to listen to an extremist Islamic preacher in Speaker's Corner (Hyde Park, London).  There were some Muslims in the crowd who were remonstrating with him.  In the discussion that ensued it emerged that this preacher had been born in the UK and had embraced Islam relatively recently...but of course as far as he was concerned he knew more about it, and was a "better Muslim" than these guys who had grown up immersed in the culture.  His extremism probably came, in part, for an enthusiasm for reading the Q'ran, learning about it and perhaps being overly focused on the letter instead of the spirit.  My hunch is that if you embrace the spirit of any of the main religions, there's probably not that much difference between them - and, in my opinion at least, certainly not grounds for saying that the followers of one are in some way superior to the followers of the other.

As far as the supernatural aspects go...well, I don't have much to say about that.  If you believe in a soul and feel a sense of the spiritual, then I think it's possible to believe in some sort of afterlife, but the details of what a soul is, and what that soul's experience of an afterlife would be like can only be speculative.  

[Ellener]

1 hour ago, Justanaverageguy said:

Laughing at or calling people of faith "stupid", "unintelligent"

that's not necessarily to do with theism/atheism, people say these things to anyone who doesn't agree or they don't understand or feel belittled by ( for example )

1 hour ago, Justanaverageguy said:

"unscientific"

There are some religious beliefs which are distinctly unscientific! The most commonly expressed here would be the earth is 6000 years old and dinosaurs never existed; ironically this city is commonly called 'oil-town' and is home to 4000+ fossil fuel energy companies.

2 minutes ago, Trail Blazer said:

I see no sense in any of these books.  The Bible, the Qur'an... they're all the same to me.  They all reeked of B.S.

And yet there's ancient wisdom in all of them, people seeking to make sense of their own times. Don't throw the baby out with the bath-water as the saying goes.

 

 

 

[Trail Blazer]

3 minutes ago, Ellener said:

And yet there's ancient wisdom in all of them, people seeking to make sense of their own times. Don't throw the baby out with the bath-water as the saying goes.

 

 

 

I will gladly agree with you that both the Qur'an and the Bible have many passages of merit and wisdom.  They most certainly are not all bad.

My comment about them reeking of B.S. was in the context of how I felt at the time.  It came from a position of frustration, where I'd grown tired of the message from both camps.

At the end of the day, though, I derive my morality from within, not from a book.  I am a good person to fellow human beings and I don't need any book to either guide or threaten me in order to do the right thing.

[Ellener]

3 minutes ago, Trail Blazer said:

At the end of the day, though, I derive my morality from within, not from a book. 

We all do, whatever book we read!

[Trail Blazer]

10 hours ago, Justanaverageguy said:

I agree with you here - and based on your story and upbringing I can totally and completely understand the frustration you have and why you feel confused or negative about religion. Your view and feelings seem completely valid to me - it's a difficult situation you were put in. I can empathize and understand why you feel the way you do about religion now. I get it - it makes sense to me based on the situation you were raised in. Seems normal and rational that you would feel the way you do now.

Because yes like you said Christianity and Muslim religion both have the same patriach - Abraham - and effectively say they follow the same God. Christians wouldn't deny this - we agree that Muslims claim to follow the same God. Like I said above the name "Allah" is believed to be an Arrabized version of the Hebrew semetic statement El'Jah/Elijah meaning - "God is Jahweh". ElJah (Hebrew) = Allah (Arrabic)

But their teachings don't align. They sometimes tell stories about the same people - but tell them differently. But the main thing is really the ethic in Christianity and how it teaches God wants people to behave is different to that of Muslim religion. So yes you are right. One must be wrong. (Or maybe both)  How do you choose which ? This is completely valid question. They literally can't both be right because they often contradict each other.

There is also not just possibility but probability that the way the institutions - churches - "present" the teaching and outwardly practice it isn't exactly as God wanted. So you also need to take this into account. So at the end of day yeah it's super hard situation which requires work on your part to sift through it all.

At the end of the day it comes down to you reading and evaluating and considering. And in addition to what I already spoke about - judging the fruit - I would encourage comparing the actual teaching. Like the words of Jesus in the Gospel vs the word of Mohammed. 

On one hand I agree you were put at a disadvantage - because you were introduced at a young age to two competing sometimes contradictory religions which is confusing.

