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abaya, i understand that your experience might be in agreement with the experiences of a lot of christians, but mine were very different. Hell was a metaphor. No efforts were made to convert other folks- it was a live and let live type of thing- perhaps it was post-modern christianity. It sounds more like baraka's friend's jewish beliefs than anything.
And yeah, i agree, when people choose to become buddhist it seems to be because they like the philosophy. It's not that far off from basic idea in the op of this thread; becoming christian because you like the philosophical aspects.
It's interesting, but i guess not entirely unexpected, how much the threat of eternal damnation can affect a particular perspective. For instance, when i compare the hell-less christianity i had in my upbringing to the helly christianity other folks had it makes sense that their post-partum reactions to it would be stronger. Honestly, i could see myself going to church once in a while, even though i don't really believe in any of the fantastical parts of it, because i think it's interesting that even ignoring completely the spiritual aspects, that jesus fellow had some good things to say.
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