kate4christ03 wrote:Quote:I "walked away" from the church as soon as I was old enough to realize the absurdity of holding onto a belief that prohibits me from being open minded and thoughtful.
So echi did you have God in you YEs or NO? Did the Holy Spirit indwell you? Yes or no?
Quote:Do you win points with God when you neglect the brain that He gave you?
Yes very openminded and thoughtful of you....LOL
Did you have the Holy Spirit in you? Yes or no...
First of all kate, welcome to A2K.
I appreciate the fact that you are giving input, but you have to realize that an awful lot of what you are saying is very cut-and-paste from the "born again" stories of most christians.
"I asked Jesus to come into my heart."
Ok... what exactly does that mean? Typically, it means people were at a low point in their life, lonely, afraid, unsure, and they were taught to "reach out" to a force out there to help them. How does one know that it's Jesus.... because you asked that particular person to help you? What would you say to the individual who "asked Zeus to fill me up with his powers and purge the pain" and vehemently states that their call to Zeus was answered?
"The Holy Spirit lives inside me... I can feel it."
Again... what evidence do you have that a great being is sending you emotional warm fuzzies? How do you know that you're not simply consoling yourself with an idea? Just because an idea is comforting is not a basis for truth. How do you know the Holy Spirit is responsible for this and not the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Is it because you asked for a specific deity's intervention? Which god you ask to intervene, you have to realize, is an accident of geography. If you lived in the Denmark at the time of the Vikings you'd be asking Thor for strength. If you grew up in Central Africa you'd be asking for the blessings of the Great Juju up the mountain. Your Christian faith and your version of a holy book tells you to reject (and in fact to kill) anyone who makes identical claims, but attritubes such emotional highs to a different diety.
My primary question to you is: How do you know you picked the right god out of the thousands you have to choose from?
Most people on this planet do not believe as you do.... just because your family does... just because you were taught something well before you could make critical decisions on your own, doesn't speak to its validity.
I just want you to not be afraid to ask the questions that need to be asked. And I don't want you to be afraid of the answers.
