Are Christians trying to convert others into their religion?

preachhislove, the athiests on this board have no problem with most christians, or any other religion for that matter. But as utopia put so well, the christian fundamentalists are the ones who are judgemental and ignorant. They try to protray themselves as pius and only concerned with saving others, but that is not what they are doing. They are usurping your god’s will by declaring they know who will be saved and who won’t. I think that would be up to your god to decide.

And there is no need for anyone, including you, to ever preach to athiests. We know what your religious beliefs are all about, and we have determined that it is just mythology. When the new testament talks about preaching the message of christ, it is meant for people who have never heard of him, not for people who have heard and simply don’t believe it. I know far more about christianity than most christians on this site, so you are not teaching me anything. And repeating scripture offers nothing to the discussion. We have heard it before.

The other thing that fundamentalists do that bugs athiests is when they deny long accepted science simply because it interferes with what the bible says. They go so far as to demand that their relgious beliefs be taught in my kids science class. I have no patience for that kind of ignorance.

I prefer science to the supernatural.

Ghee thanks jane of the jungle, I really love being generalised and told that I don’t use my brains. “Ghee you people need to start using your brains!” I suppose this is because I am a stupid Christian that tries to tell other people about a God that truly cares and loves all of His creation and that He wants us to find peace in Him (oops there I go preaching again, stupid me) You know what I don’t know why God would want to save someone that openly defies His existence even if they know in there hearts that there must be a God, but I do know He does because He saved me. This doesn’t mean that I am better than anyone that hasn’t made his/her choice yet but it does mean that I should tell people about it so that they can make their own choice. How could we not preach His love when we know what it is to live without it? By the way amblessed I believe what you were trying to say is it doesn’t matter which type of Christian doctrine you follow just as long as you have a personal relationship with Jesus. Or what jimahl said. Although I don’t agree with that, following Jesus is definitely a religion.

PS. ask yourselves why Christians are ridiculed more than any other religion in this world, and not Muslims or Buddhists etc, or is it to politicaly incorrect to ask them these questions?

Utopia

*‘Now, ask yourself why Christians are ridiculed”

I would never, ever presume to be better than anyone else just because I am a Christian. Jesus preaches love, not hate. He loves all people equally and wants all to believe and love Him. I would never ‘say love’ and then turn around and ‘do hate’, because this would be turning against God’s will and doing my own will.

I am truly sorry that you have had to hear these things spoken by people saying they are Christians. We are all sinners, no sin is greater than another. God doesn’t say; “Because you have only stolen and not murdered then you are saved.” no, He says:”Becuase you believed that you have sinned and therefore have taken my Son as your Saviour, then you are saved and all your sins have been wiped clean.”

I am going to quote verses that I have just found in The Message (the Bible in Contemporary language) Maybe this will make you understand what God is all about(because in the end it’s not about the monotonous act of doing religion, But about listening to God)

Ephesians 5

1-2 “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behaviour from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that 3-4 “ Don’t allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our lifestyle. Thanksgiving is our dialect. 5 “You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them - the usual variations of idolatry- will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God. 6-7 “Don’t let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with Him. Don’t even hang around people like that.”

17 “Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.”

I hope you understand that a true Christian should love and not hate and always seek God not the acceptance of others. I can’t convert anyone into Christianity, only God can do that. All I can do is plant a seed as once not so long ago someone else did for me.

To all my brothers and sisters in Christ

I’m sure you know this, but I would like to stress that a Christian is not better than anyone else and should not proclaim to be. This just alienates people from us and makes there chances of believing miniscule. Love all people equally just as God does. Don’t take away their chance of believing with a few careless words. John 8:6-8 …”He (Jesus) straightened up and said: “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.”… I’m sure you know this sentence well, but I would suggest you go and read the story around those words and understand it even better.

Utopia

I hope you find that not all proffessing Christians are as those that you have quoted.

Christians are to stand for the faith, and this board is for religion/spirituality, why do you feel it is wrong for them to share the truth here?

tseirpeht - again, sigh…you missed the point. He did NOT ask a question to christians… He asked “”if god is imaginary then why should we pray” That is a general question, to believers of ALL faiths and non-believers alike…

You do realize that there are other g-ds besides the christian one, right? Probably not…again, sigh.

Back to the question… Christians are a bible mandated prostelyzing and evangelizing group. “”Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Many fundamentalist christians abuse the words of christ and have adopted a less Christ-like approach to convert non-christians. they badger, preach “at”, name call, curse at, etc. They have elected to twist christ’s words of love and peace into hellfire and brimstone threats against those that do not convert. They justify their brutish behavior by saying that if it converts even one person, it is worth it. To hell with the other hundred that it completely turned off to christ.

*“I think most of the people here are trying to convert others into their religion.

You are correct…just look at amblessed’s answer… I think he actually means that OTHER religions matter not… Since Jesus = Christianity then what you do about Jesus in your life means everything. So, convert, convert, convert… Because you are frying like chicken in a skillet if you don’t…

lol..he does make me laugh.

Well you did not mention that you only wanted answers from Atheists. If you had then I would not have answered it.

The only way they will survive is if they can get new recruits. Yes, jesus said to go out and spread the word of god, but he did not say clobber them over the head with it.

Yeah =/ A lot of Christians feel the need to try and force their beliefs on others because they believe it’s the right thing to do. They don’t realise how offencive and inappropriate it can be, however.

