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From: ddb@mrvax.DEC (DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Evidence for a religion
Message-ID: <7012@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Apr-84 16:51:25 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.7012
Posted: Tue Apr 10 16:51:25 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Apr-84 04:12:08 EST
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 16

To Jeff Sargent, and others wondering about why many of us reject
the "Christ changed my life" argument:

If the reasons for this aren't obvious, it's hard for me to believe
that a simple, rational, explanation will convey much to you, but here
it is:  The talent of humanity for believing what it wants to is
apparently unlimited.  Many people have "transcendental" experiences,
or claim that some random thing changed their lives.  And, if you look,
it's true, too; their lives often did change.  But that doesn't mean
the event they claim as cause was really the cause, or that the event
they claim as cause actually occurred outside themselves.

This is another variant of the problem of determining, from my non-theistic
position, who are the "true" christians.  I don't accept the "Christ
changed my life" attitude largely because it is indistinguishable from a
wide range of hysterical con games being run in the world today.