I only write un-fun things these days.

[topleka]

It occurs to me that although many people consider themselves some form of Christian, the idea of "Christianity" is rather broad one these days, often contradicting in nature. There are a number of denominations that argue semantics like diet and how exactly one gets into heaven, and a lot of related religions like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses

Comments

[shaktool]

Would it be unfair to distill it even more to humility + faith?

Speaking as an almost sure atheist, I feel that:
-humility is awesome in the context of personal development and social relationships.
-faith is awesome in the context of personal development and social relationships.
-some atheists are bad at recognizing these ideas.
-when these ideas are presented as stories about a guy named Jesus and simultaneously presented as universal truths that are above questioning, I worry that people are extrapolating more than they should, confusing wisdom with truth.

Am I misrepresenting?

[topleka]

I think it's better to distill is as humility+faith+repentance.

Not only admitting that one is imperfect, but also remorse over past wrongs and the drive to be better.

[bigtunit1]

While I don't agree with everything you have written, I can respect you for believing it. As long as it brings you happiness, then there is nothing wrong with that method of thinking^^
I guess I'll just meet you halfway there, and leave it at that.

[aurianna]

So on the "good" thing.
My own personal opinion based on my just sitting there, lalala-ing is that no person is solely good or solely evil. No one is purely good, because everyone has sin, impure thoughts, etc, but no one (or very few, anyway) is purely evil, because so many people do have good intentions and love in their hearts etc.
I think those who try to lead good lives and live as Jesus did, and who recognize their mistakes and ask forgiveness for them, and embrace God as their one and only Lord, then yup. Hopefully they're good to go.

But just a logistics question:
"Only the Father in heaven is good."
But in Genesis, God himself says that man is very good. Are you considering that null & void because of the whole Eden thing, or do the Gospels just trump the Old Testament?

[topleka]

Well, I partially feel Jesus was trying to see if the guy would actually agree to the statement. The dude had called him "good" (Greek: agathos, meaning good by its very nature), and Jesus said that only God is good. It was his form of asking the guy basically, "Do you think I am God?" But it also indicated that humans are not "good by nature."

In Genesis, God saw all his work and said it was good (Hebrew: tobe, meaning pleasing). He was saying that he was happy with his workmanship and it pleased him. Although I do believe that in Eden, things were, in fact, perfect and good.

[aurianna]

oooooh. I didn't think about the different translations (agathos vs tobe). That makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

[masaka_naraku]

Interesting entry. =D

[atomicteresa]

I ended up writing something stupidly long, so I e-mailed you instead. Not sure if it got there since I've never used the address on Facebook before.

[topleka]

It doesn't seem to have arrived. The @alumni.cmu.edu thing should work, since I keep getting homecoming reminders from CMU.