I'm feeling a little defensive of Nea at the moment. Why is it not possible for her to have come to different conclusions about the nature of Christians? Just as I am certain you would not say you represent every Christian, so Nea is not saying that every single Christian falls into one of her two categories. If she did not seek out your specific opinion, does that invalidate the experiences she's had with other Christians?
Surely you are both coming at the same conclusion from different angles. I am an outsider observing, and it does seem to me that both of you are describing tolerance vs. intolerance, strict adherence to the Bible vs. interpretation of the Bible in order to follow the principles described within it. It's like Constitutional law. you either follow blindly or you interpret. And if adherence to the letter of the law = fixation on the description of the death of Christ, and interpretation = extrapolating one's own Christianity from the resurrection and LIFE of Christ, then in the end, you both mean the same thing. For me it's easier; I accept that there is some sort of Higher Power/God/Supreme Being - I can't understand how the Big Bang happened without a God creating the stuff that exploded. I just don't believe in religions, because, hey, look at all the crappy stuff that happens, that we've all described here. And once again, religion is coming between people who otherwise are simpatico. Just read the posts above.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 08:51 pm (UTC)Surely you are both coming at the same conclusion from different angles. I am an outsider observing, and it does seem to me that both of you are describing tolerance vs. intolerance, strict adherence to the Bible vs. interpretation of the Bible in order to follow the principles described within it. It's like Constitutional law. you either follow blindly or you interpret. And if adherence to the letter of the law = fixation on the description of the death of Christ, and interpretation = extrapolating one's own Christianity from the resurrection and LIFE of Christ, then in the end, you both mean the same thing. For me it's easier; I accept that there is some sort of Higher Power/God/Supreme Being - I can't understand how the Big Bang happened without a God creating the stuff that exploded. I just don't believe in religions, because, hey, look at all the crappy stuff that happens, that we've all described here. And once again, religion is coming between people who otherwise are simpatico. Just read the posts above.