To the main question: I call myself Christian, although I’ve explained my beliefs to several others who do as well and recieved…disapproval…on several occasions. So I’ll say that I most likely fit your idea of a theist and moral relativist with a focus on unity and love.
How do you know that’s what “faith” means to him?
How do you know that’s what “seeking the truth” means to him?
It seems like you’re using your personal definitions to deduce things about someone else, who is definitely talking about very personal subjects, which means he’ll be using personal definitions of his own. (this is one of the many difficulties of religious topics, I think)
To use your definitions: If faith only deals in subjective truth, and philosophy in unreachable objective truths, how do they conflict? Wouldn’t those truths apply to very different aspects of a person’s beliefs, such that they would actually complement one another? The contradiction occurs when both truths are put into the same plane (Creationist “science” is an extreme example), but you don’t know whether he is doing this or not.
Faith:
Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
So, abiding by faith means you already believe in some truth and saying seeking truth while abiding by some faith is contradictory.
And please know that the atheists and the agnostics read Bible more in depth and critically than the Jews/Christians so that they can attack and make fun of the people who believe.
I have already explained why those definitions do not match. Because it ALL hinges upon what Christ said! Any who denies me so shall I deny to the Father. Therefore the deffinition is not really open to interpretation. Did you know that 5 of the 7 churches will perish? Most Christians are not even Christians. You really are not following what I am saying are you?
A PAGAN can (some do) live according to Christs teachings… would you consider them a Christian? Some even act Christ-like as well.
In all examples Christ can not be a Christian. He cannot follow Himself for He is the Sheppard. How is it that you cannot understand this?
He is not Christ-like… He IS Christ! He also does not live according to HIS teachings. He lives according to His Father.
In no circumstance will you EVER be correct when calling Christ a Christian. It is only possible for people to be Christians and NO OTHERS!
Faith is just the starter, there is no requirement to ignore truth and certianly is no expectation of never questioning. God wants questions, and is thusly stated plainly. You see faith and questioning are NOT opposite of each other.
It is in no way contradictory for faith to seek truth. So let me explain something to you.
In the begining if you wish to Seek God you will need faith first. After this faith you question it, and if you do so in honest seeking of the truth then guess what? Your faith is rewarded by PROOF! when you recieve this proof your faith is increased!
You are using that definition incorrectly. In no way does that definition specifically mean to be exclusionary to logical proof or material evidence. It is stating that it DOES NOT have to rely on proof or material, in no way does it state that it cannot.
Yes I do know that atheists read the bible to provide attack. They read it in vain. The bible specifically states that its secrets are kept from unbelievers. So nutballs claiming contradictions bothers me not in the least. When I read the bible in a purely secular logical fashion I saw many contradictions as well.
Many scientific research in german never gets translated to english because once it is… there research become diluted due to the structure of engrish and therefore mistakes and missunderstandings are made.
here is an example.
Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.
That sentence can be taken 2 ways. Now hopefully you can begin to see something here.
I follow more so a sense of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Western scientific brainwashing. So, I don’t really know. I am only 21 but I cringe at the thought of being one of those people who “finds” god later in life. I would much rather prefer to destroy all the falsehoods than get caught up with the proper naming game.
After the next first 10 posts I stopped reading, for we all lost track.
What a wonderful mind you have. Accepting the way of the west and the east, making it into one.
I think we have found that the religion of the east and the west are one. Therefore, Jesus and God are one. And perhaps my topic of the difference between " you" and " I", are one. Yet, there are differences, but those are illusions. =D>
How did you find that the religions of the East and the West are one? And even if you had found so, how does that make Jesus and god as one. What if, if both the Eastern and the Western religions are flawed?
Actually, the Eastern religions are far more advanced in their philosophies than their Western counterparts which has a very poor description of the universe. For example, when the West was ( and in someplaces still is) believing that the world was only few thousands years old, the Hindus believed for a long time that it is at least few billions of years old. And most will agree that Buddhism is too rational to be called a religion. Above all, the Eastern religions have no problem with the evolutionary theory whereas the Western religions are dead against that. Eastern religions are not organised (like Chirstianity) and does not belong to to any one ethinic group (like Judaism).
So, it is unfair to put the Western and the Eastern religions at the same level.