By this point, my view of Christianity is that, while perhaps being well-meaning, has enough in it that either doesn't make sense or is horrid enough that I no longer want to be a part of it. The fact that this God, who is supposedly all-loving and merciful, is willing to send people to an eternal torment, in my opinion, is not only contradictory, but revolting.

I never grew up in a Christian household, at least not in an American sense. Religion in Finland and Skandinavian countries is a very private matter and we have little sense of community. I still don't know if my family members are religious or not, nor do I care. Some 80+% of the population are members of the Lutheran church and most people are baptisized soon after birth, but most of the time take no part in religious activities. Nowadays a growing number of people choose to leave the church completely.

Many people believe because they were brought up to believe. I never had that and to me the concept of a Christian - or any other for that matter - God doesn't really make any sense, even after my confirmation. I see no evidence for His existence or for some grand plan for the universe, and faith alone really isn't enough. I don't really care what people believe in, as long as they don't try to force it on others. Unfortunately, some people just don't mind their own business.

I'm not a Christian and when I'm asked if I'm religious I answer 'no', but that doesn't mean I don't believe in 'God' or a higher power because I do.

I believe there's a higher power governing the laws of space and time and that it has a conscious knownedge of us, can hear our thoughts and words, and can focus on us as individuals as easily as it can the entire universe. It's all-powerful and exists beyond our powers of understanding; which is my beliefe.

I, personally, don't believe in the Bible as some divine guide-book from on-high, but rather a historical text roughly doccumenting some real moments on history while also having been monipulated by higher members of society back in the day as their means of trying to controle the uneducated masses. In otherwords, to me, the Bible's a book full of history and bullsht all under the same cover. Thus, even after reading it from cover to cover a few times, I don't regard it as something worth my attention. But that's just me.

I've had many Christian friends and, while some of them may not have agreed with my view on God, they agree to disagree with me and I with them, this way we still agreed in the end and had prosperous friendships.

I was actually...more or less brought up Baptist. And I say 'more or less', because my mother would take me to church every now and then, but not all the time (like, not every Wednesday or Sunday). She didn't try to force Baptism down my throat. Instead, she allowed me to experience it and interpret it in my own way. I guess she thought it would be cruel to try and force me to believe anything I didn't want to. So to help me develop my own set of beliefs, she introduced me to the ones common in the area I lived in, while also letting me learn about other belief systems. What I ended up doing in the end as a result was kind of...mish-mashing a whole bunch of different philosophies and ideas together from the different religions and philosophies I learned about.

At the present day, I don't consider myself a Christian, but I don't consider myself an Atheist, either. I recently found out about Deism. It sounds a lot like my own set of beliefs and is very interesting. I didn't know America's founding fathers considered themselves Deists. I thought that was neat. I like Deism in that it gives me a way to contemplate things that are bigger than me. It allows me to believe in a God, while giving me room to support science and evolution as well.

As for Christianity itself, I have a very...spiteful relationship with it. The Christianity my mom introduced me to was a very strict religion. When I went to church, the sermons were always about how evil I was and how I was going to hell if I didn't comply with the religion's rules. And some of the rules, to be honest, sounded....petty. It didn't bother me much when I was little because outside of church, Christianity seemed like a pretty fair religion. People who called themselves Christians were very nice, friendly people. They were all about...treating each other nicely, no matter what their circumstances, and helping each other out. Recently however, every time someone mentions anything in regards to the Bible, Jesus, or Christianity that's not in a "okay let's talk about these things from an open-minded, non-biased perspective", I get...really...pissed off.

I think it's because of the media. Gay rights and homosexuality is a very hot topic on tv and the internet lately, and all the media has to say about Christians nowadays is that they're...homophobic, irrational, crazy...scary human beings. Scary. Scary and cruel. With no regards to other people's feelings what so ever. So as a result, I've started to equate the word 'Christian' with hateful-spiteful-person. Every time someone goes, "Jesus is my savior!" or something, I automatically think, "Oh, you're one of those people. C'mon. Tell me how evil I am. Tell me I'm going to hell. Tell me how much you and your...God...hate me, cause' you know how much I LOVE to hear it!" I also think that when Christians say things like 'God hates fags' or whatever, they're really saying 'We hate fags'. They're using God and Christianity as an excuse to vent out their own fear and hatred of a certain group of people.

That's another reason why I like Deism. A Deist's God isn't something/someone you can easily characterize. Therefore, you can't just up and say, "God loves this," or "God hates that," because...you don't know God! You don't know what he likes or dislikes. You don't know his opinion. So you can't make accusations like that. People are going to be less hurt if you say something like, "Well, I don't know God personally, but...I'm pretty sure he's an okay guy. I mean if he's smart enough to create the universe in such a way as he did, you'd think he'd have way more important things to worry about than...who you do the nasty with, right?"

It's a religion. The mainstream, popular versions of it are pretty off-putting. Anti-Christian atheists are fairly ridiculous and seem mostly reactionary against said popular versions.

I'm not a Christian because I don't find being one compelling enough.

It's just another religion to me. In due time, we will start viewing Christianity in the same light as we do with the old Greek and Roman religions. I wouldn't be surprised if we started referring to the stories of Christianity as Christian mythology.

Why don't I believe in the Christian God specifically? I find the bible to be self-contradicting and constantly makes claims that aren't reflected by reality. From the Genesis story (even the 'one day equals a thousand' variety) to the flood story and Jonah's story to all the logical impossibility (or possibly deceptive slight of hand) required to make the described miracles work.

Atheists is the guy hitting Canada, I am Canada, and Theists is America. [link]

Pretty much how I feel.