08 May '14 10:47>
Originally posted by yoctobyteI discuss matters, not persons. (Unless someone is trying to discuss personal things.) I know you of what you write, not of who you are, because of what you are I don't know anything unless you tell me.
You read too deep my friend into something that is not there. To start, I don't see your remarks towards me as criticizing, I have no hard feelings by anything you say and I surely am not insulted by any of your comments... I don't even know you. I would think there should be a relationship in place to feel the sting of another's words, especially from s ...[text shortened]... here, you now just need to open you eyes and see them, you have to want to see them.
Regards.
Back to business. You feel all right to not understand, to label it mystery is okay by you. Fine with me, but that is not who I am. When there is something I don't understand, I ask. If I don't get answers, then I try again. When I find a paradox, I'm sure that there is an answer that can resolve this paradox. If not, I don't like the situation. It's like a mathematician get a solution of an equation that 1=2. Then he expect that he has done something wrong somewhere. If he cannot find the error, then he feels very uneasy. So do I.
"God loves us unconditionally" is a paradox for me. (1) Because he send people he loves to the burning lakes of fire for eternity. That's not love. (2) That he kills all people of earth (except eight) during the flood. Sinners, innocent, children and animals are left to drown. That's not love. (3) The church force people to have opinions that church allows, no others. they even burn people alive for that. Instead of letting god judge. that's not love. This is a paradox for me. An unresolved paradox. For you it is a mystery. And you are settled with that. You relax and feel good about it. That I cannot.
Further: The answers I get come from the same source - the bible. Yet people have so different views about it. Like there are no common ground for the christian religion. That's another paradox for me, but that I will handle in another thread. The whole christian belief system seems to being built upon a mish mash of paradoxes (or mysteries). I'm not satisfied with that.
Therefore I cannot ever be a christian believer. If there were answers for every question I have (like in mathematics), then the christian religion would be more interesting to embrace. But this isn't so. Mysteries are no answers. I remain a non-christian and will enjoy my life as such.