Perhaps the puritan/Calvanists were correct

[Archer]

I don't want to believe in God. I have no choice. I have turned my back on him, spat in his face with my actions yet he is still there.

I find myself praying for no reason and begging forgiveness.I often wonder how one could be an atheist. Perhaps there is truth to the doctrine of the elect.

 

[Lucian]

I haven't chosen to believe either, but I have been given the faith and can't seem to do anything to get away from it. But I don't consider Calvinism to be true, even if there is some truth to the idea of being elected.

If one considers salvation to touch those who are not in the same way elect also, then the idea is understandable. But if not, and those "not elected" are just thrown to hell, then it's just monstrous.

 

[Thesavorofpan]

I don't want to believe in God. I have no choice. I have turned my back on him, spat in his face with my actions yet he is still there.

I find myself praying for no reason and begging forgiveness.I often wonder how one could be an atheist. Perhaps there is truth to the doctrine of the elect.

Calvin is wrong. No one forced me to love God, I did it on my own behave. The whole idea of everything is predestined destroys the whole concept of why God created us in the first place.

 

[Kathryn]

I don't believe Calvin had it all right - and what he had wrong is, in my opinion, REALLy wrong, even though he did have some excellent ideas as well.

I do believe though that God loves us and draws us to Him. Some people are more responsive than others. Some people are more intuitive. God being all knowing MUST know who will respond and who won't.

Don't fight the feeling!

 

[fallingblood]

I have to also agree that he is wrong. I had a choice. My choice was not to believe in the Christian God, but a God more close to Hindu idea.

 

[Archer]

Calvin is wrong. No one forced me to love God, I did it on my own behave. The whole idea of everything is predestined destroys the whole concept of why God created us in the first place.

I have to also agree that he is wrong. I had a choice. My choice was not to believe in the Christian God, but a God more close to Hindu idea.

Some would question, that though I am not. I did not choose to believe. I feel compelled to act, I feel I have no choice. I can deny all I want yet I will find myself again praying.

Perhaps driving down the road or in the shop, pretty much anywhere. Why is it that some can deny what I know in my heart. I am far from stupid yet at times I feel as an ignorant child.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

Some would question, that though I am not. I did not choose to believe. I feel compelled to act, I feel I have no choice. I can deny all I want yet I will find myself again praying.

Perhaps driving down the road or in the shop, pretty much anywhere. Why is it that some can deny what I know in my heart. I am far from stupid yet at times I feel as an ignorant child.

Calvin could have had a part right... I see election having a possible similarity to Socratic knowledge, another words a strength in a particular knowledge before birth that carries through the veil into life, manifested by the right environmental "triggers." The election could have taken place before birth, in the form of a closer relationship or maybe a fuller knowledge.

The rest of the election idea is bogus. Calvin, I am sure, was a very unhappy person it seems. His ideas were far from positive.

What is more likely is that maybe you were born with a close relationship to God already, the knowledge of which being concealed by your subconscious, but when you get the right environmental triggers, it hits you.

 

[Archer]

Calvin could have had a part right... I see election having a possible similarity to Socratic knowledge, another words a strength in a particular knowledge before birth that carries through the veil into life, manifested by the right environmental "triggers." The election could have taken place before birth, in the form of a closer relationship or maybe a fuller knowledge.

The rest of the election idea is bogus. Calvin, I am sure, was a very unhappy person it seems. His ideas were far from positive.

What is more likely is that maybe you were born with a close relationship to God already, the knowledge of which being concealed by your subconscious, but when you get the right environmental triggers, it hits you.

Perhaps. I really don't see Calvin in a positive light as some of his Ideas were contrary to the teaching of Christ.

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

Perhaps. I really don't see Calvin in a positive light as some of his Ideas were contrary to the teaching of Christ.

I think he focused and embellished on the wrathful side of the Abrahamic god, which to me reflects all those wrathful qualities without the counterbalancing love in Him. His personality and outlook on life was lopsided. Therefore, he tried to make the Abrahamic God lopsided, and contradicted/omitted Jesus from the equation.

It is okay to be a contradiction. You can hate yourself for your shortcomings as long as you love yourself as well. Doesn't the Abrahamic God love as well as hate? Calvinism seems to be only about hating, or too much about it anyway.

So, hate what you don't like, and love your special relationship. What you don't like should work itself out so that it then meshes with what you love.

I hopes what I said is acceptable....