Choosing a faith

Firstly I donate to both secular and religious charities. When our church brought in and supported Syrian refugees to Canada we didn't ask about their religious beliefs. Two of the three families were Islamic. Well I can say that becoming Christian certainly changed my outlook on life and on charitable giving.

Frankly in my view that is a strength. I don't want a church where there is no room for disagreement. I know that I am not in agreement on many issues with other Anglicans and that is ok. Hopefully after discussing views we can learn from each other.NT Wright often says that about a third of what he teaches is wrong. The problem being that he doesn't know which third it is. I'm in the same boat except that the percentage is undoubtedly much higher and no doubt you believe that 30% to be 100% in my case. Frankly my views are often changing as I read a fair bit of theology by people much brighter than yours truly, including at times on this forum.

Of course it is. There is no room for disagreement within dogma. A belief is a belief. That's why 25% of your church has just split from it and rejected its leader over same sex blessings. Note not even marriages. The nice European Anglicans actually want to perform same sex marriages but that is totally politically impossible.That's why there are over 30,000 different ‘Christian’ belief systems. You all have individual beliefs and coalesce around them. You make it up to suit.
​ It's 100% in Wright's case too. Because it's an unevidenced belief. He doesn't know which 30% because he doesn't know anything, he just believes some things and the things he believes are what the culture he was born into by chance taught him. He spends his life in confirmation bias, ‘interpreting' the tiny amount of data available to him in ways that please him.
​ But your views are based only on what you prefer to believe, not on fact. You completely ignore arguments that threaten your belief, they have no effect. Your core beliefs can't be touched because they're not formed from evidence they're formed a personal belief that you speak with god. All the rest is irrelevant.

Perhaps.
Perhaps not.I suppose we'll never know, will we? And what is so "wise" about not being a psychologist that you think is unobtainable if one is a psychologist?
To me - I see no reason why someone can't be a psychologist and also pursue a spiritual path - and also ignore things that don't exist, like God.

Fantastic.
I always thought you were a good person. Of course - your personal experience doesn't change the fact that atheists also have life-changing structures to their thoughts and outlook on life that also make them just as generous and loving and charitable, perhaps even more so.It's almost like people are all individuals, each with their own personal subjective ways to achieve the same subjective levels of spiritual enlightenment. All without any external intelligence or God acting on any of them at all.Really, what's the difference between a God that doesn't exist and a God that acts - absolutely always, in every and all situations - as if He doesn't exist?

What is the source of all things? Go back as far as you can. (Lets explore the rabbit trail)While you are doing that, I will take the discipline of psychology and take it back as far as it will go. In college, years ago, I studied Psychology, Sociology, and Social Psychology. Does anyone know the difference between the three? I do.

I don't know.But - if you're going to tell me it's God, without being able to link God to reality in any way, I'm going to know you're wrong. Because that's how being wrong works.

Linking God to reality encapsulates the essence of "Being Saved".Not that i'm special. Heck, i'm the poster child for stupidity at times!

It isn't about dogma. Here is the definition of dogma. "A principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true."I would suggest that there is only a very small part of the Christian church that sees there faith and beliefs as incontrovertibly true.The point of this thread was to make the point that it isn't the name of the deity that we serve, but the nature of the deity we serve. We have seen Christians prepared to start wars and we have seen Muslims, Hindus, atheists etc fight for love and peace. My belief is in a deity that loves and cares for us and wants us to reflect that same love into the world.Yes, I do see Jesus as being an example of one that perfectly modelled the nature of God, and I see confirmation in that in the belief that God resurrected Him. Yes, I believe the Gospel accounts of His resurrection, while acknowledging minor difference in the accounts, all affirming the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Still the clear and important part is God's loving and peaceful nature, and His wanting us to emulate that regardless of doctrine. I don't ignore arguments that threaten my belief I simply don't agree with the conclusions drawn from those arguments. However, in some cases they have altered my views.You and others generally say that you have no beliefs, so you really have no position to defend. You simply reject the views and beliefs of others. Kinda the easy way out. However you still presumably have a world view of life based on something. Do you believe that your world view to be true?

How do you know that God doesn't influence your thoughts? How do you know that the still small but intangible voice of God isn't influencing you?

Wash, rinse, repeat

What makes you think it has? What makes you think it can?Other than your wishful thinking, why does this thought exist? Is there anything to indicate that such is possible?

I don't know. So what?There isn't anything I can do about it, so it doesn't seem to matter one way or the other.

Really? Then why has 25% of just your sect just rejected its leader over a matter of doctrine? And why are there ANY schisms within your belief. You're denying reality. I had great hopes for this. But it just turned into the usual 'I believe' crap. I also had great hopes for this, but youl failed to make the argument. You're belief is profoundly Christian and you avoid the problems of hate and suffering, you just can't take them on honestly. It's disappointing. Then explain hate and suffering. Honestly. I need time to explain this. But you won't want to understand it; in my experience believers just can't or won't.​

As most of the religious, GDR suffers from willful ignorance