Thinking about a firend of mine.

[JanisChambers]

First off I want to say I am not saying this about everyone who is religious.

Sometimes I like to talk to a co-worker of mine, a nice old guy who loves to talk about philosophy. We've talked about a lot of issues but when it gets into the bible he goes on about how one must be 'obedient' to the Christian God and whatnot. Every time the conversation steers that way I want to point out all the problems with the bible and the dark history of the faith. The main problem is when I learned about some of his past, before he found his faith He was an alcoholic. Right now, I'm afraid that if I dent his faith then he may turn back to the bottle for the solace He finds in that book. It feels like both have the same power of a drug.

I want him to embrace reason, but without the crutch of faith I don't think he is strong enough. How can I go on just nodding and agreeing when I know what he says is wrong. This is really painful.

 

[Miss Anthrope]

Oooh, that's a tough one. When they believe it is god, rather than themselves, that made the change, it's awfully hard to let go.

Sorry, I don't have good advice on this one.

 

[Gregory]

Do you really want to set yourself up as an atheist missionary? He has his beliefs, and you have your reason, and unless he's using his faith as an excuse to discriminate against people, I don't know why it should bother you.

 

[JanisChambers]

Do you really want to set yourself up as an atheist missionary? He has his beliefs, and you have your reason, and unless he's using his faith as an excuse to discriminate against people, I don't know why it should bother you.

Certainly not, I'm not here to hand anyone a belief system. I honestly don't care what anyone believes, but as a friend I do have some concern about just why he believes as he does. I have seen people use religion as a type of replacement drug. When people have problems they wonder what can be done about it, and why it's happening. With drugs you stop caring, and what you do about it is take the drugs. With some forms of Faith you pray, and then tell yourself things are happening because of some greater and yet unknown reason. The commonality the two has is that instead of trying to get to the root of the problems and taking actions to solve them, they simply try to substitute a solution.

I know that somewhere inside him is the will to defeat his problems on his own, to look the real issue in the eye and face it and feel stronger for that very same reason. If I still had a God, I would hope to think It would want the same thing.

 

[MelBrooksfan]

Don't worry about trying to win the arguement. It sounds like you've got a decently intelligent buddy to have some interesting conversations with. Just go with it.

 

[ned flandas]

Sometimes I like to talk to a co-worker of mine, a nice old guy who loves to talk about philosophy. We've talked about a lot of issues but when it gets into the bible he goes on about how one must be 'obedient' to the Christian God and whatnot. Every time the conversation steers that way I want to point out all the problems with the bible and the dark history of the faith. The main problem is when I learned about some of his past, before he found his faith He was an alcoholic. Right now, I'm afraid that if I dent his faith then he may turn back to the bottle for the solace He finds in that book. It feels like both have the same power of a drug.

I want him to embrace reason, but without the crutch of faith I don't think he is strong enough. How can I go on just nodding and agreeing when I know what he says is wrong. This is really painful.

1. When you question him about the Bible and as you say the 'supposed problems with it', you will surely open up even more debate and deeper talks.

2. Can you tell us how his faith helped him beat alcohol? We all have crutches, sometimes its friends, sometimes its family and sometimes its our own intelligence that comforts us.