No,
I’m sure he’s an okay guy though.
You beat me to it!
For the sake of Fighting Ignorance, I consider it my duty to point out when people like you display ignorance such as I see here.
And just as an aside, IMHO, neither belief in God nor belief that Jesus was the messiah necessarily entails religiosity.
I’ve seen some of the people who follow Jesus and I just don’t think I’m mean enough. I’ve seen others that follow Jesus and I just can’t seem to give all my money to someone on TV like that. Jim Jones and his crew followed Jesus but I’m not drinking the kool aid. I don’t nearly have enough weapons to stockpile like some of the Jesus people in Idaho or Waco.
Looking around, even if I could believe in Jesus, I wouldn’t want to be lumped together with the other people in that religion.
So,. here I sit praying I get eaten first.
I never thought I was lost to begin with.
I’m a Jew. So, uh, no. ;j
I will now do a jig of joy for finally being able to use that smiley.
Another one here raised Catholic. In retrospect, it seems to me that we were *discouraged *from any kind of personal relationship with Jesus. The church wanted to hold onto its role as middleman.
I quit believing Catholic stuff in my late teens. I mean how could God *possibly *care if you ate meat on a Friday??? How could any human even know that, even if it was the case?
Spent some time looking for something else to believe in, but none of the other ideas, Christian or otherwise, stood up to any kind of objective analysis.
Finally, I was saved! I found Joseph Campbell who showed me that Chrisitianity was just another mythology, and put the whole business in perspective. Been a contented atheist ever since.
Never been to the Marianas Trench, though. Not even for 20 minutes. Guess I missed the only trip …
Saved? Not I. I am apostate.
I imagine the church does as much to drive people away, as the Gospel does to draw people in. My own story is hardly unique. I was raised in the Church of Christ, rejected it at about the age of 13, came back to it in college when I needed structure and a moral anchor, got into a group that was more concerned about controlling its people than helping them be healthy, normal, loving people - you know the kind, professing unconditional acceptance, as long as people are trying to conform, but woe betide them if they aren’t striving every moment!
So, I burned out. That was 14 years ago. I can no more listen to a sermon today than I could have endured a discussion with a non-believer, 16 years ago. It makes my skin crawl.
Grace was supposed to be free, I always seemed get this secondary message: Grace is yours as long as you keep earning it, and grovelling for forgiveness every time you fail, and searching your heart for that fundamental flaw that is your sin nature, and begging forgiveness for it, too. Endlessly. Or else.
Sorry, no. It was bad for me. So I gave it up. I think I’m much better off now.
It’s hard to say yes when so many say no 
But I am Christian, that much is easy to say correctly. Life is too mucked up for me to push my beliefs on others, and most debates end all right except for issue of “faith not being enough proof” for certain atheists friends, and my inability to perfectly conceive of their stance.
But if I die, and I was wrong, so be it; it doesn’t bother me much at all. It is easier being in a religion that is more widely recognized, rather than being a minority, mind you, I can grant you that.
But what I believe is intensely personal, as is with most people, and it is obvious what gets me through the day wouldn’t usually get anyone else through the day. I suppose this attitude has a lot to do with being passive, and shying away from conflict, but who am I to say this or that, when I can barely get a hold on myself?
So I live, and I listen, and I think, and I write – it might not get me to the end of the maze, but the jouney is enough.
/S
Baptized Catholic within weeks of birth.
First Communion at 8.
Went to catholic school from 2nd to 5th grade…unknowingly met my future wife there.
Went to public school except for 10th grade (long story which centers on my younger brother), and did not confirm because of being in 6th grade at a public school. Saw my future wife again in 10th grade, but already had a girlfriend that year…so I ignored her again.
Independent and partying at 17 in my first year at college and got away from my catholic tradition. Screwed up miserably in college that year, and took a leave of absence.
At 19 (and pulling my head out of my ass and straightening up), something urged me to pursue my future wife that I had not seen in 4 years.
Holy Matrimony at 23 with a woman who I’ve known since 2nd grade at a catholic school. Even our first and middle names rhyme…go figure.
We start a day program for developmentally disabled adults together and have been doing this for 13 years now.
Have 3 children, currently 16, 8, and 3 all boys, all baptized, the two older ones are receiving communion and the oldest will be confirmed in a couple of months.
