Currently I’m stuck.
I have a strong belief that Christianity is powerful and that I only want to live in a Christian society while also not believing that it’s literally true.
So far I haven’t been able to rectify this
Discussion
Me too. In some way I could identify with Templars, but in the other hand I am not interested in reading the Bible.
Only He can clarify this for you ☝🏼
May you get unstuck 🤲🏼 Amen
It’s a mind-fuck for sure.
That’s the whole point. Don’t get too fussed about literal truth.
Excessive scientism being applied to religious texts is turning everyone against the texts. But like, we answered that question, when we confirmed that the Earth traveled around the Sun.
I suspect our ancestors just had brains that could think on different wavelengths and we're all getting mentally cropped-down and dulled.
Probably why everyone is getting into shrooms. Trying to tap into their inner mystic, with a shortcut. But, that mystic is actually already there, we've just cut it off.
If you are interested in getting in touch with your inner mystic in a well thought out method try Anthroposophy. The guy who started it had all the credentials of a top scientific scholar and had deep training in the esoteric schools of his time.
I heard a discussion a while ago between Jordan Peterson and Bishop Robert Barron that touched on psychedelics and mysticism.
Bishop Barron basically suggested that a psychedelic trip might be akin to a mystical experience, but without the framework of religious values, and the discipline of fasting and prayer, we have a harder time making sense of it.
Well, it's like sleeping with a prostitute instead of your wife. For the clueless, it looks like the same thing, but one is just a mimic of the other and engaging in it too often will damage you
In both cases, it's the commitment that makes the difference.
St. Theresa, for instance, had crazy mystical experiences, but it went hand in hand with her deepening commitment to Our Lord.
Man, wait till we do the Theresa reading club with #Alexandria. She's so awesome.
Can't get over how much we share a writing style.
Have you ever tried a psychedelic?
Nope.
Everyone single experience is different. Religion is completely irrelevant when trying a psychedelic.
That's what I've heard.
I was talking about how psychedelic experiences seem to share some commonalities with the experiences of religious mystics. Perhaps psychedelic experiences are all so different because they don't necessarily take place within the framework of spiritual devotion.
They are similar, but not the same.
Trying certain psychedelics activates the part of the cerebral hemispheres that conduct memory. Those random memories become imbued with everything you see and do. Religion has nothing to do with it.
What drove the Bishop to make such a comparison?
Device-free worship is the best!
I also think, for myself, that this is what Jesus meant, when He said we should be like children. Children don't overanalyze everything. They just accept that they can't understand everything, but they trust the persons in charge and it will all be fine.
That’s wild.
trust it, don’t question.
I’m a kind of person who could never accept that.
That’s the vibe I get from all religions and their believers.
Try to disprove the resurrection of Jesus. Those who try conclude the he truly rose from the dead.
What if Jesus was an identical twin?
What if he was an alien from the planet Gorkon?
What if he was Gandalf? 🤷🏻♀️
I think this is the sort of mental gymnastics that are sort of missing the point of the excersize and trying to turn the Bible into a laboratory experiment.
Listen if I’m just supposed to take the Bible as metaphorical truth then I’m already there, but seemingly a lot of people tell me I need to take it as literal truth
It's not just a metaphor, also not just a history text or a news report, but some mysterious third thing: a metaphysical story. It take place on Earth, but also transcends it. It tells us about the relationship between the Old and New Israelites and God, and it is a completely true story, in a way that no other story can be true.
I just take everything at face-value and extract deeper, profound meaning from it. Everything written in there was guided by the Holy Spirit and only the Truth can come from the Spirit.
To be honest, my experience was that I just ignored the BUT LITERALLY TRUE people and stopped feeling like my religion is a competition out out-literally everyone else, and now I generally accept the content as literally true. 😅
Being lectured at by the Jesus Is My Boyfriend crowd was such a turn-off, that it nearly made me give up on the whole thing. I'm just too cerebral for that.
The story of Christ is not merely a tale among tales—it is the one tale so magnificent that, if it be true at all, it must be the very heart of all reality. And if it were false or mere allegory, then reality itself would be a drab and broken thing, unfit for the soul of man.
The Christian does not merely believe in Christ; he wagers his whole life upon Him. He embraces the paradox, the grand defiance of a world that scoffs at mystery, and walks with joyful defiance through the valley of doubt, because to do otherwise—to cast off the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the great romance of the Gospel—would be to exile oneself into a wasteland of meaninglessness. Faith is not the absence of doubt; it is the refusal to let doubt rule. It is to choose to live in a world where Jesus Christ and his story actually happened, because it is so good and so beautiful that you refuse to live in a universe where it didn't happen. To call oneself Christian is to courageously live as though the world is enchanted.
Those are the ones thinking you go to Hell for NOT taking it literally, but if there was a God would he ever feel that way? Idk. Sometimes I wonder about my own parents on that. We were given free will and brains, right?
Why not embrace the Christian ethics you value without believing in God? You can be a virtuous nonbeliever.
…Thomas Jefferson is a good example. He was not a theist and didn’t believe in the story of Jesus — at most he was a deist who believed in a hands-off creator.
I don't think you need to. I think Christianity is a model for ideal human behavior, sure there might be some flaws but it is a pretty solid moral structure. No need to believe the earth is 11,000 years old.
I’ve been struggling with the same dilemma for years.
I'm with you. I believe that the spirit is real, but that Christianity can't be entirely true (speaking as a former Christian).
Yet I also think that Christian culture has played an important role in transmitting virtues that could otherwise be forgotten. This is something I'm very actively pondering.
Religion is just a retarded mind control machine. I think it is unjustifiable to be religious. I mean the lack of curiosity is astounding. Who wants to be like that?
I can‘t zap you!
Sadly I don't believe in zaps either. 😅
Well too bad, you would have gotten some🙂
May I ask why?
I think getting paid for writing things leads to conflict of interest. Instead of writing what I think, I start to write what people want to hear. But I have no problems in other people zapping each other. And appreciate the intention of zapping. 😀
We tried having a world without religion and it lead to the mutilation of children and a steep rise in statism/communism. Religion is necessary.
We didn't try a world without religion, woke and environmentalism is just a different kind of religion, surely you can see that, fulfilling the same needs as your religion. Christianity has been used since forever as the main tool of social repression and control. Why do you want that?
Christianity and wokeness both reject science, evolution and curiosity, and instead defaults to retarded collectivist ideologies things like creationism, public "health" and global warming.
Just.. What ?
We tried having a world with religion and it led to endless wars, slaughters, colonialism etc. too.
I agree though that religion is necessary, defined as how we relate to the divine.
The problem is not religion or no religion, the problem is imposed dogma and centralized power.
Christianity itself would have been stuck in the middle age and obscurantism (remember Copernic) if not for some people fighting to believe in God in their own way (protestantism and enlightement).
Would you prefer to live in an exclusive christian world (thus which one ?) or in a world where everyone is free to relate to the divine in their own unique way ?
I would rather decentralize everything.
Try praying about it, even if you’re a non believer, and keep an eye out for an answer. You will 100% get an answer.
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
― C.S. Lewis
Christianity, if false, is still very very important. CS is wrong here.
It's all about what you do that matters. Faith helps you always do what's right and good.
Well, it at least gives you hope, that you can recover from doing wrong and helps you discern right from wrong.
It's a story with a lot of truth behind it but doesn't necessarily need to be "reality".
Just like all the tropes about Bitcoin - the idea is very powerful and true, but the physical reality of it is more flawed, and you're never going to gain anything by living with that in mind.
The core ideas are intuitively true and valuable, so only get caught up in the details if that is necessary. For most people it isn't and you can benefit from it without questioning every single element of it.
After going deep down the near death experience and superconcious hypnosis rabbit hole I've come to believe that more than likely we live many different lives and it has nothing to do with a God or Jesus. Its more about the perfection of the soul. Seek to better yourself and others each day and you'll be just fine👍
Old Testament is kinda sus, but new testament has some good stories
7/10
There is a conversation to be had here around fundamentalism.
Fundamentalism works well if you want to build a megachurch with a lot of followers, but the walls will be high and thick, and the megachurch isn’t going to get along with others well.
If one wants to live in a society and have an effective society that is run well that involves the right to hold and practice according to different points of view (like what you said, “not believing it’s literally true”), fundamentalism is a really bad idea because, once again, fundamentalists don’t get along with other people well.
I recommend reading philosophy chronologically. Get an LLM to summarize one philosopher a day. Can recommend philosophize this podcast. It might help you see value in world without Christianity and realize that everything is just a drop in the ocean.
Join the club, brother. Living “as if” will probably eventually get you there though. God bless!
Anything is better than the Judeo programmed society that we currently reverted back to. However bitcoin is basically a new religion, belief system, and will program people better than the Jesus update from 2,000 years ago.
It’s a beautiful mystery.
There is nothing on this Earth more valuable than your soul. Treat it as such and plan accordingly 🫂
White people shouldn’t worship a middle eastern religion.
