It's not a matter of believing the words to be true ... but it's really unecessary and it's just clutter. That stuff brought me nothing but doubt. The church and its teachings were like that for me too, as I explained before; they were just clutter in the end. Granted, I wouldn't be who I am without my local youth group, but it came to a point where I just felt I was being attacked every sermon because I wasn't perfect. I know that's not how they meant it, but that's the message mainstream Christianity is putting across these days, nonetheless. The image that those who believe are somehow better than everyone else. I don't want to support that assumption, I don't want to be associated with that image. I don't agree with the church's views on a lot of issues, probably all of them, such as their problem with homosexuality, and how they guess God has a problem with it. Like, I don't believe that at all. If that's being Christian, then, for that and other reasons like it, I'm not gonna be under that banner. And, to me, that stuff has nothing to do with spiritual beliefs, really; to me, beliefs are a personal thing, my beliefs are not tied to a cause or an organisation. How I'm true to my beliefs won't be dependent on someone quoting and misconstruing the Bible to me through a PA system, and telling me I'm still not good enough.
The old and new testament argument is a funny thing. Most of the fucked up crap you'll find in the bible (kill all the gays, eating shellfish is an abomination, women are property and not people, human sacrifice, etc) is in the old testament. If you use this in an argument with an evangelical nutcase to explain why the bible should not be taken literally and why we don't stone women who are not virgins on their wedding day, they'll say "We follow the new testament" and they're correct that Christianity does follow the new testament. The old testament is the foundation of the Jewish Torah, and yet, Jews have figured out that it is just stories, and are not to be taken literally. Even the more orthodox Jews out there tend to be liberal when it comes to human rights and support gay rights, marriage equality and gender equality. If you ever get a chance, have a talk with a Rabbi over the OT, they will all but tell you that it's complete bullshit.
I don't call myself an atheist, but I guess I am. Religion to me is violent, outdated, irrational, ignorant, etc. I think, it's good for nothing. Esspecially, when mixed with politics, law or even science. I believe in ethics and applying them to your life, educating yourself and working hard. But I also, strongly believe those are unhuman terms and that humans are violent, irrational and ignorant by nature. And you're only good when you can afford to be good. You live, you die, you only have emotions in the present so I guess, you should feel as good as possible, as much as possible. But I don't, and I don't like Utilitarianism either.
alright. There is a lot of views out there, and as Earlier said, this is not a debate thread that i kinda derail'd it to be. (Thanks Timothy!) As he said "Vaguely sitting on the fence" is where I'm at, looking around. @ taperecorder hahah. And plenty of argument for both sides, no doubt.