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PinkAzalea

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  1. romansh, Thank you for your attention. I know a lot of people enjoy this kind of discussion, but I don't. I'm not saying you were rude; obviously you weren't. It may be my mistake to have posted on this board, now that I reread the blurb. Debate, argument, examining yourself and rethinking all your decisions and attitudes, instead of just living it--not what I'm looking for. I'm more apt to go sit under a shade tree, relax, and listen to the birds. Absolutely no hard feelings, and I hope you don't have any either. --Pink
  2. It's lunchtime so just a few notes here: On evil, a Christian told me that the reason I have trouble believing is that I haven't accepted my sinful nature. Well, I don't feel sinful. No parent wants their child to confess to a bad deed they didn't do. So I'm at a loss on that one. War, oh yes. In the Bible Jesus said that He came to bring peace, then He said He came not with peace, but with a sword. ???? Seems like if you want to believe in the Bible, you have to forget about consistency and just--I don't know. Just accept what's there? I may try that if I can't find another way. I'm not interested in all the human, Christian attempts to explain away these things. I'll listen to God if He's willing to tell me about it. I do have a small hope that this will happen. I've heard that thing about the horses. I didn't know it extended to cows. Do you suppose that's where the golden calf idols came from in the Old Testament? Somebody found some cow art. I had forgotten the Bible verse about "whoever is not against us." It's very comforting to me; thank you. I'm not against Christianity. I'm clinging to Christianity not just because of habit, upbringing, and culture, but also because of a person I know, and because of some religious-like experiences I've had. The person was my Uncle John, one of the nicest, most decent people I've ever known. He was a Christian. He made no secret of it, but he didn't beat you over the head with it. He just sat there, ready to help whoever needed it, radiating peace and acceptance of everyone. He wasn't stupid. So how did he get like that? I'd like to know, and maybe even be like that myself. The experiences I had: do you think I should write about them? On a separate thread? Although they're not very weird, and I already know some alternate explanations for them, I don't think anybody would believe them. When I hear anybody else making such claims, I wonder if they're faking or were coming down with a fever or something. But the experiences are real to me, and keep me hoping.
  3. Hi romansh, I haven't figured out how to divide a quote into pieces, and also my computer is doing strange things today, so if this post ends in an incomplete sentence, I didn't do it. As for why God would want me to choose a religion: Doesn't make sense, does it, when there are so many, some of them saying that the others are evil, and some of the ones referred to saying that the referrer is evil. We Christians, the ones like me, are raised to think that God is very demanding and wants us to choose without actually having any real basis, except maybe for those people God has personally appeared to. That's why I get into speculations about how to pick the "right" religion. I'm doing the best I can. I never thought much of Pascal's wager because I never thought you could just choose for your advantage and have it mean anything. Do I need a holy text? Kind of. I want one, anyway. Where did my wants come from? I don't know; God, evolution, whatever. But they are firmly attached to me and one of them is not to spend the rest of my life in pointless, to me, analysis of things I've never been able to learn a darn thing about. I haven't found a life of hedonism to be rewarding, and being kind to others is more satisfying but still not enough. So here I am at Progressive Christianity. I was hoping to be able to discuss how to live with Christianity and intelligence both. There are some things that are just hard to believe even when you want to be a Christian. The idea of a loving God and an eternal Hell, why God would allow someone to be born if He knew that the person would end up in Hell, faith being a gift but there are things you're supposed to do to get it--well, that's an argument among various Christian factions and even down to the individual level. I'm not trying to figure them out. I'm going straight to the horse's mouth and reading the Bible. To say that I'm looking for discussion about Christianity is not to belittle your input. It makes me think and has clarified what I'm looking for. You pushed me towards more Christianity. I hope you don't mind.
  4. I see what you mean, Paul (Paul? Oh no! Inside joke). It's early yet, though. Thank you for the welcome.
  5. I'm not used to talking about this subject with other people. It would have been better if I had been more clear. The first part was just getting stuff out of the way. When I think about choosing a religion, I think about which one God would want me to choose, since if there is no God it hardly matters and I could choose the one I like. If God is running things, the most-followed religion would seem to be the one He favors. It didn't say it WOULD be, but I was going on what little I could reason out. I realize that all of your points are good. I'm not much of a debater; I just think and sometimes write down what I come up with. On this whole subject, I'm basically just thrashing around in the woods.
