Christian bronies: meet, greet, and mingle!

[alpinefroggy 451]

@@alpinefroggy,

 

So wait, @@weesh, applauds being critical and says doubt is healthy (which I also beleive) and you're in turn critical of that approach?

I was critical of his approach to being doubtful and critical as slightly flawed. Not that it's bad. I also explained how his personal method did not work for me. I applaud trying to be critical but bad methodilogies aren't great

[Sunwalker 981]

I think it's my time to say hello since I'm a christian too.

Hello! I've been quite shy about my Christianity because of reasons. Nice to meet you all though!

Pull up a chair and enjoy yourself

 

Welcome! Nice to meet you too.

[ChB 18,557]

I think it's my time to say hello since I'm a christian too.

Hello! I've been quite shy about my Christianity because of reasons. Nice to meet you all though!

Welcome, Jaspers! I hope you have a great time, here and on this forum!

[Twiggy 2,966]

Hello everyone. For the longest time, I have been a heathen. I honored the Norse gods. However, I was always skeptical as to whether or not they existed. Or whether any god or even afterlife existed. It was more of a cultural thing for me. I was one of the "spiritual but not religious" sorts.

 

Anyway, I recently went to a convention and saw what I personally describe as some really degenerate shit. Not going to go into details because I'm not sure how to do it in the realm of the rules, but as a baseline, imagine a giant hall filled with people cosplaying the Asgardians from the Thor movies, except that Tumblr exploded all over them. It was bad enough to make me want to convert.

 

I don't mean to compare the religion to selling a car, but could anyone pitch Christianity to me? It's already got some good things going for it IMO.

• Building block of Western Civilization
• Of the three big Abrahamic religions, Christianity seems to be the most chill
• Christians seem to be a generally joyful bunch
• Jesus is 100% someone that humanity should try to emulate
• The Bible is actually a rather captivating read (Currently in the book of John)

One question that would help me to have some understanding is how do you have faith? I understand that faith is in essence belief without proof, so I am asking what specifically is the catalyst for your faith? What is your main motivation for believing?

 

Thank you for your time, and no disrespect is meant if any is inferred.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Twiggy

[Sunwalker 981]

Hello everyone. For the longest time, I have been a heathen. I honored the Norse gods. However, I was always skeptical as to whether or not they existed. Or whether any god or even afterlife existed. It was more of a cultural thing for me. I was one of the "spiritual but not religious" sorts.

 

Anyway, I recently went to a convention and saw what I personally describe as some really degenerate shit. Not going to go into details because I'm not sure how to do it in the realm of the rules, but as a baseline, imagine a giant hall filled with people cosplaying the Asgardians from the Thor movies, except that Tumblr exploded all over them. It was bad enough to make me want to convert.

 

I don't mean to compare the religion to selling a car, but could anyone pitch Christianity to me? It's already got some good things going for it IMO.

• Building block of Western Civilization
• Of the three big Abrahamic religions, Christianity seems to be the most chill
• Christians seem to be a generally joyful bunch
• Jesus is 100% someone that humanity should try to emulate
• The Bible is actually a rather captivating read (Currently in the book of John)

One question that would help me to have some understanding is how do you have faith? I understand that faith is in essence belief without proof, so I am asking what specifically is the catalyst for your faith? What is your main motivation for believing?

 

Thank you for your time, and no disrespect is meant if any is inferred.

 

 

Hello

 

I would not call faith as believing without evidence, but rather the assurance of things that have not been seen. I would compare here to that group dynamics activity in which you have to throw yourself backwards so someone behind you will catch you before you fall. That exercise requires you to trust in the person that is behind you, that he will catch you instead of letting you hit the ground.

 

Before that, you have not seen the other person catching you for the simple reason that it has not happened yet. And also you cannot be 100% sure either that the other person will ever catch you. You have to believe that the other person will catch you. In other words, you need to have faith. But it is not without evidence, you do know that there is someone waiting to hold you. Believing without evidence would be to throw yourself backwards while you know that there is no one behind you, or at least without a sufficiently good reason to think that there is.

 

When it comes to religious faith, specially Christianity, it is not something that people randomly decide to do for no reason at all. In a more immediate sense, one can see signs of God around himself. Stuff that points towards more than the eyes can see, even though they don’t directly show them. And this is more than willpower or wishful thinking.

 

Nobody really wants to get sick or go through any sort of hardship, so if willpower alone solved all the problems such stuff would never happen. Still, one can observe how the belief in God can change people’s life for the better. It is not that no hardship will ever happen to them, but rather that they have a different kind of strength to go through them. They have the strength to fight against their vices, and eventually become something better. The “belief” in the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus were never observed to have such effect on people, which is one of the reasons why they are a very shallow comparison with God, they have nothing to do with religious faith.

