From: mlee@post.RoyalRoads.ca (Malcolm Lee)
Subject: Re: THE MIND OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER
Organization: Royal Roads Military College, Victoria, B.C.
Distribution: world,public
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 17:35:15 GMT


In article <1993Jan6.224900.10780@netcom.com>, madhaus@netcom.com (Maddi Hausmann) writes:
|> 
|> But here you set up a false dichotomy.  You claim because you were a
|> non-believer and were not happy that is was your non-belief that made
|> you unhappy.  I do not deny your feeling that something was missing,
|> as I myself have felt this and so have many other people I have
|> known.  What I object to is your assertion that only Christianity
|> could have changed this.  You see, I am not longer feeling that
|> something is missing, yet I am still not a believer.
|> 
The road to becoming a Christian was not an easy one for me.  For many years, I
was openly opposed to the Christian faith and had sought other ways to find 
fulfillment.  Nothing did the trick for me.  Only salvation through Jesus Christ
has been able to fill the great gap that was in my life.


|> >I'm not a Psych major and I can't fully explain it.  It was not until I came to
|> >know my Lord and Saviour that I gained a sense of purpose and fulfillment in my
|> >life.  I had friends around me but it was not the same as having the family of
|> >Christ around me.
|> 
|> But here I have given you some suggestions on how to explain it.
|> Don't just sit there and say you can't explain it; do some reading
|> and learn to understand it.  It won't be easy, but then again,
|> using your mind rarely is.
|>
I had already used my mind.  I am not a high school dropout, but a university 
graduate in Comp Sci.  God gave me the gift of an analytical mind but even this
mind could not answer the questions that plagued me.  Who am I?  What is my
purpose on this earth?  People that I've grown up with had passed away recently.
And it didn't matter all the good things they did in their lives, they died all
the same.  To what purpose?  I read books and asked other people but it seemed 
they were too caught up in their own interests.  Nobody wants to talk about
death, after all.  It's a subject that usually drags everyone down.

 
|> >This is my testimony, not just my opinion.  I don't worship a religion.  I worship
|> >the one and only God.  If my church should burn down or my pastor move away, I
|> >still have my faith in Christ Jesus.  I am still Christian.  He gives me the
|> >strength to continue on when my strength is gone.  I need Him and I love Him. 
|> I did not say you worshipped a religion.  I said you relied on something
|> external to yourself to validate your self-worth and that this is very
|> harmful to your mental health.  In this case the external validation
|> rests with Jesus, not with you.  The church or the pastor do not
|> matter as much because you can find another.  But if you were to stop
|> going to church and Bible study and the Christian fellowshop, you
|> would find your doubts re-emerging.  Please read the Cohen book.
|> 
I rely on God's strength.  The evidence of His strength and devotion to me comes
from the family of God that He has provided around me and the wisdom gained through His Spirit.  Are you saying that it is wrong for me to rely on my family and that it is more mentally healthy that I be an orphan alone in this world?  I
don't mean to be insulting.  That is not my intention.  Please read on.


|> >I don't see how you can find fault with this.
|> 
|> I find fault with a system that leads to:
|>    - Sexual dysfuction due to a body/mind duality
|>    - Sexual repression leading to high rates of child abuse
|>    - A refusal to use one's gifts as given, in this case your mind
|>
God invented sex.  God created man and woman and they were meant to have sex to
procreate the race.  There was nothing dirty about sex until Satan perverted it into a form of abuse.  Sex was intended by God to be beautiful and it is between
lovers.  IMHO, it is people and some Christians who have wrongly interpretted
sexual immorality as being any type of sex at all, or even thinking of sex.  Face
it (I have), the sexual drive is part of our human makeup.  God has taught me to
accept this part as being a part of myself and He has taught me how to control it.
Not eliminate it.  I can't.  I know that.  But I can control it and I have for
these 31 years of my life.  I am not ashamed of it.
   Use of one's gifts as given . . . yes, as given by God.

 
|> >God loves, Man kills.
|> 
|> This is another dangerous poison in the Xian ethos.  All the evil
|> is assigned to Man, inotherwords, to you as a member of the family
|> of Man.  All the good is external; it is assigned to God and
|> Christ.  You are scum, they are holy.  They can save you, you
|> cannot save yourself.  This is dangerous because it sets you up
|> as self-hating and needing spiritual cleansing from Christ, or
|> actually, from a representative such as the church or your study
|> group.  Self-loathing leads to psychological problems.
|> 
|> You do not have to be a Psych major to learn about Psychology.
|> I strongly suggest you look into it.  
|> 
|> -- 
|> Maddi Hausmann                       |  The Truth is still The Truth, forsooth 
|> madhaus@netcom.com                   |  Even if believing It you refuse
|> Centigram Communications Corp        |  Complete disproof's uncouth and moot
|> San Jose California  408/428-3553    |  A Fundie's brain is dead.
|> 
I don't hate myself.  In fact, God has taught me how I can love myself.  After
all, He loved me first before I even knew Him.  By the example of His Son's 
sacrificial death, I have learned how to give of myself such that I could love 
another person.  And we have been together for 3.5 years and intend to marry in
the near future.  None of this would have been possible were it not for God's
love.  If there was any self-loathing that I had, it was during the 25 years
that I was a non-believer.  And I agree with you, this self-loathing was not
healthy.

From what you've read so far, Maddi, do you conclude that I am a happier person
now than when I was before?  Has Christianity benefitted me, do you think?  Or
am I better off never having known God at all?

I thank you, very sincerely, for your comments and hope that you will respond.
Newsgroups: alt.atheism