A question for the faithful
A few weeks ago, cloudchaser_s asked why some Atheists tend to mock Christians. It took me two weeks to come up with an answer in the form of three dozen GIFs harvested from Atheist Overdose, plus my own long-winded observations, spanning five or six LJ comments from the sheer amount of content. The intent was to illustrate in pictoral form where the nonbeliever is coming from, and why we take issue with the faithful on principle. Credit where credit is due, he replied respectfully and with grace, which is more than I can say for myself most of the time.*
In the interest of fairness, I now turn it around and ask a question for the "other side" who may be reading this. In reference to my own 7 Habits journey, recognizing how some books have a tendency to "connect" with a reader, I'd like to know what specific biblical passages have connected with any believers reading this. I'm looking for entries that offered you perspective, changed your paradigm, "spoke" to you on a deep personal level, as well as the context surrounding that passage on why it connected with you. It can be one passage, it can be a hundred, or an entire chapter, whatever you feel like sharing.
The purpose of this exercise is to toss the proverbial rope over that gaping philosophical chasm that has separated myself, the non-believer, from the faithful I consider friends and family. If I can find one connection, something, anything that we can use as common ground, perhaps it will further our understanding of each other, and offer us (read: me) a measure of peace.
*Only recently have I made the discovery of the difference between anger and hate; all my life I had the two confused! Now that I've conquered that mountain, I can look back at previous encounters in a different light. I now recognize how most of my anger wasn't necessarily at the person or their argument, but frustration at my own inability to understand where they were coming from. My mind works incredibly slow compared to the average person, taking days or weeks of intense concentration to connect what takes other people a few minutes of casual thought. So in my impatience I end up making incorrect connections or assumptions before I give myself a chance to process the information. This has led to even more misunderstandings and hurt feelings on both sides. It's still a monumental effort on my end to just STFU and wait for my mind to catch up before responding, but I'm making progress.
In the interest of fairness, I now turn it around and ask a question for the "other side" who may be reading this. In reference to my own 7 Habits journey, recognizing how some books have a tendency to "connect" with a reader, I'd like to know what specific biblical passages have connected with any believers reading this. I'm looking for entries that offered you perspective, changed your paradigm, "spoke" to you on a deep personal level, as well as the context surrounding that passage on why it connected with you. It can be one passage, it can be a hundred, or an entire chapter, whatever you feel like sharing.
The purpose of this exercise is to toss the proverbial rope over that gaping philosophical chasm that has separated myself, the non-believer, from the faithful I consider friends and family. If I can find one connection, something, anything that we can use as common ground, perhaps it will further our understanding of each other, and offer us (read: me) a measure of peace.
*Only recently have I made the discovery of the difference between anger and hate; all my life I had the two confused! Now that I've conquered that mountain, I can look back at previous encounters in a different light. I now recognize how most of my anger wasn't necessarily at the person or their argument, but frustration at my own inability to understand where they were coming from. My mind works incredibly slow compared to the average person, taking days or weeks of intense concentration to connect what takes other people a few minutes of casual thought. So in my impatience I end up making incorrect connections or assumptions before I give myself a chance to process the information. This has led to even more misunderstandings and hurt feelings on both sides. It's still a monumental effort on my end to just STFU and wait for my mind to catch up before responding, but I'm making progress.