not so sure about jesus?
it's been a while...especially for me. sorry about that, but life has been overwhelming and christian has been providing enough fodder for all of us.
i'd like to burst back on the scene by asking 2 questions. these questions are mainly for those of you who don't buy in to this whole jesus thing. so, i'm going to just go ahead and ask. if you don't believe in jesus, i'd really like to learn from you on this, so please invite others you know who also don't believe to stop by and leave a post.
for those of us who are believers, please refrain from responding to comments by trying to convince or change the way our guests think about jesus. this isn't the post to do that. thanks.
1) what is it about jesus that you reject? is it just too good to be true?
2) how have christians/church been a hindrance to your exploration?
please be honest and feel free to ask further questions and we'll refrain from trying to dump our version of the message on you. we value your opinion so that we can learn and grow.
posted by ryan sutherland @ 7:04 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
1. I think that it all comes down to point of view. I think that most Christians who were born Christians are such because they were born that way. If they were born into a Jewish family, then they would most likely be a Jew. Even many born again Christians were either a product of a “Christian” family, or a society in which is basically culturally Christian, in the sense that many people believe that God exists just because, well, that’s what they think that they are supposed to think.
My family kind of took the “I don’t know and don’t care” attitude. I do care, but still don’t know. Why do I reject Jesus? Well, I don’t reject him as much as I just don’t know. I see all these religions, which at most 1 is right, and they all are equally passionate about what they believe. So the question is, if you are me, then who do you believe, and why? The answer that Christians usually give is that theirs is different, that they promise different things, and such their Religion is wholly different from any other. To which I would say, yeah, maybe that is true, but that is usually a question of the effectiveness of a Religion as a social construct and not the truth of the matter. Because at the end of the day, if I don’t believe that one Religion or the other is true, then it will not be effective in any of its goals, at least in my life.
2. As far as this goes, well, I just think that Christians need better spokespeople. In fact, this was one of the first things that I told Christian when I met him almost 2 years ago. That is just the nature of groups. Only the insincere get in the papers, and the insincere are usually the ones who scream the loudest, so the good guys, or the nuanced guys get shouted out. This goes for Blacks, Women, Jews, Gays, and many more groups as well. I think that Jesus talked about this in Matthew, you know, about the dudes that prayed and preached in the Marketplace, but were full of it.
I'm a Christian now, but I figured I'd share how I used to process things.
In short: I did not see any reason why I should believe that Jesus rose from the dead, or believe the bible, etc., etc. Christians would give me explanations like, "it's inerrant," or "because it's God's word," etc., but I would always follow up with, "yeah? how do you know? prove it to me," and never found a satisfactory answer.
In the end I contented myself with saying that I heard what Christians were saying, didn't find it compelling, and would continue my own spiritual search and would see where I would end up, and if a Christian, then probably for different reasons than those given me.
Justin - good to see you reading. I'm wondering if you would care to comment on what changed your thinking? I'm just curious if there was anything in particular...
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