The Jefferson Bible helped me. While President, he redacted the entire New Testament to only include the teachings of Jesus, removing the mysticism that possibly found its way in long after his death. He literally cut the relevant passages out with a knife and pasted them into a volume that can now be ordered online and is easy to read. Jesus's life and teachings, that's it.
Been there and I have rectified it by being thankful that I live in society with which I share some basic values of life, morality and ethics, while at the same time I find literal belief as being ridiculous.
Also I do believe that for some people (mostly young souls) it is better to have Christianity as an anchor than to be completely left to wonder in obscurity of the conciseness as uninitiated soul
You don't have to go crazy on your own @HODL
Why don't you think it's true?
You are going through this because Christ won't leave you alone, he knows how special you are
You have to surrender.... it will come.
Yo, so crazy, I am exactly there too.
I use to be a atheist activist. Realised atheists people suck and christians are just better people.
I want to live surrounded by christians.
I consider myself christian.
Though I am not able to believe the bible literally
The book “The Case for Christ” helped me with this. You’ll never know with absolute certainty, but there’s far more evidence than most realize.
This 👆
The bible should be read in meditative state.
Stories and philosophies that are the incorruptible first blocks of humanity.
Judaism squared this circle for me - you’re supposed to wrestle with God and question everything
But Zionism on the one side and transgenderism on the other are preventing me from following through with conversion, for obvious reasons
I disagree
About which part
Fighting with god. It's your individual truth but I feel like god is the one force we cannot resist, and that we should be fighting for god on this earth.
If God is all knowing does God know why you don't believe in him? Would God understand?
Yes.
Genesis 32:24-28 (NIV):
“So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ The man asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘Jacob,’ he answered. Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.’”
In some interpretations, Jacob’s opponent in Genesis 32:24-30 is seen as an angel, while in others, it is considered to be God Himself in a physical manifestation.
Interpretations of Jacob’s Opponent
1. God Himself (Theophany) – Many Jewish and Christian scholars believe that Jacob was wrestling with God in some form. This view is supported by:
• The passage where Jacob says, “I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” (Genesis 32:30)
• The name “Israel” given to Jacob, meaning “one who struggles with God.”
• Some Christian traditions view this as a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ (a Christophany).
2. An Angel (Divine Messenger) – Other interpretations suggest Jacob wrestled with an angel sent by God. This view is supported by:
• Hosea 12:3-4, which says:
“In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man, he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor.”
Here, the opponent is referred to as both God and an angel, suggesting a divine representative.
3. A Metaphorical or Visionary Struggle – Some scholars believe the event is symbolic, representing Jacob’s internal spiritual struggle before reuniting with his brother Esau.
Which View is Correct?
The ambiguity in the text allows for both interpretations. Some traditions, especially Rabbinic Judaism, lean toward the angel interpretation, while many Christian and Jewish scholars favor the idea that Jacob wrestled with God in human form.
Would you like a deeper dive into how different traditions interpret this passage?
Here's my interpretation and I understand if you disagree, I am not as knowledgeable about scripture as you are and I tend to view things from a perspective of intuition.
We all are caught in an everlasting struggle with sin and temptation (working against god) which pulls us into lower states. I love Buddhist practices when it comes to this. Our goal is to reach the highest state (Heaven, Nirvana) and become "one" with our higher power.
There are so many different verses in different religious texts which can be interpreted for or against this idea, but ultimately I personally believe that reaching higher states of being requires us submitting ourselves to gods will through our actions. The men who rebel against god can be some of the most powerful men in the world, and they may even be noble heroes (think Greek mythology like Achilles or Hercules) but they are ultimately doomed in the same way we all are. This struggle against god can also at times not be noble and can result in unnatural states of being here on earth and great tragedy. Hence why it is important to not "play god".
The teachings and story of Jesus express this better for me, and I feel like the old testament would be incomplete without his story. But again, I'm using religion as a tool and as a way to interpret reality and access higher states. I am not claiming it is all true. Buddhist practices reflect more truth to me but people love stories and love to be part of strong communities, and Buddhism does not create those the same way Christianity does.
For me, the idea of trying to wrestle to with God’s will versus submit to it is the difference between being a free being created in God’s image and being a slave.
I don’t want to disparage anyone’s faith in Christ because I can certainly understand the case for the value of a self-sacrificial God, but the totality of Old Testament religion vs Christianity reads more to me as a blueprint for a nice society among self-sovereign herdsmen vs a medieval serf’s promise of a reward for lifelong compliance
It’s way deeper than literal.
I have found Rene Girard and mimetic theory helpful—YouTube lectures on the topic and some Jordan Peterson use of ancient myth.
One’s literal understanding is too fickle to get to the bottom of this.
Also. When I have scratched the surface on the neuroscience of sensory perception and cognition, I’m left with the sense that it is all metaphorical anyway.
I mean, what does it mean to “see” or “hear” or “recognize” or “compare” or “imagine”?
It is ok to compartmentalize. (The mighty knows that it is hard to be human, I think)
Highly recommend reading the book “The Invisible Church” by McGehee and Thomas
I can fix that. It is literally true! Pray and it will be opened to you.
I’ve view it as follows: The 4 Gospels are Truth. Everything else is written for persuasion and can use embellishment, metaphors, storytelling to convey God’s message.
A lot of people find themselves in this kind of situation. What is the literal truth part that’s hard for you?
Napoleon Bonaparte
“I know men, and I tell you Jesus Christ was not a man.
Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon sheer force.
Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men will die for Him. In every other existence but that of Christ how many imperfections!”
Easy way to resolve the question.
Pray.
Question your premises. Ask what it is about the things you like and what ties them together. Christianity is based on faith not conviction, doesn’t make them wrong on every subject, but a coin lands heads 50% of the time. Chance is not the same as objective action in reality.
sounds like the hound of heaven is on your case
Pray and study. Christianity (Catholicism) is in fact literally true, and has overwhelming evidence proving it.
Yeah, good job on being born into truth.
Where's the conundrum though? You can appreciate the societal values that it fosters while at the same time not interpreting scriptures as literal truth.
the child within will guide you…
Try to prove that God doesn't exist and Jesus Christ was a fraud.
Don't trust. Verify.
I guess the question is why would people die for a lie?
Right. And how would the account of Jesus’ life spread throughout the world like it did in a time when the world was not nearly as interconnected as it is today?
People die all the time for lies.
Yes, but generally for lies that they believe are true. Quite another thing to be willing to die for a lie if you are in a position to know that it is false, such as the Apostles were.
Yes, they give a strong witness. I just meant, it's proof that they genuinely thought it to be true, but not absolute proof that it is true.
They claimed to be eye-witnesses of Christ's resurrection. That is the truth they were willing to die for. So yes, a very strong witness indeed. Could only really be explained away by a collective hallucination of some kind.
There is no absolute proof about many if not most historical accounts. Much of history is rough consensus
I wrote an open letter to bitcoiners about finding Christ. It's short, but it's an invitation to another rabbit hole.
https://medium.com/@ReedBTC/an-open-letter-to-bitcoiners-f96d331735e0
When you get to the part of the journey where you need to explain the red shift of distant galaxies, check out Barry J. Setterfield papers on the ZPE.
Read “We Who Wrestle With God” to understand the value Christianity brings to the world regardless of whether it is true or not. Then you won’t care any more how “true” any of the pieces are. The Bible story reveals the deepest truth about how humans should live and cooperate that has ever been written.
I don't know man. I've lived in religious societies and not sure I want any religion. That said, I think all religions have some value. Islam is often taken over by hard, militant features (and it makes sense cause some of the text encourages that) but it also has immeasurable benefits. Donation, community building, belief that if you have more money take care of those that don't etc.
However, when a society starts bringing in these religious values in to governance... I have a massive issue there.
I have been in the same spot for several years. I’ll say that my values are much more aligned with Christianity than they were several years ago, but that my lack of belief in the historical accounts of Christ hasn’t changed much at all.
If Christ is real, then he’ll likely make himself known to me at some point, so long as I maintain these values. If he’s not, then I’m already benefiting from whatever the truth behind the religion actually is.
Either case is fine with me at this point.
Christianity isn't powerful, Christ is
Keep is as simple as possible. God is us. Bitcoin brings us closer to god. We are bitcoin.
Probably not a helpful answer😂
realizing that he wasn’t god & was a good prophet is the starting point
when he said “I am” he didn’t mean it literally
a good analogy is that god is an ocean, and we are but a cup filled with that water from that ocean, in that sense we are an extension thus you could say “i am” but it is misunderstood if you don’t get that we all are
₿ased AF
Jesus is either a pathological liar and insane person or the Messiah and son of god. There is no in between.
* “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
* “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
* “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).
* “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26)
Faith is a funny thing. It's not rational.
The willful suspension of disbelief is required, especially in this profane world.
There are no spiritual answers in the mind. Spiritual connection must be felt viscerally.