I believe in Jesus, yet am I saved? Only God knows. I just live my life as best I humanly can…but I am by no means a zealot. It’s all about deeds, not just words. This I pretty much see everday at my desk at my office. It’s a good guideline for me to follow.
Being on this board seems to have tempered me to an extent, I am quite tolerant of other people’s viewpoints on God, because all of us have (or have just begun) taken different paths in life.
At 41, I will confirm later this year.
Yup. Baptist and lesbian. In that order.
(Which, unfortunately, causes other Baptists to believe that I cannot possibly be saved because I am such an unrepentant pervert. Sad.)
No I do not.
ur a lesbian?? OMG UR GOING 2 HELL!!!111
That was a joke, by the way.
My question for you is why do you insist on using the term “saved”, especially when so many people have told you why it bothers you? The various Baptist churches are denominations of Christianity, just like Episcopalianism, Catholicism, Presbyterianism, etc. Do you think you weren’t a Christian or not in some form saved when you were a church-going Catholic who believed that Christ died for your sins? I don’t know of any Christian denomination that says people can be saved by works alone; all of them say that we are saved by Christ’s death and resurrection. The idea of pointing to a specific date and time and saying, “At this point I was saved” is foreign to my denomination’s way of thinking. Look at it this way – Episcopalians are like coupons. We’re more redeemed than saved! Polycarp, I can hear you groaning from here! 
Oh, one question from a gentleman I know and perhaps the most relevant one: What do you mean by “saved”?
Respectfully,
CJ
No. I tried, in my teen years, when I was searching for answers. After tearing through the OT & the Quran, I didn’t find what I needed in either.
And I agree, it’s not a pile-on in any way to answer the question that was put to you.
The temple I used to go to for years had carpets where we had to sit & pray.
No. Even when I was a believing Eastern Rite Catholic, I considered the whole “Have you been saved?” thing to be something associated with fundamentalist-type Xians.
What he said.
The SDMB is “Atheist Central”? I think at least half of us Dopers have some kind of religion/beliefs.
I finally found Jesus - he was in my sock drawer all along!
Seriously, after 31 years of my grandparents attempting to ram Episcopalian Christianity down my throat, I believe you can call this unbaptised hedonist a pagan for all you like.
Now if you ask me about whether I attempt to live the treachings of Christ, I say yes, I do. I try to treat others as I would like to be treated, and don’t steal from others, and give to the less fortunate, and try to help others in trouble, and don’t commit adultery or be unfaithful to my girlfriend. I life a life of some introspection, often asking myself what more can I do to help others, to be nicer to others, if I am being honest, and if I am being kind.
But if you ask me why, I will simply say because I am a moral person who wishes to be kind to my fellow man. I don’t need a thick book, a meaningless ceremony, and daily or weekly brainwashing sessions to teach me that that’s a nice way to be.
From The Young Ones, ‘Interesting’.
He was pressured.
That’s the way the Conservative Baptist church that I mainly grew up with (until I realized it was all crap) said. Also the non-fundamental Southern Baptist church that I attended for a brief period. Also the other church where I went to Awana (I can’t remember the denomination). They all said that Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and every other religion that did not specifically say the words, “I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour” were never ever going to get into heaven no matter what. It didn’t matter if they devoted their lives to a leper colony or threw themselves on a bomb in order to save another person or lived a life that Christ himself would have aspired to. They could have been emulating Jesus and his teachings for their entire lives but if they didn’t say those words, they were damned straight to hell. Those churches also taught that if someone did say those words - and then lived a horrible sinful life full of murdering, raping, torturing others, they could STILL go go heaven because they were “saved” by saying those words - that it didn’t matter if they were the most horrible depraved perverted murdering rapist torturer, they were still “saved.” Meanwhile, no Jew, Catholic, etc., was ever getting into heaven no matter what. Nor were any other people who didn’t say those words, even if they lived in the deepest Amazon jungle. According to the Baptists, all of them would have at some point in their life a missionary who would offer them the chance to be “saved.” (Um yeah, right.)
Once I was a little older than 11 (when I was “saved”) I began to understand the laughable absurdity of the Baptist/whatever-it-was-called doctrine.