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Original poster

Question for the Christians

343 replies

hiddenhome · 31/03/2012 17:35

Just wonderin' 'n' musin' like. Do you ever get fed up or feel uncomfortable with the amount of blasphemy on the main boards? I've been noticing it more and more recently. I don't know why people think that this isn't offensive or unpleasant. I don't think they'd do it to other religions Makes me wonder why people are so vehemently anti Christian, then keep making these references. Also, can't understand why people can't equate a religious person's love for God to an atheist's love for their family and children. They wouldn't like to be insulted over their love for their dcs, but quite happily take the pee and dish it out to the faith people. Sometimes they're even hostile and aggressive about it. I find the boards quite slack liberally minded, but don't know why they don't extend this liberalism to everyone. If you truly choose equality, doesn't it mean that the equality should extend to those you don't agree with and even actively dislike?

I know we're supposed to take it as part of being a Christian, but was just wondering how others felt really.

OP posts:

LineRunner · 04/04/2012 19:06

I may of course be talking utter crap.

seeker · 04/04/2012 19:06

Still waiting for a single example of an answered prayer.

BonfireOfKleenex · 04/04/2012 19:25

MrsMcCave - "I think God looks at the bigger picture and knows better than we do what it is that we need."

But what do you mean by that? The concept of the bigger picture can be explained by just 'life' really, can't it? The 5 yo who wishes for chocolate at every meal won't have their wish granted as they (hopefully) have parents who sort out an alternative which is better for them. The teenager who wants total independence is over-ruled by their more responsible parents. The airhead 20-something who thinks the world will just provide for them gets a rude awakening when they realise they have to earn a living.

Yes you could use a metaphorical god-figure looking down and 'guiding' people through their follies, or you could explain it just by the fact that some things are just a stupid idea in the first place and the protagonist was fairly unlikely to get their way anyway.

Do you really imagine there is an entity who is sorting the whole thing out on a case-by-case basis?

seeker · 04/04/2012 19:27

"Do you really imagine there is an entity who is sorting the whole thing out on a case-by-case basis?"

And if there is, what has he got against babies in sub Saharan Africa?

Original poster

hiddenhome · 04/04/2012 19:52

seeker nobody can possibly prove that a prayer has been answered It's all down to interpretation as any atheist knows full well. What is an answered prayer for one person, is just good fortune or luck or just a random event to another.

OP posts:

BonfireOfKleenex · 04/04/2012 19:57

And yes, sadly you can extrapolate my examples of 'life' to the really shitty end of 'the bigger picture'.

Famine and disease don't need a god to explain them. It's also fairly obvious that the world is a better place when people are being kind to each other - again, you don't need a god to reach that conclusion.

Original poster

hiddenhome · 04/04/2012 20:04

No, you don't need a god to reach that conclusion, but perhaps you do need God to help you reach out to others in love and kindness.

OP posts:

BonfireOfKleenex · 04/04/2012 20:07

"No, you don't need a god to reach that conclusion, but perhaps you do need God to help you reach out to others in love and kindness."

But what does that mean - that only religious people reach out to others in love and kindness? I'm pretty sure that isn't what you meant as it's patently untrue. But if not then do you mean that some people are so inherently mean and unkind that only a belief in God can help them to be nice?

seeker · 04/04/2012 20:10

Well, surely at some time over the last 2000 years the would have been at least one prayer answering that would give me pause- that I would have to stop and think before I dismissed it?

Original poster

hiddenhome · 04/04/2012 20:15

You don't need to have faith in God to be nice, but if you notice, most organisations who respond to disasters tend to be faith based. You don't tend to find groups of atheists going around responding in the same way.

seeker I prayed that my husband would survive a major operation when his life was in danger. He did survive. That could be down to either God answering my prayer, or the skill of the doctors, or a combination of the two. Perhaps it was just luck. Take your pick. It's all down to interpretation as well you know. People don't go around advertising when they're prayers have been answered.

OP posts:

seeker · 04/04/2012 20:18

"You don't need to have faith in God to be nice, but if you notice, most organisations who respond to disasters tend to be faith based. You don't tend to find groups of atheists going around responding in the same way. "

What, like Oxfam, the Red Cross and Medecin sans Frontiers?

Original poster

hiddenhome · 04/04/2012 20:28

Oxfam started out as a Christian charity, as did The Red Cross. The only secular one is Medicin sans Frontiers.

OP posts:

BonfireOfKleenex · 04/04/2012 20:32

There are plenty of people working for charitable organisations of all sorts who aren't devout, or even practising Christians.

You could possibly even argue that these people are somehow more Christian, as they aren't doing it with any idea of rewards in heaven.

seeker · 04/04/2012 20:38

Oxfam was, I think, started by a vicar. But not as a Christian organisation. The red cross has, I think, always been secular.

Original poster

hiddenhome · 04/04/2012 20:39

I wasn't thinking of the people who are working there, but the spirit in which many of these organisations were set up with. Many of the original people and ideas were Christian. Would these organisations have been set up in the first place without the faith of their founders? Who knows.

Why are you all so uncomfortable with the idea of faith? You all seem very defensive. It's a shame. Are we really so unpleasant and worthless?

OP posts:

Original poster

hiddenhome · 04/04/2012 20:40

The people who started The Red Cross were Calvanists.

OP posts:

LineRunner · 04/04/2012 20:43

Oxfam was always secular. It was intended to drive food through a political blockade during the war, as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief.

Quakers were an instrumental part of this amazing movement.

Just as they are now, in saying that they will marry gay couples in their places of worship.

Original poster

hiddenhome · 04/04/2012 20:46

Oxfam began as a church affiliated food programme.

These organisations have their roots in faith even if they are classed as secular now.

OP posts:

seeker · 04/04/2012 20:46

Dunant and Moynier were Calvinists. but the organisation was was never ever a Christian organisation.

headinhands · 04/04/2012 20:47

Hidden, I'm very glad to hear your dh pulled through the op. How is he? But if god could supernaturally guide the hands of the already highly trained surgeons why didn't he just heal your dh without the need for an op? And what about in previous times before there were operations? Did god just say 'no way buster, I'm not going in there without a surgeon?'.

LineRunner · 04/04/2012 20:48

But my 'roots are in faith'. I believe many things.

seeker · 04/04/2012 20:50

"Oxfam began as a church affiliated food programme."

Sorry- but no it wasn't- it was started as a pressure group to get supplies into war torn Greece through a blockade.

MrsMcCave · 04/04/2012 20:50

Lay down your fleece, seeker. I was just a cultural Christian until a whole chain of odd coincidences convinced me that someone was looking after me.

Original poster

hiddenhome · 04/04/2012 20:50

seeker yes, I know that it wasn't a Christian organisation, but the people who began it were Christians. What do you think motivated them in the first place?

The Quakers began as a faith group. I don't know what they believe in now.

My dh pulled through the op, yes. I don't know why he survived. You obviously have your beliefs and I have mine.

OP posts:

OhdearNigel · 04/04/2012 20:52

I find it quite annoying, offensive and hypocritical as I often wonder how many posters would be so freely abusive to a Muslim poster

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