But in saying that I could also say you were given an advantage in that you were exposed to two different religions deeply and able to look at the teachings of both in a deeper way they most get the opportunity to. You have the chance to listen to two different "gardeners" / "doctors" around which societies were built.

I don't think spending time as an atheist is a bad thing. It's generally a period where we are seeking and exploring truth to find out what is   valid and real. I spent time in that place at times in my life - but eventually was lead back to faith through that process. Can't say that how it will necessarily work out for you but I wish you the best on the journey 😊

I.say keep digging - keep exploring keep questioning .... And be a scientist.  Take steps of faith and try the things in the books and see what happens. You have a lot of energy in this topic and from my experience god responds to that earnest seeking.

Great post and yes, you have summed up my situation well.  With regards to the bold, I think I was very fortunate to be put in the situation that I was in. 

I spent much time evaluating which religion was the right one and in and in doing so, arrived at the conclusion which I've maintained for over 20 years; I do not believe either book and feel that, in general, religion is a man-made construct.

[Justanaverageguy]

32 minutes ago, Trail Blazer said:

Great post and yes, you have summed up my situation well.  With regards to the bold, I think I was very fortunate to be put in the situation that I was in. 

I spent much time evaluating which religion was the right one and in and in doing so, arrived at the conclusion which I've maintained for over 20 years; I do not believe either book and feel that, in general, religion is a man-made construct.

That's fair enough then - you've explored - evaluated and spent time examining and have been honest and up front about your experience and feelings. I can understand your position from what you've described. Personally I feel a bit sad that man's representation and explanation of God through religion has failed to do what it was meant to and give you real insight and connection to the higher power .... but I think I've given you my point of view and and i don't think anything else I can say to you here in an internet forum is going to add any more insight at this point. It sounds to me that you have good moral principles and want to do good and be a good person which is the key. So at this point so I will simply say I wish you well 😊 Hope good fortune and happiness comes in your life. 

 

[Allupinnit]

Another thing I've been pondering.  I think the reason why so many Christians don't reflect God's love is because it's not enough to just believe.  Jesus said "Follow me."  Faith without works is dead.  

That being said, I hate to think that there are still believers out there who go around shoving their beliefs down other people's throats.  I wish I could apologize on behalf of those folks who continue thinking this way, and I hope you at least can see after this thread that there are those of us who do genuinely care regardless of what you do or don't believe.  I think if we all "loved our enemies" we could see a huge improvement in the state of things worldwide.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Allupinnit

[Watercolors]

7 hours ago, Justanaverageguy said:

Sure I agree.

I was merely pointing out thats its not one sided. Flows both ways and generally speaking most Christians I know will share faith if someone is open to it or asks them about it specifically. But they aren't out their forcing it down peoples throat who aren't interested unprompted. I have friends from many faiths due to living abroad and we discussed it at different times but no one was trying to force others to convert and generally no one even brought it up unless offered an opening to do so.  I actually find today in modern times aside from a very seldom visit from an over eager door knocking Jehovas witness - from my experience the aggressive in your face proselytising and evangalizing is primarily done by atheists belittling people of faith. Laughing at or calling people of faith "stupid", "unintelligent", "unscientific" etc etc. The script has flipped from what you saw 30 years + ago. 

Atheists don’t evangelize anything to anyone. Have you ever read any books authored by Atheists? 

[Trail Blazer]

30 minutes ago, Watercolors said:

Atheists don’t evangelize anything to anyone. Have you ever read any books authored by Atheists? 

This isn't quite true.  Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris to name a few, have all authored books which essentially do.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Trail Blazer

[Watercolors]

Just now, Trail Blazer said:

This isn't quite true.  Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris, just to name a few, have all authored books essentially do.

That’s not true. Writing a book is not the same as preaching. 

[Trail Blazer]

Just now, Watercolors said:

That’s not true. Writing a book is not the same as preaching. 

Ever seen a YouTube video of Richard Dawkins?  I'm a huge fan of his, but he kind of does preach atheism...

[major_merrick]

7 hours ago, Trail Blazer said:

The path to heaven for Muslims is to, in very broad terms, seek and follow the teachings of the Qur'an.  I haven't read it in 20 years, so my knowledge is rusty.

From what I recall, there is no black or white way to get to heaven, but that there are many ways to guarantee one will not gain entry.

