Non Christians. What are some good qualities about Christianity?

I just wanted to start a thread that will bring Christians and non Christians together. Please no condescending sarcastic jokes. Lets be adults on this thread.

I would not consider myself a Christian and in fact with Thomas Jefferson I would say the "I am in a sect of all by myself" when it comes to spirituality. I am a mix of Humanist, Deist, Christian, Buddhist, Existentialist, Transcendentalist etc. etc. A lot of Fundamentalists rip on Humanists and Non Christians and think we are going to hell. A lot of Non Christians think the Bible is full of crap. Is their a way we can find middle ground and look at things we agree on?

My position is their is good and bad in the Bible however with Jefferson I would say that the basic simple teachings of Jesus are mostly wonderful and good. I don't care if Jesus was God or just a very enlightened person, he was obviously a very wonderful, kind, loving, tolerant person. I don't know how much of what he said was real or was from ancient myths passed down from Persia and Egypt but if he was real and actually said and did those things he was as close to perfect as a human could be.

Their are enough threads about the problems of Christianity and the Bible so just this once lets find in this thread ONLY good things to say about Christianity and believe me their are many many good things. Please no condescending sarcastic jokes, lets be sincere.

...so it is thrifty.

The timing doesn't seem right somehow. :hi:

PS: I will say that I know some very decent Christians, many of whom post at DU regularly. It's not the sinner, but the sin I hate. ;)

is a really bad notion. Ideally, if you love the sinner, that is, if we really did love one another as he who loved us, there wouldn't be sin. I considered myself Christian until my religion was completely hijacked and abused, or at least until I became utterly aware of it. Now I just read the gospel and try to do the right thing.

it concentrates on the person doing the act as wrong rather than who they hurt, it's for children who haven't yet developed the quality of empathy. When this quality doesn't develop in children they call it Asberger syndrome, yet in adults it's just called religion.

It's a very early childhood mentality for people who can't understand the concept of "other".

No one over the age of three or four should still be thinking this way, much less have it as crucial to their central philosophy.

but when human nature gets tossed in, some things get off the track. Humans behaving badly is usually the problem with movement.

Considering some of the people that believe ...
It can't be all bad.

Christianity is great stuff...." do unto other " Christ was one wonderfull person.Like any religion the goobers get in there and try to make a buck out it and use it for all the wrong reasons.

I haven't believed for a while, but my mother was deeply religious.
She just totally believed in life after death. She was 89 when she passed on. I think that her belief brought her peace. (not a fundie)
When I said I didn't believe, well that's not quite true. I don't believe in a greater power. I believe that God is inside you. I was taught to believe in Jesus' teachings. To live you're life as He would have you do.
I do consider myself a Christian.

Oh sure, a lot of these "faith based initiatives" are really just missions to spread the gospel, but some christians devote their lives to feeding the poor and caring for the sick.

Seriously though, I like the ideas of charity and non-violence that the New Testament speaks of. I like the idea of a good and just God even if I don't believe it, and I like the charity and good works that are the driving force of Christians.

That's Christians, not "Christians."

No middle ground can ever be found between science and faith. Science and religion can but the very concept of faith is the opposite of science's impulse.

There is a lot of bad things about Christianity as a whole but nothing bad about Jesus.

But much about today's christianity seems to be rooted in a worship of the supernatural.

Check out Thomas Jefferson's bible and this website:

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/relg/christiantheology/TheImitationofChrist/toc.html

You can get a lot out of Jesus and Christianity even without buying into the supernatural. However if you accept that myth generally has a kernel of truth and then attempt to analyze the stories historically and logically you can even benefit from the myth and supernatural elements. =)

Though I appreciate philosophical Buddhism just like I appreciate philosophical Christianity. =)

I was trying to make the point that the redeeming qualities about Christianity can be found in earlier religions. Apparently, I didn't communicate that very well! ;)

I'd say that the redeeming qualities of Christianity are just the redeeming qualities of humanity. So of course they will surface repeatedly. =)

What I like about Jesus is that he seemed to be a Jewish Buddhist. Too bad people got pissed, killed him, voted him to be a god, and run his good name into the ground.

His stance on poverty, environment, compassion for others, getting in touch with god, and his blessing on those who promote peace.

It also inspires god-awful fiction, music, and other art.

...than I.

(Also, I really meant no harm in the lounge. I was trying to insert some humor, but perhaps it was in poor taste. It wasn't directed at a certain DUer, but was more of a response to other threads. I think the unmentioned DUer had some good points, actually. :shrug:)

We never talked Politics....
I adored this woman....
We never talked Politics....