And as nostr:nprofile1qqsf03c2gsmx5ef4c9zmxvlew04gdh7u94afnknp33qvv3c94kvwxgspr3mhxue69uhksmmyd33x7epwvdhhyctrd3jjuar0dak8xtcppemhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mp0qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7208x3z alluded, it's best not to get Christ mixed up with Christianity in the worldly sense.
listen to some Alan Watts.
You already live in a Christian society — degraded and diluted, but Christian nonetheless.
Incoming Spiritual Centrifuge
Christian values, which are based on faith, often overlap with American values, which are for the most part, based on reality.
To conflate the two is a mistake but as a heuristic to support Christian values is an okay strategy.
Ethical rules and values should not be stated dogmatically but scrutinised on an individual case-by-case basis.
Read “We who wrestle with God” Jorden Peterson
Go through the allegory and realize the fact.
Agreed. Hodl sounds like his viewpoint is like Jordan Peterson's view of Christianity.
I actually find it complementary.
Based on the law written in my soul and the evidence that I have seen-
I believe that the Lord Jesus died on the cross and was buried but then actually and literally rose from death in his natural human body. And appeared to many afterwards, fulfilling the Law and Prophets of God.
Yet, I always struggled to understand a lot from the Old Testament until I considered things from the allegorical perspective. Peterson’s writing is helping many and I hope the same for HODL. 
Do you remember the encounter between Jesus and the two men on the road to Emmaus? After Jesus gave them the best Bible study of their lives, applying the Old Testament to Himself, the two disciples who were extremely discouraged, when they arrived at the village... Jesus was about to leave, and they told Him: Stay with us. And after spending more time with Jesus, He left, and they said to each other: Were our hearts not burning within us?
THE BIBLE SHOULD IGNITE A FIRE WITHIN YOU. Study it, read it. Hearing the voice of Jesus is what will ignite your heart and your understanding. May God bless you!
What sold it for me is reading the writings of the early church fathers (the leaders of the early Christian church around 50 a.d. - 150 a.d.). The historical truth cannot be denied.
I found "more than Allegory" by Bernardo Kastrup to be an interesting read on this subject.
You’re going to get all kinds of suggestions under this post, but my one piece of advice is to just dive into the Bible again.
Start with the gospels and wrestle with who Jesus said he was. The only rational conclusion you can reach is that he was either an absolute crazy person or the Son of God sent here to save us, there’s no in between.
As someone who’s looked up to you in this space for a long time, I pray that God reveals himself to you clearly
Dont worship your own reason. You’ll never rationalize it. Just submit and be free
I never thought I would be able to get there, either. It is a long journey.
Studying apologetics around the origin of the universe and life is a good place to start with believing in God. C.S. Lewis is also great on this subject. Also, apologetics around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is good for getting to the truth of Christianity.
The Daily Dose of Wisdom youtube channel is a good intro to several great apologists (some good ones, below). And, C.S. Lewis Doodle on youtube is a great way to digest Lewis's ideas in Mere Christianity. The book is also great, but it is dense.
- Dr. Stephen Meyer, mathematician who talks about digital information regarding evolution and the improbability of helpful, random mutations.
- Dr. Gary Habermas, Phd, wrote his thesis on the evidence for Christ's resurrection using non-biblical sources.
- Dr. John Lennox, mathematician is also good.
- Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project, talks about how as you discover more about the building blocks it becomes more complicated and points to God. He later converted.
- Dr. James Tour talks about how we cannot make the basic building blocks of life in a lab and how improbable it would be in nature.
Also, it has been my experience that as I started to pursue God, he sprung up everywhere. People, podcasts, books, etc. were all coincidentally addressing the thoughts rattling around in my head, pointing me towards Christ. As I started to accept him, I started to feel a huge change in myself.
Start pursuing him, and he'll find you.
This is a really interesting thread because you can watch the LITERALLY TRUE guys and the RELIGION IS FOR IDIOTS people yell at each other, across a wide divide, when they actually agree on one thing:
If every single detail in every single Bible story isn't literally, exactingly, scientifically true, then the whole Bible is completely wrong about everything.
The power comes from it's ability to unite & align people under a shared set of common values.
I have an issue with surrendering & trusting an external entity, be it the church, a man (eg Jesus) or a God figure.
I believe God is more than an entity, that God is All that is. This means that I am a tiny part of God, but not separate. I therefore surrender to & trust in my higher self, my sovereign soul, my connection to God within.
I believe that Jesus was trying to teach us this but that our need to worship something external corrupted his teachings. Humans seem to have always had a need to worship. Perhaps it comes from an inner belief of being unworthy or a fear of taking responsibilty?
Don't trust, verify. You can find your own version of this through meditation/prayer. Let your body be your temple & your feelings be your guide.
💚🫂
It starts with following Jesus's example...Now let's go get those money changers ! 😉
Mythos / Logos. Might enjoy Carl Jung - Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Christian ethics are maybe what you are really contemplating. I'd also recommend comparing the parables as per bible and as per Buddha - universal truths?
What does it matter what symbols one uses to represent the truth to oneself? The symbols are not the truth. Your idea of “Jesus Christ” isn’t Jesus in the flesh. The word “God” isn’t God. The Bible is a book, and whether you think the things in it happened or not, they are in the past and gone forever.
The kingdom of heaven lies within, any which way.
The human condition needs no rectification, just the pursuit of happiness.
Sounds like Jordan Peterson's version of Christianity. He doesn't explicitly say it like this. You need to read between the lines so to speak.
Things can’t be other than what they are. Beliefs are exhausting, consider them as an active rather than passive engagement.
It is literally true. Blessed are those who believe but have not seen.
Judging by the fruits, Christianity is the most true of all the religions. You don’t lose anything by believing in God, you only gain.
nostr:npub1rtlqca8r6auyaw5n5h3l5422dm4sry5dzfee4696fqe8s6qgudks7djtfs , Jesus Christ died for your sins (and mine), and rose from the grave. He took on the sin of the world, and gave us a gift that we do not deserve and cannot earn on our own. Accept His free gift to you. Believe in Him- you have time to reconcile the rest. None of us are promised tomorrow. Believe today.
Off the bat, I’m Catholic, just to own up to my background bias…..
……I’d start with the Nicene Creed, as to whats essential.
We take the Bible as the inspired Word of God, but not taken literal, word-for-word. Nor as the only authority, but thats a broader subject.
Sounds like you want the Church Of England. Anglican ministers are mostly fairly atheist. After all, it was started just to get a king a divorce. 😄
Though my observation is that "Christians" mostly seem to be bigots who don't practice anything like what Jesus preached, especially those who follow GOP Jesus. I think the world would be better off without it, especially if we can get rid of all the other religions too since they are all made up.
We tried atheism the last 30 years and it resulted in wokeness. No thanks.
Skill issue.
So you'd rather program yourself and society and the kids to believe false things that aren't true, in order to prevent awareness of systematic injustice?
Good luck!
I'll stick with the maxim, that which can be destroyed by the truth, should be.
In Europe it resulted in Satanism. Just watch Eurovision, a popular yearly song contest. Jesus said "You're either with me or against me". If we're not connected to God, the heart doesn't stay empty, we slowly become connected to something else
You’re not alone
I think you'd enjoy 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis.
In the end, faith is a gift from God. In some way, maybe by a simple prayer, you may need to ask Him for that gift. Matthew 7:9-11
Praying for you, Hodl!
I read two Marcus Aurelius quotes every morning. The first one is to help me prepare to deal with assholes(not relevant to this discussion).
This is the second.
”Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
I also believe most people cannot accept this. Some people literally say they would kill people if they didn't believe in god. Those people definitely need religion.
I felt the same, and would humbly recommend the book The Greatest Words Ever Spoken by Steven K. Scott…
The book details everything Jesus ever said about a given subject… so it’s like having the answers directly from Him to every question you have about the various aspects of life… it’s powerful, and helps give a more complete picture of the scriptures…
maybe it will help you get unstuck, and find your place to stand 🙏🏼 
https://youtu.be/vAPSv981HTU?si=byDyWXHNeCbFiHNj
Miracles still happen. I met this kid and his family in person
I like Christian values a lot. You can live by them without having to believe in God or the Bible literally.
It's not that complicated to me, or am I missing something here? Honest question.
If all you have is Christian ethics, but not Christ, you miss out on so much. If you believe that the universe and life are accidents and there is evolution of the fittest, then Christian ethics is inconsistent with those beliefs because Christian ethics calls for us to help the poor, the sick, and the weak. Evolution requires the weak to die so the strong can evolve. Christian ethics without Christ cause logical conflict.
To eat from the table but ignore the banquet, why it is happening, and who provided it is missing the whole point. You don't have to believe it is literal. In other words, the food will still give you sustenance, but you are missing so much richness.
I’d prefer living in a Græco-Roman society (with some Germanic influence please and thank you)
just look who is allowed to be persecuted and who is not . thats why im no longer stuck as to what I should believe in .