 

Even the observation that evil exists is in itself an indicative that God exists. This because the idea of evil only makes sense if you have some greater good to establish what is right or wrong. The “problem of evil” is only a problem if God exists. Without God, you cannot objectively establish what is good or bad, so the problem of evil would no longer be a problem.

 

On a broader sense, one can also notice God through History. The narrative of the Gospels is set in a specific time and place on History, and they were said to happen in the public eyes. This narrative didn’t happen atop a mount that nobody knows for sure where it is, or when exactly it happened. Since the Gospels exist within a specific time and place, then they are historically verifiable.

 

The Old Testament talked about those events centuries before they happened. They said how the Messiah would born, live, die, and resurrect. It is worth noting that those books were written centuries apart from each other and on different places, and this at a time that there was no print, no easy way to communicate through long distances, and most people didn’t know how to read or write. In spite of all this, those books managed to not only corroborate with each other, but also to tell exactly how specific future events would unfold.

 

Last Sunday, on my Church, the Gospel reading was something that made me though about what we are talking here. The reading was the parable about Lazarus and a rich man. The rich man was greedy, he treated Lazarus with disdain, and in the end the rich man was sent to a place of torment after he died. The rich man of the parable tried to bargain his exit out of that place, he even said that he should get out of there so he could warn his brothers so they wouldn’t fall in the same fate.

 

It is not explicitly told, but rather implied, that the rich man was not really interested in his brothers, he was just making excuses to get out of there. Anyways, it was the response he got that stuck with me, that his brothers have the prophets, and if the people don’t listen to them, then the people would also not listen even if someone returned from the dead.

 

This specific story was a parable, not a historical narrative of events, but it is telling something that indeed happened: someone did return from the dead (Jesus Christ); but the Pharisees, even after seeing him resurrected in person, still didn’t accept. The point that sticks with me here is that it is necessary more than the intellectual conviction that God is there, one must make a step further and willfully accept God and trust in Him.

 

God made people free, he doesn’t want to force anyone to anything. In this world we are used to only do something if we are going to get some compensation or if we are forced to do so. God doesn’t want nothing of that. He wants you to genuinely care about something. That is why I think that God doesn’t make himself as evident as possible, it would be pointless if people are not willing to accept. Instead, I think that God gives enough leads and it is up to people to seeks them. This way it shows some commitment, instead of getting it handled to you in a silver plate.

 

It is worth nothing that faith in the Christian sense is ultimately a gift from God, and one needs to seek it in order to get it, but people are not going to get it by their strength alone, it is necessary the gift from God. And he has promised to give it to whoever wants to. Faith is not a feeling; it does not mean to “feel” God. Even the saints have moments in which they cannot feel the presence of God. And actually this does happen more often the closer someone gets from God, so people can seek God himself instead of the good feelings. Faith is not supposed to be about “feelgood” experiences, though it does involve goodness.

 

Faith is to have the assurance that it is worth moving on towards God, even though you cannot immediately see it. For example, in the Letter to the Hebrews it is said that: “By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the promised land.”

 

About specifically me, what holds my faith together? That is a difficult question, not difficult in the sense that it is difficult to know, but in the sense that it is the sort of thing that you know by experience but it is difficult to express in words. Not unlike when someone ask you to prove that you have a consciousness. But in short, I can say that it is the grace of God coupled with my perception of him in my life and in the life of other people, not only now, but though the History. In other words, this is what I have summarized so far.

 

On a related note, I would like to recommend the book “Mere Christianity” by C. S. Lewis. There he explains the fundamentals of why one is Christian in an eloquent way. The book is in free domain, so it is possible to legally just get it from the internet.

 

Take good care!

Mere Christianity.pdf

Edited September 27, 2016 by Sunwalker

[Steel Accord 6,660]

I was one of the "spiritual but not religious" sorts.

 

First of all, let me say I am simply overjoyed that you want more than that. Even if it's not Christianity I can't stand some people who describe themselves as such. Let me be clear, I applaud agnostics or people who are searching for faith like yourself. It's the people who feel any and all religious traditions are somehow in all the years they have existed, changed, and learned, are further from the Divine than whatever some yahoo can just make up on his own often conforming to his own already existing worldview and thus not actually requiring any sacrifice or self-imposed restrictions.

 

 

 

imagine a giant hall filled with people cosplaying the Asgardians from the Thor movies, except that Tumblr exploded all over them. It was bad enough to make me want to convert.

