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RE: ??1?? Question Everything?
A very honest answer and a lot to unpack and think about!! I'm a Christian and believe God came to earth as a man around 2000 years ago and revealed himself to us in Jesus. Fully God and fully man and he reached out to us and was sacrificed for us all. Just the fact that his very name can slice through the heart and cause hatred or adoration is telling. You don't get that as much with other religions IMO, but sometimes I have assurance issues, other times not. Anyway, peace to you too. :)
Thanks for not being a jerk! ;) My dad's a very outspoken athiest as well. Love him to pieces!! Anyway, thanks for responding, it was kind of a loaded question. :) <3
I like questions of any kind. (I question everything.) Loaded or not. hahaha Don't worry, I used to be VERY religious and I know the mindset. I was raised in basically a cult. (mormonism) Mormonism is especially cult-like with it's missionary program. I spent 2 years from 1995-1997 as a full-time missionary. The rules were insanely strict like no reading newspapers, watching TV, or dating or basically doing anything for yourself. It was 24/7 working for the "Lord" and basically total self-sacrifice to the cult. Luckily, it was "only" 2 years but that immersive cult experience really messed with my mind/sanity for many years afterwards. (I resigned in 2012 from mormonism when I was 35) The other parts of mormonism that are specifically cultish are the secret temple ceremonies with their silly clothes and the dictated underwear I had to wear as a member. (If you are interested to see the ceremonies, then go to YouTube and look up a guy named NewNameNoah because he is an ex-mormon that snuck a camera into some LDS temples and filmed most/all of the ceremonies, etc.)
Basically, I'm trying to say that I fully understand your impulse to share what you believe to be the "good news" of the gospel. (gospel is a contraction of the words god-spell) Every religion taps into a part of the human brain that triggers very powerful emotions and transcendent feelings/ideas. I'm fine with people getting "high" on those kinds of things but religion is not simply a set of feel-good natural internal personal occurrences/experiences. It has political and social consequences that often end up being rather anti-intellectual and harmful to both religious and nonreligious parts of humanity.
When I was religious, I also felt that people either loved or hated my beliefs and the characters (like Jesus, etc.) I worshipped at that time. But as I have experienced more of life, etc. and have traveled and lived in places like South Korea and Taiwan that are not Christian centric, I realized that most people on the planet are actually apathetic about Christianity unless they have interacted with Christians enough to form more passionate positive or negative opinions about Christianity.
Anyway.... yes, there is lot to unpack in regards to religion and any other complex sets of beliefs that humans have developed over centuries and longer. Thanks also for not being a jerk and cruelly judgemental of someone that doesn't share your same beliefs. :)