In Reply to: what interests me Porc. is posted by lydia on July 17, 2005 at 15:59:18:
I didn't say I take it to heart, I picked up the book and found it interesting to read and there was a small thought in there to ponder which can be applied to almost anything, not simply Christianity.
But I refuse to take anything except what I can verify with my own 2 eyes as the real truth. That applies to anything historical or faith based, or religious. History is written by the people who author the books, the people who win wars, the people with the power. It's not always written accurately. I can't help but retain a bit of skeptimism towards Christianity because it's based on books that were written thousands of years ago. Many people choose to believe it, that's fine with me, I don't, I prefer to keep a question mark over it.
Maybe I didn't state it clearly too that I'm not now accepting this book, or others like it as the new truth for me, but I find these things interesting to consider and think about.
To be honest though, I wouldn't run around saying "Oh my god, you have to read this book,it contains so much truth in it!!', I would simply say, 'yeah, it's interesting and presents some interesting theories to consider, but ultimately what you believe is up to you', which is the same thing I say about the Bible when asked about it, or when it comes up in a discussion. I realise that some of my friends very much believe the Bible and that's cool, and what's better is that they know I don't, and they respect that, and they leave me alone about it, but the debate comes up once in awhile, and because they are totally convinced in the truth of their beliefs, I see no point in trying to sway or pursuade them, I haven't even tried, because they can believe what they like.
And fortunately I have the same freedom. Leaving the cult gave me that freedom to throw away my entire belief system and adopt a new one according to what I felt was right for me. And I reserve the right to change that position at whatever time I discover something about any religion that pursuades me it does indeed contain the truth.
My experience with Christianity was very personal, very intense, very life-consumming. When it turned out that I had been misled through my innocent faith, I decided the best way was to not put my entire faith into anything, ever again, period, including Christianty. Maybe that's why I find books that go outside the normal or the acceptance or the facts about Christianity interesting, they give me some things to contemplate. But I wouldn't accept them as complete truths until I was totally assured of the veracity of their claims, which I'm not, in almost every case, but I still find it interesting and worth at least pondering and thinking about.