Yeah, I hate when people shove their beliefs down my throat too.

Amblessed Your religion matters not - what you do about Jesus in your life means everything

Now how in hell does this make sense???

“Your religion matters not” – So Buddhism would be fine?

“What you do about Jesus in your life means everything” – Now you’re saying naaah, not Buddhism, because, Jesus won’t be in your life

BUT – your religion matters not!

Ghee you people need to start using your brains!

yes thats what majority of them do they think its there “job” to make everyone beleive in there god not many actually respect other peoples religions or lack of religion they just continue talking about there god and why you should beleive in it also adding bible verses that dont make any sense to try and sway you and its not just on the net there also on the street preaching, begging and trying to scare you into beleiving in the same thing they do of course though, not all of them do this but theres no doubt that a good majority of them do

@modestalchemist: Sorry, but there’s never been a reputable, peer-reviewed study on prayer that showed statistically significant positive outcomes. In fact, when they did a study on prayer in medicine recently, patients that were prayed for (and knew it) actually had slightly worse outcomes than those who weren’t!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html

You ask a generalized question then you will get an answer from people and their respective religions. If I asked a question to muslims about why they pray I am sure they would point out to verses in the Qu’ran. Why would you say that christians are trying to convert you when you are asking them a question? If you dont want a religious answer DON’T POST A RELIGIOUS QUESTION.

“Yes, God might seem supernatural and unbelievable, but so does aliens and the concept that we are relatives of apes, yet people try constantly to prove their theories using anything in their means to do so.”

The difference is, there’s no evidence for the existence of god or aliens, but plenty for evolution and other scientific theories.

amblessed thinks that believing the jesus is not religion.

Yes. One of the beliefs of Christianity, is that it’s the “one true religion”, and that it should be spread.

Your religion matters not - what you do about Jesus in your life means everything.

No. Christians do not try to convert others into their religion. If they know anything about their own religion, then they know that according to their god’s word, no human can convert another human to Christianity. According to the Bible, only God himself can do that. He works supernaturally in their hearts, using other people to share his word.

Some people do try to convert others into their religion. However, those people are not Christians. They may adhere to some Christian beliefs. They claim to be “religious” or even to have a Christian faith, but they are not Christian.

Interestingly, some of the most vehement people in the world (in terms of trying to convert others into their religion) are the very ones who deny altogether that they are religious. According to their philosophy (humanism), human communication is the only means of convincing a person to change beliefs.

*“ ask yourselves why Christians are ridiculed more than any other religion in this world, and not Muslims or Buddhists etc,or is it to politicaly incorrect to ask them these questions? “

Christians, fundamentalist christians, are the only religious followers who have ever told me that I am going to hell, that my family is in hell (they are jewish), that homosexuals are an abomination, that it is okay to kill abortion doctors because they kill babies, that this county is a christian country only, that muslims are all terrorists, that catholics are not christian…and so on. You get my point.

I have NEVER been told anything like this from a follower of any other religion so why would I need to ridicule Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Bahi, etc…

Just a few quotes from christians…

“‘Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.’ (Aids? )’ “

“Have you ever seen Muslims shooting to death twenty men who were not worshippers of allah? I have, and until you can be there and see it for yourself, you need to keep quiet before you show more ignorance “

“The quran is false, not of God but teaches lies from Satan.”

“I’ll pick Jesus any time over your false god allah”

“Muslims worship allah who teaches death to infidals! Muslims believe the Quran is holy and sacred, right. “

“Religion such as this (Islam), who allow evil people to beat a child to death, needs to be stopped!”

“God help those who believe this sick religion (Islam)! “

“the RCC (Roman Catholic Church) is not considered true Christianity”

“Gays are natures way of culling the human race.. So when you see a Gay person.. just know that you are better.. in every way.. “

“What is wrong with homosexuality? It’s an abomination to God.”

“Take a Small Country.. Call it Gayland and send them all there to die out..”

“The anti christ will be of jewish decent”

Granted there are some mean and horrid quotes from people towards christians…the difference being that SOME CHRISTIANS are preaching love in one sentence and the above hatred in another.

Now, ask yourself why christians are ridiculed…

Hi Jimahl

I understand how you think as I have lived with an Athiest most of my life. The thing is most people no matter what they believe will try to influence you into believing what they think is true. Even people that “don’t believe in anything”.

You can’t tell me you haven’t once in your life tried to persuade someone that what you believe is the only way to believe. Even believing that science(which can be very unreliable at times) brings all the answers, is believing in something.

Yes, God might seem supernatural and unbelievable, but so does aliens and the concept that we are relatives of apes, yet people try constantly to prove their theories using anything in their means to do so.

To answer your statement * ‘that is for God to decide” Nope, sorry. God gave us free will, He doesn’t decide anything, you do. He could easily have made us His slaves and gave us no conscious thought what so ever but He didn’t. He wants you to choose freely, because He wants you to worship Him freely.

Remember I am only answering from the view of a Christian, as you would answer from a scientific perspective.

I would rather prefer my children to learn from a Christian perspective, but that is (hopefully) going to be something that we can decide for ourselves when the time comes.

Some Christians tend to be exceptionally pushy.E.g,during the British rule,in the areas like the subcontinent,etc,Christian missionaries were sent,and they expected everyone to convert to christianity.So its pretty common.