No, it doesn't. Most Christians in my major Midwestern city are not like that. They exist, but they're not the majority. Some people are just taking their negative experiences and projecting it on the religion as a whole.
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Christianity Is Only Popular Because Of Its Idle Threats
- Thread starter Only Reason
- Start date
ppp
Well-Known Member
Throughout recent history. Anihilation does not make it any less an idle threat.
RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
Sgt. Pepper
All you need is love.
And yet, that's basically the fearmongering teachings of evangelical Christianity. "God loves you..." except if you disobey him and sin against him, then he'll send you to hell to be tortured and you'll suffer for all eternity. But there's a catch. If you repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your savior, then God will forgive you and you're safe. But wait... there's a loophole in this particular biblical promise... you could still be stripped of your salvation and be cast into hell if you don't follow God's will. Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31–46), and his warning: "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21), demonstrate that even though you repented and were forgiven of your sins, you could still go to hell if you don't tow the line exactly the way God wants you to. Herein lies a contradiction in the Bible, because Romans 10:9:13 says that if someone declares with their mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believes in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, they will be saved. As you can see, this verse claims that whoever calls on Jesus' name will be saved.
PureX
Veteran Member
Or he never actually said it, and some church scribe added it in there centuries later because he though that's what Jesus would have meant to say.
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RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
Well our perceptions are coloured by our experiences. There are no televangelists where I live, street preachers are a rarity, and the thought of protesting at a funeral would be anathema to pretty much anyone in Europe. I suppose it’s no wonder Christianity has such a bad rep in America, but I very much doubt the majority of American Christians behave like this..
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ppp
Well-Known Member
Do you hold that position on any basis other than your positive experiences?
PureX
Veteran Member
I would suggest letting the divine spirit of love, forgiveness, kindness, and generosity be the guide. ANY religion that helps us to recognize and embody these transcendent, healing gifts within us so as to share them with others is genuine in my book. While any that you find trying to make the adherent serve and worship the cause of their own religiosity has become a false idol, and should be avoided.
74x12
Well-Known Member
What is your concept of morality based on?
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Reason and empathy. The only things that they can be based upon. You do not appear to have a valid source of morals.
What are you talking about? Positive experiences? I haven't even always had positive experiences in my own Church, so I don't know what you mean.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
The majority of Americans are not that sort of Christian. I already pointed that out. I do not allow those extremists to color my perceptions about all Christians. They are a minority here as well, but you would not think so by the volume of noise that they point out or by what their claims, not mine, of what a True Christian is. And even most of these extremists are embarrassed by the very very small sect that goes to funerals with "God hates **** (think of the British slang for cigarettes since the censorbot probably took out that word) at funerals where the person that died had nothing to do with homosexuality. Just a little bit of that sort of hate goes a long long way. If you hear of Christians in the US they are almost all of the Donald Trump right or very very very wrong sort. A minority, but a rather noisy and bigoted minority.
Bathos Logos
Active Member
I actually found myself wondering the same thing I suspect @Policy was asking.
If you are a believer, and make this known to other Christians, then obviously they don't come after you with the "hell and brimstone" line. It takes a particular tack of explicit skepticism and denying the Christian's unfounded beliefs much purchase in a discussion before they pull out "the big guns".
So, while you may have had experiences you didn't think were "positive" within your church, do you have any experience with telling your other church members that you don't believe in God, or that you do not believe Jesus Christ to be "the way" or anything along those lines? If not, then you declaring that the members of your own, personal church don't engage in "hell talk" may only be based on the possibly myopic scope of your personal experiences with them. You may just have not been in the types of situations that would see those people turn to such tactics.
Sgt. Pepper
All you need is love.
That's a good point because I'm starting to believe that the stories of Jesus were either embellished by his followers or perhaps the stories about his life were even copied from pagan religions that predate both Christianity and the Bible. Thank you for your reply.
This is false and shown to be false per "Pascal's Wager" writtings.
