I’m not defending Christianity in this post, but I would like to play devil’s advocate…
On the issue of “his opinions are yours”: My Christian upbringing taught me that you know God is talking to you when you feel you should do something that runs counter to your own desires. For example, Christians would tell me they were too afraid to become a missionary, but they felt the urge to go. They said that because this feeling was the *opposite* of their intuitive response, it must have been from God. This is given as an example where “his opinions are the *opposite* of yours”.
Similarly, I was often told that the Bible contains things that Christians don’t want to be true. For example, Christians said that they didn’t like the idea that repentent murderers will be in heaven with them, however they said this is the beauty of Grace. They said this proved that the Bible is not just a reflection of their own desires, so it must be a reflection of God’s desires.
(I acknowledge that there are a vast array of beliefs under the umbrella of Christianity. It’s possible that this image is aimed at a type of Christianity very different to my upbringing.)
http://www.www.skepticink.com/tippling/ Jonathan MS Pearce
Is this the study on projection theory for liberal and conservative christians? If so, I am planning on doing a post on this!
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/ John W. Loftus
Jonathan, it applies to all believers as far as I can tell.
Clare45
I think the Christian god is more likely to be a projection of a father figure. If you have an authoritarian father, you might prefer an authoritarian God. If your father is/was loving, then maybe your god is a loving god etc.
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