Flipper:
"For no good reason other than intuition, I vaguely suspect you'll end up a Buddhist or a Taoist or something. Good luck wherever your studies lead you."
Thanks man. We shall see.
"If it weren't for your personal strife, this thread would have amused me. Long experience led me to suspect that our dogmatic Christian buddies wouldn't be able to salvage an errant sheep, but I am surprised by how horribly incompetent some of them are at it."
Well, most of the people here didn't even try, which isn't surprising (frankly, if I was in their position, I probably wouldn't have tried, either). What makes a lot of people here--Knight, Jeremiah, others--write me off, I think, are posts I made while in transition, before I decided to leave the faith.
"And if you don't think his life is falling apart, you are dumb and blind. And if you think he needs pats on the back for rejecting eternal life, then you must hate him a bunch."
Yawn. Let's see: no binge drinking, no smack yet, feeling at peace...if the definition of a life that's falling apart means leaving the church, you need to get out more.
"If you think that you have a good life for those reasons, you're going to be sad down the road. That sounds like a real crappy life, frankly."
Why? Because my friends and family love me? Because I'm happy (most days)? Sorry man. Church attendance does not happiness make. Christianity doesn't happiness make, either. I'm not sure what kind of petty little litmus test you could use to your satisfaction to determine, without a shadow of a doubt, that someone's "happy," because even me saying I am ain't enough. Sad. Real sad. I guess it's true: some folks like everyone else in sackcloth and ashes.
"For no good reason other than intuition, I vaguely suspect you'll end up a Buddhist or a Taoist or something. Good luck wherever your studies lead you."
Thanks man. We shall see.
"If it weren't for your personal strife, this thread would have amused me. Long experience led me to suspect that our dogmatic Christian buddies wouldn't be able to salvage an errant sheep, but I am surprised by how horribly incompetent some of them are at it."
Well, most of the people here didn't even try, which isn't surprising (frankly, if I was in their position, I probably wouldn't have tried, either). What makes a lot of people here--Knight, Jeremiah, others--write me off, I think, are posts I made while in transition, before I decided to leave the faith.
"And if you don't think his life is falling apart, you are dumb and blind. And if you think he needs pats on the back for rejecting eternal life, then you must hate him a bunch."
Yawn. Let's see: no binge drinking, no smack yet, feeling at peace...if the definition of a life that's falling apart means leaving the church, you need to get out more.
"If you think that you have a good life for those reasons, you're going to be sad down the road. That sounds like a real crappy life, frankly."
Why? Because my friends and family love me? Because I'm happy (most days)? Sorry man. Church attendance does not happiness make. Christianity doesn't happiness make, either. I'm not sure what kind of petty little litmus test you could use to your satisfaction to determine, without a shadow of a doubt, that someone's "happy," because even me saying I am ain't enough. Sad. Real sad. I guess it's true: some folks like everyone else in sackcloth and ashes.