Convince me, an agnostic to join Christianity

Convince me, an agnostic to join Christianity.

How do you mentally force yourself to believe in such a thing and why?

The whole process seems ludicrous.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=B3vS6vJ5gdM
amazon.com/Last-Superstition-Refutation-New-Atheism/dp/1587314525
barnhardt.biz/the-one-about-jesus-and-guns/
barnhardt.biz/2016/08/02/yes-antipope-bergoglio-is-maneuvering-to-set-up-a-one-world-religion-with-himself-as-the-head/
newadvent.org/cathen/12792a.htm
biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt 13:55, Matt 13:56, Mark 6:3&version=DRA
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ossuary
youtu.be/WhLTT85Ite8
youtu.be/onvOCmse_KE
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Pretend for a moment you lived a long time ago.

A Jew comes up to you and says:

>I'm the son of God and my mother is a virgin

You honestly believe that desert Jew?

No I would not.

just hurry up and join us Anglicans

atheists and agnostics are ruining everyones fun in the UK

This world will quite literally end in flame, and you will go to Hell forever after your miserable death, if you don't.

If you value your country, your life, your honor, your virtue, or anything at all, you will convert.

Also, either you fucking convert to Christianity and fight for it, or you will be converted the Islam by a screaming Muhammadan.

But what if Islam or Judaism or Hinduism or Buddhism is the correct religion?

your telling me your god would burn and torture all them peaceful Buddhists?

thats funny. in america its the christian that ruin the fun.

they even banned alcohol once.

>they even banned alcohol once

That was women

If you have to force yourself, you aren't ready yet. That would be intellectually and spiritually dishonest.

>you aren't ready yet

I agree with you about the dishonesty thing, I literally could not force myself to believe it right now.

I'm not a bad person I am pretty moral.

Are you saying "being ready" will come to me sooner or later?

Fuck off atheist scum.
I don't want you to join Christianity, we need to keep our religion free of hypocrites and fedoras

Our one true catholic God would.

First I need to remove your brain and all understanding of logic before I can convince you to believe a retarded desert myth.

Fuck off Ireland, don't make me take away your sack of potatoes again.

ill keep that in mind.

>that was women

>Buddhism a religion
Kek

>Convince me

No fuck you, why would I care about what some dumb autist thinks

>Anglican
>Religion started by a fat fuck who wanted a divorce

No thank you, I'm joining the one that Jesus started. If you're not Orthodox (which is sanctioned by the Catholic Church) or Catholic, you can go fuck right off.

Hinduism and Buddhism even think that Jesus was either a prophet or the son of (a) god

That was women

I agree

The best Christians were once atheists a lot of the time.

MAGICAL SKY JEW WILL CLEANSE YOU OF YOUR SHEKELS

>Christians
>not women who were tired of their husbands beating them
gg atheists

Yes, it was mostly the Puritanical movement, and they said "I won't kiss lips that touched that vile liquid" or some elaborate shit, so alcohol was banned because they forced men to vote for it, and then when we realized that we made a mistake, we took the reins back.

They're not forced OP. They're brainwashed into thinking that way

>Convince me, an agnostic to join Christianity.

No.

>How do you mentally force yourself to believe in such a thing and why?

You don't force yourself to believe what you find true. You simply find it true.


>The whole process seems ludicrous.


You should realize that this is a big topic and won't comprehensively just be handed to you. You should come to us with individual issues.

I will do no such thing. Religion is about finding a set of beliefs that you can live your life by and find fulfillment in. Do some reflection and find out for yourself which code of living works best for you. You won't become enlightened by asking others to tell you what to believe in.

user it was a joke ;__;

So your telling me in the back of your logical mind you don't have ANY doubts at all?

Just have faith bro.

Not really. I mean, on occasion I'll have doubts, but I truly do think that it's right.

calvin thought nonbelievers were born to be damned. You are basically the kindling for hell.

your a fucking idiot, do you have any idea what prohibition means you fucking retard ???

they prohibited the sale and distribution of home made liqour and put ll the true artisans of the art of distilling liquor out of business you fucking dolt

goddamn you triggered me, you worthless piece of trash

Calvin isn't Jesus. Also, Hell isn't the whole "Fire and brimstone lol" thing, it's just being disconnected from God and everything else.

