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Idk man I have seen prideful faith, and it’s bad. I don’t see that here.
I think in reality it’s just culture shock from seeing Christians who actually deeply believe speak. Most Christians in the modern world are in name only sadly.
Genuinely not trying to be condescending here but at least imo I haven’t seen much bragging or holier-than-thou. Usually it’s people nerding out about weird historical or theological points. Not talking about how often they pray or that they met this Saint or elder or got to touch this relic or icon, went to this or that monastery, etc.
I'm not exactly sure how to articulate it, but I've seen a lot of discussion between Christians and atheists here where the Christian stance has a strong theme of "you just don't get it". I don't know if it's because the other side of the conversation has a fundamental difference in viewpoint, but the "vibe" is frequently there. Much like the 2014 era meme of "it's not my job to educate you", it feels like it's meant to absolve the speaker of having to explain their stance in a way that allows someone to get it.
That is such a strange stance for me. If Christianity is real, and I could bring myself to believe, I don't think that I would morally be capable of saying something like that.
I don't remember who it was, but someone on this forum once wrote up a long response that could be compressed to "Jesus loves you. Yes, even you, even though you don't think he should." It was probably the single best case for Christianity that I have ever read. It actually made the faith make sense on a visceral level for the first time in my life. I wish we saw more of that here, rather than comments about religion social technology.
Isn't that a pretty standard proselytizing angle, used especially on criminals and drug addicts etc? It may work on spiritual/culturally christian but nonpracticing people, but why would anyone use that line here? It would be a comically bad misread of rationality-community adjacent atheists to believe they "don't think Jesus should love them".
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Interesting! I was initially attracted to the faith due to the social technology discussion, but over time Christ's love is what fully won me over.
If it helps, I absolutely believe that the fact that God loves us personally is the most unique and shocking thing about Christianity. I was healed of a horrible set of chronic pain and illness issues in large part by coming to Christ.
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