Rational BAC

I like that term a whole lot better than cafeteria shoppers as far as mainstream Christians are concerned.

I think we cherry pickers have a definite right to complain. After all ---we get it in spades both from the non-theists and the Bible-belt fundamentalists.

Like "whatsisname" used to say-----------"We don't get no respect"

And respect is what we deserve and is what I demand. After all ---you are dealing with the GREAT majority of modern day Christians. -----------We are the true moral majority.-------or at least the true rational Christian majority.

Ready and willing to deal with the subject of Cherry Picking Christianity for all you narrow minded non-theists and all you narrow minded Christian fundamentalists out there.

Oddly enough, except for your divurgent beliefs, both non-theists and fundamentalist Christians share a lot in common. ----------counting the # of angels on the head of a pin being one of them.----------in other words --getting too tied up in detail and losing the big picture.

So have at it---Both sides --What do you have against Cherry Picking Christianity?

And I will try and defend my faith.

Rational BAC

Actually ----will try and defend Cherry Picking as much as possible. My 'puter is acting awfully strange lately--I keep getting this black screen with white letters saying my BIOS settings are wrong and I need to reset the settings---

----but does not tell me how to reset them--so am in limbo right now. Most of the time, can't even boot up 'puter, and if get that done, can't get on to Internet.

(Sometimes 'puter works, sometimes 'puter does not work. I think it may need an exorcism.) ----Anyway --today everything is working for some reason.

So if don't get back to you sometimes---there really is a reason for that besides abject cowardice.

Toto

Cherry pick away. But it would help the discussion if you indicated what parts you are cherry picking. Do you believe in "do unto others etc." and reject all the laws in Leviticus? That's fine, but you can find those precepts in other faith traditions, so what is your reason for continuing to call yourself a Christian?

Rational BAC

I don't think that calling the Bible errant is in any way unchristian.

After all, we all know that the Old Testament is probably mostly garbage with some really good stuff in there.

The New Testament came from an oral tradition and was written down decades after the fact. And what was written down was compiled and mostly tossed away centuries later by committees of very fallible men. And that is not even bringing up problems of translation.

So why in hell would any reasonable Christian consider the Bible to be inerrant? We wouldn't of course. And that IS mainstream Christianity.

We have more problems with the fundies than with non-theists to be honest about it. Fundies think EVERYBODY is going to hell except for them.

This is just for starters. Back later.--------------

christ-on-a-stick

I'm curious... why do you think it is that an allegedly all-powerful and perfect God was either a) unable or b) unwilling to provide a perfect revelation? (I.E. one that would not be tainted, that was perfectly clear and understandable by all, not the cause of unending squibbling over "interpretation" and "error")???? Certainly an all-powerful God could do that. Or perhaps he enjoys watching his followers scrap it out and sometimes even kill each other over the discrepancies and "garbage" in the Book that purports to be his revelation? Well, sorry but you can demand all you want and I am not obligated to respect your beliefs. While I respect your *right* to hold whatever beliefs you wish, if I think they're a bunch of unmitigated superstitious nonsense I have the right to hold that opinion. And explain exactly why. Argumentum ad populum??? Tsk, tsk.

Ab_Normal

In my life, I've had to interact with cherry-pickers (my family) and biblical inerrantists (my husband's family). When it comes to religious issues, the cherry-pickers are a lot easier to get along with. Of course, my family is full of folks who are Catholic because they were raised that way - no great religious inspiration, just habitual church attendance. Where my husband's kin are really really dedicated, and just a little scary from my perspective.

Jeremy Pallant

Welcome to the Internet Infidels.

Question. Do you respect atheists?

Jinto

While on a practical level I find cherry-pickers to be far more palatable than fundies (One reason being that they are usually practical atheists in terms of lifestyle choices and political decisions), I do not find your beliefs to have any more logical support than those of fundamentalists. In fact, you seem to realize this: most cherry-pickers run when challenged to a debate(or walk, in any case you don't bother to do any debating), as opposed to fundies who usualy fight and then refuse to admit when they've lost.

Logically, I have trouble understanding why you would even READ a book that you know is mostly bullshit, isn't particularly interesting, and frankly has to be cherry-picked from in order to get any good from it. You obviously don't base your philosophies off of the bible, since you're using them to select the parts of it that contain stuff you agree with, so why use it at all? If you have a source of morality other than the bible, then why not appeal to that? In genereal, I don't understand the "need" people have to identify themselves with some holy book when they don't agree with 90% of the stuff in it. Why not just say what you believe and stop calling it Christianity when it bears only the most superficial resembleance to that? If you absolutely must declare your beliefs with a name, then why not bother to pick something that has a holy book you actually agree with for the most part? Really, trying to say that you're Christian because you agree with a couple of the popular delusions about what Christianity says is like me trying to call myself a republican because I don't agree with affirmative action: it's just ridiculous.

Emotionally, I'm even more upset with the "cherry-pickers" than I am with the fundamentalists - you don't agree with these people, and yet because of you this outspoken minority gets to terrorize America and the rest of the world into accepting their bullshit with a good old bait-and-switch: showing people liberal Christianity as an example and then hitting them with their lies, using the power and the sanctity of the word Christian and its false association with morality to push their flawed views on the rest of the world. You lend false credibility to the grestest con job in human history, and frankly, I'm quite upset. Not all of this has been logical, of course, but this is what I feel, not what I think.

NearNihil Experience

I hear ya man. I'm a cherry picker...but I'm agnositc with faith that there is no God. However, I do quite a bit of pickin' from the Bible, and many many other works, in order to attain any sort of comfortable existence and understanding of life. I think the Bible is errant in many respects, but those things I find relevant or helpful I admire and treasure. So too Kant, I find a great deal of error in his works, but never dismiss it as useless or trifle. But you do have to sort through tons of bug-a-boo and bullshit to find something out there to lend some meaning to existence...and some pop culture is not a bad place to look either...plenty of morality plays been written since before Jesus and plenty after...I don't care about divine source. I find and go with what seems right to me and thats all I can do. So, pick away friend............

Rational BAC

'puter working now, at least for a little while-------good.

Let's see what I can answer in some kind of order.

1st------the "respect" part was meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek.

2nd-----I do respect atheists and agnostics. Why wouldn't I?

3rd-----Am not sure what perfection is in the mind of a Supreme Being. Am not even sure what perfection is in my own mind. Also why is it so important that a Supreme Being has to be perfect anyway? I seriously doubt that Zeus was in any way perfect---and was never expected to be.

4th----You don't have to agree with me--just try and understand my position on this---and give at least a little respect to the religious thoughts of most of the world. (Christianity is #1 you know and the vast majority of us Christians are cherry pickers---we like it that way) There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a cherry picker as far as Christianity. Of all the major religions it is the most cherry pickable of all.

How could anyone consider a book that was written down by man decades after the fact and then compiled centuries later by committees of very fallible men to be the infallible word of an inerrant God?-----------That is absurd. And most Christians realize this. We are not fools you know.

Of course God could have made a perfect and infallible book if He had wanted to. But he obviously didn't. I don't know why. I don't really care to know why. All I know is that He didn't

(And besides, if I were God, I would do any damn thing I pleased and let everybody else lower than me try and figure it out.-----what good is it being God if you can't do anything you want to?)

Next question is-------why even bother with the idea of a Supreme Being that may or may not exist. --------Chacun a son gout, but I think a Supreme Being does exist. Going from that point to a Christian Supreme Being in my case is just a matter of personal familiarity. -----If at the pearly gates I happen to run into a non Christian Supreme Being---I'll just say "whoops, guess I was wrong about that one and can I shine your shoes now?)


Later-----------