Do your religious beliefs 'liberate' you?

Originally posted by @gswilm
FMF can follow this with a testimony of an Atheist gaining freedom (if he or she even believes it is necessary) from homosexuality.

"He or she" who?

Originally posted by @gswilm
Freedom from all the carnal affections,
Freedom from envy, hatred and strife;
Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions.
Freedom from all that saddened my life.
Freedom from pride and all sinful follies,
Freedom from love and glitter of gold;
Freedom from evil temper and anger,
Glorious freedom, rapture untold.

BUMP for sonship.

You never feel envy, hatred and strife, or any temper or anger? You are not vain? Not ambitious? You don't exhibit pride? You engage in no "sinful follies"? Nothing saddens you anymore because of your religious beliefs? Does "freedom from all the carnal affections" mean you are celibate or have a loss of interest in sex? Do you think non-Christians cannot legitimately claim to enjoy any of the freedoms in your hymn?

Originally posted by @fmf
BUMP for sonship.

You never feel envy, hatred and strife, or any temper or anger? You are not vain? Not ambitious? You don't exhibit pride? You engage in no "sinful follies"? Nothing saddens you anymore because of your religious beliefs? Does "freedom from all the carnal affections" mean you are celibate or have a loss of interest in sex? Do you think non-Christians cannot legitimately claim to enjoy any of the freedoms in your hymn?

Are you a chess player that never loses a game now ?
Hey, I thought you were a chess player!

Are you a song writer that never recognizes that a certain musical move didn't quite work that time?
Hey, I thought you were a song writer.

I am also free to learn to walk spiritually just as I gradually learned to walk in the natural realm, by growth and practice.

Today, I have had experiences of freedom in Christ.

Do you think non-Christians cannot legitimately claim to enjoy any of the freedoms in your hymn?

I want to do it in Christ, His way.
You're welcome to join Frank Sinatra in praise of YOUR way.
Knock yourself out

YouTube&list=RDljrFQyE1hAg

Originally posted by @sonship
Are you a chess player that never loses a game now ?
Hey, I thought you were a chess player!

Are you a song writer that never recognizes that a certain musical move didn't quite work that time?
Hey, I thought you were a song writer.

I am also free to learn to walk spiritually just as I gradually learned to walk in the natural realm, by growth and practice.

Today, I have had experiences of freedom in Christ.

Is there any substance to any kind of claim you are making with the words to the hymn or are you just spamming this thread?

Originally posted by @sonship
I want to do it in Christ, His way.
You're welcome to join Frank Sinatra in praise of YOUR way.

I am not asking "How do you want to live your life?" I am responding to words you posted in reply to a post by me. The question was "Do you think non-Christians cannot legitimately claim to enjoy any of the freedoms mentioned in your hymn?"

Originally posted by @sonship
Are you a song writer that never recognizes that a certain musical move didn't quite work that time? Hey, I thought you were a song writer.

We are not talking about any song I have written. We are talking about a song someone else has written and which you have quoted. Stop deflecting. Are you now suggesting - with reference to the song you quoted - that it may be a case of "a certain musical move [that] didn't quite work that time"?

Originally posted by @fmf
I am not asking "How do you want to live your life?" I am responding to words you posted in reply to a post by me. The question was "Do you think non-Christians cannot legitimately claim to enjoy any of the freedoms mentioned in your hymn?"

Any person may legitimately in some some or another area exercise good human virtues. Any person may be restricted from abject wickedness by the "breaking system" of their God created conscience.

Thank God human idealistic culture preserves things from becoming completely corrupt.
Thank God, the unbeliever's conscience can act as a breaking system restricting some evil doing. In fact sometime an unbeliever in God may put a Christian to shame.

This was seen in Paul's letter to the Corinthians when He scolded them. He said that there was a form of fornication happening in the church in Corinth which was not even practiced by the outsiders the surrounding world.

" It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication which is not even among the nations, that someone has his father's wife.

And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned that the one who has done this deed might be removed from your midst." (1 Cor. 5:1,2)

I am so glad for the candidness of the Bible.

Originally posted by @sonship
Any person may legitimately in some some or another area exercise good human virtues.

So why did you post the lyrics if they apply to "any person" ?

Originally posted by @fmf
"There is something I recognise about religion that we evangelical atheists haven’t really grappled with yet, which is that it gives people a chance to surrender. What religion says to you, essentially, is: you’re not in control. Now, that’s a very liberating idea." - Brian Eno

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Do your nonreligious beliefs 'liberate' you?

Originally posted by @dj2becker
Do your nonreligious beliefs 'liberate' you?

Well, as I have explained before, I personally think the curiosity-inhibiting, pre-packed "solutions" that a retail religion (like Christianity) gives superstitious people, are a kind of 'squandering' of the human spirit and our intellectual and spiritual faculties, so in that sense, yes, I think freeing oneself from such a limited ideology is a kind of liberation. But as you know, I have no regrets about my Christian years, so it's not as if it's any kind of freed from mental bondage kind of thing.

Originally posted by @fmf
Well, as I have explained before, I personally think the curiosity-inhibiting, pre-packed "solutions" that a retail religion (like Christianity) gives superstitious people, are a kind of 'squandering' of the human spirit and our intellectual and spiritual faculties, so in that sense, yes, I think freeing oneself from such a limited ideology is a kind of libera ...[text shortened]... my Christian years, so it's not as if it's any kind of freed from mental bondage kind of thing.

If Christianity was 'squandering' your human spirit and your intellectual and spiritual faculties, how was that not mental bondage?

Originally posted by @dj2becker
So when you were a Christian you felt that Christianity was 'squandering' your human spirit and your intellectual and spiritual faculties?

What a daft question. It's as if you haven't read or understood anything I have posted.

Originally posted by @dj2becker
...how was [being a Christian] not mental bondage?

I have told you several times what I felt about my Christian beliefs when I was a Christian, including on this thread. I don't feel the need to repeat myself.

Originally posted by @fmf
What a daft question. It's as if you haven't read or understood anything I have posted.

Your dodge is noted yet again.