tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649179563624525119.post6475454195422323629..comments2023-06-22T13:59:01.275-05:00Comments on The Scientific Universalist: Religion and MoralitySammyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11513507615980707905noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649179563624525119.post-36386055126764826452011-03-18T05:47:35.971-05:002011-03-18T05:47:35.971-05:00@Andrew-
I have encountered that argument as well...@Andrew-<br /><br />I have encountered that argument as well. Instead of recognizing the fact that every single person struggles with sin, they close their eyes and put their hands over their ears and pretend that the moment you convert to Christianity you become completely immune to sin and the problems of life. This creates an environment where people refuse to confess they are having problems and ask for help because they are terrified their church will reject them for not being perfect. Unfortunatly, that's a completely justified fear. The church's good reputation comes before their Christian duty to assist others, although they'd never admit it. <br /><br />What's even worse is when a member of a fundamentalist church is involved in some kind of scandal (whether local or national), and the other church members are absolutely shocked. If they were not so obsessed with moral superiority, the scandal might never have occurred. But, by that point, the church leaders are too busy rationalizing the scandal away by claiming that real Christians could never perform such an act to realize they probably had the power to prevent it. <br /><br />@Don-<br /><br />It makes me extremely sad as well. They put an enormous amount of energy in defining who is "in" and who is "out". It is such a waste. What is even worse for me is that these are some genuinely wonderful people who could do amazing things for the good of the world, but have been instilled with the doctrine of exclusivity from childhood. <br /><br />@Bruce-<br /><br />In the church I grew up in, being right was absolutely everything. Nothing else truly mattered if we weren't right. Even today, that mindset still affects me. I can get so caught up on whether my theology is "right" that I can lose track of the big picture. I have to remind myself that not getting all the tiny details perfect or not knowing all the answers is OK.Sammyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11513507615980707905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649179563624525119.post-15838509089245315172011-03-17T20:16:52.798-05:002011-03-17T20:16:52.798-05:00A quick comment to Andrew. As his run in with a fu...A quick comment to Andrew. As his run in with a fundy shows, fundamentalists are like Nazi's striving to have a pure race. (church) over 25 years as a pastor I ran off a lot of good people. They didn't meet my template for a Christian. I bitterly regret hurting people, good people who had the misfortune of being on the wrong side of an issue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649179563624525119.post-51529030955319956762011-03-17T20:11:42.935-05:002011-03-17T20:11:42.935-05:00Great post. For me, the most important thing was b...Great post. For me, the most important thing was being right. In my mind I believed that by striving to be right I was closer to God. Such thinking breeds arrogance.<br /><br />As a non- Christian I have come to see that rightness is not the end all and it is ok not to know. Within 20 years I am likely to be dead and gone. My time is better served helping others and trying to pass on things that matter. Sadly, much of my Christian life was spent striving after things that didn't matter.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649179563624525119.post-45748521953343336652011-03-17T10:14:34.496-05:002011-03-17T10:14:34.496-05:00Personal knowledge of conservatives is for me base...Personal knowledge of conservatives is for me based on my own experience as one and my perception of conservatives through my eldest son who is one to this day. My experience with true fundamentalists, for example, fundamentalist Baptists (Missionary Baptists) is limited to friends of that persuasion and to what I read about them. <br />I find precious little difference between them. The exclusivity of both makes me very sad.Donhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04148676728860411325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649179563624525119.post-83273882385498558742011-03-17T07:07:15.393-05:002011-03-17T07:07:15.393-05:00I was just on a Fundamentalists blog, and he made ...I was just on a Fundamentalists blog, and he made use of the argument that Christians who do bad things aren't really Christians. So, like you said, they are always going to see themselves as morally superior, because they jettison anyone who might hinder their argument that way.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494823779999456396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649179563624525119.post-45013548490164425722011-03-17T07:03:57.957-05:002011-03-17T07:03:57.957-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12494823779999456396noreply@blogger.com