So, you basically keep your own religion by selecting your favourite excerpts from everything you hear a wide variety of people say in reference to Christianity?
Yep, almost.
Not specifically Western Christianity, but since I was raised in a society whose values are derived from western Christianity, that one is closest to me. The Islam has many wonderful ideas, but was mainly written for tribal desert-folk who didn't know how to coexist peacefully in an urban setting. Eastern and Greek Christianity also have some unique views that I like, not to mention ideas from Hinduism and Buddhism. Then there's philosophy, and the whole New-Age movement which has matured quite a lot in a few cases, and actually have original ideas that make sense.
I was into aliens at age 13, practicing wiccanism at 14, at 15 I checked out satanism and various occult sects, at 16/17/18 I was either high, drunk or hallucinating, at 18 a firm believer of the absolute truth of Science, at 21 a follower of Chaos Magic, at 23 I met God and decided to be a Christian-without-church, and at age 25 decided that my form of christianity was totally compatible with the humanism I was raised with, except that there's a God involved somewhere. At 28 I read some more new-ageish stuff, but I liked "conversations with God" very much. From that book I devised a theory/had a revelation that I only half-believe in, and is somewhat difficult to explain, but one that's very much changing my perception of others.
So yeah, I take a bit of everything. It's called learning. It's like the quiz-show with the three doors: If you never change your mind, you're more likely to be wrong.
@piecewise That's quite a nice strategy... Except against pantheists and panentheists, who already believe you are God..
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Topic: Atheists (Read 409660 times)