/christ/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

>>3995

>presention of themselves.

Presentation.

Sorry.

C'mon guys, I don't want to be the one to start.

>>4021

Thanks! I like knowing more about us.

I'll present myself now.

I was baptised Catholic as a baby, then officially made a Protestant when my mother married a Protestant man (I was born out of wedlock, my biological father left, I've never met him) whose family had become Protestant by default when my grandfather punched the local Priest, so they're not "real" Protestants. Grandpa was a Communist.

Protestant catechism disappointed me very much when I was 11 or 12, so I decided to read the Bible for myself, cover to cover. Made it through the Pentateuch, but gave up immediately afterwards. I had been given no introduction to the Bible, so I thought it was God's manual for humans, that you could just pick it up and read and know everything about Christianity. Leviticus horrified and I thought it was both cruel and hypocritical because Christians around me didn't actually set fire to anyone, nor burn anyone. I didn't know there was a difference between the Testaments, I was a kid.

From then on, I instantly became an angry atheist. I remained one throughout my teenage years until my early adulthood. I had a short-lived interest in Satanism, but this didn't go very far at all and was mostly due to my interest in Nietzsche, at the time, which was itself due to my interest in Marilyn Manson.

Around 18-20, I switched to agnosticism after reading a book called Interview with God, which I now regard as extremely questionable and probably quite shitty, and most likely a scam, but back then it gave me new ideas about God and presented me with a version that I was OK with, which showed me there was more than one caricatural way to think about God, hence agnosticism over atheism.

Then reading Christian authors such as Blaise Pascal or Dostoyevsky showed me that Christian men could be highly intelligent and insightful.

This went on until I decided to read the gospels for myself, again. After John, I felt different and I knew that from that moment on, I was no longer agnostic but the smallest of Christians.

Then C. S. Lewis and his many books on the faith made it possible for me to reconcile my intellect with Christianity. After these readings, I felt I could call myself Christian without feeling too weird or hypocritical.

Then I read the CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church) and I felt that this faith was what I could relate to the most amongst all Christian faiths: there was a solid faith with references, intellectual endeavour, etc. I felt it was the most intelligent and serious work done on faith and I was very much loving it all except for a few issues on which I could not bring myself to agree, but that was so minor, I figured I could overlook it, believing that it was best to be a faulty Catholic than not a Catholic at all, also believing that all Christians are faulty by definition and that you'd better believe you're faulty to begin with.

This lasted many years. Conversing with other Catholics on 8chan made me question whether I was really a Catholic and I ended up being convinced that I could not call myself one anymore, because of all the points raised by Catholics on /christian/. There were many things I didn't know, which I hadn't seen in the CCC, and that sudden realisation made me reluctantly distant myself from Catholicism. From then on, I started looking at other Christian faiths, I read a book on Orthodoxy and Universalism, and I'll probably get to Protestantism some day, although I've maintained my general suspicion of Protestantism; it's however much lessened compared to when I thought of myself as a Catholic. Now I can talk with Protestants without feeling that they're automatically wrong, which I guess also means I'm no true Catholic.

That move pained me a lot but you can't have your cake and eat it too. From then on, I decided I belonged to the "Insiviel Church of Christ", based on the Catholic principle of saints not needed to be recognised by the Church and can be saints all the same, being recognised by God. God knows if I am part of His Church and that's what I currently count on.

More generally, I don't believe the Bible is the direct and infallible word of God, I don't put a strong emphasis on the Old Testament, I hold the Nicene Creed, I put a strong emphasis on the divinity of Christ, I pray the rosary, I consider myself a weak convert, I second-guess myself with the possibility that I use faith as a stage for existential drama, I'm willing to keep learning about all Christian faiths, I don't go to Church, I have issues praying, I feel like an atheist most of the time, I'm not sure where I stand on many issues.

Discipulus, please do this!

(In other news, I've shortened my name, but it's me all the same. My name was supposed to show my uncertainty as a Christian, but it sometimes sounds like I'm unwilling to believe, rather than uncertain in my belief, and I want to get away from this sometimes; I also like the Oo stuff, it looks like mfw I face ideas I can't believe in.)

>>4103

>Discipulus, please do this!

oh I don't know. I don't want to make such a fuzz about myself, it's not like it would matter. Everybody here probably knows me anyway.

I'll see into it tomorrow. For today I'll head to bed.

>>4116

It matters to me.

