First, I have to say that I am always happy to see someone who stands firm on their views without alienating others and their opinions.

I think the point that I get from you and all the dialogue here is that you cannot use the holy book of your faith to explain its validity. As a “scholar-in-training,” I have to agree. If a person doesn’t believe the book is valid to begin with, using it as proof for anything is pointless. Even though I am consider myself a Christian woman, I have never taken the Christian Bible as the direct and strict word of God. Even when I was young, I noticed the inconsistency and the holes, holes that humans leave. More so when certain family members or other people attempted to explain the gaps to me. It went something along these lines:

“Where are the dinosaurs in the bible?”

“There were no dinosaurs in real life.”

“Then where did all the bones in the history museum come from?

“They were made by atheists to drive you from your faith.”

“But people find fossils in their backyards all the time…”

“……”

When I got to college, as an Agnostic, and began studying religion (not any religion specifically), I realized everyday in my Christianity courses that the words of the Bible were written by certain men for a certain people for a certain time, an explanation that apparently no one I had spoken to had come up with. I highly doubt that setting a prostitute on fire or requiring a man to have sex with his late brother’s sister to provide an heir would go over well in the 21st century world or even be considered ethical by most people’s standards.

I also don’t attempt to explain my religious experience as proof either. Language has a way of getting many things across, but experience is not one of them. Its like trying to explain how chocolate tastes. It would go something like this:

“I’ve never had chocolate. What does it taste like?”

“Well, its sweet but kind of bitter at the same time.”

“Sweet and bitter? But they’re completely opposite tastes. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“You just have to taste it for yourself.”

And even then, they might not even like chocolate, or may describe its taste differently. Not saying that religion is like chocolate, but it just proves the point on language and its boundaries. Not to mention that people interpret different experiences many ways. Sometimes a similar experience will lead to the Christianity. Sometimes it leads to Wicca (like my ex-boyfriend and my best friend, which didn’t go over well with some family members). Sometimes it leads to Atheism.

In addition, to try to invalidate others points of view or religions as “misguided” is ridiculous. Not implying that anyone on here is (I haven’t been able to read ALL of the comments yet), just pointing out that there are some within religious faiths who do so as a weak rebuttal.

A friend of mine, a reverend, doesn’t try to convert people. If they ask, she tells them as best she can what she feels. But ultimately she says, “I can’t force a Hindu woman to get out of her Volkswagen and into my Toyota.” Over dinner once, we had a pretty wonderful conversation. It circled around how even though we consider ourselves Christian women, so many religions came before ours, can we be sure ours is right? We still have no definitive answer, and we both are completely content with it.

I also see some things differently than a lot of people in terms of religion in general. I don’t see God, Allah, Jehovah, YHWH, Shiva, etc. as different entities. Just different interpretations based on people’s previous experiences and surroundings. Unfortunately, as a result of a differing view than mine, the world has had to endure many pointless “holy” wars to defeat other people’s Gods/ Goddesses.

I completely understand why someone would become an Atheist. For that matter, I can see why people follow a lot of different faiths.

I’m sorry if this might seem long-winded and maybe disjointed. I’m usually not up this early and I guess I’m trying to answer questions before you ask them. But I’m sure you’ll find some, and I am happy to answer them as best I can with the limit of language I know.

:]

Cass

Stephanie is pretty, Peter is pretty smart and funny.

You don’t need to expect it at all, if God wants your attention, He will get it. Probably not through Peter’s jokes, but you never know. Peter is pretty smart for a theist though, you have to give him that.