"Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.
Put 'em together and what have you got? Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo"
In my quest to figure out why I believe in Christ, "Why am I Christian?", I looked at several 'competitors' to see what they had to offer. I figured I would either justify my decision to believe in Christ or find a better answer. I looked strictly at the benefits of each worldview I studied, and didn't really try to criticize any of them. I wanted to hear each of their stories, and see what life might look like from their perspective.
In a way, the project was successful. The good things that I saw in other worldviews were even better in Christianity. The perfect peace that Buddhism seeks as Nirvana, Christianity contends has been given already. The 'higher level of life' promoted in Illusions is more precisely documented in Christianity. Our state of being is Spirit, confined in a physical body for a time, destined to lay it aside for an immortal body in an eternal home that is not here. The freedom without boundaries set forth in the Abyss is not as appealing as the freedom to seek and do right without condemnation or judgement when I screw up or fail. (This paragraph could be 16 pages long, but hopefully you get the point.)
I discovered that even in the presense of other ways of looking at life, I like being Christian. I identify with the benefits of it, and embrace the responsibility. It feels right, and I want it.
Then I realized I got it exatly backwards.
I embraced Christianity (or my perception of it) because it represents MY worldview. That which I am, want to be and want not to be are expressed in the Christ story and the biblical worldview - even to the point of not wanting to be gay. I wasn't trying to be an expression of Christ in this world. I was allowing Christ to be my expression of everything I saw as good.
Hmmm. I'm sure my exposure to Christianity had a lot to do with the way my worldview developed. But so did my parents, Captain Kirk, Sgt. Joe Friday, my high school History teacher and a zillion other things. I was just a mutt. a mix of a whole lot of different breeds of philosophies, ideals, lifestyles and opinions. Some of them came from the bible, if I liked them. Some of the came from Cinderalla's fairy god mother.
This, I decided, is not what being a Christian should be. And I better think about this a whole lot more.