It’s about values, either cultural or derived from religion.
You want the value structure of a Christian society. Not the woke, liberal, atheist beliefs that have taken over the last few decades.
What if I say other religions, ie Sikhi share very similar values even though we may look different with our beards and turbans. It’s God first, not Christianity first. Sikhs believe in god first as the highest sovereign but our god is not Jesus. That doesn’t matter tho? Because the values are the same so coexistence is possible.
Don't give up, skeleton!
Strong morals and ethics do not derive from religion, they are inherent to evolved human thought. But religions have co-opted morals and ethics and like to claim that you have to be religious to be imbibed with them from "god".
When you say you want to live in a Christian society, I would posit that you want to live in a moral and ethical society.
Drop the crutch of religion and stand on your own. Or keep the crutch, but recognize it for what it is.
If we are chemical accidents that evolved into chemical bags that act, then where does morals and ethics come from? If only the fittest survive, why is is moral to help those in need or those with disabilities? Morals and ethics have no foundation without God.
If God created us, time, space, and the universe, then He has the right to define morals and ethics in His creation the way He sees fit. He can also design into each one of us the knowledge that stealing is wrong and murder is wrong, that helping the poor and sick is good. If our God and Creator doesn't define right and wrong, then how can we say what is right and wrong. In reality, most of what all humanity considers good and right would not make sense if we are all cosmic accidents and we have evolution of the fittest. If mankind was made in the image of the God and creator, then all ethics make sense.
💯
But all evolution is not survival of the fittest individual. Group evolution is a thing.
It is better for a group if they behave "well" towards each other, and to other groups who they interact or trade with.
The idea that people only behave if they believe that they have a bearded guy in the sky watching them is strange to me.
And if morals were given from god, would there not be significantly lower levels of corruption in religious orgs than others?
Why do all peoples around the world believe in the same basic morals: Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not murder, etc? Why is marriage an institution in every culture? Why do we want to help the sick, weak, and infirmed? If we are trying to protect the group, wouldn't it help the genetics and the use of resources if they got rid of those people?
We all know we should help those people, but why? Because when our Creator God created us, He put that knowledge in us.
FYI, I do believe that morals are much better in true Christian organizations. Sadly, there are many organizations that are Christian in name only or that have allowed their leadership to be taken over by power hungry pretenders which has harmed the organization and made it less and less Christian over time. They give true Christians a bad name.
In life there are Christians, cultural Christians, fake Christians, agnostics, and atheists. Those questioning Christianity point to the cultural Christians and the fake Christians to reinforce their doubts. Sadly today, I think the cultural and fake Christians out number the true Christians.
Talk to Jesus about it.
Read Carl Sagan.
Who do you say that Jesus was?
Start there. Wrestle that question to the ground first.
For normies, it’s like asking them, “What is money”?
I guess my first question is what do you mean/what elements are you referring to when you say you don't believe it's "literally true?"
Because if you are trying to flat earth your way into the bible, don't bother. If you are talking about the historicity of Jesus and his death and resurrection, now you are talking about a core doctrine.
1 Corinthians 15:14-19
I don't know where you are going with the flat earth thing. Nothing in the Bible suggests a flat earth. There are several passages about the circle of the earth and being hung on nothing that match reality.
Don't you think Bitcoin is a manifestation of Pagan nature?
Isn't reality/Nature/the Tao, whatever you want to call it, powerful enough and already containing all possibilities/miracles that you don't need to add extra socially binding stories?
The vigour of nature found an eruption in giving us bitcoin didn't it?
Don't all groups congregate and bind around an irrational lie, because only lies serve as an in-group signal? Decentralised truth is rational, and you would do it anyway, ergo it serves no purpose as an in-group signal. The bigger the group the bigger the lies.
Seek out what is true, good and beautiful…
Christianity is the source of the pernicious doctrine that individuals and nations and races are somehow "equal," when they manifestly are not. No moral good can come from that falsehood. And it is also responsible for destroying the indigenous religions of Europe (and other places, too), and dragging us into the endless (and stupidly pointless, and bloody) religious conflicts of the Middle East. And also, as you pointed out, it's simply untrue.
The Bible does not say people are equal, only that they are of equal worth due to being made in the image of God. The Bible definitely doesn't say that all cultures or beliefs are equal. It says the opposite of that.
Sadly, like most human organizations, those seeking power seek the positions of leadership and end up messing up the true mission of the organization.
Power corrupts, but power also attracts the corruptible.
The eye of the needly not only pertains to physical goods.
The invisible qualities of God are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable. - Romans 1:19
have u seen this? https://youtu.be/f-wWBGo6a2w
Do your homework, like you did for Bitcoin. Don't expect the biggest Truth to be revealed without 1000 hours of study. It will be worth 1000x what Bitcoin was.
Great analogy!
Hmm I went to a Christian high school. I was choking on the hypocrisy by the time I graduated. 🤷
Just because there are people who call themselves Christians (who may or may not be considered Christians by God), doesn't mean the Bible is false. We are all fallen human beings who make mistakes. Our God and creator is awesome and you will be blessed if you seek Him.
i don't think many people are arguing that the things in the physical world actually happened like they say in the Bible. its true, but in a deeper sense then historical fact. its true because its a deep analysis of the human condition and represented in narrative form.
Read the scriptures and ask God that if he is real, to reveal himself to you. There you go.
Mid wit take. Christ's death and resurrection is a historical fact. The Bible is 100% true.
Jordan Peterson and Bret Weinstein discussed that I found satisfying.
HODL!!! Not sure if a hang up for you is ETERNAL HELL, but if it is I think the love of God has been corrupted in most Christian circles. The truth of God’s unconditional and unending love is in the Bible. It’s so clear in some verses you will think it’s too good to be true. (Yes hell still exists, but it is disciplinary, like a good father disciplines his children)
“Behold, I AM making all things new” Rev 21
Also check out
Colossians 1:19-20
Romans 5:19
Philippians 2:9-11
John 12:32
There’s probably 25 more good ones I can give you. God has your soul in the palm of His hand and He will never stop loving you. Jesus proves His love.
This article goes through some of the common biblical objections to ultimate redemption of all people.
Why would you want not to believe ? Pursue the truth further and despite the costs. Appreciate the evidence there is.
nostr:note1nel6jj4zupmxsf2qzmcslpmtwfz3xwxhwz24evxxjgvewvv43geq37jptw
I think that humans created religion to help them cope with difficult situations in life. Religion gives people hope and a sense of security and gives meaning to their lives. If you take these away from people, many of them will kill themselves. That's why even completely neutral people and scientists know that religion is not based on truth. But they are still very rigidly attached to it.
Have you seen what is going on with the Covid cult and the green cult? What about science is neutral? Although the great scientists of the past, like Newton, Boyle, Pascal, etc. were Christians, most scientists today are anti-christian and start from a premise that there is no god and therefore end up "proving" there is no god because of their starting premise. Since this became the starting premise, we have made fewer giant leaps and the predictions of what will be found have been failing.
One example is with the magnetic field of Uranus. Based on Newtonian physics, they could calculate its mass, but couldn't measure its magnetic field. Most scientists calculated a very small magnetic field based on their Big Bang theory. A Nasa pHd Physist, Dr. Humphreys, took the biblical statement that everything was made of water and out of water. He took the mass of Uranus, assumed it had originally been made of water and took the biblical age of the universe of 6,000 years. Using the water dipole magnetic field, he calculated a starting magnetic field and calculated how much it would have declined over 6,000 years. His prediction was almost exactly the magnetic field. The Big Bang physicists prediction was orders of magnitude wrong.
The way scientists work is that they try to discover the truth step by step, as a result, a physicist today knows much more about physics than Newton, even a physics student now knows more than Newton. The more scientists advanced in understanding the world, the more they came to the conclusion that the world could have come into being without God. The reason why most of today's scientists are atheists is because they know more about the universe than the old scientists.
Dr. Humphrey's prediction looks more like a scam than a scientific discovery, check out this link:
There are different kind of scientists with different religions. Some only believe in what they see (materialism), some keep being doubtful. Some great physicians realize the probability of the existence of a superior intelligence (God ?) is significant.
Most science isn't as proven as you think. The two big theories, the Big Bang and Evolution, keep having to be majorly changed because they are poor predictors of new evidence. They have kept the same name but the details have changed majorly. Both theories avoid discussing the details of the initial beginning because it is contrary to science.
There are lots of things made up to support the theories because the evidence doesn't support the theories. For example, comets lose significant mass every time they approach the sun. If the Solar System is as old as assumed, there should be no comets left. They have now made up an Oort Cloud that is so far out in the Solar System that we can detect it and something supposedly happens regularly to knock comets out of the Oort Cloud and into the inner solar system. There is zero evidence of the existence. The only reason it is considered is because something like this has to exist if the Solar System is billions of years old. The Big Bang theory keeps getting more and more complicated and now supposedly the majority of mass and energy in the universe is dark matter and dark energy, two things that can't be sensed or measured in any way. There are so many rescuing devices used it is hard to keep track of them all.