  6. Hello, Elizabeth. I'm new here, just today. Now that it's 10 days since your first post about this, have things gotten any better? I don't think I should say much before I know, since people make adjustments sometimes in unexpected ways. I will say that I have been disappointed in my attempts to believe in the unseen. Maybe I'm getting closer to a resolution. If you get there first, please let me know where "there" is. PS. The Bible has been one of my main stumbling blocks but I keep reading, hoping to see something that pulls it together.
  7. This is not just in Christianity--I've looked into other religions. Christianity is reportedly the largest religion, so seems to me the most likely to be right, and I was raised in that environment ("bloom where you're planted" thinking) and it attracts me for other reasons, too much to go into here. However, its message seems to me to be a lot about how you treat other people. For some people--this includes me--believing in the invisible* (see end of post) doesn't come easily. Does that make us the most evil of people? Skepticism is generally a good thing in the material world we seem to be living in. Why would God torment us for it? One explanation I've thought of is that actually many of the rules in the Bible are just things that are good for us as human beings in the material world. Pork tends to give you parasites if you don't cook it right. Having at least one day a week when you don't work has been proven to be healthier. Prayer is a form of meditation, etc. So maybe believing in someone watching over us is a good thing--unless you get into all this complicated stuff about being born sinful, and faith being a gift but if you don't have it you'd better make haste to get it because if you don't, bad news. What would be wrong, if God does exist but I can't know it, with following the most-repeated Biblical principles and feeling respectful towards what God or Gods may have given us life and a planet that supports us? If we don't know, should we try to lie to ourselves and other people? I keep an open mind and in fact ask God regularly to make it possible for me to know Him. I have a few faults, like gossip and not giving as much to charity as I probably could, but I'm working on those. I don't think I'm a terrible "sinner." The emphasis on one God only is also difficult for me to understand. How would I know? God could have a son if He wanted to. He could have 100 children, or 7.89 billion. Maybe He has brothers and sisters, etc. I don't see any disrespect in thinking those things possible. But maybe there's some advantage to US to believe that there's only one such being. It would make prayers simpler. Apologies to God if what I'm saying is wrong, but I'm trying to make sense of things that are puzzling to me. And if someone reading this knows that God is there, I'm not saying that you don't. I'm not saying that millions of Christians don't. I'm just talking about those of us who by our natures tend to question things, even if we'd rather believe them. (* Or accessible to other senses, or easily reproducible. As best I know, I believe in electricity largely because 99% of the time, if I flip a switch, the light or fan or whatever comes on.)
  8. I don't know much about "PC" yet but there seems to be low activity here and I want to help change that, so anybody who happens by will see more recent posts. So I'm jumping in with a mostly-uninformed opinion. What Progressive Christianity means to me right now is the possibility of a religion I can really get into. While I was raised a Christian and while I sometimes believe in God and even Jesus, there are many things about Christianity that just don't add up for me. Maybe here people look at those things and if necessary discard them. It also means the possibility of finding people I can connect with, who don't for instance feel the deep and abiding guilt that many online Christians seem to have, and think I should have too. I'm hoping for people who also don't think they have all the answers. A pastor once told me to beware of people who think they have all the answers. So what Progressive Christianity means to me right now is the hope of something I can follow without lying to myself, and a way to connect with people who also want that.
  9. Hi. I'm new here. I went to the grocery store this morning. Here in the USA, we are starting to have some shortages again, but it's not too bad. Example: I buy lactose-free milk. I usually have several choices of brand and fat content, but today, if I wanted anything but whole milk, I could choose a larger container than I usually get which I may not use completely before it spoils, or an expensive organic container. (I got one of each, for what that tells about me, if you want to start getting to know me.) It was early morning and there were very few people in the store. I don't think I saw anyone with a mask. I would have if I had looked in a mirror--for what that tells about me, if you're still wanting to get to know me. 🙂 The rest of the day will be pretty ordinary.
  10. Hi. I just joined. I don't know much about Progressive Christianity, but I have some problems with the regular version. I'll be reading around on the site to see if you are a group of people I can relate to. That would be rare and wonderful. I'm a retired woman, long ago divorced, living in the Southeastern United States. I'm quiet and respectful but occasionally say something funny. My interests are books, DVD movies, jigsaw puzzles, lakes and ponds and streams, music, and really a lot of things that I dabble in, not concentrating on any one of them.
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