Religious quandary

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
What do you do when your karma runs over your dogma? 😞

Terrible joke out of the way, what is the biggest religious quandary you had to overcome in securing your faith? (assuming you have one). Was it accepting the existence of evil in the world, or perhaps a lifestyle change you had to make?

I used to be a Christian and I self-identified as one for more than 25 years. After all that, unpacking, weighing up and 'unlearning' all the ideas and beliefs that I had internalized for so long was ~ well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a "quandary" or that it caused me any anguish or great difficulty ~ but it was a challenge and it was a fundamental shift. It was interesting and quite liberating above all.

It's also been interesting to see how visceral the reaction of some people here - who are still Christians - to my ex-Christian reality. Their reaction in a way ~ and in part ~ encapsulates the intellectual and spiritual clutches of the mind set that I managed to extricate myself from. However, slings and arrows on this message board from people professing to be Christians do not amount to a "quandary". 🙂

Originally posted by FMF
I used to be a Christian and I self-identified as one for more than 25 years. After all that, unpacking, weighing up and 'unlearning' all the ideas and beliefs that I had internalized for so long was ~ well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a "quandary" or that it caused me any anguish or great difficulty ~ but it was a challenge and it was a fundamental sh ...[text shortened]... on this message board from people professing to be Christians do not amount to a "quandary". 🙂

So does this mean you'll get around to answering the question sometime, and that when you do, you'll share it with us?

Originally posted by KellyJay
That I have to take Jesus' righteousness over my own.

It's funny that you think you have "righteousness". 😕

Originally posted by Suzianne
I take it that you understand the duties of a god-parent?

Then I must ask, why do you even go to church, or agree to be a god-parent, when you feel that an honest application of your advice to the child ends up "disrespecting" the church?

Edit: I'm sorry if it appears that I am prying. If you don't want to answer, I'll understand.

Good question.

I was totally naïve about the religious duties of a god-parent.
In England god-parents tend to be honorary positions, you turn up at
school performances, remember birthdays and basically are a
reserve parent. I thought that being a god-parent at church I would probably
have to make promises to care for my nephew in the event of his parents death.

I was totally unprepared to hold a candle and say "This is the light of Jesus ... etc
and make religious promises. But what could I do in the middle of the service?

I should NEVER have agreed to do it.

btw: My brother thinks the whole thing is a joke and the christening was just
so that his son could get into a local CofE school.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
Good question.

I was totally naïve about the religious duties of a god-parent.
In England god-parents tend to be honorary positions, you turn up at
school performances, remember birthdays and basically are a
reserve parent. I thought that being a god-parent at church I would probably
have to make promises to care for my nephew in the event of his p ...[text shortened]... hing is a joke and the christening was just
so that his son could get into a local CofE school.

It's simple, man. Tell your brother what you think you agreed to when you took it on and whether your commitment, if any, is still there. If it's not enough for him, he'll figure out what to do.

Originally posted by Suzianne
So does this mean you'll get around to answering the question sometime, and that when you do, you'll share it with us?

Are you angry about what I posted, Suzianne? 😳

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
What do you do when your karma runs over your dogma? 😞

Enough with the melodrama. Take it to the vetma.

Then take driving lessons from The Stig(ma) and stop driving like a grandma.

Originally posted by JS357
It's simple, man. Tell your brother what you think you agreed to when you took it on and whether your commitment, if any, is still there. If it's not enough for him, he'll figure out what to do.

I think you missed my point.
My brother does not care that I lied. (He has no faith)
I am just disappointed in myself for lying and disrespecting that church.
I cannot undo any of that.

Originally posted by Suzianne
So does this mean you'll get around to answering the question sometime, and that when you do, you'll share it with us?

Well, I experienced no quandary with my Christian faith back in the day.

I experienced no quandary as the tenets that had supported that faith turned out to be unconvincing (to me) under examination and reappraisal.

And I certainly have not experienced any spiritual quandary about having put my Christian faith behind me and moved on.

I think this testimony belongs on this thread. Perhaps you are too angry to see that it does.

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
What do you do when your karma runs over your dogma? 😞

Terrible joke out of the way, what is the biggest religious quandary you had to overcome in securing your faith? (assuming you have one). Was it accepting the existence of evil in the world, or perhaps a lifestyle change you had to make?

Good question Ghost. Wish I had seen it sooner.

My answer: Believing God.

In my opinion it is the root problem of all mankind. Initially, without faith, it is impossible to know God, then, after one begins to believe what God says, one grows in faith throughout his or her lifetime.

So, it begins with believing God. One will remain perpetually in a quandary until one begins to believe God.

Originally posted by FMF
I used to be a Christian and I self-identified as one for more than 25 years. After all that, unpacking, weighing up and 'unlearning' all the ideas and beliefs that I had internalized for so long was ~ well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a "quandary" or that it caused me any anguish or great difficulty ~ but it was a challenge and it was a fundamental sh ...[text shortened]... on this message board from people professing to be Christians do not amount to a "quandary". 🙂

"I used to be a Christian and I self-identified as one..."

You got it backwards. One isn't a Christian by self-identifying as one. God identifies Christians. God knows who are His. God identifies those who by faith believe what He has said and done on behalf of the one who by faith trusts in what Jesus did on the cross on his or her behalf.

What you experienced was merely a religious expression of self-righteousness. At best you were a Christian only by name, but certainly not by faith.

Originally posted by josephw
What you experienced was merely a religious expression of self-righteousness. At best you were a Christian only by name, not by faith.

Well, I suppose this is a brand of religion-fuelled presumptuousness and pomposity that I am no longer associated with on account of no longer being a Christian. I alluded to this attitude by people who are still Christians in my longer post up the page.

Originally posted by josephw
You got it backwards. One isn't a Christian by self-identifying as one. God identifies Christians. God knows who are His. God identifies those who by faith believe what He has said and done on behalf of the one who by faith trusts in what Jesus did on the cross on his or her behalf.

Well when I believed in "what Jesus did on the cross" and in the resulting "salvation" and in the various things that Christians believe based on what I believed was revealed in the Bible, as I did for many years, I did not self-identify as a Muslim, let's put it that way. Nor did I self-identify as a Sikh. But your rather trite sophistry about what "self-identify" actually means is duly noted.

Originally posted by josephw
One will remain perpetually in a quandary until one begins to believe God.

Which one and why?

(Oh, and I am not in a quandary)

Originally posted by FMF
Well, I experienced no quandary with my Christian faith back in the day.

I experienced no quandary as the tenets that had supported that faith turned out to be unconvincing (to me) under examination and reappraisal.

And I certainly have not experienced any spiritual quandary about having put my Christian faith behind me and moved on.

I think this testimony belongs on this thread. Perhaps you are too angry to see that it does.

Despite your judgement on me, I'm not angry. Your decisions concerning me always seem to be the wrong choice.

His question was:
"what is the biggest religious quandary you had to overcome in securing your faith? (assuming you have one)"

"Assuming you have one." Assuming you have a faith, or assuming you have a quandry, I can't tell which was meant but it doesn't really matter. You have made it obvious that you have neither. So why bother giving an answer to the question that doesn't even answer the question? Because you have a point to make that you think squashes the concept of religion, without appearing that this is your motivation. What, no smiley in your reply?

I'm not the one who should decide whether this comment "belongs" on this thread. I just think that, since it doesn't answer the question, and in fact has its own motive, extraneous to the question, it only disrespects not only the question, but the asker as well.

Without appearing to, of course.