Why I am not a Christian

“If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession.”
― Lao Tzu

"What you are looking for is already where you are looking from"
St Francis of Assisi

Neither of those two are....."making a god out of themselves". .....as you are implying

 

There is some truth to sayings outside of the Bible, but it's mixed with a lot of lies, and you don't need philosophers and saints to know those things. The only book we can trust is the Bible. The only one we can trust is God.

 

You don't need Jesus to know those things either....or the Bible for that matter.
If the wise men that the old testament talks about existed....
then all of the wisdom they spoke....was said before being recorded anywhere.
They didn't need a Bible to find wisdom....neither do we.

 

It's not good to not hear the Word of God. We are supposed to be around like minded people That is why God wants us to go to church. Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

 

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."
Actually most of us do hang around "like minded people" when ever we can....
It does not say "like minded people" have to be church people.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

 

God wants us to fellowship with other believers. You don't get that from watching a TV preacher.

 

Yes we do that...we fellowship with folks that have similar beliefs to our own.
That is a good thing to do. But Christians don't necessarily share the same beliefs as the rest of us.

 

Okay....that seems as good an answer as any...do you consider yourself Atheist?

 

That's why Christians go to church-to hear the Word of God.

 

I would think that God could speak to to anyone anywhere no matter where they are.

 

God gave us the Bible.

 

Perhaps he gave us much more than a book...
even memorizing the Bible word for word would not mean much...for anyone.
"And all our deeds of righteousness are like filthy rags;"

 

Isaiah 1:18

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

 

When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
I am not listening.

 

Yes, my philosophy is naturalism/humanism.

 

The problem with the noun "god" is part and parcel the problem with language itself. Words are symbols, not the thing they describe. In our mind, by the way our psychology works, when we have the name for something, the noun, it gives the impression of knowing the object of that noun. It is for this very reason that, when Moses asked the name of who was addressing him from the burning bush, he was not given one.
Today, when we say this four letter word everyone already has an idea what it means, but few have truly reflected upon its full meaning. Some take it in an emotionally holy sense and some take it in an automatic negative way. That is why so many of us dislike using it in conversation; it derails rather than furthers.
What is generally called agnosticism could perhaps be reduced to "acknowledging a presence in the universe of an inexplicable eminence unknowable to our limited, human intellect". Those who wish to leap to using a name for this are, of course, free to do so. Reproaching others for not joining in name calling is fruitless.

 

Everything in nature has an order and a purpose. The only explanation for this is that there is a Creator. https://reasonsforjesus.com/is-belief-in-god-irrational-bertrand-russells-teapot-analogy-debunked/

 

"Order" and "purpose" are nouns of the English language, not objects in the universe. They are human concepts. We see "purpose". The universe does not.

 

What do you mean the universe? People use the term the universe as a replacement for God.

 

Can't say I'm familiar with that usage. "Universe" in the sense used meant physical reality (as we perceive it).

 

People say things like the universe put us together. They are using the universe as a replacement for God. Most people don't want to know God and they want to be their own God.

 

A Taoist does not believe in an all powerful deity but concentrate on following a way of life. It concerns itself with the present moment. Taoism and Buddhist thought consider suffering as part of life and there is a "way" to end personal suffering through enlightenment. They do not make the universe God and the universe is not to be worshipped but a path found to enlightenment.

 

The mechanism of reincarnation is based on the supposed "law of karma," in which good deeds and bad deeds are tallied and used as the basis for determining a person's fate in the next life. One's good karma may earn them a better status or some good fortune in the next life, while one's bad karma will bring suffering into that life that matches the wrong done in the past.

Reincarnation typically ends only when one has advanced enough to have neither good karma nor bad karma, but to be totally neutral. Then one will be absorbed into an impersonal "universal consciousness," or "cosmic consciousness," in which the individual self ceases to exist. That is, the end result is the complete annihilation of the finite self. The individual becomes "one with the universe."

Who or what is able to keep track of each deed of each person who has ever lived in order to make the karmic cycle work?

 

That is a very good question. I personally have problems with reincarnation. But karma may just be cause and effect. The idea however, is to live in the present moment and follow the "path".

 

The idea of reincarnation and not believing in God makes no sense. If there is no God, who controls where the souls wait before they transfer to another body? https://www.equip.org/article/logical-biblical-defeaters-reincarnation-karma/