Fear of God properly applied (not tricking yourself you fear god) makes you want to know truth and not risk attributing him falsehood and not following evil people claiming to represent him and not attribute him fabrications.
Christianity, Islam or any religion, in Pascal's Wager is a placeholder variable. The argument doesn't depend on it being true, but of course, Pascal believe in Christianity so made a toolkit of how a person would arrive at that through his wager and how his wager worked.
I agree there is a distaste if Christianity is false making Pascal a hypocrite if that is true, but in theory, fear of God doesn't make you accept a false religion.
And if happens to be that no religion is true, which is part of his wager potential analysis, then really, fear of God might make you sacrifice some time in seeking truth but there is no big harm in that. Seeking truth also doesn't have to be done in a boring way. You can have fun in the process, even find building knowledge of truth and toolkit beneficial to your life, career, intellect, etc...
Of course, fear of God should never make you stick to a false religion because it threatens with hell. That would make Islam and Christianity for example cancel out each other. Pick which one? Both threaten with hell.
This is the irrational approach. Not saying many humans don't irrationally get bullied by fear, but this is not the purpose of the warning and caution of God regarding himself.
It's to take God seriously and his sent ones seriously, that you look for the true chosen and try to recognize the truth, and put a strived effort for truth. If the truth was there was no true religion, then, in theory, building a truth seeking kit, would not make you arrive at a false religion.
Again, this is explained in detail in Pascal's Wager, but people know it either in a very strawman false way or if they took university courses teaching it in some detail, still strawman it and don't account Christianity is a variable that can be substituted with another variable and it doesn't rely on Christianity being true.
Fear of God properly applied (not tricking yourself you fear god) makes you want to know truth and not risk attributing him falsehood and not following evil people claiming to represent him and not attribute him fabrications.
Christianity, Islam or any religion, in Pascal's Wager is a placeholder variable. The argument doesn't depend on it being true, but of course, Pascal believe in Christianity so made a toolkit of how a person would arrive at that through his wager and how his wager worked.
I agree there is a distaste if Christianity is false making Pascal a hypocrite if that is true, but in theory, fear of God doesn't make you accept a false religion.
And if happens to be that no religion is true, which is part of his wager potential analysis, then really, fear of God might make you sacrifice some time in seeking truth but there is no big harm in that. Seeking truth also doesn't have to be done in a boring way. You can have fun in the process, even find building knowledge of truth and toolkit beneficial to your life, career, intellect, etc...
Of course, fear of God should never make you stick to a false religion because it threatens with hell. That would make Islam and Christianity for example cancel out each other. Pick which one? Both threaten with hell.
This is the irrational approach. Not saying many humans don't irrationally get bullied by fear, but this is not the purpose of the warning and caution of God regarding himself.
It's to take God seriously and his sent ones seriously, that you look for the true chosen and try to recognize the truth, and put a strived effort for truth. If the truth was there was no true religion, then, in theory, building a truth seeking kit, would not make you arrive at a false religion.
Again, this is explained in detail in Pascal's Wager, but people know it either in a very strawman false way or if they took university courses teaching it in some detail, still strawman it and don't account Christianity is a variable that can be substituted with another variable and it doesn't rely on Christianity being true.
74x12
Well-Known Member
You don't have reason or empathy to rely on compared to God. Therefore I do not accept your judgment.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
I'm pretty sure you know what I meant, and that I didn't mean emotional attachment.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
False, I can demonstrate both reason and empathy. You appear to have nothing. Your version of "God" is easily refuted. You believe in a self contradicting God, he cannot exist.
I can justify my claims, you don't appear to be able to justify your beliefs.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber & Business Owner
If we all gave it a moment's honest thought I'm sure just about all of us can recall instances of Christians preaching and trying to win converts by going on about our "eternal soul" and how we should be concerned about it, especially so we don't face eternal damnation.
Do all you people come come from Bible bashing hellfire and brimestone backwater churches or something or an area where these people are the norm and constantly in your face? If so, I'm sorry for you, but it's your experiences that aren't the norm, not mine.