Evolution has been changed because although there are lots of changes within a kind, there is no uncontested (by evolutionists) transitional life forms. Most of the proposed transitional life forms have been later proven to be frauds. The initial formation of life from nonlife is so far out of reach of scientists that most have now given up, but assume some other expert knows how it happened. The only somewhat plausible experiment, the Miller-Urey experiment, used conditions that have never been shown to exist on earth. They then had to instantly remove the compounds formed into an artificial trap or they would be immediately destroyed. They managed to make a tiny quantify of the simplest amino acids in one of their tries (but not all attempts). These amino acids were in a mix of other toxic to life compounds. The amino acids were also right and left handed while life only uses left handed organic compounds. Although they claimed they had proved that life could form on its own, they actually proved that it couldn't. For life you need DNA, RNA, and proteins. You need information. You need only left-handed components. You need all of this fully organized together in an environment that is conducive to life (unlike the environment they used to make those few simplest amino acids). It took a lot of smarts to get a tiny piece of what is needed for life. The more we learn about the cell; the more we realize how it couldn't happen by accident.
Yes, scientists may make mistakes, but they seek the truth in the right way. They theorize and try to find evidence to prove their theories in the real world, religions do the opposite, they give you a booklet and tell you all the truth is in it without scientifically proving it. For example, the Bible mentions that the world was created in 6000 years, while dinosaurs lived on earth millions of years ago and there is undeniable evidence of their existence. Or if scientists still don't know exactly how organic molecules turned into RNA, that doesn't mean the Bible is right, it's just a matter of time, they'll figure it out one day. Scientists are not hostile to religions, they just find that the claims in the Bible do not match the scientific evidence.
Yes, dinosaurs really existed, but not as long ago as we are told. In Job, there are descriptions of two creatures (behemoth and leviathan) which are almost certainly dinosaurs. The description of behemoth matches a sauropod. This is despite the fact that dinosaur fossils weren't discovered until the 1800s. There are also lots of tapestries, carvings, etc. showing dinosaurs with people. They can't have known what dinosaurs looked like unless people actually existed with the dinosaurs. We are now also regularly finding soft tissue in dinosaur bones that can't exist for millions of years, but if these dinosaurs were buried by the global flood in the Bible, then we would expect to see some of this soft tissue.
Most of the so-called ages are determined using circular reasoning. The fossils are aged based o the which rock layer it is found in, while the rock layers are aged based on which fossils are in it. Yes, radiometric dating is used in some rocks (but not the sedimentary rocks in which fossils are found), but that is very inconsistent (different methods give different ages and when rocks of known age are tested, radiometric dating gives much older dates). Also radiometric dating depends on multiple assumptions that can not be reasonably assumed. They require assuming the starting amount of parent and daughter isotope, which we can't know because we weren't there. For most of the radiometric testing based on rocks, it is assumed that there is only parent isotopes initially which insures a maximum age. They require assuming that no parent or daughter isotope enters or exits the sample over supposed millions or billions of years, which is a very unrealistic assumption especially considering most of the isotopes are water soluble. It assumes the half-life is constant over time and condition, which is the most reasonable assumption, but some studies have shown evidence that even this assumption is invalid.
Scientists are like all categories of people. Some are honestly seeking the truth. Some are actively trying to disprove God. Some think for themselves. Some refuse to investigate anything different than the current paradigm because changing the paradigm is unpopular and can cause them to lose their jobs or their research funding. Anyone who questions an old earth is pushed out of science no matter how good their evidence. Maybe even worse if their evidence is good.
We also need to deal with the (still) invisible world. The scope of what we see and perceive is very little compared to everything that is happening in the universe.
I agree. We may have a creator, but that creator is not the God of religions because the God of religions is not compatible with scientific facts.
Yes litterally speaking, but I would rather say the "Gods" of religions, representing each multiple facets of God. Besides, those facets can illustrate God in different levels of abstraction. Except if you are in a religious movement that takes scriptures litteraly, you never know if the story there is trying to depict a "real" event or is a parable trying to explain some cosmic or psychological event in accessible words. Changing plan/perspective sometimes help realize that some facets are really close to scientific hypothesis (rather than facts). I am especially amazed by how quantum physics are starting to describe things that were already described in very ancient hindu texts for instance.
Unbelievably reductionistic.
I tend to revert to being a free thinker. I live by my own set of values and morals that may not coincide with any religions, party lines or laws of the land for that matter. I think most people know what is right and what is wrong. If some need a little or a lot of assistance from a book, story or whatever, I have no problem with that as long as it makes them a better person. To each their own, the only certainty is that there is no certainty.
Bottom line:
Just don’t be a dick!
I always wonder why the criteria to get into heaven is? That is literally my only problem with Christianity. It’s an arbitrary cutoff.
But the messages otherwise are great (minus the homophobia)
Nothing is arbitrary. Getting into heaven is based on repentance and faith. It has nothing to do with works. That being said, if the repentance and faith is true, works will result because of the transforming of our hearts and minds to be more like Christ and out of gratefulness.
So do I have to repent all things 100%? What if I die before I change my mind and try to repent? What about young people that die before they have a chance?
What’s the cutoff?
I think Luke 23:39-43 has the answer your looking for. The thief was on the cross with Christ and was saved in his last moments because he had faith. Its about believing that Jesus Christ is the savior and has died on your behalf. Its about what he did not what you can do. We all deserve death as the payment for sin is death. He alone can make that payment on your behalf so you can have eternal life.
So do babies and toddlers and young children and those who were never exposed to Christianity or those who aren’t Christian (the majority of the world) not go to heaven?
Everything I've read in the Bible says we must repent and believe. I know lots of people believe that kids that haven't reached mental maturity all go to heaven. I honestly don't know for sure.
"The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." (Psalm 19:1)
There are lots of verses like this explaining that God's creation makes it clear that He exists. Maybe (?) He accepts belief in a holy creator God in those who have never heard a word of the gospel, even though He says we must believe in Jesus. I tend to believe actual faith in Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection is required, but God can save who He wishes. I have heard stories of Jesus appearing directly to Muslims in countries where there are basically no Christians, so He can call a person to Himself even if there are no witnesses available.
Read the Bible.
But what you’re describing is supporting my point. If god gets to decide, what are the criteria? It’s not really spelled out. It’s vague and arbitrary.
And what’s the cutoff for mental maturity?
And what if people would have changed, but died before they got the chance?
I’m with HODL. I think the Bible is great and it has many good messages. But to take it literally is plagued with issues.
And what brand of Christianity is the best? Is it Catholicism or mormanism or jehovas witness?
I personally believe that if there is a heaven, we will all go because we’re all god’s children. Otherwise, why did he create such flawed individuals?
God is specific about repenting and having faith.
It is sad that the Christian church has gotten so divided. Unfortunately, when you have any human organization, those who seek power seek positions of leadership. Those who care about the mission stay workers. Whether you are talking a church or something like the AARP, this happens. Most of the old church denominations, including the Catholic church, have totally corrupted leadership. I don't believe the current Pope is even a Christian (God knows). Mormanism and Jehovas Witness are both severely corrupted cults that I would not call Christian. Catholicism has some good points and bad. I know a good number of good Christians, but the leadership is a mess. I believe the Protestant church is closest to Jesus, the Bible, and right understanding, but even among the Protestants, there are some really messed up churches that are churches in name only. They have become more cultural organizations than followers of Jesus, which is sad.
I wish I could answer your question on salvation. When you have it, it isn't arbitrary. It is obvious, but it is harder to explain. It is kind of like explaining how you know something is true love. You know it when you find the real thing.
Since I am doing such a poor job of explaining, let me leave you with some Bible verses. It is always best to go to the source -- the God breathed truth of Scripture.
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6)
We don't get to pick how we go to heaven. God had defined it as only through Jesus.
"They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”" (Acts 16:31)
This is what most people use to justify the salvation of children. (If they use the Bible as the foundation of their belief. Most just say, "I don't believe God would ...")
"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." (Romans 10:9-10)
"Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;" (Acts 3:19)
"Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”" (John 3:3)
"16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”" (John 3:16-21)
This passage addresses one of your concerns:
"13for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”
16However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” 17So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
18But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have;
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
And their words to the ends of the world.”" (Romans 10:13-18)
"I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3)
I hope this is helpful.
"...what are the criteria?", "...why did he create such flawed individuals?", "...what brand of Christianity is the best?"