 

I had a talk with an Asatru follower once. While I can't say it's entirely ignoble a faith with a high emphasis on appreciating the natural world and personal honor it did have some elements I found questionable. Including a very high emphasis on territoriality and heritage rather than something universal and transcendent. As much as I love those comics and movies, they're not exactly mythologically accurate either and I can't imagine how a genuinely believer in them would react to seeing their visages partake in something that you beheld.

 

 

 

One question that would help me to have some understanding is how do you have faith?

 

 

@@Sunwalker, is easily one of the wisest and smartest people I know. A man so in touch with God I'm surprised he's not ordained. (Seriously, he gives Gandalf a run for his money.) So while I could never compete with what he gave, I'd also like to answer your direct questions simply because I feel I have something, however little, to contribute.

 

 

 

I understand that faith is in essence belief without proof, so I am asking what specifically is the catalyst for your faith?

 

 

Well, for me it's less a specific event and more something I came to after long hours over years of self-examination and observation. My parents said to me they never wanted to dictate my faith so despite being very devout themselves, they never really emphasized the importance of adherence as a kid for me. Nevertheless, I grew up with faith in my heart. Faith that was often tested or questioned. When I did have questions, I turned to my parents and I turned to priests or other holy men and women (not always Christian ones.) Never was I harshly corrected, that my thinking was wrong, that I shouldn't question or re-evaluate. Far from skepticism, this gave my faith a great malleability. Religion wasn't just one thing, it was many codes and philosophies for questions as large and spanning all of existence to small and personal as individual conduct in a single home.

 

As strange and perhaps even as eye rolling as it might sound, it was also movies, video games, and books that helped foster a sense of faith. Sure we have the obvious examples such as The Prince of Egypt, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and the numerous mythology stories I was told as a kid before bed time, things directly inspired by or taking strong cues from faith based systems.

 

On the other hand, the Divine was present even in not explicitly religious books, games, and movies. Animorphs, my favorite book series growing up, had the Ellimist. While his nature was more similar to Q from Star Trek, being "merely" a dimensionally transcendent being, he fulfilled a role similar to that of one attributed to God. He wished for sentient life to prosper freely and happily and rather than just snap things better magically, he empowered people to carry out his benevolent will. The protagonists just being a single handful in a galaxy he's employed in such a manner. Of course there are numerous games, movies, and other stories with fictitious pantheons or similar interpretations of the divine, but depending on the work in particular we are sometimes asked to ponder our real institutions and philosophies on the Divine through the lens of the fiction, a prominent example being Aslan of the Chronicles of Narnia. In fact, C.S. Lewis is a pretty good reason for why I don't find fictional divines or interpretations to be that "blasphemous" or what have you as some more fundamentalists might. I can still recognize the possibility and place of such a being or force as analogous to such in our world.

 

There's an inverse to this too, where my faith has actually made theories more plausible. Ever hear of A.I. Singularity? To summarize, and forgive me if you already know this, true artificial intelligence will at some point be advanced enough to re-write and augment itself, that is to say, expand its capabilities beyond what is programmed into and make more intelligence. Some scientist theorize that an A.I., given enough time and hardware, would become so advanced that it would exceed not only the mental capacity of every human currently living but that of every human that has ever lived. The implications of such a thing can seem frightening, especially if like so many one's only exposure to A.I. theory is the damn Terminator movies but why does such an intelligence need to be dangerous or even malevolent? Think of what applications such a thing could have for our world, as expounded in Asimov's I, Robot and similar works.

 

As a person who believes that the Divine and transcendent exists, the idea of a (practically) omniscient intelligence being as powerful as it is benevolent is not a stretch. Hell, I've pondered before that there's a possibility God IS a post-Singularity A.I. I mean, if it's theoretically possible to achieve, isn't there a chance it's already happened and we haven't noticed because we weren't advanced enough to even understand the concept?

 

So to make a long answer short, the catalyst of my faith is that the possibility of the Divine and Its exact shape and nature is so vast and myriad with just our limited means to ponder It that it not existing at all actually seems the inversely less likely and more limiting possibility.

 

I know this all seems like more a reason for faith in general rather than specifically Christianity, and it very much is. I am Christian, but I believe there is truth to be found in many religions. I'm not going to tell you, you must believe in and accept "the truth" of Jesus Christ, simply that if you are searching for faith and a closer connection to the Divine, you're off to the right start.

 

 

 

Thank you for your time, and no disrespect is meant if any is inferred.