Why should someone become an anglican over the other older denominations?

If you're interested, just read the theology, read the bible, under the fundamental nature of things in it, like what is the nature of sin. If you can't get yourself into the belief system or the values, then no problem. Live your life like you always have.

Just quit being a lazy cunt

>Convince me to blah blah blah

Yeah, because of the Puritanical movement. How about don't be a cunt and read through what I'm saying.

Faith, many lack it, but it gives you something to believe in and it betters your body, mind, and soul.

here's the big secret most know but won't say since it kind of defeats the purpose by revealing the masquerade

no mentally healthy adult with an IQ over 100 actually believes in anything supernatural

people with intact problem solving abilities simply see that religion is a good way to keep a community together and enforce social standards so raise their children with it

so basically just smile and go along with it and bam, you're living the religious life like everyone else in the west

lol read luke 16:19-31. Sorry that C.S Lewis was a fcking pussy, but his views on hell do not comport with the historical christianity, especially the idea of a general ressurection at the end of time.

Leaving aside all the huge claims we have to accept without any evidence. Christianity is so absurdly logically incoherent that it requires hundreds of theologians, apologists, "doctors of the church" etc to perform the mental gymnastics required to think the basic tenets of its theology make any sense at all.

Christianity seems like a nice way to preserve Western culture and morals but that ship has sailed OP, educated Western people aren't that easily fooled anymore

In my experience the CofE don't really believe in anything that matters anymore. 95% of it is just secular humanism + this guy Jesus existed and he was pretty great. You don't need religion for any of that (the historical evidence for Jesus is pretty strong), it's basically the default "be nice to everyone" psuedo-religion of atheists / agnostics plus some flavour text.

Lol it was written by humans and isn't an exact representation. You'll find that there's no exact representation of Heaven either, am I to believe that it's literally a feast of epic proportions for eons upon eons, or am I to accept that it's metaphor? Also, this is the accepted representation from the Catholic church, so I'm not making this shit up.

Exactly. Personally, I'm Catholic, but Orthodox is bad ass. If you really read into Jesus, he was very, very stern, but he was very loving in the same strokes. When he flipped out in the temple, that wasn't "treating others the way you want to be treated" that was sending a message. When he told that fig tree to go fuck itself, he was telling that fig tree to go fuck itself. Yes, when he was being crucified, he told his disciples to stand down, but that was because he knew that he was going to die anyway and was trying to preserve their lives, as well as make it so his story wasn't lost in "Oh wow, those guys were assholes".

honestly if you live in UK, you should just go sufi mysticism, its probably less heretical.

youtube.com/watch?v=B3vS6vJ5gdM

There is more than pure logic in the universe, you don't and cannot know everything.

... the catholics believe in a physical ressurection, a final judgement, and the damned are entirely damned. You have no idea what you are talking about.

Also, btw, this is what basically all christians believed up to 1920 or so.

>Anglican
fucking KEK

I'm not saying that the damned aren't entirely damned, they are, I'm just saying that our representation of hell is going to be off no matter what because we're humans and don't understand.

Also
>kek
Nice pic, user.

Not that, no, just that despite my doubts I work towards what I believe is right and good.

If I doubt something, I go research it so I can become more assured whether it is right or wrong.

That is what i mean by this daft inter-dimensional shit. The ressurection isn't to some Precious Moments cloud-in-the-sky, and it isn't some string theory multidimensional judeophysik bullshit. Its a physical ressurection on physical planet earth with your fucking physical body. The afterlife, is on earth.

>people don't realize how bullshit comments like this are

And the lake of fire, is a physical lake of fire. Just as real as the wounds on christs body.

Shut the fuck up, Jehovah's Witness.

>lake of fire is a physical lake of fire

What
But they aren't resurrected so how can you say they're in a physical lake of fire?

Tl:dr

A bunch of people who could never entertain thoughts and beliefs besides their own narrow minded ones(this any religion which promotes absoluteness, in ancient times people used to respect the different gods of other cultures), and promote the most wildly hippocratic books known to man.

