What satisfaction do evangelical Christians get...

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2003-01-22 09:58am

...out of "converting" non-believers to their religion even though the converted person obviously still doesn't believe? I keep telling my fundie co-worker that even if I someday claimed to convert and started attending church services it would only be to placate someone else (wife, girlfriend, etc.), but that I would never change my mind about Christianity being anything other than a bunch of happy horseshit.

Strangely, that answer didn't seem to bother him. It's as if they're more impressed by displays of phony piety than actual, genuine faith. I don't know about other places, but here in southern California the whole Christian church industry (*cough*Harvest*cough*) seems to be more akin to a franchise of social clubs than anything else. It's big business. They're out for new members, not new believers.

Sickening.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-01-22 10:07am

Money. Loads of.

Post by **Lagmonster** » 2003-01-22 10:21am

Actually, some Catholics believe that as long as you go to church every so often, and have passed all the test-thingies (sacraments, I think?) that you at least have a chance to stand and plead your case after you die. I am willing to be that many Christians tread on the line that "yeah, I believe in God, I was baptised, that's good enough".

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-01-22 11:03am

Strangely enough I've been baptized and had sex in a confessional with a woman...so what does that make me

?

As to the original question, just some weird satisfaction that they saved another wandering soul or some shit.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-01-22 11:04am

Ghost Rider wrote:Strangely enough I've been baptized and had sex in a confessional with a woman...so what does that make me ?

As to the original question, just some weird satisfaction that they saved another wandering soul or some shit.

Normal?

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-01-22 11:10am

Yeah moreso then most of the weird fundies.

Besides my dad reminds me some well that my intials don't exactly put me in the running for heaven-bound(Dad has a cruel sense of humor and mom is sorta on of those wanna be Christians...why and how they are still together boggles my mind)...let's just say having the intials DAM and having people enforce if you don't follow rules you're damned, does not bode well for my poor mind at the time.

Nowadays I just use the whole "I'm baptized" to ward off co-workers who spout off too much(then again the whole God can create a boulder he can't lift always puts them into a speculatative mode quickly enough as well)

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-01-22 11:13am

Ghost Rider wrote:Yeah moreso then most of the weird fundies.

Besides my dad reminds me some well that my intials don't exactly put me in the running for heaven-bound(Dad has a cruel sense of humor and mom is sorta on of those wanna be Christians...why and how they are still together boggles my mind)...let's just say having the intials DAM and having people enforce if you don't follow rules you're damned, does not bode well for my poor mind at the time.

Nowadays I just use the whole "I'm baptized" to ward off co-workers who spout off too much(then again the whole God can create a boulder he can't lift always puts them into a speculatative mode quickly enough as well)

Your initals would be more likely to make me think "Destroy All Monsters'

Your parents were actually hard core closeted Godzilla fans.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-01-22 11:19am

Dad I could see that...he wanted to see Star Wars...hell that's how I first saw it.

Mom would not understand the joys of a big lizard destroying Tokyo...she still has no idea of why I like Star Wars.

Though real humor my name and my father's are the exact same...which says a lot about him in some ways in accordance to the above.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-01-22 12:36pm

Galvatron wrote:...out of "converting" non-believers to their religion even though the converted person obviously still doesn't believe? I keep telling my fundie co-worker that even if I someday claimed to convert and started attending church services it would only be to placate someone else (wife, girlfriend, etc.), but that I would never change my mind about Christianity being anything other than a bunch of happy horseshit.

Strangely, that answer didn't seem to bother him. It's as if they're more impressed by displays of phony piety than actual, genuine faith. I don't know about other places, but here in southern California the whole Christian church industry (*cough*Harvest*cough*) seems to be more akin to a franchise of social clubs than anything else. It's big business. They're out for new members, not new believers.

Sickening.

I'm basically of the opinion that the evangelical Christians are extremely sad people who are disastrously insecure and possess very little self-esteem and almost no value of self-worth. These people are so pathetic that they cannot make a purpose for themselves in life or are dissatisfied with what they currently have. They are incapable of being fulfilled by familial love, so they need Jesus' love, too. It's almost sickening and a slight on their family members. "I know you love me, but that doesn't matter, because without Jesus I'm nothing." It almost makes me want to vomit.

