If you discovered that Christianity is false,....?

[Divine Insight]

If you discovered that Christianity is false, would you be happy, or disappointed.

And why?

[RaiderGonzo]

If you discovered that Christianity is false, would you be happy, or disappointed?

Christianity is false, as we know it in mainstream. But, one has yet to delve truly into the goodness of true scriptural Christianity, the way of the brethren in Christ.

Hypothetically speaking -as your question infers- there would still be a lingering question of what is one's life all about? Without Christianity there would still be a spiritual need to be filled in man's heart. Would you then turn to science? Islam? Nothingness?

How would you answer the questions still left in your mind, and in your heart?

Yoga?

Scientology?

And then what?

Poof, you didn't mean much to anyone but your parents, maybe?

[OnceConvinced]

Without Christianity there would still be a spiritual need to be filled in man's heart. Would you then turn to science? Islam? Nothingness?

But is there really such thing as a spiritual need? I don't feel like I have any spiritual needs at all. I think this deserves a topic of it's own, so I've started one:

http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 195#683195

How would you answer the questions still left in your mind, and in your heart?

I have come to accept that there are questions that will never be answered. Does my life lack meaning or enjoyment because I have unanswered questions? I'd say no.

Yoga?

Scientology?

And then what?

I don't see any need to swap one crazy belief or practice with another crazy believe or practice

[RaiderGonzo]

Without Christianity there would still be a spiritual need to be filled in man's heart. Would you then turn to science? Islam? Nothingness?

But is there really such thing as a spiritual need? I don't feel like I have any spiritual needs at all. I think this deserves a topic of it's own, so I've started one:

http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 195#683195

How would you answer the questions still left in your mind, and in your heart?

I have come to accept that there are questions that will never be answered. Does my life lack meaning or enjoyment because I have unanswered questions? I'd say no.

Yoga?

Scientology?

And then what?

I don't see any need to swap one crazy belief or practice with another crazy believe or practice

I you don't have a spiritual need, then I envy you; for you are one of a kind!

[OnceConvinced]

Without Christianity there would still be a spiritual need to be filled in man's heart. Would you then turn to science? Islam? Nothingness?

But is there really such thing as a spiritual need? I don't feel like I have any spiritual needs at all. I think this deserves a topic of it's own, so I've started one:

http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 195#683195

How would you answer the questions still left in your mind, and in your heart?

I have come to accept that there are questions that will never be answered. Does my life lack meaning or enjoyment because I have unanswered questions? I'd say no.

Yoga?

Scientology?

And then what?

I don't see any need to swap one crazy belief or practice with another crazy believe or practice

I you don't have a spiritual need, then I envy you; for you are one of a kind!

I suspect that spiritual needs are actually emotional and mental needs repackaged under a different name. Needs that can be met without the need for religious activities and silly superstitions. I welcome your input into the thread I started in the Philosophy section.

[RaiderGonzo]

I suspect that spiritual needs are actually emotional and mental needs repackaged under a different name. Needs that can be met without the need for religious activities and silly superstitions. I welcome your input into the thread I started in the Philosophy section.

You suspect right,for those are the needs of the soul which even modern science has barely began to address under the care of pills and laboratory tests.

But why go over to that link., since we're already here?

What is your answer to how we can treat the needs of the soul?

[Tired of the Nonsense]

[Replying to RaiderGonzo]

You suspect right,for those are the needs of the soul which even modern science has barely began to address under the care of pills and laboratory tests.

But why go over to that link., since we're already here?

What is your answer to how we can treat the needs of the soul?

Modern science is unable to address the question of the of the soul because modern science requires physical empirical evidence to examine and study. Make believe, baseless assumption and empty claims provide none of that.

[RaiderGonzo]

[Replying to RaiderGonzo]

You suspect right,for those are the needs of the soul which even modern science has barely began to address under the care of pills and laboratory tests.

But why go over to that link., since we're already here?

What is your answer to how we can treat the needs of the soul?

Modern science is unable to address the question of the of the soul because modern science requires physical empirical evidence to examine and study. Make believe, baseless assumption and empty claims provide none of that.

Yet we have in this day and age what is diagnosed as mental disorders of all types., whether it be stress or chemical imbalances. You can treat them both with therapy and medications, but correct me if I'm wrong, but those only treat the symptoms and not really the root causes. By this I mean, one can stress over -lets say- money, but money isn't the real problem is it? Money is only the reason we give it due to the imbalance of society's need for worth. Mental imbalances can indeed be medical, yet that only tells us that there is corruption in the physical body; thus, we are not perfect. Either one, there is a hope in what the gospel of Christ offers to both the individual with stress factors, and/or to the physical imbalanced individual. Would you -if you were a doctor- neglect your patient from any type of inspiration of hope for recovery? Why then discard the spiritual mana' offered by Christ to those who have a need for strength?

