Which Parts of the Bible Are Negotiable?

[james&olya 1,121]

my parents taught me very very young, to question everything. these early beginnings kind of backfired when they wanted my blind acceptance to what i was being taught at church. i spent many nights over most of my childhood and teen years debating sermons with my parents. my mom has told me i was her most frustrating child because i asked questions they didn't have answers for. i made them question their faith - which they resented - and at the same time they were scared that i was a lost soul, bound for hell. what they didn't understand was that i wanted to be able to believe. of course i didn't want to be on the wrong side of a vengeful god. but i couldn't help that none of it made sense to me. i was baptized the same day as my dad, i was nine and he was thirty.

and there are some who say i'd go to heaven based purely on the act of my baptism at nine. others would say i've fallen out of grace and must get baptized again. still more would say that me typing 'there is no god' is enough to plant my butt in hell for all eternity. the possibilities are quite endless..

i think a person's chosen faith comes down to what you allow yourself to let go of. i don't know how we got here, what this life is for, or what happens when we die. i accept i will never know the concrete answers to those questions.

but i do know that people are good and not innately evil, i absolutely cannot accept that. people are born with the potential for a lifetime of goodness and sharing that goodness with others. life gets in the way, sh*t happens, but i've found, for me, simplicity is best: treat others as you would like to be treated and let the cards fall as they may.

Same with me. I went to a protestant religious school. I got suspended on a regular basis for asking difficult questions in religion class. Early on I just wanted to reconcile the contradictions so that I could believe with the passion that I thought was needed. I finally realized that ALL of it was man's own creation to satisfy the need to know the answers to life's big questions. It finally all makes sense!

[james&olya 1,121]

now you are talking

I like that

I once said I was a christian who didn't believe in god and I was badly derided for it

I think that would be more acceptable to a christian that someone who honor-killed his daughter by cutting her throat and said his religion required it

That person can give evidence in South Carolina because he is a Muslim - but I can't (according to their laws which they refuse to repeal)

I don't mind christ-like christians at all - because they don't come after me and try and do me harm and they like the idea of healing the sick and feeding the hungry and protecting the vulnerable

I wish there were more christians like you....less private jets/fancy suits/Rolls-Royces. Those christians wreck it for the real ones.

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I read some books by a Bishop Spong of the Episcopalian church. He considers himself a 'non-theistic Christian'! He believes in the social gospel but does not believe there is a kind of cosmic daddy out there we must answer to. I liked his thinking and have found my niche near, but not within, organized religion!

Edited November 29, 2012 by james&olya