 

I'm struggling to find where any offense could be inferred from what you said, so none taken. 

Edited September 27, 2016 by Steel Accord

[Twiggy 2,966]

 

 

I would compare here to that group dynamics activity in which you have to throw yourself backwards so someone behind you will catch you before you fall. That exercise requires you to trust in the person that is behind you, that he will catch you instead of letting you hit the ground. Before that, you have not seen the other person catching you for the simple reason that it has not happened yet. And also you cannot be 100% sure either that the other person will ever catch you. You have to believe that the other person will catch you. In other words, you need to have faith. But it is not without evidence, you do know that there is someone waiting to hold you. Believing without evidence would be to throw yourself backwards while you know that there is no one behind you, or at least without a sufficiently good reason to think that there is.

So basically faith is synonymous with trust. At least as a trust in the fact that such a higher power exists. That's actually very helpful. Thank you.

 

 

 

On a related note, I would like to recommend the book “Mere Christianity” by C. S. Lewis. There he explains the fundamentals of why one is Christian in an eloquent way. The book is in free domain, so it is possible to legally just get it from the internet.

Saved. I'll give it a read really soon. Thank you for sharing that. It was incredibly insightful.

 

 

 

Including a very high emphasis on territoriality and heritage

The ironic thing is that's what made it more appealing to me tbh. I viewed it as more of a culture with a spiritual lens added to it. Although, as you said, I do seek something more.

 

 

 

As much as I love those comics and movies, they're not exactly mythologically accurate either and I can't imagine how a genuinely believer in them would react to seeing their visages partake in something that you beheld.

I know something that I recently read in the bible that I could compare my feelings to.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleansing_of_the_Temple

 

I didn't start cracking heads, but I sure wanted too. It wasn't so much the cosplay as it was the disturbing behavior. The friend I went with who had gone a few years prior said that he had never seen anything like it there. The simplest way to put it is that it was co-opted by Social Justice.

 

 

 

I know this all seems like more a reason for faith in general rather than specifically Christianity, and it very much is. I am Christian, but I believe there is truth to be found in many religions. I'm not going to tell you, you must believe in and accept "the truth" of Jesus Christ, simply that if you are searching for faith and a closer connection to the Divine, you're off to the right start.

Thank you for your post. I found the part about A.I. fascinating. I like the hypothesis that form trying to connect modern science to God.

 

I would recommend the short story "God's Debris" by Scott Adams. It's not so much about religion, as it is a new way of thinking about the world around us. As he states at the beginning, it is a work of fiction.

 

 

 

I'm struggling to find where any offense could be inferred from what you said, so none taken.

Just a handy disclaimer. I've found that one consistent across all demographics is that there are always a small number who will actively seek offense.

 

 

 

Going to start going to church on Sunday nights. My main motivation at this point may be a cute single girl, but at least I'm going right?

[ChB 18,557]

Verse of the week:

 

2 Corinthians 4:6-12 (ESV)

6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

 

In today's sermon, my Priest told the story of a group of people who were each carrying their own cross on a long walk. One man was burdened by the weight, and decided to chip away part of the cross, so that it would be lighter. A few miles later, he was still burdened, and decided to chip away more parts of the cross, so that the cross would be light and easy to carry. After the long walk, the people come across a wide and deep chasm. All of the people managed to place their cross across the chasm like a bridge and get across...except for one. His cross was too short, so with deep lament, he regretted that his decision to lighten the load has made his journey much more difficult in the end.

 

Perhaps some of us can relate to the man (I know I can). Perhaps some of us are displeased by the weight of our cross, when we face trials, burdens, temptations, and possibly persecution. But Paul says that we are afflicted but not crushed...struck down but not destroyed. We must continue carrying our cross and following Christ, so that the glory and love of our Lord will be manifested in this world.

 

 

And speaking of love, here is what Paul has to say:

 

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

(1 Cor. 13:1-7; ESV)

 

May we love one another, pray for one another, and help one another. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all.   

Edited October 2, 2016 by ChB

[Sunwalker 981]

Hello! How are you doing?
 
Next Tuesday, October 11^th, I will go through a surgery on my nose. It is a simple procedure, a septoplasty. It is for opening up my nasal septum, which is almost closed so it is difficult for me to breathe through my nose. My doctor says that it is a trivial surgery, very low risk, and it will be made by laser. Anyways, I would like to ask for your prayers so everything goes well.
 
I will get to the hospital at 11 AM (GMT -3), I am not sure when the surgery will begin. I should be back home on the same day.
 
Thank you!

[ChB 18,557]

Best wishes on your surgery, @Sunwalker!