"it's vague and arbitrary"
"...It is sad that the Christian church has gotten so divided. "
The church has always been divided. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about divisions, that people were saying I belong to Cephus, or I to Paul, or I to Appolos, or I to Christ. Christ exists divided. -
1 Corinthians 1:12
Trying to make sense of twisted doctrine and tradition will only serve to confuse. I think that is why Paul said:
"...and so I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come with an extravagance of speech or of wisdom declaring the sacred secret of God to you. For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him impaled. - 1 Corinthians 2:2-3
The bible is the preserved word of God. It's not a bunch of stories as some in this thread assert. It is full of prophesy for the future, not just historical record of the past. It contains the answers you seek. It is true and is no lie, and for those truly seeking, it is the annointing from God that is teaching you. - John 2:26-27
However, the truth found in the bible is examined spiritually:
"...physical men don’t recognize the Spirit of The God, because these are just foolishness to them and they can’t understand them, since such things can only be understood spiritually." 1 Corinthians 2:14
Keep on seeking friends.
“...ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you" - Luke 11:9
Not trying to be a prick here. If Jesus and god love all, then I assume there is no hell because everyone can be forgiven. And that’s a good thing. That’s how it should be.
Hell exists not because God refuses us, but because we refuse God. In heaven we are united with God who is perfect. What if we don't want to be perfect? What if we spent our lives defining ourselves by lies and self-serving desires? Then union with God becomes worse than hell because everything that we are would be burned away. If we value the creature we have become, more than we want to be with God, then God will honor that choice by allowing us to choose to exist apart from Him.
The trouble is that since God is All Good, not merely a good being, but a being who IS goodness itself, then hell is devoid of good. Not completely since existence itself is a good, but enough to keep those souls that will not change, from having to change. Heaven for them would be abject horror, but the little love that remains in hell is still a torment for them.
The most common complaints about God are "How could God send all of those people to Hell?" and "How could God allow all of those bad things to happen to people?" and "Why is God so authoritarian as to force people to do what He wants?". To be consistent we need to follow the Bible as written rather than as interpreted by many people. God created everyone and everything, including time and space. He has the authority to use His creation as He wishes. It is not evil for Him to create things for good and bad uses. God is holy, which means He is very good and can't allow evil in His presence. Adam and Eve sinned, corrupting His creation, so it is no longer perfect. In addition to being holy, He is also merciful, which is why He has given us time to repent instead of punishing us with instant death and banishment to Hell at the first sin we commit as we deserve. His holiness does not let those who reject Him be in His presences, so those who reject Him are sent to Hell. His mercy led Him to send His son to pay the penalty for our sins and to reconcile us to Himself, so God sees Jesus's righteousness rather than our own sinfulness. Our only part in salvation is belief, which leads to repentance. We can't say "God is evil because He allows bad things to happen." and "God is evil because He punishes people in Hell." A holy, good God has to punish evil and we have all sinned with no exceptions.
When you say things are unclear, it is only unclear if you want it to be unclear. For the purpose of you personally, all you need to know is that faith leading to repentance means you will be saved, have a close relationship with your God and Creator, and will someday join Him in Heaven. If you refuse to do this, you will be punished by being separated from Him in Hell. (I'm not trying to be harsh, just truthful).
Another thing is that a lot of people have a problem with God and the Bible because they can't understand Him perfectly. Who wants a God that is perfectly understandable? I want a God that is so awesome, so infinite and that is a Creator that His creation can never fully comprehend. That is a God worth worshipping. A superhero God, who is just a stronger, smarter person than us isn't worthy of submission or worship.
“We need to follow the Bible as written”
That takes interpretation. You can’t get around that.
The way you read the Bible is different than the next person. That’s my .2c
The Bible means what it says. The overwhelming majority of the Bible is easily interpreted and has a very clear meaning. We can't make it say whatever we want it to say. We have to seek what the author, God, was communicating.
There are a few things that are less clear, especially prophecy, but the basics are clear and specific. We don't get to interpret God's word any way we want. We have to seek to understand what God was communicating to us. If we pick and choose or intentionally change the meaning because we don't like what God said, then we will experience the consequences.
That doesn't mean that the fine tuned details may be a little unclear and we may make mistakes. (Obviously mistakes are made because not all Christians agree about every little detail.) Despite that, the majority of the Bible was clearly communicated by God or that we can find the truth if we carefully study His word and use scripture to interpret scripture (not our feelings, preferences, or what the "experts" tell us).
It is literally true
Be still, silent, and open long enough and whatever you need will come to you
This was a good read on this very topic. nostr:nprofile1qqsyjz64r44wet7gd2yu87wr0jhexn20akszm2ul5w9mrwm9u9lszqcpr9mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumwdae8gtnnda3kjctv9uk5zjsj
nostr:naddr1qpr5smmh946x7t2wv9mxjempw3jj63r0w438gttfdckkzt2xv95hg6pd23exzerfw35k7m3dw35xzapd2eskcat9wvk5xetjw3skjmn50ykhq6tcw9arxq3qfy9428t2ajhus65fc0uuxl90jdx5lmdq9k4elgutkxaktctlqypsxpqqqp65watwjcn
I dunno, that didn't seem to be on that same topic. It looks good from the perspective of a christian that is exploring, not really good for someone from outside that is looking for something and considering Christianity an option. I've recently found myself in that boat as well, potentially considering, seeing the virtue it brings but not quite ready to buy into the difficult to believe stuff. So not really questioning my faith exactly, more like exploring faith in general and looking to a prominent one as a potential path and considering that it might be the right one for me.
The truth or falsehood of Christianity relies on the life of Jesus Christ. Was he a liar a lunatic or Lord?
When I look into history the evidence is clear he existed and he did many miracles, and and ministered to many people so then the only remaining option is Lord.
Read Everlasting Man by GK Chesterton. He was an inspiration to CS Lewis.
Keep searching. The ultimate low time preference is found when you find the source of eternal life.
Just take the moral framework and leave the fairy tale nonsense.
I feel where you’re coming from and would have agreed whole heartedly not long ago. Because my life got hard, I read the gospels and found that the moral framework is about believing in and loving God.
The materialist in me wonders if the right side of the brain needs the belief in order to bring the moral framework to life.
If you are interested and have some way I can share it with you, I will send you a pdf copy of my book, "Why I Need Jesus" that will answer many of your questions. I'd also recommend reading the Bible (I'm partial to the ESV and NASB translations, but the NLT is an easier read because it isn't a word for word translation, but a phrase for phrase translation.).
Can I challenge your choices in translation? I do not claim one translation superior to another, study and critical are always a more important than the specific text.
John 3:16 is probably the most well known and most frequently quoted verse.
The way that the NASB and the ESV translated this verse actually kills the original intent of the author. If we "believe" that the Bible is true then it must be true to fundamentals of our belief consistently.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
Now this is what I call a rubbish translation.
In 1 Corinthians 44 - 49
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
In this verse Jesus is equated as being the second Adam.
Adam created by God in the Image of God,
Jesus begotten by God as the seed of God.
Jesus is the descendant of Adam through the body of Mary and the brother of Adam through the immaculate conception.
This implies that Jesus cannot possibly be the one and only son of God.
In Lukes geneology 3:37-38 it reads like this,
37 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch,
the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel,
the son of Kenan, 38 the son of Enosh,
the son of Seth, the son of Adam,
the son of God.
So the NASB vastly contradicts itself literally two books apart and it is misleading on a fundamental level with regards to the identity of the created being Christ or otherwise.
The King James version squares this hole by a slightly more accurate translation.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
The word begotten really brings all the texts back into harmony.
The translation is not yet perfect, I would go further into the oikoumene and its apllication with regards to the word world but all that aside the King James is a superior translation and the NASB has been cucked and purposefully so.
I do claim it. My mistake.
I do like the KJV. It is more poetic than most modern translations.
I don't agree with some of your statements about these verses. Your conclusions about 1 Corinthians 44 - 49, seem arbitrary. The statement "the second man is of heaven." implies that Jesus is God. It seems that I agree with your interpretation of what the Bible really says, but disagree that the ESV/NASB say something different.
The ESV and NASB are written based on older and more accurate documents and therefore have at least the probability of being more accurate.
One thing to know about the KJV Bible is that originally, the godly believers, like the Pilgrims, hated the KJV. They didn't trust this translation by a tyrannical King that forced unbiblical sacraments on the churches. At the time, all of the strongest English speaking Christians preferred the Geneva Bible (I have one from the 1600s. It is one of my favorite possessions) and rejected the KJV. That being said, I still think the KJV and the NKJV are both in the top 10 English translations (and there are soooo many).
One other issue with the KJV is that it is written in older English. Many words, that were used and that were very precise at the time it was written, have now changed meanings to be less precise and/or mean something different. This can cause problems for anyone not familiar with the original meaning of the words. This makes it less ideal for many people. The NKJV tried to fix this problem, but it is a little less poetic than the original.
I am unable to zap you for your concise and well worded response which leaves me sad and disheartened. Love hearing good ideas and strong opinion. NOSTR is amazing.
Get your zaps together and setup please.
This is the way.
Sorry, life has gotten the better of me and I have never finished setting up my alby hub. Hopefully next weekend, but I've said that the past 4 weekends.