No one can do the work for you. You have to seek God yourself. But I recommend you do research into the following areas: Aquinas' Five Ways (to wipe the filth of materialism off your plate), the historical case for the resurrection of Jesus (even on the basis of the "minimal facts" argument), a little peek at the Shroud of Turin, and lastly the Messianic background for Jesus' claims found in the Book of Daniel (and Revelations and the Olivet Discourse) as it concerns the "Son of Man" and the "Kingdom of God". That should do it.
I recommend this book:
amazon.com/Last-Superstition-Refutation-New-Atheism/dp/1587314525

Godspeed!

>Yes, when he was being crucified, he told his disciples to stand down
Been reading about that recently as it happens. Apparently there some cuck translations of the Bible that totally distort them having swords at the last supper, being told to arm themselves, then attacking the servant of the high priest because nogunz liberals are triggered by the obvious analogy to / endorsement of rifles and the 2A. (She only uses "Douay-Rheims side-by-side with the Latin Vulgate. www.drbo.org ")

barnhardt.biz/the-one-about-jesus-and-guns/

Also she has an interesting theory that Pope Francis actually isn't Pope, which may or may not piss you off ...
barnhardt.biz/2016/08/02/yes-antipope-bergoglio-is-maneuvering-to-set-up-a-one-world-religion-with-himself-as-the-head/

This is just a mumbled jumbled mess but it's my 2 cents:
Honestly dude I say I'm a Christian and go to church (I still go to the youth group cause I really liked it since I was a teen, and awesome youth pastor) The most important thing I've taken away is that there is someone up there watching out for you. That person is omnipotent and follows no laws of science because he created it. I don't even read the bible, I go to church to have a healthy relationship with God.
Protip: don't bother associating god with science
An easy way to establish a relationship with god is to have conversations with him all the time. Let the voice in your head that is always moralistic and sinless be god. Every time you choose to do something sinful and degenerate talk to god.

I don't have any doubts. I don't doubt his existence because he's answered every single one of my prayers.
>Dear god can I fuck stacy's (leagues above you) brain out and have her as a wife?
No
>Dear god can you give me a shot at stacy by helping me better myself?
yes

It's the religion of your homeland, brother. Our duty is to protect the queen from the heathen Pope! It doesn't get much more badass than that. Plus we can have sex.

I got to deep.

I must ask: When you put your fingers in your ears and just attempt to drown out others around you, what do you say? The traditional "Lalalala" or something of your own creation?

The damned and the saved are ressurected on the last day.... how can you guys post so many last day trypltchs without learning basic theology?

newadvent.org/cathen/12792a.htm


imo all you should stop watching polemics, and just read the goddamn baltimore catechism.

Oh gosh, this I was mistaken then. My apologies.

You can't force bullshit belief user, that is not belief if you do that. To find your true beliefs about life you must examine the world around you and do some soul-searching.

You could always be a Christian in a cultural sense, if it is the values and rituals you like, but plastic belief will never enlighten you

>the most wildly hippocratic books known to man

this is why we must abolish antibiotics, less heavan become hideously ugly

Read CS Lewis if you want the answer to this question. Christianity is not about being convinced. It's about surrendering your will to God. Usually He comes after you until you surrender

>Convince me, an agnostic to join Christianity.
What is restraining you to become christian ?

Why does Jesus not have any siblings? Its made into a big deal about how big a sacrifice it is for God to give up his only son but realistically should not he be able to make more? I feel like its one of those self imposed problems

>c.s lewis

his christianity was the christianity of tea and biscuits, fox hunts and the queen. He was shrivel dick nationalist who was a romanticist for the 18th century.... he had no connection to the radical and dangerous theology of christ.

Also add a history of the early church fathers

>Convince me, an agnostic to join Christianity.
Just give it a try. Visit some local churches near you. Sing some songs, say some prayers, meet some people, have some coffee. Figure out which church appeals to you most and attend it regularly for a few weeks or months. It's not like you can't walk away whenever you want. You've got nothing to lose except a little time.

