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From: MANDTBACKA@finabo.abo.fi (Mats Andtbacka)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: "Accepting Jeesus in your heart..."
Message-ID: <Apr.16.23.19.49.1993.1901@geneva.rutgers.edu>
Date: 17 Apr 93 03:19:50 GMT
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In <Apr.13.00.08.15.1993.28388@athos.rutgers.edu> jayne@mmalt.guild.org writes:
> gsu0033@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Eric Molas) writes:
> 
>> Firstly, I am an atheist. I am not posting here as an immature flame
>> start, but rather to express an opinion to my intended audience.
>[deleted] 
>> 
>> We are _just_ animals.  We need sleep, food, and we reproduce.  And we
>> die.      
> 
> I am glad that I am not an atheist.  It seems tragic that some people 
> choose a meaningless existence.  How terrible to go on living only 
> because one fears death more than life.

      ?Huh? Okay, so I'm not Eric Molas, but even if that _is_ how he
feels about life, I disagree with it.

      Life, to me, is definitely NOT meaningless; it has precisely the
purpose and meaning I choose to give it. I go on living because I _like_
living; if I needed any further reason, I'd be free - completely free! -
to pick any reason that suited me. That freedom can be almost
intoxicating; it's probably the closest I've ever been to a 'religious'
experience. I'm *very* glad I am an atheist; I wouldn't be anything
else.

> I feel so sorry for Eric and 
> yet any attempts to share my joy in life with him would be considered as 
> further evidence of the infectious nature of Christianity.    

      Not unless, in explaining your own subjective experience, you also
try to convert him or proselytize. Merely explaining the effects you
personally experience religion as having on you, is not "infectious".
Not unless Eric is paranoid, that is. ;->

> As a Christian I am free to be a human person.  I think, love, choose, 
> and create.  I will live forever with God.

      Whatever floats your goat. You sound happy enough; that's fairly
much all that matters, right?

> Christ is not a kind of drug.  Drugs are a replacement for Christ.  

      Erh... Pardon, but it strikes me that sentence sounds reversible.

> Those who have an empty spot in the God-shaped hole in their hearts must 
> do something to ease the pain.

      "Empty spot"? "God-shaped hole"? I hear such things a lot from
theists; never quite did understand what they were talking about.
I have no such 'emptiness' or 'hole'. Maybe some others do, I wouldn't
know; but I don't, and if I did, I'd seek help about it. Doesn't sound
like a mentally healthy situation at all, walking around with a 'hole'
in oneself.

> Thank you, Eric for your post.  It has helped me to appreciate how much 
> God has blessed me.  I hope that you will someday have a more joy-filled 
> and abundant life.

      Well, not having written that original post, I don't know if it
was intended to be interpreted in such a way; but, having reread it
carefully, I somewhat doubt it. At least, that's not how he gets across
to _me_, your mileage may vary...

-- 
  Disclaimer?   "It's great to be young and insane!"
