Posted on 01/17/2014 4:45:21 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
I'm most likely an atheist, leaning to the agnostic side of the spectrum. I know I'm a sceptic, in the true sense of the word. Or shallow. One of the two.
[snip]
About five years ago, work took me, my fellow-journalist wife and our then three-year-old child from eastern England to southwest France. We enrolled our little girl at a local Catholic school, selected purely on the recommendation of a colleague for the quality of its education.
[snip}
Being a Catholic school, an hour is set aside each week for catechism. A friend takes the class. She has often told us that our daughter is keen to learn and is visibly moved on holy days when the pupils are taken to church.
[snip]
Our little girl, however, has made a life-defining decision by herself: not only does she believe in God (capital G), but she also wants to be baptised into the Catholic faith.
[snip]
Looking back, we realised we had regularly discussed our differing beliefs. Our daughter brought us Genesis. We gave her the Michael Bay-friendly Big Bang. She brought us the Nativity and peace and goodwill at Christmas. We gave her family, friends and good food. She brought us the crucifixion. We gave her the Easter Bunny. She brought us heaven, god and an afterlife. We gave her 21st-century life and a brief future as worm fodder.
... she still had the courage of her convictions to say to both of us, to our faces and again in front of the priest, that our world view isn't enough for her. She believes. She wants to be baptised and she wants to be Catholic.
[snip]
She's taken a first step down a road that, ultimately, she'll have to travel on her own. ... She's heading where I cannot follow.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Bless them both.
As I said on the other thread, with apologies to C. S. Lewis, an atheist who wants to pass it on to his children really cannot be too careful of their schooling.
How did you get the idea that I reject the church? I don't reject the church, I just don't believe the "church" is a building with a bunch of gold and silver with robes and incense. The church is people. The point I was trying to make was he had a bad introduction to life in Christ by being an alter boy and all the ritualistic behaviors kept him from meeting with Christ. Christ doesn't want slaves, He wants true love. If rituals and speaking a dead language gets in the way, that's a shame and he should seek God where he can find Him.
I would hate for you to go though your entire life agnostic and never know a life in Christ. Believe me, there is no hate here. I realize it a journey you must go through yourself, in your own way. I hope that doesn't mean no one can ever talk to you about it.
How arrogant!
Two things quickly: That the universe is mathematical based on fundamental concepts, and that DNA has a recently discovered “layered” structure that seems more difficult to explain without a creator.
You are most welcome. Anytime I can be of help.
Please pray for my 34 year old Niece Holly she is resisting Jesus and going through chemo all at the same time ?! She needs to know her healer is Jesus Christ! My sister her mom is saved but not her Dad and he had a lot of bad influence on her obvious;y and still blasphemes and makes fun of our beliefs pretty amazing to not fear God if you ask me ?!
I will pray for Holly. Sometimes people who are openly resistant are actually the most precious, devoted hearts. I have known people like that. Keep praying, I will to!
“It has been here since the beginning, for almost 2,000 years, the oldest sustainable institution on earth.”
The religion of the Hebrews is older than the Catholic church. The Savior of the world is represented in all their Biblically mandated practices. There are in fact 7 churches mentioned in Revelation.
Sorry about missing your reply, I get so many pings and if I miss a couple of days i forget to go back far enough.
When I said to ask God for the truth, I did not say my truth, I meant His truth. I am not an infinite being and am fallen so I know I do not know all about an infinite, all-knowing God. I do believe there are as many unique relationships with God as there are people who want that relationship.
I think that you believe there is a God but that Jesus did not exist. Is that correct? You are also very intelligent. In the areas we are gifted we tend to be self-reliant, hence God said that is when we are in fact the weakest because we are not relying on God but on ourselves. My favorite and most recommended book is “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer. If I were sitting across from you at a diner I would give you mine. Amazon has it. I just noticed that it is also on Kindle so I will get it downloaded.
I am excited for you. I would love for you to have the experience of Paul on the road to Damascus but Paul was hunting down Christians when Jesus met him on that road. God tends to want us to want to know him. You are in the courtship phase. Are you going to knock on the door and ask for a date?
Paul already knew God the Father, he just had to face Jesus. If you have a Bible, Isaiah contains many prophecies of the Messiah. The one part I was just given (we learn something new every day!) is that in chapters 41-43 God is teaching about His servant. (I usually read the couple of preceding chapters of a verse because I am already familiar with why each book was written—historical context is a must for any legitimate literature study) So, God explains what His servant will be doing. The phrase that jumped out at me a couple of weeks ago, and one that gets me so excited, is in chap 43 verse 10. God says He is His servant. He wants us to understand that “I am He.” Enjoy!