>How do you mentally force yourself to believe in such a thing and why?
You are not alone.
The Universe has a creator.
This creator loves you.
To prove his love he took human form.
He lived as a human.
He suffered as a Human
He died as a human.
He then rose from the dead to prove that all our suffering, even our deaths, are temporary.
He offers this "salvation" freely, all you have to do is accept it, and try to be worthy of it.

I enjoy believing these things.

>The whole process seems ludicrous.

This applies to much in life, and just because something seems silly doesn't mean it isn't good for you. Religion, in one form or another, has guided every known human civilization in all of history. Indulging in it, just to see if you can get something from it, won't make you look anymore ridiculous than the rest of us. Christianity, as the religion of western civilization, at least has a better track record than most.

Pure cowardice

He did, they're just barely mentioned in the Bible for whatever reason. (There's probably more in the Apocrypha if you consider that canon, they talk about his childhood a bit.)
biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt 13:55, Matt 13:56, Mark 6:3&version=DRA

We may even have found the ossuary (bone box) of one of his brothers :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ossuary

I have successfully infiltrated some Christian churches. Seeing some of the girls at different churches. I will corrupt them.

Come join the fun.

Sure you will, user.

>Just give it a try. Visit some local churches near you. Sing some songs, say some prayers, meet some people, have some coffee. Figure out which church appeals to you most and attend it regularly for a few weeks or months.
That is just earthly junk. We are talking dogma and theology .
>You are not alone.
No one thinks they are alone. etc etc
>He offers this "salvation" freely
I like how you omit hell or how there is no need for all this esoterica.How its tied to jews and islam

^ this guy thinks buttfucking is beautiful, and lets a lesbian with a oven mitt on her head tell him what is the good and the beautiful.

I've already gotten to second base with one.

It feels like high school in the 90s again. You have to work on your game. It's more fun.

son of Joseph is not the same as son of God.

I doubt. For a few years I was an atheist, but it was mostly because I was a rebellious teen at the time and I was just beginning to find my own path in the world. At the same time I was a vocal communist.

However, after being with a leftist ex-girlfriend of mine, I started adulterating. It never went into full blown intercourse, but we came close. Afterwards, however, the relationship became very toxic and we split. I found out later she was essentially using me for pleasure and as a trophy boyfriend. That really flipped my entire viewpoint on my new 'morality'. I began to creep back into the idea of Christianity, and as I did, my life began to perpetually turn more and more to a state of joy.

What I learned from my old relationship and from reading more into politics, philosophy, and history is that everything we have here on this earth is inherently flawed. No amount of sex, drugs, or politics could ever fill the void I felt when those fleeting objects crumbled around me.

But, as I drifted more to letting God and the Bible direct my life's course and it's morality, the more at peace I felt. It led me to realize that a higher power is necessary for humanity to be given purpose. It filled the void. When you consider the story of the Bible and what it has done for it's faithful followers, it all falls into place precisely why God is not only real, but necessary. We were built to be in a relationship with him.

tl;dr Yeah Christians doubt, but it is in those times of doubt that God truly beckon to come back to Him because it will inevitably be in your best interest

Sure you did, user.

You're conflating our definition of "brother" with what is implied in the original Greek text. Mary was always a virgin. "Brothers" in the sense as it's used regarding Jesus' siblings, refers to cousins or step-brothers.

You need to be indoctrinated early, and with love.

What athiest works did you read and why did you find Christianity to be the truth and not Islam or any other religion

and you know "In December 2004, Oded Golan was charged with 44 counts of forgery, fraud and deception, including forgery of the Ossuary inscription""he initial translation of the inscription was done by André Alexandre Lemaire (born 1942), a Semitic epigrapher" and other fascinating details

Then ask yourself why some did, and were willing to die for that belief.

I am in your shoes, OP.

The Trinity is the core of it. As I begin to understand why God had to send Jesus to die on the cross.

Yeah, I missed the obvious problem with that somehow, sorry. Blame my CofE upbringing, the best I can do with my current collection of half-truths and heresies is sort of LARP as an actual Christian.

>Christ was not nice
I like this a lot.

