Jenyar,
I'm trying to show you that your antagonism towards Christianity is unfounded,
Unfounded?!
My disgust for Christianity is for Christianity as I know it. Of course, say, the Christianity I know is not the "true" Christianity ...
Christianity is, IMO:
1. It's sexist.
You may say that it is all about metaphorization. But, as a woman, I simply cannot accept that I should worship a male God and a male Saviour. The choice of metaphors should be more careful.
Rewrite the Bible then, so that it won't be sexist anymore. Oh yes -- what will you do with that verse that forbids women to speak in church?
2. Christians have, in the past, done a lot of harm to non-Christians. They still do. Not all Christians -- but it is not my problem that all Christians call themselves that way.
If it would be my way, Christians would keep very quiet, and never grumble again.
3. And yes, this is some 1500 years of pagan rage speaking. Rage against Christian pride, vanity and cowardice.
Beware of those who call themselves good people.
using the experience of suffering as an example.
So you think my explanation of suffering is wrong?
How many people continue to smoke even after they develop lung cancer? It's not because they're stupid, but because they have made peace with the consequences.
No, this may go only for some. There is a lot of smokers who think "It won't get me."
And yes, I dare say, that smokers are stupid.
If you jump off a bridge into a river, and hope you won't get wet, you are stupid.
That's often why people resent my faith: I make things uncomfortable if I tell them that they shouldn't just accept life at face value, because it's not "all there is".
I don't think this is the case. What some people think "all there is" is most likely something totally different from what you think that "all there is". You're speaking different languages, and so are we.
That's a very fatalistic and abstract "could". Sometimes the truth is that if people had acted differently, things really could have turned out differently.
If they could act differently, they would. They didn't because they couldn't.
It will drive you mad to dwell on those "what if's", but that's because they are actually plausible alternatives.
Dwelling on what-if's means that you are not accepting reality.
You have a walk there before you, if you wish to understand how "If it could be otherwise, it would be otherwise." and "Whatever you do, you do the maximum in the given circumstances." work.
"It is all about learning, and realizing that we cannot change the past."
And why shouldn't that apply to religion?
Who said that it doesn't apply?
If people didn't need coping mechanisms they wouldn't have created them... If things could have been otherwise it would have But we do, and not all of them are valid -- once again, most are temporary solutions, like taking an aspirin for pain, or Prozac for depression. They're temporary solutions that we repeat endlessly. That's because they address the symptoms and not the cause.
And you know what the cause is? The activity of our brain.
Keep your brain busy, and it won't go astray, and so you will not need coping mechanisms.
Ahhhh, but work is so teeeeeedious.
It suits us right -- we are punished for not accepting the reality of our brain.
Celebrities flock to Kabbalah and Scientology centres because they find comfort in the spirituality they represent -- and they're fads for exactly the reason you mention: they're a cop-out for facing the reality. However, you don't allow for the possibility that the reality is that they have no relationship with God, and no way of facing fears and emotions that are simply beyond their frame of reference. You can become a Buddhist monk and expand that frame of reference until you're blue in the face, but it will never restore your relationship with God. It will be a temporary addiction -- as paradoxical as that sounds.
Maybe now you can begin to understand what I meant by "it is a business-like decision to consciously rationally convert to a certain religion".
"Why would I need salvation? You see, this is where you'd first have to convince me into the truth of the Christian characterization of God and humanity."
Because you are either looking for salvation or think you already found it one way or the other. It's that nebulous reality called "fulfilment" -- that quest for reaching your full potential and being exactly who you mean to be.
You'll need to re-conceptualize this "salvation" for me then. As it is, it means nothing specific to me.
I am exactly who I mean to be. But it takes some Zen to understand that.
If I am not different, this is due to me not thinking differently.
I may strongly believe that getting up at 6 is a good thing, and I would like to get up at 6 every day. But I don't. This is because my belief that getting up at 6 is not meant strong enough. When I will mean it strong enough, I'll also get up at 6.
"If I would seriously have to accept Christianity, I know that now, I would have to FORCE myself into it. Forced beliefs may be real, with real output, but they are never honest."
You'll only have to force it if it differs drastically from what you're already doing, and it doesn't sound as if it is.
Oh, it doesn't differ?! Do I believe in Jesus? Do I believe in the Christian God? Do I believe in eternal life?! I don't.
You know what's wrong witht he belief in eternal life and all that? It keeps people AWAY from this world issues. They are not at it.
Anyone who believes in eternal life, considers Earth to be a mere station on the way.
Like if you go visit your parents who live a 4-hour drive away from you. On your way there, you stop at a diner, have lunch, tank gas, and continue with your journey. You are not much interested into what that diner looks like, not really. You may complain. You may like the napkins. But you sure have no intention on staying there, for you are "just passing through". You have no intention to fix the leaking roof of the diner. Two men are arguing at the table next to you. You only tell them to shut up (that is, if you have the guts to do so), you don't go there and try to help them resolve their differences. You won't be there to see the result. You are "just passing through."
And life on Earth is like that diner to you: it feeds you, it gives you temporary shelter. But you're not going to invest into that diner.
This is why Earth is being destroyed, because humans believing in eternal life are not taking Earth seriously. Their bodies are here, but their minds are somewhere else. No wonder they cannot solve earthly problems.
What you sense is concern, or maybe frustration. I doubt it will make sense to you, but there it is. Even with all my doubts and uncertainties, with everything I know or don't know, it is distressing to see people simply content with "not knowing", as if there's nothing to know.
What right do you have to feel distressed? It is your loving brethren and sisters -- and God -- your God -- gave them FREE WILL to do what they choose. And you do believe in that, don't you?
If you don't like them: leave them alone or kill them. But don't be "distressed" because of them. Don't pity them. Pity is an act of pride.