No.
I am a 62 year old male who has, and uses, the only brain I was given. I honor honesty more than most and I hold myself to a higher standard of honesty than I do others. You believe what you believe. I believe what I believe. I don't care what you believe. Why are you so concerned with what I believe?
I love talking about God. Like talking about people you love. Sharing the love and wanting others to enjoy His lovingkindness is what I like to do. I share most other things I think are really cool, too, especially about the world because He made it for us and it is so complex and works so perfectly for us. This is my Father’s world! I was just singing that this evening as I walked my dogs.
Being a few years younger than you when I was in 7th grade and learned about genetics and then had biology I became hooked. And I always wonder about everything. Anyway, I took biology at college a couple of years ago and wow, what a world of difference the electron microscope has made and now the fMRI. Took neuroscience a couple of months ago and absolutely love it. I am also into art. You can look at a painting and see so much about the artist.
When military wives husbands are deployed they sometimes get together and just talk about their husbands. Same thing I guess except there is no worry about the loved One we are talking about and because we love other people we want them to know God and His love for them. No greater love!
I didn’t say religions, I said institutions. Of course the religion of the Hebrews is older. The 7 churches mentioned in Revelations are no more, not even the church in Jerusalem as established by James. In fact, some of them in Syria are now in areas controlled by Islam. And yes, the Savior of the world was prophesized in Isiah and he did come and was, and is, and will be.
I have attended a dozen different churches and saw merit in all of them but the one that I feel closest to God in, the one that begins each service with Jesus and ends it with him, the one that has administered the faith for 2,000 years, is the Catholic Church. Sorry you feel it necessary to malign another Christian faith. How very unchristian of you.
He may not like Catholics because of judgmental Pharisee's like you. Every Church has them. If you read his statement again and not hyperventilate over mine, he said he couldn't find what he wanted in a Catholic Church. That's no excuse for never looking for God because one Church was not his cup of tea. I've followed God long enough to know you can't force God down someone's throat. There used to be a denomination that put people in racks and burned them at the stake if they didn't like the local priest.
Please do not put words in my mouth. I was not talking about what Gorush said but what you said, and it appears that I am not the one being judgmental here, neither did I call you any names. We should be able to have a civil conversation here without that.
You come back with this after calling me “unchristian”? I’m very able to have a civil conversation, but I’m not a doormat.
Okay, so let’s have that civil conversation. I did not call you a pharisee, I was being critical of you denigrating a fellow Cristian faith. I have little patience on here or anywhere else for Christians who disparage other Christians because they don’t approve of their theology, especially when, as you probably know, there is an international war on ALL Christians. I happen to have no acrimony towards anyone who believes in the Lord, even if I don’t agree with their theology or the manner in which they worship. I happen to have family members and friends who are Baptists (used to be one myself), Presbyterians, Lutherans,Pentecostals,and others, and fully respect them. This is how Islam spread in the 7th Century in places that were previously Christian, like Paul’s Damascus, for example, and all of Syria and much of Turkey. Eastern, Western and African Christians were waring with each other and could produce no unity to oppose it, and by the time of the Crusades in the 12th Century, it was too late. If there was ever a time for Christians to stand united it is certainly now. I also happen to believe that Christ wants us to love one another, especially if we proclaim that we believe in him. We can have disputes and arguments on here all day about theology, history, etc. and that is good. That is one of the things that makes Christianity dynamic. We don’t all have to agree with each other on everything, but we should respect and avoid denigrating each other. After all, we are all at peril in this postmodern world.
Now you are all sideways because you are busy defending a church instead of seeking God. Stop, take a breath and re read my comments with an open mind. I don't care if gorush goes to a Catholic church or a Baptist church, he should be seeking God. If a person walks in a church building and people are mean to him, if they don't welcome him, if he isn't allowed to ask questions, he may be in the wrong place. His early years spent as an alter boy weren't fulfilling to him. Slavishly following some traditions isn't the way to find God. Maybe the priest touched him in the wrong place, I don't know. All I know is he isn't in church today and is sour on all things Godly. Only the Holy Spirit can call you to Jesus, but if he believes the Catholic church is the only way, he may be doomed to hell if he believes Catholics have some sort of corner of Jesus. Jesus said you would have to answer for keeping one of His from coming to Him. BTW, I was commenting with gorush, not you.
I'm guessing you are Catholic and perceive some slight against the Catholic Church. I said NOTHING against the Catholic Church. If Catholics don't float your boat, get in some different water. I just hated to see gorush remain out of church thinking everything is like his experience in the Catholic Church.
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