Why we believe

@bigdogg said
I guess the Middle East is opposed to 'choosing hope'?

I presume KellyJay believes he "knows" that the only religion that gives people "hope" is his religion. And that this belief "lines up with" the "truth" that his religion is the only one that gives people "hope".

@bigdogg said
I think it's valid. You gave some outliers. Outliers don't disprove the overall trend.

I don’t believe the outliers posted above disprove God but a lack of knowing and having a relationship with your creator God. They disprove nothing except the lack of this relationship. All Christians aren’t the same nor can you put all those with your thought process in one boat.

@mike69 said
I don’t believe the outliers posted above disprove God but a lack of knowing and having a relationship with your creator God.

Do you believe that all theists have "a relationship" with their "creator God"? Do you also accept that the particular "creator God" [that happens to be] correlates strongly to geography and cultural context?

@chaney3 said
Our belief in God is primarily based on where we grew up, what our parents taught us, and the environment around us, during the impressionable time of our youth.

There are Muslims here in Indonesia who convert to Christianity. But, statistically, this phenomenon doesn't make much of a mark on the nation's 230,000,000 Muslim population. Similarly, there are Christians here who convert to Islam, but, again, it doesn't make much of a mark on the nation's 30,250,000 Christian population.

@fmf said
There are Muslims here in Indonesia who convert to Christianity. But, statistically, this phenomenon doesn't make much of a mark on the nation's 230,000,000 Muslim population. Similarly, there are Christians here who convert to Islam, but, again, it doesn't make much of a mark on the nation's 30,250,000 Christian population.

Exactly. There will always be exceptions, but the vast majority stick to what they've learned from their youth, family and culture.

And that's if they maintain their faith. Some will become agnostic or atheist in time, but they're in the minority as well.

@kellyjay said
Blending in is easy, taking a stand, setting your self apart is very difficult, which is why we are told to count the cost.

What would be an example of “taking a stand”?

@bigdogg said
https://contrib.pbslearningmedia.org/WGBH/sj14/sj14-int-religmap/index.html

I guess the Middle East is opposed to 'choosing hope'?

As I have been saying forever and a day, I don't care what you call yourself, you
either have Jesus Christ in you as Lord and Savior or not. Going to church faithfully
and claiming you are a Christian does not make you a Christian, only Jesus Christ
entering into your life can do that, it is a divine act of God. We have a living HOPE,
not in some doctrine, cultural setting, or the family we grew up in. Jesus Christ is
a living Hope who enters our lives, those that reject that can call themselves
Christian, Atheist, or any other terms, it is Christ who is being accepted or rejected
nothing sort of Him can make us right before God, not some wishful thinking.

@mchill said
Where we start isn't always where we end up-

Yes indeed. I was raised in a family of atheists. Just mentioning the word God was frowned upon (unless you were cursing of course) Once in High School some my friends on the track team took me to their Christian youth group. It was pretty low key, just a few songs and a prayer. No one tried to convert me, but that lighthearted e ...[text shortened]... nts were less than thrilled.

The herd mentality is indeed strong, but it's not insurmountable.

You went with a 'herd' to the Christian youth group. Had you gone with a 'herd' of Muslims to an Islamic prayer meeting you may by the same logic have become a Muslim. That is less likely to have happened, of course, as you're American, but that's the point, really; America as a herd is predominantly Christian.

You merely confirm that which you are trying to deny.

@kellyjay said
Blending in is easy, taking a stand, setting your self apart is very difficult, which is why we are told to count the cost.

Do you think you set yourself apart by being a Christian in America?

@indonesia-phil said
Do you think you set yourself apart by being a Christian in America?

What makes us Christian is Jesus Christ, not where we were born.

@kellyjay said
As I have been saying forever and a day, I don't care what you call yourself, you
either have Jesus Christ in you as Lord and Savior or not. Going to church faithfully
and claiming you are a Christian does not make you a Christian, only Jesus Christ
entering into your life can do that, it is a divine act of God. We have a living HOPE,
not in some doctrine, cultural setti ...[text shortened]... g accepted or rejected
nothing sort of Him can make us right before God, not some wishful thinking.

So believing specific doctrines or not accepting parts of the bible as literal or even think bits might be erroneous, doesn’t impact one’s salvation “being a Christian” ?

@divegeester said
What would be an example of “taking a stand”?

Kellyjay?

@kellyjay said
What makes us Christian is Jesus Christ, not where we were born.

What makes most Americans believe that 'what makes them Christians is Jesus' is the fact that, obviously, that is the predominant belief in their predominantly Christian country.

@kellyjay said
claiming you are a Christian does not make you a Christian, only Jesus Christ
entering into your life can do that, it is a divine act of God.

What makes you a Christian is your claim and belief that Jesus Christ has entered into your life and that this is a divine act of God. I don't think anyone is disputing this.

@divegeester said
So believing specific doctrines or not accepting parts of the bible as literal or even think bits might be erroneous, doesn’t impact one’s salvation “being a Christian” ?

You can know the whole Bible backward and forwards, you can give your life for
another, but without the love of God, Christ in you, you got nothing but human
effort.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
English Standard Version

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.