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Most of the world religious make equally retarded and equally contradictory statements, so that seems highly unlikely.

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No religion is 100% inspired by God, and indoctrinated individuals aren't always able to separate instructions from God and instructions from their preacher.

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What is the nature of your relationship with God now that you have shunned theology and religious texts?

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I have shunned the Catholic church. I have not shunned Christianity. I've read much of the bible, but I take it all with a grain of salt and rely more on the innate connection to God that every human has and the sense of right and wrong that He bestowed upon me.

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I have shunned the Catholic church. I have not shunned Christianity. I've read much of the bible, but I take it all with a grain of salt and rely more on the innate connection to God that every human has and the sense of right and wrong that He bestowed upon me.

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Quote: from InsaneBlue at 8:55 pm on July 4, 2009

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I have shunned the Catholic church. I have not shunned Christianity. I've read much of the bible, but I take it all with a grain of salt and rely more on the innate connection to God that every human has and the sense of right and wrong that He bestowed upon me.

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How do you experience this "innate connection"? What makes you think it is of divine origin? How does it relate to the Bible?

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Now we approach the unexplainable. I have faith that it is of divine origin. And if it's not, if it's just one of those tricks that the mind likes to play on itself, it has me do things that God would be proud of by anyone's definition of him, so either way it can be considered divine, in inspiration if not in origin.

I'm not sure what you mean by asking me to relate it to the Bible. In the Bible, God speaks with people quite frequently.

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You actually hear His voice in your head?

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No. Don't worry, I understand that would be a tad worrisome.

It's more of a conscience thing, and it points in the same general direction as the teachings of Jesus. Like I said, we all have our human sense of right and wrong. Some people ignore it for money, power, etc. I choose not to (of course we're all sinners so I do slip up [and repent]) and I use that as my direction.

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Speaking as a life-long atheist, I can assure you that the desire to be nice to people is the result of an agreeable temperament and a good upbringing. I'm sure you're aware of this already, unless you were a marauding serial killer up until you found God a year ago.

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I really do hate getting into philosophical debates, since no one can prove anyone right or wrong. I will throw out my opinion though, not trying to argue yours, just stating mine.

I think people are born good, I think they're born with the desire to help people and do as, I believe, God would want them to. But sometimes that gets clouded.

And that actually leads into my biggest problem with the concept of God but that's for another discussion.


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Does it not strike you as rather arrogant to proclaim that billions upon billions of humans, past and present, were utterly wrong about the source of their own morality?

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You take a feature of the human psyche that is near universal (psychopaths seem to be denied this divine privilege from birth for some reason) and proclaim that it is the gift of your culture's god?

Does it not strike you as rather arrogant to proclaim that billions upon billions of humans, past and present, were utterly wrong about the source of their own morality?

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That's one of the things I try hard to avoid. I believe that there is a god. I believe that Christianity best captures the nature of this god, but I do not insist upon that. If there's one thing I don't do it's forcing my beliefs on people.

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If you're right, and the issue is an important one, I'd have thought you'd feel morally obligated to persuade people to come around to your point of view.

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If I knew as a solid fact that I am right, than that would be true. But it's not fact. I make liberal use of "I believe" and "I think" for a reason. I never stated my opinion on conscience as fact. I even included a disclaimer.

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You are certain enough in your position to live your life in accordance with it.

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It has nothing to do with living my life. It's just an abstract, possible explanation for the nature of our conscience. It doesn't change how I use mine.

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