Anyone who rejects Islam's teaching that Jesus is just one of God's many prophets and instead idolizes Jesus as the same as God, will not be entered into heaven.

Christians or other religions completely ignorant to the teachings of Islam will be shown 'some mercy' but will be called upon to explain (why an omniscient god would require an explanation is beyond me).

So, for my case, if I follow Jesus' teachings, believing he's the son of god, Allah will send me to hell.  If I believe Muhammad's teachings and reject that Jesus died as atonement then the Christian god will send me to hell.

You see, as a kid growing up, all I heard was threats.  Threats to burn in hell and be punished if I don't believe what some ancient book says.  Ancient books which were seemingly works of fiction.

I am an atheist because I see no sense in any of these books.  The Bible, the Qur'an... they're all the same to me.  They all reeked of B.S.

Notwithstanding the very fact that the claims are implausible, I refuse to submit to a god who shows prejudice towards certain people in a grographical area.  This is a huge bugbear of mine.  I've explained my reasoning for this in previous posts.

 

Based on what you've written, it is fair to say that the Christian God and the Muslim Allah are not the same person.  So, if you had to choose between the two, you end up looking for evidence. 

I find that when I look at the Bible, the history is proven by other sources.  Both Old Testament and New Testament.  Which would be difficult for any book, but for a collection of documents compiled over 2,000 years, I think it would be impossible.  For example, the existence of Jesus is discussed in the writings of Josephus and Tacitus, who were not Christians and who lived in the generation immediately following the events described in the Gospels.  These sources both state that Jesus was executed by the Romans, whereas the Qu'ran says the opposite. 

I'm definitely not a scholar of ancient history.  But what I have read convinces me, which is part of how I became a believer.  I also find that if it isn't true, Christianity would be an incredibly implausible faith.  Again, "one of these things is not like the others."  Given that crucifixion was an incredibly painful and embarrassing way to die, I find it really doubtful that Jesus' followers would have simply invented the story.  And a religion that teaches the doctrine of Original Sin (you can't do anything good, you're automatically damned, you suck....yet salvation is totally free because of love and grace) is not likely to attract followers on its own.  As well as the frequent assertion of God's sovereignty when things don't make sense....He's God, I'm not.  Not attractive. 

For me, Christianity matches two things that I believe about life:  The worst thing is usually what happens, and that life frequently makes no sense.  A religion that matches those two elements with historical proof and then delivers things I can personally experience....that's convincing.  Not my ideal, but it is convincing.     

What claims in Christianity, aside from Creation, do you see as implausible? 

[Justanaverageguy]

5 hours ago, Watercolors said:

Atheists don’t evangelize anything to anyone. Have you ever read any books authored by Atheists? 

Numerous actually  - I used to be one. I'm very well versed and familiar with atheists arguments and teachings. There are many active vocal public atheist "evangelists" today. Just to name a few.

Dawkins - The God Delusion

Sam Harris - Letter to a Christian Nation

Sam Harris - The End of Faith

Christopher Hitchens - God is not Great

Dawkins - The Blind watchmaker

Their are literally thousands of books preaching atheism. The most active and well known Atheist evangelizers in recent history would be the so called "Four Horseman" of New Atheism - a name they gave to themselves in another book Dawkins, Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet then you have many others like Stephen Fry, .... Even more recently the comedian Ricky Gervais who's last comedic standup shows and multiple television series he's created have been almost exclusively focused  after  on promoting atheism while publicly attacking and belittling spirituality.

These are members of a very large group of atheists evangelizers who travel the world holding large rallies and speaking tours to promote and evangelize people to Atheism. I see them literally no differently to a well known public Christian preacher only they tend to more aggressively target people of faith.

Case in point Dawkins famous Ted talk where he actively encourages and calls on atheists to engage in "Militant atheism" where they aggressively and forcfully impose atheist doctrine.

"Now it may sounds as though I'm going to preach upon you atheism but I want to reassure you that I'm not ....... What I want to urge upon you is preaching Militant atheism"

His reasoning for this is to do with "creationists" who don't believe in evolution .... Which is such a tiny % of believers it's laughable. He even admits most theists believe in Evolution.  Many of his arguments are by his own admission strawman arguments

Edited December 15, 2020 by Justanaverageguy

[Wiseman2]

7 hours ago, Watercolors said:

Atheists don’t evangelize anything to anyone. 