You can try https://coinos.io/
A lot of people can and should “vibe” with the important question: was Jesus incredibly wise or is he actually a bridge to eternal life? There is a massively important difference between the two potential outcomes.
So you believe that the one thing that seems to make a society great is just a very methodical lie. You might be cooked.
I moved from atheist to agreement with the sentiment above roughly 4 years ago. Fell on some big life challenges and dug into scriptures. I struggled with, was fascinated by the concepts of Christian Faith.
In Matthew, Jesus says: “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” This sounds to me like Jesus is saying that no one has sufficient faith. Those that “believe” aren’t moving mountains. So I probably wasn’t alone.
In Mark 9, Jesus says to a father trying to cure his son of seizures “all things are possible for one who believes.” To which the father replies: “I believe; help my unbelief” Jesus then cures the son.
These and various other verses convinced me that faith is like loving your wife. It’s not always easy, it’s not always because you feel like it. Instead, it is an active, effortful practice.
Christ reinforces belief, not good behavior. That was super challenging to understand.
I hovered over these questions for months. Asking myself, can I do this? Can I try to believe? Tropical Thunder ‘never go full retard’ echoed in my head. Then I committed. Feels good. I’m into it. My faith has grown with the practice.
Tried to zap you. Set up a wallet with primal. So easy. Zaps are way better than likes.
When I don't get too wrapped up in the whether it's literally true, I feel so much more free to learn from Christianity and from my Christian friends.
It seems to me that our modern time is weird this way. I assume that for most of human history, we had the stories that our tribal culture gave for the universe and we aligned our actions and beliefs with those stories. I doubt that there was any question of choosing a religion or figuring out whether we believed in it or not, but rather that spirituality was embedded in the way we lived in the world.
Ask Jesus to guide you.
I think the thing that really helped me over the years through easy and tough times was to set aside a certain amount of time each day to pray. It doesn't have to be specific types of prayers. You can just talk to God like you would to a close confidant. I'm a Catholic, so I rely on the Rosary. I've recently expanded into the Latin Rosary, which has been very special once I learned how to pronounce the words (that took some time). Just find a method that works for you, and God will bless you with the time you share with Him.
I was once there too…but you have to keep going down the rabbit hole. What’s currently your biggest hang up? (“Not believing that it’s literally true”)
My question is are you referring to any particular denomination of your faith?
Also, and i speak only from personal experience/opinion, Christianities biggest problems are Christians. The hypocrisy of belief and action combined with infighting on who is correct in their interpretation of a book that has been revised and edited so many times.
I was raised around Christianity, my father is a newly ordained priest and i would agree with many of the teachings but it would be incredibly boring if everyone was the same. Especially since you pray to tge same God as rhe other two Abrahamic religions.
I will end it with this, we are all trying to get tothe same place and are on the same road. We're only driving differemt vehicles.
It's time to study Islam.
O people of "The Book"
Yeah, go full jihad. 🙄
Christianity is bitcoin. A mysterious founder, probably a real historical figure but mostly mythical. Christianity favours freedom.
Islam is ethereum. Made by Man, and whose descendants are still spiritual leaders and revered. Islam literally means submission.
Every religion is about submitting to the divine.
There’s some truth to that, but the language is tricky and slippery. In Christianity (at least where I’m from), it is more often phrased that you « accept » Jesus and God into your life. Seldom do you hear submit to Jesus. Maybe when they’re bringing out the Old Testament god. Jesus dying for our sins is an unique act is spiritual emancipation and freedom.
Indeed language is alsways tricky. I assume it is the reason for religious wars... It is also a richness to have different religions so that one who is seeking God can benefit from different wording and approaches.
To have a really profund discussion on this matter would require to define each word we are using, such as "god", "divine", "accepting", "submitting"... and our own very personal perception of them. Lifelong learning and working :-)
Religion is a social structure for expected behaviors that some people find more palatable by belief in a super powerful being. It's an opiate to keep people in line.
Some things are a net benefit to society but still not easy to choose. Like having more kids.
Thanks. That's my first zap.
Evidence That demands a verdict. Start there. Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World https://a.co/d/8DGtynt
Now you've put it into words, I have a similar feeling. Interesting.
And now you see why Christianity builds civilization. It does not begin with certainty; it begins with doubt. It does not wait for perfect knowledge; it demands movement.
You have two choices:
1. To act as if that which you doubt is true.
2. To not act at all.
And here is the paradox: doubt is not the opposite of faith. It is the very thing that makes faith possible. A man who waits for absolute proof before stepping forward will never move. But a man who moves, even in doubt, proves something far greater—that truth is not merely something we observe, but something we create by the way we live.
So live as if it is true—not because you have been convinced beyond all doubt, but because you know that, if it were true, it would be the only thing worth living for. And in the end, you will find that the man who acts as if Christianity is true has done something far more important than proving it. He has made it real.
Well said, friend. This insightful comment is a lilly among the thorns. Most of these comments are just deeply uninspired but this has real spirit.
Christianity's values can be a bedrock for a good society. Doesn't mean you have to buy the whole supernatural package.
I feel the same way. By tweaking definitions you can use logic to conclude it is the truth, but Jesus being a historical figure for me is not important. It’s very hard to rectify this with people who insist that is all that matters.
It's my first post on NOSTR and I hope it doesn't come across "preachy".
Christianity is not a religion or social system. It is a personal relationship between you and God . It is powerful because Christians have the Spirit of God living inside of them, enabling them to be resilient and persist through all manner of injustices.
Jesus taught that everyone from the famous to the nameless can be forgiven and have eternal life by simply believing in Him. No mediator is required.
He removed the "middle man" from spirituality in the same way Bitcoin removed the "middle man" from money. The religious institution of the day hated Him for it and eventually crucified Him because of it.
A true Christian is fully at rest wherever they reside, because they are at peace with God and their future is secure in Jesus.
"neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:39.
Hope this helps.
The ratio of senses that create the rational western mind is not the only mode of perception. Interpreting Christianity as “true” in this framework doesn’t work for many people.
Listen to the song of Christ instead. It’s addressing a perception that’s native to your humanity but is likely in a state of atrophy. Once dormant, it is now being provoked as we accelerate into the Information Age.
Well, clearly God created the earth with the appearance of age. Science can say no more than that.
Why did God make the earth appear old by every validatable/repeatable measure? I sure don’t know…I’m not God. But I have no problem accepting the earth looks really friggin old and the Bible doesn’t disclose this fact.
Religion/spirituality comes from an experiential understanding, not an intellectual one
We humans can be wrong
I had 2 experiences that were crucial. The first one was the big one. THe second one was 53 months later when I finally figured out what the first experience was.
Since then, I've been on an intellectual tear for the last 2 years figuring out how the various religious and esoteric wisdom traditions tie together.
Best 2 years of my life.
That is wonderful to hear, thanks for sharing. Once I had my first experience, my life was never the same afterwards as well. Happy for you.
Parts of the bible are written by the institution of religion and have been corrupted by the fallibilities of humans over the centuries. Other parts are literal, and other parts are metaphors.
I am the way and the truth and the life. He is not referring to Jesus the man, but the eternal I am, the consciousness that I am, that you are.
A camel can pass more easily through the eye of a needle than a rich man can get into heaven. He is not referring to worldly wealth,, but rather to one that is so rich in mind that he's not open to seeing beyond what he knows. (Reminds me of the Ackktually midcurve meme guy).
And so on. (Typing with thumbs on a little phone screen is a PITA).
It's a simple book, but the most on target I know of: Resserecting Jesus by Adyashanti
The Bible was redacted under Constantine. It has been translated to many languages. One thing I try to remember is the truth in love shown and communicated by Jesus. There is truth in kindness, forgiveness of others and thyself, humbleness, gratitude, and a direct connection for all without the need for payment or intermediary. Always remember, His ways are higher than ours, there is peace in letting go of the words and knowing the message of love.
all is a construct of your mind. just like the fiat and all the rest...
There are far better replies here already than I can give and I'm no expert.. Obviously reading the Bible will be the place to go. I've also found CS Lewis really helpful.
Seraphim Hamilton and Jonathan Pageau both have pretty in-depth videos, but also some accessible stuff, but yeah obviously and I'm sure you know YouTube has lots of unhelpful dross.
I know I've already posted a link to Seraphim Hamilton. But this short video is another good one. There's a lot to actually unpack in this, even. I find his channel very useful, although as someone recently taking this seriously, he can put out some videos which are go over my head.
Seraphim is a friend and his work is incredible.
He is amazing. He would also do quite well with a lightning wallet and publishing here. Probably not as well as his substack and YouTube reach, but still another possible revenue stream. No idea if he is open to that tho. Maybe in the future, hopefully :)
Do you think you can convince Seraphim to make his audio available on podcasts lol? I've just got into AntennaPod, perhaps he can even set up a fountain account and get paid! Reckon he'd make a fair amount with lightning. ;););)
Mostly joking, but would be incredible
Forwarding this to him!
