Originally posted by karoly aczel
Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying here. Care to explain?
You claim that a person who applies critical thinking to their situation would never go to church. I disagree on the following basis.
Critical thinking is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ implored people to employ in their everyday lives when He told them to 'ask, seek and knock.' He is certainly not afraid of the questions because He already had the answers.
When we continually ask further questions, He provides the answers--- not just because He is a wealth of fact-based information, but rather because He Himself is the answer. He provides.
Concluding that He is the answer and that He provides, I must therefore follow His prescription for life if I am to enjoy it as He intended. One of the few commands Christians were given in the new covenant was to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What does that mean? I need to understand who He is, what He does... I need to know His character. The only method for knowing anything is to renew our minds, to take in doctrine related to His character.
Where can I find that stuff with which I can renew my mind, that doctrine? Sadly, most churches do not offer this anymore--- or, if they do, it is in frustratingly small doses sugar-coated with all manner of crap. Many of them, as you infer, are more concerned with denomination protection than anything remotely close to truth.
Nonetheless, however small the dose, however sugar-coated and hidden the doctrine might be, church is the best bet for finding it. Much better than any other forum on the face of the planet.
Allowing the wheat to grow among the tares might not seem the most expedient method by some: there are many believers whose self-righteous indignation makes it nearly impossible for them to 'suffer' the existence of non-believers. However, this is God's plan, i.e., to let the wheat grow in a situation perhaps not ideal, but ultimately effective.
Until and such time as God Himself returns to earth, until such time as no one needs any further teaching about Him, church is the best place to get whatever precious little doctrine they let slip out.