Anonymous
Well-known member
How many of you believe in God? How do you think that God feels about you? Are you religious? What do you think about the Bible? How many of you believe that certain people will go to hell after this life?
I'm trying to get a sense of the relationship between SA and spiritual attitudes.
As for me, I used to be a fundamentalist Christian who believed that God loved me but disapproved of me and was disappointed by my incompetence and inadequacy. I used to believe that God really couldn't tolerate me and would prefer to torture me in hell for eternity, but for the fact that I was redeemed by Jesus. I thought that there were a certain other class of people who were not saved because they did not believe in Jesus and dedicate their lives to him, and that those people were going to be sent to hell after this life.
Now, I am not a Christian, and not religious, but consider myself to be spiritual. I believe in God, but I believe that he admires and respects me, and that he delights in me and cherishes me. He is proud of me and what I do, even when I am being bad, and am not being good. I believe that God created us and will draw us all back to him after this life is over. Nobody will go to hell. I believe that Jesus who was God, came to earth to join us in our suffering and to take away our fear and to give us freedom from death.
I regard Christianity as a man-made religion. I believe that the Bible is a good start for thinking about God, but is not the first and last word on anything. There are tons of Bible verses that need to be crossed out of the text. It was written by men, just like me.
I found out that a belief that we are "sinners in the hands of an angry god" is a perversion of the faith of Jesus who said: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL men unto me."
Christian Universalism is my approach, but I don't see it as a religion, more as a spiritual attitude.
I'm trying to get a sense of the relationship between SA and spiritual attitudes.
As for me, I used to be a fundamentalist Christian who believed that God loved me but disapproved of me and was disappointed by my incompetence and inadequacy. I used to believe that God really couldn't tolerate me and would prefer to torture me in hell for eternity, but for the fact that I was redeemed by Jesus. I thought that there were a certain other class of people who were not saved because they did not believe in Jesus and dedicate their lives to him, and that those people were going to be sent to hell after this life.
Now, I am not a Christian, and not religious, but consider myself to be spiritual. I believe in God, but I believe that he admires and respects me, and that he delights in me and cherishes me. He is proud of me and what I do, even when I am being bad, and am not being good. I believe that God created us and will draw us all back to him after this life is over. Nobody will go to hell. I believe that Jesus who was God, came to earth to join us in our suffering and to take away our fear and to give us freedom from death.
I regard Christianity as a man-made religion. I believe that the Bible is a good start for thinking about God, but is not the first and last word on anything. There are tons of Bible verses that need to be crossed out of the text. It was written by men, just like me.
I found out that a belief that we are "sinners in the hands of an angry god" is a perversion of the faith of Jesus who said: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL men unto me."
Christian Universalism is my approach, but I don't see it as a religion, more as a spiritual attitude.