Sven

I gave some reasons in my OP. Did you miss them?

I agree that there are some great moral teachings in the bible. But including the fact that there are also some very bad moral teachings in it, why not only take the good ones, accept that they were both thought up by men, and live on according to the good ones without a belief in the divinity of Jesus?

See up. If you substitute "some of the morals of Christianity" for "Christianity", I wholeheartedly agree.

Columbo

Hey I don't like the way you have to categorise me as a liberal. I'm not liberal or fundamentalist or christian or any other of your man-made name tags. I just believe in Christ.

So if I don't take Genesis literally, that doesn't mean I close off the possibility of it being literal, because God is easily capable of six day literal creation. Yet I personally don't take it to mean literal days.

Yet my personal philosophy is that; My opinion will not effect the reality of any situation.

Therefore, I don't take it literally, but much of it I do, yet my opinion is irrelevant to God's capabilities. SO I am not in any man made category Thanyou very much!

Rational BAC

Obviously you have a problem with accepting the divinity of Christ. You are an atheist------how could you?

Obviously I have no problem with accepting the divinity of Christ. I am a theist. How could I not?

So aside from the obvious difference in our positions--------don't you think that the Sermon on the Mount is pretty neat?

johntheapostate

There are many theists who do not accept the divinity of christ. The jews for instance.

Sven

Sorry for trying to label you in a way you don't approve of. But I would nevertheless pleased if you answered my questions:

Where does this leave your faith if large parts of the description of "man and his relationship with god" were simply invented to serve the need of the priests?

Why do you believe in the Christian god? You stated again that you do, but again gave no reason.

Sven

Umm, because most theists on Earth don't accept the divinity of Christ?
Which was BTW one of my points in the OP. Did you ever read it?

So you answer why you believe in the Christian god is - "How could I not?" :huh:

Parts of it are. Depends on your viewpoint. Did you ever hear about the hypotheses that it was written as a control tool of the Romans? [sorry, don't remember any specifics, simply ask in BC&H]

Columbo

Sven - I find it hard to articulate "why" I believe in Christ. This might seem like a get-out, but any words that come from me - usually belittle what I mean or don't live up to "why" I believe. Forgive me.

fr0sty

I'll try and answer the question in your OP from my wife's point of view. Part of her belief come from tradition. It's the way she was raised. That tradition also forms a rich group of ceremonies to deal with many significant parts of live. There are ceremonies to announce marriage, birth, death and so on

She has also been content to pick and choose the parts of the bible she likes and disregard the rest. If find that difficult to understand, but it works for her. She also has never felt the need to question or explore her faith/belief, at least not to any deep level.

It's part of her basic world view deep down, but it's just not a day to day concern for her. She's busy with work, raising a family and being active in the community.

Sven

OK, I can understand this - I remember having similar feelings while being a (very "liberal" , BTW) Christian myself.

Sven

That would be basically point #4 in my OP.

OK, this would be point #6: Never really thought deeply about it.

This is of course not the type of Christian I tried to address. I really wanted to hear about thought out reasons. OK, maybe I should pose my question at a Christian board to get more answer - but I fear to get overhelmed by fundie rants.