>>4118

This is me, by the way, I just messed up my own trip.

I'm a christian from Venezuela

>>4125

Underrated post.

>>4125

Mind telling us a bit more?

>>3764

My introduction is here. There seem to be at least 2 of us Atheists here.

>>4118

I…just don't really know what to write.

I was baptised as a child a Catholic. I did all the rituals and sacraments you gotta do there.

I believed there was a God. The Christian God of course. We prayed at home and held the celebrations and stuff. I was shocked when I realised with like 10 that my friends didn't really believe in God.

I still remember one telling me that it's a scam by aults to make us behave. Not understandable back then for me.

I started to develop some problems with our moral system after that. I did not really think that there was an absolute value to it. I did not really believe in hell nor in devils.

You can blame Vatican II for that.

My great grandmother liked to talk with me about the faith. Stories, everyday life wisdom, just anything.

I was fascinated by the martyrs especially. Maybe because my family had been persecuted in history too, I don't know.

So… my problems with the moral system. I thought that it was quite arbitrary and that everyone needed to make one for himself anyway. This belief was affirmed by a lot of reading of 19th century history. In particular by reading a certain German philosopher whose major point this is among others.

But I was no real atheist or something. I just thought everyone was on his own and that God did either not care or just love the successful.

I started to think about all that. I came to the conclusion that Nihilism is incompatible with a certain kind of general optimism and will to create or force the world according to will.

I thought that momentary actions don't matter and that anyone who claims there are morals at all just doesn't think it till the end. Morals just do not make sense without God.

Surviving and procreating makes sense.

Or rather not. Why would even procreating or embettering myself make sense? Vanity of vanities. My world view bagan to crumble, but I was not fully Christian yet.

I did not have a great yout or childhood. Never realised this back then though. I saw what "modern values" earn an individual first hand. It's not nice. My family, my core family, ain't that religious. They're also quite f*cked up. This is where liberalism leads.

I was like.. uh… let's say 18 or something? I was a libertarian on good days and an anarchist on bad ones. couple of years before that I'd been a communist even

But I had to acknowledge that reality did not confirm my belief system. I saw the need of order and hierarchy when I joined the military. It was quite a mess.

So I had a little bible with me and everytime when my comrades would go drinking or whoring around or wasting their time which I considered decadent I would read it.

I disliked them, they were really show offs and hypocrites. But I had no idea why I was not like them, pragmatically speaking they seemed to gain more than me from life.

In fact I was not like anyone I knew. It's not like I was an outsider or something, I'm rather charismatic in fact, I just set different emphasis on my life and seemed to care for things that for others didn't matter.

I also always had a problem with forming close relationships.

So I was there and thought about my life, with no real friends, my body hurt, my commander had just fucked me up and I realised that it all did not make sense. But if nothing makes sense you've got nothing to lose. So I decided to try this Christianity thing, this bible had convinced me a little bit. And it worked for me. That's it. After doing it for long enough I thought for myself why it would work if it was not the truth? I was really impressed how it helped in leading people, one could really get this narrow path between irresponsible laissez-faire and tyranny.

So I slowly started to believe more. And essentially this is how it goes on and on until this very day.

Rereading it there is no particular order, or sense to the text. But this is how it came to my mind, I'll leave it at that. Not even sure if this post is what you asked for in the OP, whatever.

>>4201

Thank you! Interesting read. I read it on my phone earlier today, but didn't respond because writing on the phone is a pain.

Were you, then a professional soldier or something of the sort?

>And it worked for me.

I remember you saying this often. It works for you. What do you mean exactly? It makes you happy? It makes you feel right?

Thanks again for your post. I hope other trips will do the same. And even anons, actually.

Bemp.

>>4297

>Were you

Yes.

>What do you mean exactly? It makes you happy? It makes you feel right?

It enables me to deal with the cruelty of the world and my own shortcomings.

>>4134

not really.

if you mean my time on 8ch then,

I was very active in /christian/ since its conception, but mods got worse, they banned me because i gave my view of religion in my country, the mods are so narcissists that they can say what its true or not and even tho they dont know about this country theyre so high of themselves that they cant eat their words, crushing everything to avoid "looking bad".

if you mean my personal life then whats the point of being an anon.

>>4512

>if you mean my personal life then whats the point of being an anon.

Personal lives are always relevant when it comes to faith. No pressure, though. Thank you for the details.