Comments on: An Ethical Dilemma: Childhood Conversion in Christian Fundamentalism

By: Bradford

Bradford — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:56:29 +0000

Wow!! I am glad I found this site. Admittedly, I disagree with your arguments, still I find the discussion interesting. You make are making too much of this childhood conversion thing. The problem is parents are lazy. They take their children to church on Sunday and hope their children get it. Thus, 9 out of 10 children raised in Christian families receive at best 1 hour a week of Christian education and the rest of their waking time is spent learning about secular humanism. By the time a Christian child (in the U.S.) go to college, they stop going to church and have absolutely no use for the faith. This repeats itself over and over. Why do you think the numbers of self-admitted Christians are declining, not growing. When it comes to having a truly biblical worldview, Americans are uneducated. The secularists are winning.

By: Richard_Collins

Richard_Collins — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:17:53 +0000

Christians have appropriated morality as their signature issue for convincing the unwary that only Christianity can lead people to right action. However, mounting evidence reveals that humans have an evolutionary reason to live in harmony and peace. What we call morality is simply the rules that flow from recognizing that the group (family, community, nation) prospers and is happy when people respect each other and try to help each other.

By: William Cody Bateman

William Cody Bateman — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:42:20 +0000

Thank you for your thoughtful replies. The "faith" that a Christian follows is not toward absolute laws or morals but rather, an absolute God of Righteousness, Holiness and Authority as Creator God. As such, He laws are both immutable and absolute.

The human quandary then is this; if a man denies a God of absolutes – then he condemns himself by his unbelief in this same perfectly holy God. If he acknoledges this God exist but refuses to submit to his absolutes – he condemns himself by lack of faith.

Finally, if a man comes to understand that God's absolutes drives that same man to repentance – he is saved from the fiery judgment a just and holy God must otherwise meet out. Moral absolutes then, becomes the task master that drives a man to beg God for His mercy, lest he perish in unbelief.

By: stuffed

stuffed — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:37:15 +0000

There is a simple answer to what is required to be a christian, and it has something to do with willfull ignorance and a doting dogged doltishness but i shall not go into that here.

With respects to your comment that it is found nowhere in the bible that "folllowing after Jesus Christ as God [is] akin to 'creating a perpetual cycle of violence.'" This may be so but it is the authors observence that this absolute faith in a text leads to explicit violence being bandied in the name of this fictional work.

I do not see the link between moral absolutes and someone writing disparagingly, or someone having a faith. That is not to do with morals it is to do with a freedom of thought and opinion. You feel offended when someone pays out on your God, that is your issue. The immoral thing is killing someone in the name of a novel. Or a false deity, because surely looking at the evidence you've concluded their cannot be a true one

By: stuffed

stuffed — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:30:20 +0000

James is right. Lulu is an option.
I would also say that if you can go to an authorative jounal in her field and post it in that or one of the freethinking journals. Psychology journal is another option.

By: James Tracy

James Tracy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:44:32 +0000

Have you read the Old Testament? It is practically dripping with violence – much of it God sanctioned or God ordered. You should also check out some of its 'moral absolutes'

By: William Cody Bateman

William Cody Bateman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:33:34 +0000

No where in the Scriptures does one find a following after Jesus Christ as God akin to "creating a perpetuating cycle of violence." The author's statement is a primary example of willful ignorance of what it is required to be "a Christian."

Interestingly, the lack of moral absolutes is the very kindling that has wrecked societies from the beginning of time. What is perceived as more violent then? The man or woman who places their faith in the God of the Bible or the man or woman who writes disparagingly about those who place their faith in the God of the Bible?

By: James Tracy

James Tracy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:14:00 +0000

One means is to simply publish it yourself through a free print on demand service like http://www.lulu.com. You can even get an ISBN and sell it through Amazon.com in book form.

By: Richard_Collins

Richard_Collins — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:05:37 +0000

Actually, Juliet is seeking suggestions. I have no direct knowledge about how researchers get their reports published for a wider audience. One thought I had was to offer it as a Kindle document. This doesn't cost the author anything and should lend weight to copyright ownership claims. Setting up a Kindle account at Amazon is relatively straightforward. I could ask my God Google, she usually has some good suggestions.

By: stuffed

stuffed — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:36:59 +0000

I think this dissertation needs to be published. I have skimmed through it and at length think a lot of the points Julia makes are well considered and well based on history, fact and literature. It also helps with understanding greater connections between childhood indoctrination and religious extremism. It also is to me kind of like looking through a keyhole on the ugly world, and then opening the door and seeing why it is ugly. How was she thinking of publishing it.