>Trying to convert myself to Christianity and read Mere Christianity

>>8923720

You don't TRY to convert yourself. The time comes when it comes and it will be natural.

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>>8923720
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtiRzQMgBDM&index=5&list=PL22J3VaeABQD0f71oraDkMv9LfntA2-Sm

>>8923720
Start with the Gospel; reading from the OT first is headache inducing for a newcomer, believe me. It will be natural when it happens, and it probably won't come from trying.

What brings you to want to become a Christian, dear Anon?

>>8923720
I'm agnostic and I don't understand the "it's just chemicals, bro" argument. Of course there is a physical component to our thoughts feelings and actions, we're physical entities.
that's like opening a piano to find that the music is "just hammers and strings" and claiming that the music has been refuted by science. The physical component says nothing of the music beyond the means of expressing it

>>8923720
"Lord I believe now help my unbelief" is what some guy says to Jesus when he wants to believe but doesn't really. He's basically asking Jesus to use his sorcery to make him believe. Try that

>>8923749
All my friends are doing it.

Seriously though, I just feel directionless in life, I don't really have a sense of meaning to keep me trucking so I'm trying different things.

>>8923761
this guy gets it

>>8923769
have you thought about islam

>>8923774
Not yet, though I've seen what the right amount of Islam does to the brain and I'm wary.

>>8923720
You've got it right, why are you struggling so hard to go backwards?

>>8923761
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9%3A23-25&version=NKJV
some context

>>8923774
One step at a time, man. One step at a time.

>>8923782
just make up you're own fucking religion then. I don't get you fucking people. You could make yourself the fucking god, or his relative, or the only person he talks to or something. And you could write a great story with dragons and wizards and aliens and all that and make some fucking money

>>8923720
I'm in a similar rut anon. A moral conscience is easily explained by evolution.

Makes me think if there's any way to prove God. My hunch is you just have a personal experience and go with it.

>>8923809
i'm sure it's not that you have a fundamental misunderstanding or anything, it's definitely everyone but you.

>>8923824
fundamental misunderstanding of what? Did you mean to reply to someone else?

>>8923769
Go to a church and talk to a pastor.

>>8923826
religion
>just make up you're own fucking religion then. I don't get you fucking people.

>>8923787
There's no comforting philosophy or feeling of being part of something above yourself with my current mindset. Determinism and atheism are scary things that make the most sense to me but not what I've chosen.

>>8923835
OP doesn't actually believe in Christianity though, that's the whole point. If he's going to make himself believe something, for one thing there's no reason it should be christianity over anything else, and he might at well make it fit him and make him look cool and make him money

>>8923720
I'm not sure it will get you specifically to christ, but LSD I think makes people spiritual or something like that

>>8923842
We've had enough of your scientology.

>>8923845
I don't want to damage my brain if I can help it.

>>8923849
why not. Jesus will care for you

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>>8923720
>Intrusive thoughts keep reminding that the "Law of Human Nature" as C.S. Lewis puts it is jut another case of chemicals in the brain
>Am I doomed to be an atheist forever?

How old are you kid? Read a fucking biology book you vapid cunt. The miracle of life is the most mind boggling and spiritual concept you can hardly even perceive. Watch fucking BBC's Planet Earth series and Blue Planet. You don't need to get into that horseshit organized religion shit but you might grow up and realize there really is something greater than ourselves going on.

>>8923720
Oh brother... Love exists; is it not too, mere chemicals in our brains? Cant you see?: understanding the natural world can never hinder our understanding of God, it can only ever give us a wider veiw of his architecture.
It's not the middle ages. Greedy church figureheads no longer control your ignorance. Evolution is a real thing that really happened. Jesus was a real, documented person, that was reportedly missing from his tomb after he died. His diciples, despite witnessing the last hope for their people DIE, proceeded to travel the world spreading good news.
Faith without a foundation of reason and understanding, is nothing more than ignorant wishful thinking.

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>>8923877

>>8923877
>How old are you kid?
22
>Read a fucking biology book you vapid cunt
I have but only for course work.
>The miracle of life is the most mind boggling and spiritual concept you can hardly even perceive.
>spiritual
I don't see how, sorry.
>Watch fucking BBC's Planet Earth series and Blue Planet.
I've watched a bit of those, will again but I don't see what they have to do anything.
>you might grow up and realize there really is something greater than ourselves going on.
I'm an agnostic atheist, if that cools your butt any, I don't think a higher power is impossible.

