The scorned and those who scorn,

The persecuted and those who persecute,

The hurt, the lonely, the hopeless, the friendless,

The unwanted, the outcast, the unloved,

Sinners like me, every non-believer,

And every person in need of a Savior

This forum is dedicated to you.

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Dear "non-believers",

Hi! Thanks for coming to my very first forum (whoohoooo!!) This is basically a safe place made especially for you, a place where you can talk, rant, flame, ask questions, get answers, and present your views...without getting flamed back or insulted for it. I'm not sure I can make any guaranties, but I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to keep it that way. I'm glad you're here and I want you to feel as welcome as possible.

I only have one rule for you (beside the usual forum rules), and it's very simple: Please watch your language!! No "f-words" or anything. If I see a post that's virtually nothing but cussing and dirty language, I will delete it. It's okay to flame, just please do so with a less "colorful" vocabulary. Okay? Is that possible? Can you do that? Thank you!

I know that some of you have been hurt and mistreated by Christians (or people who CALL themselves "Christian"), and hate Christianity as a result of that. If that is the case with you then I am deeply sorry and my heart goes out to you. I hope and pray that someday the blindness of hatred will be healed, and you will realize that God is a God of limitless, unconditional love and grace as well as holiness and justice.

I also want you to know that I am NOT going to try and force you to convert, I am NOT going to insult you or make fun of you, I am NOT going to bang you over the head with a Bible, and I am NOT expecting you to suddenly change your mind or beliefs because of what I say (and I don't want you to). All I want to do is simply talk with you and perhaps be your friend. I am, however, utterly determined to listen to you (even if you don't listen to me), to love you as Christ has loved me (no matter how nasty you are), to try and share (not "force") what I believe and why I'm so crazy to believe it, and to do (or write) whatever God leads me to do on this forum (even if you don't believe He exists).

There, I think I've spelld, er, spelled everything out clearly enough. Do we understand each other (I hope)? Good. Thanks again; I'm looking forward to talking with you!

With much love,

Dearheart

I was browsing through a few forums (I was bored), and I read a few of the "non-believer" ones. I couldn't help but notice that atheists (or non-believers in general) had a lot of misconceptions about Christians, and Christians had a lot misconceptions about atheists. I also noticed that there were a few Christians who were acting rather, shall we say, "holier-than-thouish", and that there were a few non-believers who flat out hated Christians. I thought, "enough already!" and made this forum, in hopes that some of those things could get cleared up. This is a place where non-Christians are free to present their beliefs, and talk, rant, flame, ask questions, or whatever...about Christianity in general. This is also a place where Christians can come and explain their faith, why they believe it, and answer questions (without the "holier-than-thou" attitude).

Basically, I want to show Christians that they're not "better" than non-Christians, and I want to show non-Christians that Christianity isn't always what they think it is. Do you get it now?

(Geez...I used the words "Christian" and "non-Christian" a LOT. Sorry!)

I agree with that. I don't hate all Christians, just the ones who judge me for being atheist or try to shove their beliefs down my throat. I don't like that one bit.

Good job, BubblyShell22. I don't like Christians who judge (though, you have to admit, even if you're not a Christian it's hard not to judge anyone) or who shove beliefs down other people's throats, either...and I'm a Christian! You gotta understand, though, (which it seems that you're actually doing a very good job of, BTW) God gave Christians very specific commands in the Bible. Matthew 28:19 has Jesus saying, "Go, and make disciples of all nations."

Now, what He meant by that was that He wanted his followers to spread the news of His love throughout the world. Some Christians take that a little too literally, I think, and believe that everyone wants Jesus in their hearts right then and there and, as you so aptly put it, shove their beliefs down your throat. I think that's going directly against what Jesus has told us to do.