They want to be part of something important, so they delude themselves into thinking that they've been chosen by God to save the eternal souls of everyone from eternal torture. Thus, they now have what they think is important work (after all, what's more important than saving someone's soul, assuming it even exists?). They derive self-esteem from endlessly preaching to the unsaved masses and annoying the piss out of us. The more we tell them to shut the fuck up, the more important they think their work is, because people told the apostles to shut the fuck up too, and they're really important! It's a psychologically self-satisfying cycle.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-22 02:18pm

The fundie has no sense of self-worth. Indeed, the very concept of self-worth is "self-worship" to them, and is to be avoided at all costs. The fundie believes that he is irredeemable, worthless, and useless. So useless, in fact, that he deserves to be tortured forever for the crime of simply being human. Indeed, the fundie hates all humankind, since all of humankind deserves this fate in his eyes.

How does the fundie resolve this crisis of self-loathing and misanthropy? By latching onto some "perfect", "higher power" which is not human, even if he must invent it. Indeed, fundies spend just as much time bashing humanity, man-made laws, man-made ideas, man-made technology, etc. as they do praising their god. For they lack the ability to see themselves as worthwhile beings, or to imagine that problems can be solved through human ingenuity ot determination. Instead, they are utterly, intractably convinced that humanity is doomed, worthless, hopeless, and destined for destruction. They even look forward to it, praising "judgement day" and calling it the rapture.

Fundie literature is invariably hate literature; not just of other religions, but of all humankind. And while they won't admit it, they see their God as basically a giant, corrupt cronyist, who will spare people from the fate that they justly deserve if they would just join his gang. They are desperate for converts in the same way that Amway salesmen are; they need something to present to the Big Boss at the "pearly gates" when they fall to their knees trembling and beg forgiveness for being human. And just as an Amway salesman is desperate to pick up a "downline" distributor even if he's inactive, just to impress his "upline", so too does the fundie desperately want converts to his name.

It's pathetic.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-01-22 03:55pm

A point not brought up is that they "evangelise" to convince themselves as much as anybody else. Deep down they know all to well.

Remember Shakespeare's protesting lady? Same principle here. Religion is a hollow drum, the harder you pound it, the bigger the noise it makes. And christianity is a very hollow thing, indeed.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-01-22 05:54pm

It's the "knowledge" that they are Morally Superior™ to everybody else. It's their one and only means by which they can be better than others; their only source of distinction.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-01-22 06:38pm

My question is: What joy is there in even being a fundie? You can't masturbate or watch pornography, for example.

It's probably because not only do they have to rely on some man in the sky for answers, they take the Bible as their word, which makes them so bigoted, since the Bible itself is bigoted.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-22 06:40pm

The joy is in believing you're going to Heaven while everyone else is going to Hell. The joy is in hating all of humankind and hoping it gets the fate it deserves, while believing that you found a way out of it.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-22 06:41pm

PS. That's why all fundies are assholes: they really do believe in this fire-and-brimstone bullshit. Moderate Christians are pretty uncomfortable with that aspect of their religion; some Christians don't even believe in Hell. But for a fundie, Hell is the best part of their religion: they look forward to sitting up in Heaven, looking down at all the heathens suffering and burning and giving their best Nelson-style HA-HA!!!

tharkûn · Post by **tharkûn** » 2003-01-22 06:59pm

...out of "converting" non-believers to their religion even though the converted person obviously still doesn't believe? I keep telling my fundie co-worker that even if I someday claimed to convert and started attending church services it would only be to placate someone else (wife, girlfriend, etc.), but that I would never change my mind
Well there are two takes the cynical and optomistic.

Cynical has already been covered.

Optimistic is that there are those sects of Christians that beleive anyone who says "I accept Jesus into my heart" (I kid you not, they actually took a billboard with that on it and figured passing motorists would be saved when they read it aloud to themselves) has a get-out-of-hell-free card. In which case it is all about the act to them.

The other optimistic view is that they view the "conversion act" as a step of progress towards the real deal. If nothing else acting ensures you get more exposure to the evangelical's religion of choice.

In any event your declaration to a fundy of what you will never beleive is meaningless to them ... they assume that their omnipotent deity can always cause you to have some epiphany later in life and you will then recant your earlier convictions against Christianity.

Sektor31 · Post by **Sektor31** » 2003-01-22 08:18pm

Another thing fundies do is cite "sources" but forget to mention names.

Bah, it's amazing that a Dark age ideal has survived all these years. Makes me think we're still in the Dark ages. -_-

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What satisfaction do evangelical Christians get...

What satisfaction do evangelical Christians get...

Re: What satisfaction do evangelical Christians get...