Are Christians Closed-Minded?

[rookiebatman]

I was raised in a Christian family, and I was a committed Christian for all of my young life, as was my older brother (he still is). One day when I was in high school, I was reading something about Christianity that troubled me, so I walked into my brother's room and asked him if we, as Christians, were (or should be) closed-minded. He thought about it for a moment and said, "yes."

If you are a Christian, do you believe (without any positive or negative value judgment for the moment) that you are closed-minded?

Jesus said, "blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believed." As a mirror-image to my other thread about whether skepticism is a sin, do you believe that being closed to other possibilities (other than God existing and Jesus being his risen son) is virtuous?

If you are a former Christian, do you believe that you were closed-minded while you were a Christian, and if so, do you believe that your leaving the church was a direct result of you becoming open-minded?

[Peds nurse]

How can you who don't believe, have authority over those of us who do? Is it because God does not talk to you? He cannot talk to you because you choose not to hear Him.

He didn't talk to me when I did choose to hear him (for 25 years).

I am interested in hearing more of that story

[rookiebatman]

[Replying to post 91 by Peds nurse]

There's really nothing more to it. I sincerely and devotedly pursued God for the first 25 years of my life, and one day I realized that I did not have anything that could reasonably be considered a relationship with him. My prayers were not two-way communications (audible or otherwise), I never felt like he spoke to me through my Bible reading, I never felt like he was there with me, etc. That's really about it, but if you want to hear me tell it by voice, you can click the link in my sig, and look for the episode titled "Personal Experiences."

[Wissing]

[Replying to post 57 by Danmark]

Thank you for the citation, Danmark. I will not pursue the point about Christians being Republicans - like I said, I don't doubt it, but context does matter. It's not a question of yes or no, I just wanted to see the specifics so I could better understand your point.

However, on your other point: there is a definite difference between caring for the poor and taxing the rich. Jesus most certainly did not advocate a government-based solution to poverty. Rather, he proposed that the 2nd-greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself [1]. From his definition of "loving one's neighbor" [2], Jesus does not specify any sort of revision to the tax system. Instead, the loving neighbor sacrificed both time and money to the care of a specific individual. The only time Jesus said anything about taxes [3], he most certainly did not mean that the rich should pay more of them. The emphasis is heavily on the neighbor, not on the people as a whole. This is in direct contrast to other worldviews [4], which have been tried and tested, and found wanting [5]. I would be happy to schedule a debate or a book study on the topic of populist approaches to helping the poor, if you would like to pursue it further. I should be available for that sometime in April. My personal opinion is that service is best handled one-relationship-at-a-time, where the subtle nuisances of a specific person (a neighbor, for instance) can be better understood and appreciated.




[1] Matt 22:36-40
[2] Luke 10:25-37
[3] Mark 12:13-17
[4] Do I advise you to love thy neighbor? I suggest rather to escape from thy neighbor and to love those who are the farthest away from you. Higher than the love for thy neighbor is the love for the man who is distant and has still to come. -Nietzche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
[5] http://yalepress.yale.edu/bookprinter.a ... 0300095678

[Tired of the Nonsense]

I was raised in a Christian family, and I was a committed Christian for all of my young life, as was my older brother (he still is). One day when I was in high school, I was reading something about Christianity that troubled me, so I walked into my brother's room and asked him if we, as Christians, were (or should be) closed-minded. He thought about it for a moment and said, "yes."

If you are a Christian, do you believe (without any positive or negative value judgment for the moment) that you are closed-minded?

Jesus said, "blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believed." As a mirror-image to my other thread about whether skepticism is a sin, do you believe that being closed to other possibilities (other than God existing and Jesus being his risen son) is virtuous?

If you are a former Christian, do you believe that you were closed-minded while you were a Christian, and if so, do you believe that your leaving the church was a direct result of you becoming open-minded?

You're brother was probably right. If you want to remain unwaveringly faithful to a specific belief, that necessarily requires being completely closed minded. That is the nature of unwavering faith. It's a conscious decision. I was raised Christian as well. But by age thirteen I found that I was no longer able to swallow the level of nonsense that Christian belief requires one to swallow. I had too many questions, and questions lead to an open mind. As an atheist my entire adult life I am constantly accused by believers of being closed minded. But not believing in religion was a CONCLUSION that I came to on my own. It was a product of being completely open minded about the nature of how the universe actually operates. It seems perfectly clear to me that it doesn't operate on make believe. If Christianity, or any other religion, offered real tangible evidence of it's validity I would consider that. Unfortunately ALL religions are uniformly based on appeals to supernatural events or claims. Believing in supernatural events or claims requires precisely the sort of closed minded faith I do not possess. As a result my conclusion that all religions are nonsense has only gotten stronger the older I have become. I do recognize however that shedding years of intense religious indoctrination is a difficult process.

[rookiebatman]

[Replying to post 94 by Tired of the Nonsense]

I strongly agree with pretty much everything you said there. I've been accused of being closed-minded as well. It's funny how my dad (who's the main one I try to debate theological issues with in real life) had no problem with me being closed-minded in favor of Christianity when I was growing up, but now that I'm on the other side, he's constantly stressing how important it is to fairly consider both sides of an issue. In fact, I still am continuously considering both sides and trying to always give Christians a chance to make their case, and yet atheism still makes much more sense to me in light of the evidence.

[Tired of the Nonsense]

[Replying to post 94 by Tired of the Nonsense]

I strongly agree with pretty much everything you said there. I've been accused of being closed-minded as well. It's funny how my dad (who's the main one I try to debate theological issues with in real life) had no problem with me being closed-minded in favor of Christianity when I was growing up, but now that I'm on the other side, he's constantly stressing how important it is to fairly consider both sides of an issue. In fact, I still am continuously considering both sides and trying to always give Christians a chance to make their case, and yet atheism still makes much more sense to me in light of the evidence.

According to Christians judgement day is at hand NOW, and you must climb on board NOW or be left behind. Christians have been making this empty claim for the last two thousand years, with no apparent comprehension that a batting average of ZERO FOR TWO THOUSAND YEARS is itself a powerful statement concerning the nature of the ancient superstitious nonsense that is being peddled here. Christianity is essentially one vast death wish, and the belief that "the end is near," and that judgement day is at hand is a belief that is older than Christianity itself. The concept of judgement day is not native to Judaism. It's a belief that was already implicit on Persian Zoroastrianism, for one, centuries before Jesus was born. And the core belief of Christianity is that a corpse came back to life and ultimately flew off up into the sky, for Pete's sake! At some point a decision must be made. Does one wish to continue to live in an ancient superstitious world of make believe, or does one wish to live in a 21st century world of reality? Does one wish to continue to perpetuate this on-going generational game of "pass it on" being played by EVERY religion, or does one have the courage to actually break the chain by thinking for themselves? It's difficult to overcome years of intense indoctrination, I understand. It's difficult to feel excluded by friends and family. Being truly open minded requires one to follow the path to truth where ever it leads though, doesn't it! If that means putting the make believe behind, then so be it.