You may have met with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses in the past--they're the ones that come to your door with their version of the Bible and don't go away until you bring out the shotgun... But don't pay attention to these dudes at all. They're what're called false prophets--people who claim to have the light of Christ in them, but in reality have the Devil. I don't have time to go into all the details as to why Mormons and the Witnesses aren't true Christians, but just know this: as a corporate whole, they tend to shove beliefs a lot more than others. :)

I totally understand this, and I agree. Everyone has different beliefs and we should just live and let live instead of judging everyone for what they believe in.

Bubbly, (Can I call you that?) I thank you very much for being such a good sport and standing up for Christ without even being a Christian.

Yes, you can call me Bubbly or Shell. Doesn't matter to me. Yes, I try to be a good sport when it comes to this. I don't believe in God, but I'm open to those who do, even though I think some people take it a bit too far in judging others. Those are the people I don't like because they are clouded in their judgement. It says in the Bible to judge not lest ye be judged, but I think some people don't realize this or forget it.

I don't like that either, but online a lot more people sound like that because you can't hear the hurt in their voices.

But please, tell me why you know so much about the scriptures and yet do not believe? You can PM me or not respond if its to personal.

I know so much because I was raised Catholic but turned to atheism because I just figured that it was the right thing to do. I wasn't satisfied with things that were going on in the world and in my life. I was full of stress and tried praying, but it got me nowhere. So, that's why I became an atheist, and I love it. It doesn't mean that I don't have the morals and values I had before because I do. I just don't believe in a deity and have no reason to do so. I can still live a good life and be a good person without a god in my life. That's the way I look at it.

Well, I did what you did when I was a pre-teen, only I am a pastors kid, so I tried to hate God, succedded at hating, but could not agree with all the non-sense of evolution. I could not deny a "higher being" and could not find the proof to disprove Him. So, He lead me back to Him using some of the greatest people on my life.

Funniest thing was that one of the people who helped me through is Wiccan.

succedded at hating, but could not agree with all the non-sense of evolution. I could not deny a "higher being"

But... does agreeing with evolution equal denying a higher being?

Not necessarily. I've talked to people who still believe in God but also agree with the possibility that evolution could exist. It just depends on what you believe.

Yes some do believe that, but its not true. I was only trying to accept evo to deny God. I failed at believing such ludicrous things and therefore could not deny some higher power.

But I'm not denying a higher power... and I still believe in evo... the difference comes down to whether or not you believe the Bible should be read litterally or not...

Why not? Have you listened to nothing of what I have said numerous times about the different letters of the Hebrew and Greek languages that differ depending opun whether something is true or simply a fairy tale?

Well... have you been listening to nothing about what I've been saying? There are several places in the Bible where it's quite clear that the Bible was written by humans who, for obvious reasons, couldn't know what had happened many years before their time!

Just think about the two very different versions of genesis in... well... Genesis

Or... in Genesis 17:25 Ishmael is 13. Then a year goes and he's 14. I might be wrong... but I think I've read somewhere that children were weaned when they were 3... so that means that Ishmael is 17 in 21:9... so how come that Ishmael suddenly in 21:15 is back to being a baby? Unless this is one of the earliest accounts of a mother not being able to accept her child has grown up...

And... basically what you're saying is you are only a proper Christian if you're a fundementalist! So... as far as I've understood from some of your previous posts you are against Islamic fundamentalism, but not Christian? That doesn't make sense!

Btw... what you've been talking about; with the difference in the letters in Hebrew and Greek whether it's true or a fairytale... well... the authors (hereby I mean those who wrote it down the stories quite possibly had been passed on orally first) choose to write like that... that doesn't make it real! But they weren't lying either... they were explaining the whywithout bothering with the how!(Science tries to answer they howquestion...) That be said I'll probably never need to know that stuff about Hebrew and Greek... I already speak 2½ language... one more would just confuse me... (Besides... my Classical Studies teacher tried to make us believe that Greek was easy... yeah right... that "worked" until our substitue teacher showed us a bit of the Odysee in Greek...)

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