This.
Seek the truth, and build upon that truth the foundation of your faith.

The Pharisees(rabbinical Jews) are exactly who Jesus said they are, and they killed him for calling them out on it.

Islam is literally backwards Christianity, the most well crafted blasphemy against Christ Jesus and the Father. It is undoubtedly of the Devil.

youtu.be/WhLTT85Ite8

youtu.be/onvOCmse_KE

>That is just earthly junk. We are talking dogma and theology .
Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

Christianity is an active social faith. To divorce "dogma and theology" from the practice of Christianity, from its active observance, is itself a heresy.

>I like how you omit hell or how there is no need for all this esoterica.How its tied to jews and islam

Hell is common knowledge and so requires no additional commentary. As for "jews and islam"; Christianity may have abrahamic roots but in practice it is closer to a hellenic mystery cult than it is to those legalistic semitic faiths. In Christianity the divine is approached through the experience of the sacred, rather through esoteric studies.

As Philip said to Nathaniel, “Come and see” [John 1:46]

How is Anglican heathen if we are literally here to say "Fuck you" to the Heathen Francis?

I'm not a secularist, at all. I've had CofE services for a long time and lol, 95% secular. You haven't got a clue. If you're not English, how would you even know personally? Jewgle ain't shit to actually being a part of it.

>Christianity is an active social faith.
you are trying to use the social aspect to cover for the shortcomings of the religious text.
>Christianity the divine is approached through the experience of the sacred, rather through esoteric studies.
Then why all the sermons,candles,icon kissing, communion etc. ritual is not the same as "experience of the sacred"

...

The basis behind religion is faith and belief, not facts to convince you that we are the superior option. Look inside yourself, and you will know if you are ready or not to accept Christ and our Father.

>you are trying to use the social aspect to cover for the shortcomings of the religious text.

I haven't address the text at all. Apologetics for the "shortcomings" of Christianities religious texts usually take the form of asserting their allegorical nature, not by drawing attention to the social aspects fo the faith.

>Then why all the sermons,candles,icon kissing, communion etc. ritual is not the same as "experience of the sacred"

Actually the whole point of ritual, in Christianity and other faiths, is to create a sacred experience.

well they are not called apologetics for nothing.+ most of the end result allegories are not even good.
>Actually the whole point of ritual, in Christianity and other faiths, is to create a sacred experience.
depends on how rich your church is, how interested the priests are etc.Chances are you will end up in a hot room with a mumbling guy and bunch of sweaty people. its not very sacred when you are passing out from incense. I can get the general majesty of a big church but its not worth the cost nor is it something the state could not provide, it also does not show why Christianity should be picked out of all the other options.

some jehova's witnesses gave me a book about JWs a few days ago. They were very nice and it was very comforting seeing a bunch of elderly white people being out in the community (i live in diversity central : winnipeg)

I think I might give this religion thing a try if it means forming strong bonds with other whites. IDK about JWs though, I don't know very much about it

What version of the bible do you guys read? I've heard good things about the King James Bible

>how interested the priests are etc.Chances are you will end up in a hot room with a mumbling guy and bunch of sweaty people. its not very sacred when you are passing out from incense.

LOL, you got me there. If that's been typical of your religious experiences to date then I'm not surprised you don't see the value in the social aspects of the faith.

> I can get the general majesty of a big church but its not worth the cost

Majesty is fine, but the sacred can be found in intimate settings as well. It's more about having an environment that affects your mindset, turning it away from worldly concerns and toward an awareness of the divine.

>it also does not show why Christianity should be picked out of all the other options.

The best argument for Christianity is "by their fruits so shall ye know them". The modern western world is largely a product of Christianity, and the west offers a better quality of life than any other society on the planet. Sure we have problems, but many of those can be traced back to secularization and the waning of Christianity's influence, which offers another argument for its positive merits.

the problems we now face are largely a product of secularization.

>"by their fruits so shall ye know them"

so would this make the Mormons more legitimate then?

Likewise does that mean up until the 17th century Islam and Chinese folk religion were true?

>Christianity
What if all the denominational conflict?I don't the current pope doing anything to protract christendom