Quote:
Originally Posted by mindzer0  I was really starting to make progress until recently I met this really intelligent christian who basically managed to use biblical scipture to 'stir up' an emotional response from the old christian in me (tears and everything) to the point that I was questioning what I currently believed. |
In my experience, most religions say pretty much the same thing, or are "different paths to the same destination." That's why different religions fit different people, just like I like rock climbing and my husband likes shallow switchbacks.
In Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, book one includes Wizard's First Rule: People will believe anything, either because they want it to be true, or they are afraid that it's true.
I'd guess that one of these two happened to you. Either the scripture was something along the lines of "he who departeth my path shall burn in everlasting flame" and you cried in fear of hellfire, or it was something along the lines of "He who believith in me shall have everlasting life" and you wanted
so badly to have everlasting life.
Either way, the defense against Wizard's First Rule is always the same: take a step back from your emotions, and decide
why you've decided to believe this. If it's because of fear, determine whether your fear is justified, and whether the risk is worth the cost (in this case, converting back to Christianity.) If it's because you want it to be true, determine whether your hope is justified, and whether the risk is worth the cost (in this case, converting to Christianity to discover, after death, that Buddha was right all along, and you wasted your life in misery to no good end.)
The final possibility I see is that your associate quoted a scripture that happens to overlap the wisdom of Christianity and the wisdom of your religion. In this case, you were overwhelmed by emotion because you wanted it to be true and yet you were afraid that because it was in the Bible it
couldn't be true, and your religion must be wrong. (Wizard's First Rule Whipsaw). Christianity may be the wrong path for you, but don't reject its wisdom just because it hurt you. There is still truth for you in the Bible and in Christian dogma, and you don't have to go back to guilt and misery to accept/use it.
*hug*s from a born-again Unitarian Univeralist,
Amanda