Kyo Yuy

Recently, on a forum that I frequent, a certain individual has been making quite a few blogs about Christianity and his beliefs. He mentions how his encounters with Fundamentalists have turned him away from faith, and made him more Agnostic. He argues that many Christians often boast about their salvation and use it as a means to condemn others. With these types of limited experiences, I can see why he would feel pushed away from religion.

However, the discussions that occur in his blogs are often very thought provoking. As a result, I have felt compelled to make a response discussing a reflection of my own beliefs. For the sake of remembering what I wrote, I am pasting it into my own personal blog.

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I apologize for bumping an older and somewhat controversial thread, but…

On September 04 2009 07:04 Bosu wrote:
I agree christians shouldn’t worry about finding all of gods answers and just try to be good people. You know, like atheists.

Unfortunately, many people tend to lump morals and beliefs into one group and make generalizations about them. Sadly, there are selfish and altruistic atheists, just as there are selfish and altruistic Christians. I don’t think it’s proper to say that “all atheists are good people,” nor is it correct to say that “all atheists are bad people.” Same goes for Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and so forth.

Someone commented earlier that discussing religion on the Internet tends to be rather fail. And while I agree that’s generally the case, I find that the posters on TL tend to do a much better job at maintaining civility than many other sites on the Internet. I also like how there are different schools of religious thought on the site, and it’s not as simple as “the majority of TL is [insert religious/philosophical belief here].”

I also find the OP to be rather thought provoking and does raise a lot of questions. I do learn a lot from other people’s experiences and I can see how those experiences shaped their beliefs.

Perhaps what bothers me the most in my own faith journey is the idea that Christianity is almost completely centered on the idea of salvation through faith in Christ, and that good works often come second to that (as another poster in the thread pointed out). And that leads to many Christian groups who are very condescending towards other people, and even other Christian groups, as they feel that their belief in Christ gives them justification to act as they please.

I am personally trying to figure out what God wants me to do in life. Yes, this means I am definitely a theist, and it means that I feel a sense of divinity calling out to me and guiding me through my life. And while some individuals would be quick to say that I am simply deluding myself or that I am communicating with some subconscious or super ego, that is not what I believe. I cannot prove that God is present in my life nor am I out to justify that belief. I am simply stating that this is my belief.

I, like many other individuals in this thread, am conflicted with Christianity’s concept of an all loving God that will only save those who follow in a certain set of beliefs. How can someone who loves everyone and everything condemn those who do not prescribe to a certain faith? It does appear to be very paradoxical. And yet this is the very belief that most Christian groups preach.

This idea of “religious exclusivity” is extremely prominent in many divisions of faith, and what’s sad is that it is present even among Christian denominations. I’ve heard people say that Catholics are led by Satan, and at the same time I’ve heard that non Catholic denominations cannot be saved without the grace of the Catholic Church. There is a lot of controversy in religious debate, and most people try to avoid the issue altogether.

Unlike many individuals in the world, I have not quite settled on one firm set of beliefs just yet. However a lot of people I have talked to, have encouraged me to keep searching and keep asking questions, because making quick and rash decisions is often a bad idea. I’ve learned in my years of college to try to keep an open mind about everything. Oddly enough, the idea of keeping an open mind was actually reinforced to me by a few atheists, even though that concept has started leading me on a path towards theism with a strong bias towards Christianity.

My study of science has, in many ways, made me feel more religious. People often see science as the “enemy” of religion, but science does not really work that way. Science is often portrayed to the general public as an absolute truth, a collection of black and white facts, and the idea that something “either is or is not.” I have learned that in reality, science operates quite differently from this popular notion. Sickness is not defined by a binary of “sick/not sick” - doctors determine a patient’s DEGREE of sickness based on the severity of symptoms and the concentration of pathogens in the body. We’ve also learned, in recent years, that light is both a particle and a wave. This conflicts with our popular notion that most things are EITHER a particle OR a wave. There are many more examples of these scientific concepts, but one thing is for certain - science does not operate on an absolute scale. Although the word “absolute” is sometimes used, it is typically defined RELATIVE to a reference point (e.g. the Kelvin temperature is absolute, RELATIVE to the temperature at which energy stops moving).

Although science is often seen as the opposition to religion, in my case, science was one of the catalysts that drove me on a path to learn more about religion.

Any way, let me express that the purpose of this post is not to say that anyone is wrong or that they need to believe what I believe. I just thought I’d share my own personal experiences with faith and I hope that people can gain something out of it.
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