re the arrogance of christians why do we follow god so blindly have you ever asked a physically blind person why he or she follows a seeing eye dog the answer is quite simple the dog can see and the blind person cannot of course you may ask if i cannot trust my own senses how do i know whether what i see and hear about god is truth or a lie that is why we need faith to be saved we must force ourselves to believe that god knows the truth and loves us enough to share it with us even when it defies what we think we know why would he have created us if he did not love us enough to help us through this world seems to me if you learned to differentiate between illusion and reality on your own you wouldn t need to rely on doctrines that need to be updated my experience of christianity years is that most christians seek answers from clergymen who have little or no direct experience of spiritual matters and that most of these questions can be answered by simple introspection most people suspect that they cannot trust their senses but few take the next step to figure out that they can trust themselves not to get too esoteric but it seems that most religions christianity included are founded by particularly intuitive people who understand this stuff deleted as for you no one can convert you you must choose to follow god of your own will if you are ever to follow him all we as christians wish to do is share with you the love we have received from god if you reject that we have to accept your decision although we always keep the offer open to you if you really want to find out why we believe what we believe i can only suggest you try praying for faith reading the bible and asking christians about their experiences personally and what if the original poster pixie is never converted does it make sense that she or i or the majority of humanity for that matter would go to hell for eternity as many christians believe it makes more sense to me that rather than be converted to a centuries old doctrine that holds no life for her that she simply continue to decide for herself what is best you may be right about christians relying on clergy but i have some reason to hope you re not protestants emphasize conversion experience of the holy spirit and use of the bible this is intended to make sure that christians have religious experience of their own and that they have some basis on which to judge claims of clergy and other christians i can t speak for catholics and orthodox but i believe they also attempt to avoid having members who simply repeat what they are told i admit that this isn t always successful we certainly see young people join our church because at that age parents expect it but most of our members do seem quite able and willing to make judgements for themselves and have a commitment that comes out of their own experience unfortunately it s the nature of usenet that doctrinal disagreements get emphasized so it looks like we spend most of our time dealing with doctrine that s certainly not my experience of the way christians really live clh
