to think it is rude to persistently refer to God/Allah/etc. as an "imaginary friend"

[AtheneNoctua]

even after asked not to by several posters who have stated they found it offensive.

Just popped my head in here, only read last page , but I kind of go with snarky on this.

I guess the stories/parables etc are important to some people. What is important to me is loving/caring/caretaking others.

Not all Christians are the same - I despise American baptist pro-death penalty types for instance (if ever I wished God to smite ) and because we're not the same it would be nice if you didn't lump us all in together and call us a bit stupid and bad at relationships.

It's a book, many people disagree over interpretations of various laws and edicts, that is not new. There are many liberal, non-nutty Christians so I'm not on my own.

And I make my own mind up because this is the mind I was born with.

Onager, to have faith does not necessrily imply that you are religious, I am not religious, but I do have faith, a strong one borne out of searching for and finding my own personal relationship with God, through Jesus christ and the holy spirit, it had nothing to do with being brought up in a church going family, neither do I hold with long dresses or swinging incense or other man made trappings of any establishment. My faith is my own, found by myself and practised with humility, humanity and tolerance. I have not lost my faith, religiousity I never had.

I value love/caring/neighbourliness etc too. So do most people. Being a Christian entails rather more... try as you might, you're not going to make a logical reconciled argument for a valid Christian position which doesn't include following the scriptures!

Is there any particular prescriptive and didactic scriptures you have issue with ?

I love that you just said I wasn't a Christian if I had parted from some Unnamed-as-yet scriptures.

LOL

Have you read the New Testament? You should really try it, if you get your jollies defending Christianity

And you can find a bit of helpful gen on the scriptures/gospels on Wiki

Which Scriptures?????

all of them? fish on fridays? wife-beating? hats? calendars?

I do follow the scriptures, I just don't interpret them in the dogmatic, people-hating, bear-baiting, war-mongering, mindless way you're suggesting.

Do you really think most Christians are still following some mad interpreted-strangely set of weird rules?

The Beatitudes is always a goof place to start - but yes, generally the thing Christ himself laid down - from turning the other cheek to conducting the Eucharist properly etc. I'm sure we've all read the Bible ad nauseam so let's not get bogged down in detail.

We weren't debating the validity of what's in the gospels, we were addressing the point I made that being a Christian involves following the dictates/principles/values lais down by somebody else, including the will of God in one's choices and taking comfort in his alleged presence.

Nobody's really responded to that point yet.

Not of all andiem, it is saying some non believer WORRY they do not have what some believers have, this has been my experience, I speak as I find, you seem to have misinterpreted the observation.ps I am not deluded!

I really love it when people who are not Christians are so sure of who is and isn't and what they're allowed to believe. I seem to be an insult to them - how dare anyone not fit into the neat little box that they have decided to define as Christianity, but not join them outside that box condemning those inside as stupid.

LOL goof [freudian]

Have you ever done the Alpha Course? It's very interesting (in a horrid sort of way)

It wasn't I who defined the neat little box Christians choose to live in.

Perhaps you could explain what you perceive as being wrong with following the "dictates/principles/values lai(d) down by somebody else, including the will of God in one's choices and taking comfort in his alleged presence" and then I'll do my best to defend it. As it stands, I don't see what defence this need (bearing in mind you do not wish to debate the contents of the rules, but the following of them).

Snarky, I have lost the plot, what are you trying to say in a nutshell?

OP- yes, it is rude- we should all respect others' beliefs and non-beliefs.

However it is not on to start another thread about a poster in this way- some people are rude, some are not, just as some people are believers, some are not. MN does attract opinionated people- those who don't have an opinion on a thread don't post on it!

FWIW I had to leave that thread, I was about to burst a blood vessel. Intelligent debate is healthy, and something which scholars of all religions welcome. One poster was utterly pertinacious, and there is no point in reasoning with people like that.

I did say exactly what I thought was unhealthy about it in an earlier post, georgimama.

Which one? There have been so many.

I have to admit, I'm rather losing the thread of this argument.

You are right, noone should get bogged down in detail - detail has nothing to do with Christianity. Prescribing how you carry out a Eucharist has to do with religiosity and convention which is very different.

The will of God in one's choices - I'll try and answer that. I generally know what I'm supposed to do (for many reasons, not just god) but my free will actually chooses. I do not always choose the right thing as I'm (naturally) an idiot at times. I'll give you an example - I once stole something 18 years ago from a supermarket as I was hungry and didn't have the money for it. God told me not to and instead to go to my friends house and ask her for a meal. I was too proud and ignored him. The next day i was at my friends (not a close friend - which is one of the reasons I was proud) and she was making tea and she brought out this huge quiche and said "do you want this, we had a meeting(a homeless charity they ran) last night and there was all this food left over - I had to throw a load out which I felt right bad about but it had been sitting out all night".

So I consider what God may or may not be saying (when I ask, he's not this weird booming voice in my head) when I'm not sure or I'm about to make a stupid choice.

Not listening to that every second of the day does not make me not a Christian.

As said I follow no dictates/principles/values that I do not choose for myself.

You asked about the comfort of God's presence - much less so for me since I stopped believing in heaven or hell (a lot of Christians believe in an after life). I am comforted that I am living a worthwhile life according to what I want/need and doing the best I can.

OK, found it (I think) which I will copy and paste below not to be arsey but because it's two pages back and it will help if I can see it while I type:

"A Christian's relationship with god in my opinion closely resembles the relationship between a child and an imaginary friend - it serves a very similar psychological purpose on several levels (displacement of resonsibility for decisions, abdication of responsibility for wrongdoing, emotional comfort when human rekationships aren't providing it, etc) and it's a legitimate analogy IMO because it illustrates exactly why I personally think religion isn't a healthy influence on an adult human psyche."

OK, well I can't agree that Christianity allows you to do any of those things.

My decisions are my own, the consequences something I choose to live with, same as anyone else. Yes, I do on occasion pray for guidance, but I have no illusion that because I ask God for help and then I do something, that I am therefore acting out His will- I'm not Henry VIII!!!

I don't understand to whom or how you think Christianity allow its followers to abdicate responsibility for wrong doing? I do believe in the power of evil but if I do wrong, that is my fault not anyone else's.

As for providing comfort when human relationships aren't providing it, we all have crutches for that. Some turn to alcohol, some to exercise, some to MN, some to prayer. Am struggling, again, to see the problem with this. Fair enough that you do not seem to need faith in your life, but many people derive immense comfort from it and I cannot see what is wrong with that.

I am full of admiration for those of you who can be bothered to engage with snarky.

I'm turning the other cheek SixSpot .

and I'm just pissed off that she implied I was a bit thick