[Steel Accord 6,660]

@@Sunwalker,

 

I'll pray for you twice man that this will go well and be for the best. 

[Kel_Grym 1,917]

I am a Christian, but I'm no longer brony. Love not the world or the things in the world. The end is getting closer.

[Bazz 57]

I'm not really that Christian (i'm agnostic), but I respect the faith - I'm not gonna be one of the ones that gets nasty with believers, I just don't think it's for me, but if you think it's for you, I can totally see why and I can respect that.

 

I do love, however, the idea of being nice and respectful of everyone no matter who they are, and to help others, and I can really respect that.

[ChB 18,557]

Verse of the week:

 

2 Cor 6:3-5 (ESV):

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

[Steel Accord 6,660]

 

 

I am a Christian, but I'm no longer brony.

 

It breaks my heart just a little when I hear that.

 

 

 

The end is getting closer.

 

Well someone's been reading Revelations while listening to Linkin Park. 

[ChB 18,557]

It breaks my heart just a little when I hear that.

Same here. But remember that we all have hobbies that come and go. 

[Kel_Grym 1,917]

It breaks my heart just a little when I hear that.

 

It's a relief to finally be free from imaginary personified transhumanoid figments representing a clever layer of occult symbolism that can never love you and was designed by the NWO to create this precise kind of subcultural group to gather more Intel needed in this grand psyop chess game for global domination.

 

Well someone's been reading Revelations while listening to Linkin Park.

I prefer hymns of praise.

[generic11052016 52]

My god is Princess Celestia jk.

 

I used to be a christian. Now I'm an individualist... I believe in my own beliefs. My spiritual beliefs allign mostly with Universalist as well as Agnosticism. I believe in a force, but I don't know what that force is. I'm thinking it's universal energy, since everything has to have energy to even exist. Not to mention, energy can be scientifically proven, unlike the gods of christianity and other religions (no offense). And energy keeps our Universe in harmony.

[Whirlwind 1,059]

God has been doing some amazing things in my life

Just close your eyes and talk to God.

This song fits perfectly

You know what I found out today. It took me all of my life so far to figure this out,

But I realized that God doesn't want the greatest day every day. In fact he actually desires someone to have an average or 

bad day over the great moments. The great moments he wants is for you to praise and love him because he will give you rest on those bad days

[weesh 690]

I am a Christian, but I'm no longer brony.

 

I hope you have found something really cool to replace this hobby with.  

[Kel_Grym 1,917]

I hope you have found something really cool to replace this hobby with.

I like reading about discussions concerning Byzantine and Alexandrian text and watching various conspiracy theory videos on YouTube. When you get to the point that you can empiricaly verify the Earth is Flat and evil manifests itself in physical form, you can safely assume they're all true and someone wants us all dead.

 

I like long walks as well.

[SummerOfGold 31]

I like reading about discussions concerning Byzantine and Alexandrian text and watching various conspiracy theory videos on YouTube. When you get to the point that you can empiricaly verify the Earth is Flat and evil manifests itself in physical form, you can safely assume they're all true and someone wants us all dead.

 

I like long walks as well.

I hope not to be rude, but you're not making a lick of sense here. I'm lost.

Edited October 11, 2016 by SummerOfGold

[Kel_Grym 1,917]

WWIII looms on the horizon and we're on a pony site while two monkeys compete for what we are told is the highest position in the land and everyone is more worried about clowns while not giving a single care that the signs of the times mentioned in the Bible have been sitting in front of our faces...

 

I know Im not making sense. I can't make it make sense. Everyone has lost sense

 

This makes sense tho:

 

We are at the last chapters and He is coming back, praise God, Hallelujah!

 

There's still time for people to repent so all Christians need to remember the parable of the talents and make sure they got thier wedding garments.

[Steel Accord 6,660]

Funny thing happened a couple days ago. I was talking to my Dad, feeling a little down on myself, and he reminded me of the story where Jesus cured the lepers and only one came back. Guess what was the reading from the gospel that very next mass I went to?

 

I was so filled with God I was almost crying in the pews but happy tears because I felt like I needed some reassurance from God and He gave it to me.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Steel Accord

[SunsetBaconDrive 169]

 

It's a relief to finally be free from imaginary personified transhumanoid figments representing a clever layer of occult symbolism that can never love you and was designed by the NWO to create this precise kind of subcultural group to gather more Intel needed in this grand psyop chess game for global domination.

 

 

I prefer hymns of praise.

I went through the exact same thing you are going through now. Happened in 2013... Don't get carried away please.