The Last Straw (A vent)

And not fair since the Christian first needs to prove that they can even join the discussion while you get the benefit of assumption that you have thought more on this just based on your beliefs??? I never got that logic.
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and the other part of it is that most of what he (i'm relatively sure) espouses as his belief is aligned at least somewhat with what is taught in most secular universities. so if you want to call yourself a *free thinker* that also requires that you question the things that are most universally fed to the masses, where again, in terms of belief, i would bet he fits in quite nicely.

i get way too heated up when i *discuss* things with people.

Ahhh, but are you guilty of automatically assuming he espouses his ideals just because they were learned in university??

(university being used as a generic term for the securalists "religious" places.)

yes

he wasnt completely incorrect in his assumption. i know of many professing Christians that have no idea why they believe what they believe. i was very annoyed at his arrogance about it. maybe because i am arrogant sometimes in my belief. God, could i even be an elitist? this is why i like to debate with people that wont agree with me ha ha!!

I don't know if i'd call it pop psychology since by definition it would have to be popular and my opinions in this area generally aren't, or at least they aren't in certain areas of the world.

Sorry but if a guy can't buck the cultural stereotypes and expectations then he's a sheep. He may be perfectly happy in the middle of the flock and if he is then good luck to him, but following the "rules" and allowing those stereotypes and expectations to define him is entirely voluntary, even if only by apathy, if you chose to follow them then you can't really complain about how they mess you up.
Yes there is a huge amount of social pressure to conform, to be a good little Stepford drone and follow the plan,

I had a fantastic discussion with a US marine at a christmas party in Oxford years ago on this very subject, being raised with certain attitudes and accepting them without ever thinking about them. Ok i'll admit i was pretty sarcastic with the guy but the attitude that they were his fathers opinions and his fathers before that was more than a little baiting, the assumption that it was somehow wrong to question, that all he need ever do is read his newspapers editorial to see what he thinks on a given subject.
I don't need to be told what is moral, i don't need commandments, i've arrived at my own views on morality through years of thought on the subject, i do what i think is right because i think it is right, not because some book says "Thou shalt not..."

uh, yeah. if we were talking about the same thing. i suppose this is true of your psycho fantasy relationship guy. which, incidentally, you describe remarkably well

So what happens--what makes some of us adhere to the "norm", some of us buck the system (but only just enough), and some veer so far to the side as to become "psychotic stalkers"--without necessarily being mentally ill?