Crimson Ice Princess
Quite frankly, the reason that all of this rests on the fact that I can see the teacher is because once I can see it, I can trust that it's true and real. The "value" of the exercises matters little to me.
I'm aware. You cannot be possibly skeptical if you aren't even within rudimentary reason; you will follow orders because the one who gave them to you, despite your senses not necessarily even being sound, is one you can sense. I cannot help but feel that you, amongst your peers, and all who follow a relatively equivalent manner of thought are the lost sheep who lead this world astray by seeking to fill the holes with greater dangerous beliefs rather than finding truths and manners to fill the void.
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Besides which, how do I know that Christians are telling me any of the truth? Nowadays, Christianity is continued mostly on basis of tradition, but for the longest time, Christianity was a way to control people, and indeed, it still has a
lot of influence on laws and social norms.
How are you differentiating? You study. Education, Politics, Religion, these are all means of controlling the masses, and the greatest of them all is Education; the most sinister misuse man has ever revealed to the world was the skewing of books and the telling of academic lies which, when they surface, the damage cannot be assessed. We are oft in the constant thralls of this very unfortunate happenstance, when lies are created, myths are propagated, and the truth is swept under a rug for a more publicly appealing answer. Yet, somehow, you question some random facet as if there is a difference?
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Why do you think all of the fear-based worship exists? Why do you think the question wasn't "do you believe in God," but rather, "are you a God-fearing person"? Again: I'm not worshiping an entity I can't see because I have absolutely no reason to trust his "disciples" are telling me the truth.
You are so obstinately blind it's hard to read through this. Fear based education and propaganda is probably the most prevalent influence on your life. It is so ingrained into you that you will not believe it until you focus and assess all messages you hold dear and true, and from there you will begin to see the horrors of your own very life. You talk about fear based worship, but you are unaware of the fear-based home-life, of the social norm, of the things you face everyday without consciously even considering the consequences? I'm not trying to divert, no, I am trying to see if you can actually ask a meaningful question; you called yourself a skeptic but in all honesty you seem like the woman who would believe in Santa Claus but denounce the Tooth Fairy.
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You have yet to prove what "value" joining the church would provide me with.
You never asked, why are you pretending I owe you something you didn't even request? Why are you such a fool? I must admit I do not think you are ready to tackle a question of this magnitude; I can show you all kinds of literature on the advantages of joining a group that believes the same thing you do, church or otherwise, but to think you demand here something never implied?
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I'm not going to join something that
could maybe have value just because you told me to. If that was the case, I'd go and join every religion just in case. I fail to see the value in mindless belief.
You wouldn't believe how many "mindless beliefs" you really hold. I always get a kick out of this; I hear it so much and yet the same beings who tell me of the idiocy of "mindlessness" sit around and commit the same crimes in a different context. Tell me, when found guilty of your hypocrisy, what will you say? Shall it just be blatant denial? It will, will it not? You are no different than the millions who believe the same.
If you don't want to go to church, don't, it has nothing to do with being a Christian; factually you don't even have to be religious to be a Christian, and church is not mandatory, but is it recommended for those social reasons I said I could get for you earlier, including re-enforcement and help in regards to the path you chose.
You are so simple.
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I do such things because although you claim it's for the good of society, I can see that it's good for me as well. I perform because I can see the value in the things I do. Small things, like taking out the trash, prevent my home from becoming cluttered with foul-smelling debris. Bigger things, like having a job, bring about money, which in turn provides me with shelter and food.
You are a creature of immediate returns. There is little to nothing that I can say until you are Aware of Consequence. You find value in the most pointless things because you can "see" the value in the immediate moment versus measurement from a more valuable outlook. It isn't surprising, but it is rather sad, and to think: You're a "skeptic".
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I perform because it's clear and concise what the rewards will be if I do perform.
That's a lie. You perform because it is clear what the immediate outcome will be, not because of any long-standing goals or achievements that will arise from your work, your play, or anything else. You perform because, in short, you are told to.
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According to Christian doctrine, the rewards are supposed to be clear as well, but strangely are contradicted by thousands of other doctrines all over the world. It's not logical to me, thus I don't believe.
You are not condemned on the grounds that you do not believe. You are condemned on the grounds of what you claim to be sensible grounds for not believing. The rewards of society are contradicted, the rewards of education are contradicted, the rewards of familial ties are contradictory, the rewards of sleep and diet are contradictory, yet somehow, someway, you manage to overlook all of the contradictions in the world and focus solely on one, which of course you have menial knowledge of ( very few, if any of you, have studied Christianity from a deep theological viewpoint; that means more than reading the Bible and T.D. Jakes or Max ) and raising it as if you have some kind of immaculate say on the grounds that you are yourself.
If you are not going to accept, fine, I don't, but my reasoning is hardly as... "simple" as yours.
