I should be more careful with my posting. I'm actually not interested in debates or trying to convince anybody of anything. Sorry if I implied otherwise.

This subforum is a giant **** storm of debate that rarely if ever resolves, and not much else.

If you can't make it this far without a lie then I'm reading no further.

Sorry, I never saw that post, I thought you had purposely kept your world-view hidden, so I take back what I said earlier. I still think you could expound a little more, but that's neither here nor there.

I don't find it offensive when people challenge my Christian beliefs, but then again, Christianity is always challenged, so I'm used to it. Question for you though - if part of your world-view involves dropping your ego for the purpose of growth, wouldn't you want to put yourself in situations where your ego is challenged? It seems to me that if you were to continually put your beliefs out there for them to be challenged, you would ironically be able to grow and develop, under the basis of your own paradigm.

Yeah I don't mind people challenging me either since I'm constantly challenging my own beliefs trying to falsify if I can. I was responding to the point that I was coming off mysterious. What I meant to say was that I try not to push too hard because talking about the ego and the other stuff I've posted about can be uncomfortable to most people.

At the same time, I'm only going to share stuff if it's going to be productive - well, I try to do this. You can see in that post I linked to that I'm usually willing to expand if someone shows interest and I feel like it'll be useful. I've challenged you several times, not because I'm attacking you, but because I feel like you're in a place in which you sort of have one foot in the door and so I was trying to push you further. Religion tends to pacify people and keep them complacent. That experience you talked about during your struggle with alcohol (if I'm remembering correctly) - my view is that it is like an invitation to pursue the spiritual path, like bread crumbs. So many people who have had an experience like that will rationalize it or make a half-hearted attempt at interpreting it so they don't have to be uncertain and pursue it further. I know because I've done it several times. So, that's where I'm coming from with all the posts I've made toward you.

You never offended me fwiw, but my views, not unlike your own, are not something I decided lightly or overnight. I've struggled long and hard, and still do, and even though I'm not beyond making mistakes, I believe in Christ. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here.