Tikki

Fr. Phillip Berrigan. May he rest in real peace. One of the good guys that walked the walk.

When you hear some rednecky guy say that he loves Jesus and he knows that Jesus loves him, it's sweet. And there's the whole Baby Jesus thing. At it's worst it becomes kitsch, but at it's best it's quite touching.

isn't it?

Buy the way, I am a Clark fan as well. :hi: :thumbsup:

do you mention it? The best thing a Christian did for me recently was, when my husband died, he and his wife invited me to his church.(This was a business relationship). I said I was an atheist. He said, fine, we don't push our beliefs on anyone. That to me was very Christian. It also as allowed me to continue my business relationship with him without the crap.

Did you read past the first sentence of my post? I am NOT a Christian! It amazes me how many people post things without actually reading little more than the title. :crazy: :hurts: :wtf:

something good to say about her expereince with a Christian. That is what you asked, isn't it?

Perhaps I am wrong but my impression was that she was upset with me for pushing my Christian beliefs on others and that she had more respect for Christians who did not push their beliefs on others like the Christians she was referring to. That was my take and considering the fact that I am not Christian I just got the impression she did not read my whole post and thought I was a Christian pushing my ideas around.

In accord with the request of the topic starter, I will focus on what I see as the good qualities of Christianity.

Christianitys good qualities are that many of its individuals do good in their lives. In other words, some of the acts by some of its members are good.

Just about anything else I would say would need to be slathered in conditional statements, so I won't go there. If it helps, these statements all apply to just about every other largish or larger religion.

My .02.

DU has a religion forum. Why can't these RELIGION discussions be held there? I consider it a boundary invasion to constantly be assaulted by someone else's INSISTANCE on the equivalent of discussing private matters in public.

If it continues I'll have no choice but to put the offenders on Ignore.

It'll hide the thread for you so you won't be
offended by it.

Geez.

Their were several threads poking fun at Christianity earlier tonight and I felt like it was tarring people on DU apart. As someone who is NOT Christian I felt like some of those threads were making humanists and non Christian people look bad. I posted this to heal some of the wounds. What exactly is your problem with that? You have a problem with bringing people of different spiritual beliefs together? You might want to think about why? :puke:

There's been many.

For starters, Martin Luther King, jr.

for giving or competeting with themselves to do god's work that makes them do incredible things with their lives. Look at the orphanages around the World. The devout of over-represented for sure. And it has always been this way.

I think that the lack of questioning authority of it all would drive me nuts... but you have to admit that our religious... devout... friends have an extra emotion called faith. They will invite you into their homes, they will look at a lost cause and say - hello, welcome to my life.

It is a human thing to be born with the capacity to have such faith. And it is a different kind of strength. Admirable from most of my personal experience with the religious .. of any faith. The GOP has ruined the image of the Church. Politics has a way of taking something good and prostituting it. I ignore that and know that when I think of the religious of any kind.. I am thinking of the devout who follow the golden rule and live by it every day.

n/t

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (with its multi-lingual signs warning of pickpockets, which REALLY shows how little impact religion has had on human behavior thru the ages).

As to the philosophy of Xianity, I'll have to paraphrase Dr. Samuel Johnson: "The good parts are not original, and the original parts are not good."

Oh, and I love Xianity because of stuff like this...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16710&item=5564823202&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

individual christians or christian groups but the problem is so many christians inter pet the bible and stories of Jesus in so many different ways, some good and some - well not so good IMHO.

When christianity is used to discriminate and persecute then they are doing bad.

When christians act on what I always thought the teachings of Jesus were about, loving your enemy, raising up the poor, just equitable communities...then I'd say they are doing good. And it doesn't really matter to me if they believe in supernatural, if they are doing good and learned to do good this way then I'll take it.

The teachings of Jesus are good, and are very similar to the teachngs of other faiths, especially those that stress self examination, non-judgement, and good works to others, especially the poor.

I have known many Christians who follow these teachings-among them, a certain Episcopalian actor who I quote in my signature line.

These are qualities you can learn elsewhere, but religion might help some people learn this stuff better.

Forgiveness. This is good for the person who is forgiving if he or she is the type of person who gets ate alive by holding grudges.

The "truth". I don't think that most people make a habit out of lying. I do think that if one really values the truth, then they will make sure that they search for it so they will not lie. Oddly enough, this sets a path for some people to leave Christianity because they come to the conclusion that it's not the truth.

Having a gentle tongue. Not all Christians practice this, but I find it's very useful whenever I am trying to get a point across.