[Zzyzx]

.

Why then discard the spiritual mana' offered by Christ to those who have a need for strength?

I favor "spiritual manana" from JC (or other proposed supernatural entities) for those who need it.

However, those who need it often fail to recognize that others do not -- and attempt to develop or encourage others to develop similar needs -- or prove that "everybody needs to worship gods." I particularly object to doing this to children before they develop reasoning and discernment.

Without indoctrination they may have learned to rely on themselves and their environment for strength rather than depending on supernatural beliefs

[Divine Insight]

Would you -if you were a doctor- neglect your patient from any type of inspiration of hope for recovery? Why then discard the spiritual mana' offered by Christ to those who have a need for strength?

The Abrahamic religions cut their own throat in terms of offing spiritual manna.

I don't think anyone would have a problem with religious people if they simply believed in their religions for themselves and did so in a positive way. But that's not the case when it comes to the Abrahamic religions including Christianity.

The doctrines themselves renounce non-believers or "unbelievers" as being vile immoral people who supposedly hate these gods even though they don't even believe in them.

These charges are made clear in the dogma in many places. And this negative ideology is used by the believers in these religions to degrade and accuse non-believers of being less than decent people, etc. In extreme cases it is used as a motivation to fly jet airliners into building filled with believers of an opposing faith.

So actually doctors would be well advised to discourage their patients from leaning on these negative religions as "spiritual manna".

The fundamental ideal of a Santa Claus God who will promise a gift of eternal life in paradise might be uplifting to an otherwise depressed person, but is this "spiritual manna" truly a cure for their depression? Or is it actually just a crutch that could ultimately be destructive if not itself cured?

It's true that the "blind sheep" who follow these religions in the hope that the Santa Claus God is real may indeed being thinking only in terms of the positive aspects of these organized and dogmatic religions. But in truth they are actually giving their support to all the negative aspects of these dogmatic religions by supporting them. They are also vulnerable to being negatively affected by these negative claims within the dogma simply because they have placed themselves in a position where, in order to keep their "spiritual manna" afloat they feel a need to defend even the less moral aspects of their religions.

In this way their "spiritual manna" actually becomes a "spiritual poison" that is caustic toward anyone who doesn't support the fantasy.

This may not seem apparent to those who view the God of these religions as a nice jolly Santa Claus who only wants to the best for all his children, but that delusion doesn't change the toxicity of the underlying dogma. And for those who do not believe in this Santa Claus God (or even for those believe in him from a different perspective) things can become extremely dangerous.

Just look at the world trade center disaster. Here we have one group that believes in a Santa Claus God called Allah basically killing those who believe in the Santa Claus God called Jesus.

Now you may claim that this would never happen the other way around. But don't be too sure about that. Historically there are many examples where the Santa Claus God named Jesus was fodder for torturing and killing many people.

In fact, there are Christians to this very day who would gladly vote to have gays executed in the name of Jesus. There are preachers who actually call for this and support this view.

So it's a dangerous "spiritual manna" that should not be endorsed by doctors. On the contrary it should be treated as a "spiritual cancer" and eradicated from humanity.

If we actually had a harmless fantasy of a Santa Claus God, we could give that to those who need "spiritual manna". But Jesus Christ can't be that Santa Claus, because after Jesus was nailed to a pole he was then nailed to the Old Testament as the son of an extremely immoral God named Yahweh.

Jesus Christ has no feet of his own. He can't stand as a stand-alone Santa Claus. He only has meaning when sitting on the shoulders of Yahweh. And Yahweh is not better than Allah. In fact, they are basically one in the same.

[OnceConvinced]

I suspect that spiritual needs are actually emotional and mental needs repackaged under a different name. Needs that can be met without the need for religious activities and silly superstitions. I welcome your input into the thread I started in the Philosophy section.

You suspect right,for those are the needs of the soul which even modern science has barely began to address under the care of pills and laboratory tests.

But why go over to that link., since we're already here?

What is your answer to how we can treat the needs of the soul?

I took it to the other thread because I didn't want to take this one off course.

I personally no longer believe in the soul. I also believe that all needs can be met by natural means, you just have to find something that meets that need. As we are all different, we will probably find that different things meet our needs, ie some people need lots of cuddles. Others don't.

I believe a lot of our so-called spiritual needs can be met with good healthy human relationships. If we have those, we tend to be happy and content. People who lack those often find themselves miserable and empty. Some will even try to fill that gap with imaginary friends like Gods for instance. That may work for some, but it seems more like a placebo to me now.