Generally no, but sit around with a bunch of physicists some time. It's a pet topic for theoretical debate.🤔☺️

Edited December 15, 2020 by Wiseman2

[Justanaverageguy]

7 hours ago, major_merrick said:

What claims in Christianity, aside from Creation, do you see as implausible? 

Hey I'm a Christian but come on - even for me this is an easy one to answer 😂😂

A random dude who appeared 2000 years ago and started Raising the dead? Gave the blind sight ? Healed people of incurable diseases with merely the touch of his hand ? He would say things and they would just happen. He could "turn the weather off" like we now turn off our lights with our Google home smart devices. "Ok Google: Turn off the storm"  😂. I'm just going to go for a stroll and walk on top of this lake.

I don't begrude atheists a level of scepticism and doubt. It makes sense. I shared this for a decent portion of time. If they didnt question these things they wouldn't be rational thinking human beings. They do deserve to be questioned and they are "super natural". But still through difficult circumstances and life's ups and downs I personally came to an understanding and knowledge that they are true. But rather then "having faith" my belief was mostly through personal experience changing my understanding. My belief was built more in the "doubting Thomas" mold. I believe because I have seen. Without this I would honestly probably still be atheist.

Thus while I have strong - (I would go further then belief and even say) knowledge that God is real .... I understand why many atheists don't. It's hard to be super critical of why they hold their position when I believe I would be in their camp if it wasn't for my life experiences.

So my personal view is I think/know they are wrong .... But at the same time completely understand why they think they are right. I try to approach my answers in a way that I think may have swayed me or at least made me look at things from a different perspective when I was atheist. What points would I have found interesting from a logical reasoned point of view when I was in that Camo ? Still Ive found its difficult to change a deeply atheist persons mind without a real spiritual experience - the catch 22 is it's hard for them to have one of these or see it occur with someone else when they aren't open to exploring it 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Justanaverageguy

[Watercolors]

55 minutes ago, Wiseman2 said:

Generally no, but sit around with a bunch of physicists some time. It's a pet topic for theoretical debate.🤔☺️

I actually have sat around with physicists. I grew up with two physicists in my family. They both were staunch Catholics, who wrote poetry, played sports, went to church, read the Bible, but they never ever shoved their religious beliefs down anyone’s throats.

They’re probably the only two Catholics in my family who respected my Atheism. We talked a lot about physics, astronomy, and sometimes atheism and sometimes Christianity.

I never felt like they were preaching to me. They never told me I was wrong either.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Watercolors

[Zona]

On 12/11/2020 at 6:00 PM, basil67 said:

OK.  So I take it God grants wealth to the believers and non believers alike.    Thanks for the feedback

What I was referring to was free will and true freedom of choice.

I have a bit of an unusual history in regards to religion. To this day I would prefer to be an atheist because the idea of an eternal soul scares the hell out of me. If you exist forever it means you could potentially suffer forever.

I was dragged kicking and screaming into the Theist/Christian camp by the realization that without a transcendent soul, free will would not be possible. I felt I wasn't being honest with myself if I ignored this obvious fact because I don't believe my free will is an illusion created by lifeless chemicals in my body.

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Zona

[Zona]

On 12/12/2020 at 3:58 PM, Trail Blazer said:

I grew up having a Muslim father and a Catholic mother.  Their marriage didn't last, but their core religious beliefs were bestowed upon me. 

I'm glad you explained where you are coming from. It's understandable that you struggled with choosing one religion over another. 

[Trail Blazer]

On 12/15/2020 at 9:06 AM, major_merrick said:

What claims in Christianity, aside from Creation, do you see as implausible? 

Every single one of them which contains anything that defies the laws of physics, or is otherwise seemingly impossible, i.e. healing lepers just by touching them, immaculate conception, et al.

[Trail Blazer]

20 hours ago, Zona said:

I'm glad you explained where you are coming from. It's understandable that you struggled with choosing one religion over another. 

Correct.  And for that, I am very grateful.  If both of my parents had been either Christian or Muslim, I would have had a religion chosen for me.  Who knows what my beliefs would have been in that case!  I'd like to think, still atheist.  The statistics would suggest otherwise, however...