<p>"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." -- C.S. Lewis</p>
<p>It irks me when people make remarks to their "somewhat religious" nature. I am speaking to Christianity of course, as that is what I encounter mostly down here in the Bible Belt.</p>
<p>If you honestly believe in it, then of course you will act accordingly; but if you do not, stop with the hypocrisy. </p>
<p>And of course, if you are unsure, then you should certainly spend a bit more effort in arriving at a decent amount of certainty (see aforementioned quote).</p>
<p>like, people that are unsure of their religion? cuz that happens a lot in life</p>
<p>but like, bad christians? they kind that don’t practice what they teach? I don’t know. I generally like the overall christian fundamental belief of self-sacrifice and I think that’s mighty important. I dislike it when I see christians not follow it most of the time. But there are christians that do or at the very least try so cut people some slack.</p>
<p>i thought you were meaning christians who aren’t really christians. i think there may be a better word for this kind of idea than hypocrisy to avoid confusion</p>
<p>If you don’t gain anything else out of my original post, focus on the second paragraph. The point of the quote: there is no so such thing as moderately important Christianity.
Implication: if you are unsure about the truth of Christianity, do not treat it with lukewarm interest. Also, if you truly are a Christian, you will not treat Christianity as minor part of your life.</p>
<p>Christians can’t follow self-sacrifice their entire lives, some get close, I like to think they try as hard as possible to give of themselves.</p>
<p>I guess you’re just annoyed with the indecisive? I mean, I am too, I sometimes feel like agnostics are just playing it safe. But overall I do think christianity is wrong, I just like the ideal of it but I don’t figure there’s a hell or heaven or Jesus. </p>
<p>Or is it the people that quote the bible and than act like jack-asses? </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s hypocrisy for people to be unsure of their beliefs at times. I do think people that are unsure of their faith should really look at it and stop preaching till they’re sure, but even then people should carry on with self-sacrificing if that’s something they value regardless of belief.</p>
<p>In my opinion, you can be moderately religious. I assume that’s what you’re denying in your original post. A faint belief in God in this case is not too unlikely. Due to the nature of life today, mostly in the United States, there are simply much more essential tasks to be done than pray at each meal and at bedtime. Yet at the same time, there are those who believe in God, despite the fact that they do not devote their whole day to worship.
In fact (not to offend those who are indeed religious), those who worship “the right way” can only be seen in my eyes as ignorant of the world, and overwhelming evidence in general. Those who consider themselves atheists are in fact too based in said evidence to believe in the subjective aspects of life. </p>
<p>Now, we have the ones in between. The ones you accuse of ignorantly claiming to be “somewhat religious” are in fact the only truly “sane” people in my mind. Why? Because, these “moderates” around the center of the spectrum are those utilizing logical and deductive reasoning, the more scientifically-oriented aspect of the human mind, to filter out such preposterous beliefs as the existance of a “God”, while conjunctively applying the more subjectively-oriented apsect of human thought to comprehend such phenomena as emotions and thoughts. These humans, representing neither end of the spectrum, are the epitomes of the ideal human. </p>
<p>Also, I would like to add that as religion itself is in effect completely subjective, interpretations of how dedicated one is to religion cannot be truly evaluated to be either “complete” or “nonexistant”, but rather a level of moderation varying from human to human. Therefore, all human beings are effectively “somewhat religious”, depending on the unique circumstances and ideology of each.</p>
<p>Again, this is only my interpretation of your question and my subjective answer.</p>
<p>Also, a quick question:
Obviously your post implies that you are not “moderately religious”, as you interpret the term. What would you consider yourself to be?</p>
<p>In my opinion who cares what people do??
In the end we all die and we all will find out what happens after. (if anything does happen)
My belief is that there is no point in worrying about it right now by consuming yourself with superstitious and pointless religious practices. Just live life to the fullest, follow your conscience and don’t be an a-hole and I’m sure who ever deems your fate after death will think you’re pretty cool.</p>
<p>Although you were explicit with what you wanted to say in your original post, the word “hypocrisy” when used in a religious context almost always lends itself to describe the actual actions of a person rather then on what you were trying to say, which is what caused all of the confusion. If your diction is misleading, your audience won’t understand your meaning, and you’ll get poor answers.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think you’re right to an extent. I have some friends who identify themselves as Christians yet attend Church only twice or thrice a year during religious holidays, which makes no sense. However, I also think it’s okay to have an interest in the possibility of a God, yet refrain from making an absolute answer to that question based on the fact that we may not have enough information. Furthermore, one doesn’t need to be religious in order to be moral, implying that one can practice certain religious teachings (not necessarily customs) without actually being religious.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that this is true of all Christians, or some Christians, or even very few Christians…but there are a good number of girls at my school that use Christianity to judge others while simultaneously forgiving themselves.</p>
<p>As in, they’re “fundamentalist” Christians that sleep around with countless guys while using their religion to judge gays and people that don’t quite fit in with the regular crowd. To them, their religion ironically only applies to the life of other people and gives themselves a reason to feel ethically/morally/socially superior. It’s childish and annoying but thankfully they are a severe minority and their actions have consequences.</p>