>>8923720
>chemicals in the brain

Well for starters you obviously didn't understand the concept.

What lewis is trying to convey is not an abstraction of the laws of nature but the (lets call it pseudo-philosophical/logical) they are there. Why would someone has the impulse of doing something he thinks is bad or right? from where that thought made from chemical reactions in the brain comes from and why is there.
Anyway as it has been stipulated you cant convert yourself. But if the idiot proof explanations of CS Lewis on the matter is to complicated for you then I suggest prayer. Lots of it

>>8923720
If you want to convert yourself read something a little better than Mere Christianity my boy

>>8923720
>chemicals in the brain
You mean the genetically-coded environmentally-plastic electrochemical neural network that is the most complex natural phenomenon that we humans have ever observed? The first premise of Lewis' argument is that we humans come naturally hardwired with morality and obviously that premise has only been verified by the discoveries of neurology. How does knowing that the first premise of an argument is true cause you to doubt the conclusion?

>>8923849
Faith IS brain damage, anon.

>>8923913
Agnostic means you don't know, atheist means you don't.

Are you an agnostic or an atheist?

C.S. Lewis is good, I will recommend a few other books for you. I am a practising Catholic, full disclosure.

St. Augustine- Confessions
Letter to St. James
Book of Ecclesiastes
Gospel of St. John
What We Can't Not Know- Budziszewski
Ten Universal Principles- Spitzer
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Anything by the early Church Fathers (http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/)
St. Thomas Aquinas

Also, read the philosophy of the Greeks from the Pre-Socratics up through Aristotle.

>>8923972
>Also, read the philosophy of the Greeks from the Pre-Socratics up through Aristotle.
I presume that's my starting point?

>>8923976
Understanding that is pagan thought, but how their use of reason brought about a lot of truths. It isn't necessary to start there, but it is helpful. I would start with Confessions, Augustine was a pagan for a long time. A lot of the philosophy is hard to read on your own. Plato is pretty easy and enjoyable.

>>8923953
>>8923939
Hm, maybe I need to reread what I did read of the book don't kill me, getting back to it after this thread

>>8923960
You can be both.

>>8923976

Also, if you want to read philosophy on your own, check out these books to help you.

A History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Greece and Rome From the Pre-Socratics to Plotinus by Frederick Copleston (He is great and this is probably the gold standards for understanding a lot of what you read)

I used this textbook:
Introductory Readings in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy by Hackett Publishing

And

Thales to Sextus: An Introduction to Ancient Philosophy by Garrett Thomson

Maybe even buy City of God by Augustine or Read some of the Summa by Aquinas, although they are very advanced Christian thought, you may find some of it interesting.

>>8923992
>>8924008
Thank you anon, your posts and the above recommendations are going to keep me busy.

I really do want to give conversion and philosophy in general a good college try, a bigger one than I made in my teens in any case. I appreciate it.

>>8924021
No problem, good luck to you, I am sure if you stay the course and are honest in your pursuit, you will find what you're looking for.

>>8923730
This is such a hard sentiment for someone to just accept. I've been trying to escape an existential crisis since the end of elementary/beginning of middle school.

>>8923820
I used to comfort myself with the Pascal's Wager, but then I remembered Pascal was absolutely crazy and also started doubting whether that kind of conditional, at its roots self-serving faith is valid in the eyes of a god

>>8924696
It's not. Trust me, God told me Pascal was an asshole.

>>8923828
I would, but the pastor in my area is a total awful and only preaches pathos.
Literally spent a whole sermon once saying we could all die at any moment, so we need to fully accept Jesus...

>>8923720
>>Trying to convert myself to Christianity
Ahahahhahaha you stupid fucking cuck. Kill yourself you pathetic, cowardly retard.

>>8923720
>Intrusive thoughts keep reminding that the "Law of Human Nature" as C.S. Lewis puts it is jut another case of chemicals in the brain

I think you missed the point somewhere along the line. The moral argument seeks to show that objective moral truths cannot exist without an objective foundation in a perfect person like god. If moral truths are the product of evolution, they are not commandments we are bound to obey but merely helpful suggestions that can assist our "herd" in survival. Evolution or "chemicals in the brain" may explain why we act a certain way but it doesn't explain why we should or should not act a certain way.