Foundations, hopes, and contributions

[Confused]

In another thread, a poster made the following statement:

United we stand, divided we fall. I forget who actually said that, but it doesn't' really matter. Non-theists can throw logic, reasoning, and the scientific method at us all they want. Let them ridicule us because of our beliefs. Because of our faith. At least we have something. It is better than nothing. At least we stand on a foundation that is meaningful. One that offers eternal hope.

Despite the many things wrong with this one statement IMHO, the one I find the most troublesome is that this poster actually believes that a non-theistic foundations offers nothing meaningful or no hope. (sink or swim)

So up for debate:
1) What is the Christian foundation?
2) What is the atheistic foundation?
3) What foundation does Christianity offer that atheism can not match with beliefs such as humanism?
4) Does Christianity offer more hope than atheistic beliefs, or only the illusion of more hope?
5) What meaningful contributions does Christian beliefs add to society that atheistic beliefs cannot and/or do not?

[achilles12604]

Ok then. What is my Christian faith?

Hmmm . . .

You know, to put it into a neat box is really hard. I may have to think about it for a while.

Well, you know I am not going anywhere for the next few days. So time is something I have too much of.

Ok. I have decided that I have boiled down what my faith IS

My faith is that God exists, and that he cares about his creation.

If you want to expand it more then my faith is also that God has reached out to man in the past with guidance and love and now he is waiting to see what man does.

Now, is this in line with the Christian foundation? Or can it be applied to any religious foundation? What makes it unique to Christianity?

Sorry. Late reply.


Confused . . . Don't you know by now that the question you asked me doesn't really apply to me? I think God approaches mankind where they are at. Thus, Christianity is not the end all is all of religions. Neither is Judaism. Or Buddhism. Or the Great Spirit.

Then why do you identify with Christianity? If there is nothing unique to its foundation, then why identify with the Christian God?
Yes, I know you are anything but the stereotypical Christian. But there must be some reason why this is your foundations and not Judaism or any other religious doctrine.

Because Christianity is where God first reached to me. Just as Ghandi chose the tenants of Hinduism yet accepted Christianity, Buddhism, Islam etc. It was familiar to him.

I would not expect a Native American to switch to Christianity if he was being reached out to by God through the Great Spirit.

I guess my question then is do you represent the Christian foundation? Or with your liberal views, can you represent it?

I guess that is the entire point of my heresy question. We shall see. I feel that I can call myself a follower of Jesus, thus I feel that that "christian" is the correct title.