Npub??
Pretty sure he's not on social media (besides uploading on YouTube and substack).
I actually did find him after I sent this under 'Kabane' on antennapod, but that stopped a while ago. But yeah, if you use podcasting apps there's plenty to get through there.
I felt like it probably was intentional now, to focus more on substack and YouTube, which makes sense as they have an easier way to support the uploader.
Thank you for sharing these
I think a good experience might be to turn our attention from the social constructs inward, the deep self, and from there discover that the material plane is only a part of the whole. Hence, a spiritual rabbit hole.
Whadda ya mean by "it's"? Christianity, Christ, a Christian society?
You want to live in a society where people fear a lord they cannot see? No wonder IMF thrived in Bolivia, the fiat runs in the religious blood #Bitcoin
Have you considered that more or less everything can be true depending on the perspective ?
And Jesus loved to mess with perspectives (parables).
One perspective I find interesting to take while reading the bible (especially the old testament) or any other sacred (especially Hindu's) text is : what if it is a literally true story of what happens in my own mind ?
Christianity one of the worst inventions in history created to control humanity, just like fiat money.
It began brilliantly, but was hijacked and distorted after the crucifixion by Rome as a population control mechanism.
Something that was profound to me listening to the Peterson biblical series is how much respect and attention he gives to the text while letting the audience know the stories are not meant to be taken as literal truth. He reveals the value in the lessons, not as a historical record.
This is part of the reason we wrote The Gospel According To Bitcoin. Would love to send you a copy brother.
You can believe in the values without believing the stories
Some people are predisposed to so much evil and violence they need a reason to be better. It's more predominant with lower IQ. The high IQ ones do their evil in private.
You look cross eyed staring down your nose this hard at people. I think this takes the cake for most high horse comment in this thread. Must be tough having to deal with us low IQ plebs all the time. You should read the Brothers Karamazov.
Sorry, that's how I see it. Religion is an opiate, just as much as Netflix. I happen to enjoy Netflix, though, and I know what I see there is for entertainment. I didn't put myself in either group above. I don't do evil, I don't even lie. So, yes, I consider myself to be different than those that do, regardless of which group I'm in. For me, lies and evil are pretty intertwined and I don't have to believe in the supernatural to know it.
"I don't do evil." Your evil is pride. No need to apologize. Pride is blind, Im not trying to change your mind. Just wanted to recommend a book that might be help you think differently about simpletons.
I find voluntaryism is the essence of what it's all about.
"The danger of not believing in God is not that you believe in nothing, it's that you'll believe in anything". (Widely attributed to G.K Chesterton)
Beliefs like, men can menstruate!
To eat from the table but ignore the banquet, why it is happening, and who provided it is missing the whole point. You don't have to believe it is literal. In other words, the food will still give you sustenance, but you are missing so much richness.
Yes. That is a sticky place to find one's self, and for the exact reasons you articulated.
Honestly, it would probably take a full 8 hours of live conversation to rectify this for you, but it can be done.
The keys are:
- Understanding the variation of Stockholm Syndrome that many children never shed in adulthood
- Understanding the Monty Hall problem, pivoting it from prizes to belief sets, and then distilling from that thought exercise the value of open mindedness guarded by robust discernment
- Realizing that our parents, guardians, teachers, and guides were flawed but had our best interests in mind
- Realizing that, if all religions have some variation of the Golden Rule, then all religions are at least somewhat correct and perhaps taking an "all or nothing" approach to any given religion is itself a major obstacle to overcome in order to find truth
If you have realized and understood those things, you are ready to rectify the observation you made with respect to the undeniably great power of Christianity and the matter of incredulity that comes along with modern, mainstream Christianity.
I should point out that I personally have great reverence for Christ and the Christ movement. I was raised Christian, but like you, had issues with a number of aspects of modern mainstream Christianity, and so, in college, I took a step back to a place of open-minded agnosticism.
2 events in particular drastically altered my "beliefs". These were experiences I could neither explain nor deny. As an applied mathematician with significant amounts of both education and professional background in mechanical engineering, these two inexplicable, undeniable experiences were enough to capture my interest to the point where I've now purchased 160+ books in just the last year and a half.
I can offer you a cosmology that is consistent with science AND not only Christianity, but also consistent with basically every other religious tradition on Earth at this time. None of them are perfectly right, but all of them have truths in them, and some have truths the others lack, and vice versa.
When there is a disagreement between 2 parties, the only honest way for the disagreement to be rectified is for both parties to do the research the other has done already. At that point, all that is different is perspectives and insights, not data and information. Any debater who is willing to dismiss their debate opponent's case without having done adequate due diligence is merely seeking validation, not truth itself.
That said, the "great work" is to study all religions, all sciences, math, philosophy, etc. This is echoed by the "eye of the needle" parable, as well as the "empty cup" Zen koan. Both are about being open minded and exploring new "territory".
Hit me up if you want to explore a cosmology that acknowledges, respects, and reveres the power of Christianity by actually doing what Christ said: love your neighbor.
I personally do not think that it is loving to mock and deride one's neighbors because they use different words and customs to express reverence for the Creator, yet that is exactly how many Christians, e.g. Nick Fuentes 2024 RNC commentary, will act.
Christ travelled during the missing years of the canonical Bible, studying with sages, gurus, healers, wisemen, and holy men. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi library exist. We know that dudes who lived like 300 years after Christ, who never met Christ, who never walked with Christ, apparently had the necessary discernment to exclude a bunch of stuff from the "canonical" Bible. Why do dudes in slick robes and fancy hats 1700 years ago get to decide what is and what is not valid? Why did Rome persecute Christians and then, all of a sudden, flip the script and hijack...I mean..."adopt" Christianity?
Niche, but accurate and reliable sources indicate, again, that Christ travelled during the missing years. Did Roman conquest occur to cover up those tracks in Egypt, Britain, and along the Silk Road. There is evidence Christ went to those places.
Consider that the word "canonical" simply means "because we said so".
Consider that the word "fiat" simply means "because we said so".
Hit me up if you want to do a deeper dive into this.
It's not a light undertaking but it's totally worth it to have answers to questions you never thought you'd have.
I'll leave you with one thought to consider.
Why, in Genesis, is the serpent depicted as an evil source of temptation, yet in Matthew 10:16, Christ explicitly tells the disciples to "be ye therefore as wise as serpents and harmless as doves"?
Anyone who claims those serpents represent different things doesn't know what they're talking about, and I don't care what credentials they have from academia to back them up.
Have you looked into aliens, Hodl? Maybe you'd be surprised what you end up finding in that rabbit hole
It’s not literal bro it’s parable conceptual it’s a way humans conceptualize the omnipresent energy that started existed
same with Islam same with every other religion.
Just as there are many different languages and different ways to say Hello there are different ways humans have conceptualized the supreme creator of existence the common denominator is that they are all essentially frameworks to live a righteous life I don’t take any of it as literal.
Have you tried praying?
What a crossroad to be stuck at! I have wanted to respond but I honestly didn't like anything that came to mind. I found my responses assuming to much about someone I know very little about. The one response I keep coming back to is this. I have prayed for you in the past and I will continue to pray that God will help you as you seek to rectify your belief.
The book of John has many stories of people who met Jesus, literally in the flesh, and only truly believed who he said he was when they witnessed a sign. And John says that "these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." Maybe try reading John? I think believing in Jesus is more than just believing that a set of stories are literally true. And I would recommend finding a friend to read it with :)
.
What I have been praying concerning what I’m seeing: there is a rat
https://youtu.be/11MX7MpDSEQ via @LastDays247
I wrote about this sentiment a few years back: https://www.pauljmiller.com/posts/christianity-for-bitcoiners.html
I'm afraid Jesus refers to this as a midwit position:
> O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!
Please reach out would love to talk through this with you.
I have been watching YouTube vids on the history of Christianity and the Gnostic Gospels. They will reinforce your inclination that the bible is not literally true, but also give you a desire to follow the ‘good word’.
FWIW, one of my strongest personal convictions comes from God nether being able to be proven or disproved. It seems like no matter how much a person knows or doesn't know if they're honest they're always on the fence. If CHOICE is designed for a purpose, it seems to be perfect.
Look at your own tug, you personally see the benefits of Christian society. There's something there that you like pulling you, and yet your logic pulls you away. Indeed Christianity is one of the most extreme claims and I as a Catholic have the most extreme claims of them all. God operates in the immaterial, it's not the same as studying history or science. Allow a little room for Him and seek. I believe what you find may surprise you.
Try "The Case for Christ"?
Pray to the God that isn't there. See what happens. In my experience he will meet you where you're at... But if you're honest you will always be on the fence because the choice is always yours. It's both frustrating and beautiful in my experience. He wants you to CHOOSE.
all the answers you seek are within brother
What is your reasoning for not believing it’s literally true?
Highly recommend everything by Edward Feser here. Happy to chat on this anytime.