Why faith cannot be personal.

pr126 · Last edited by pr126 on Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:12 pm; edited 1 time in total

Why faith cannot be personal.

Faiths, especially the "desert dogmas" as Pat Condell calls them, are the so called Abrahamic faiths which includes Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
I cannot comment on other faiths, as I know nothing about them.

Judaism can be described as a personal faith as to my best knowledge does not openly proselytise, and becoming a Jew, not borne into Judaism, requires long study and acceptance. (not that anyone in his/her right mind would want to become the most reviled and persecuted people on the planet out of choice). Although I am sure there must be some.

The two other religions, Christianity and Islam does actively recruit new members in an agressive way, Islam even more so.

So this is something that is built into the said religions, and therefore it is impossible to be a personal affair, as it must advertise, proselytise to gain adherents.

I understand that in Islam it was to recruit soldiers for Allah, well for Mohammad really, since the religion was created by a criminally insane warlord specifically for warfare, to loot, to enslave, and to conquer.

What was /is Christianity's drive to proselytise in such an aggressive way? Is it really to "save" souls from eternal damnation or is it something else? I don't think for one moment that altruism is behind all this.

Over to you. Especially to our theist posters.

BTW, I was always an atheist, and never studied any religion seriously.

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Mr_C · Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:10 pm Post subject:

If all these Christians have a "personal relationship" with Jesus, why do they have to be introduced to this concept first?

It seems to me that if Jesus were anything except for imaginary, this relationship would be a universal phenomenon.
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baddogma · Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject:

aitm · Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:07 pm Post subject:

The person/people who wrote this crap had a great deal of hope vested in it. They devoted the entire book of Dueteronomy ( if I remember correctly) on how the priests are to be paid. It seems the sons of Aaron had a good deal to gain the more believers there are.
So it seems that this simple idea was agreeable to those who wanted to become priests as a way of making a living. The more followers the more money.
Today it seems to be especially true only not just money but power is a heavy motivator.
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Newman · Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject: Re: Why faith cannot be personal.

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