When people say this, they are making a claim about fundamental truths of reality and the human condition.
Specifically, that mankind was created for the purpose of being in relationship with God. It's usually somewhat hyperbolically stated, but the key is that this purpose is the paramount purpose, all other purposes are secondary to it.
When you say that is not true, you are making a contrary claim about the fundamental truths of reality and the human condition. I won't claim to say exactly what it is on your behalf, but it is certainly one that excludes 'mankind was created for the purpose of being in relationship with God.'
If us Christians are 'arrogant religious nuts' for making the one claim, you are just as much an 'arrogant religious nut' for making a claim that contradicts it.
The real question, of course, is which truth-claim better correlates with reality?
What you're missing from the equation is "All you need is God" because everything else you need comes packaged with.
Being part of something larger than yourself? Baked in. Socialization? Religion comes pre-packaged with a congregation of people who share most of your views and will socialize with you. Marriage? The congregation will have an available dating pool, and religious people divorce at a much lower rate than average. Family? Religious people trend towards having far more children.
The thing is it's not "all you need is the Bible." It's not a magic talisman you put on your coffee table and it blesses your house with a happy family life. The Bible contains extremely detailed instructions for how to live a fulfilling life including how to have a happy marriage, but it still requires that you carefully read it and apply what you've read to your own behavior, exercising sufficient self-discipline to keep to its instructions in spite of living in a world that hates religion. One might compare it to saying "All you need to feel good is follow this healthy regime." This is true but also glosses over that you have to carefully learn how the healthy lifestyle works and stick with that lifestyle in spite of how convenient McDonald's is.
Sorry for the late replies; to say life has been hectic is an understatement (also, having a dozen or so kittens equates a destructive force of nature. I can't believe how much they shit in litter trays.
Seriously!).
I admit I didn't consider the "ready made networks" that being a member of a religion gives access to, such as social networks, and I do agree that the Bible has some good lessons as per any work of fiction like folk tales... but you can also build the same sort of networks
independently without being religious, and people (including myself) have been doing that just fine all our lives (take this very sites, for example).
Also, being religious, in my book at least, is actually
believing in/having faith in the religion you're part of (e.g. if Christian, you genuinely believe in God, Christ, and everything else, even if you think the Bible itself is more of a 'loose guide' or as realistic as Harry Potter (such as with hot topics like evolution versus 'creationism').
I suppose you could be, for example, considered a Christian if you grew up in a religious household/community and followed their ways/morals (like what most of the current West is built on) but didn't actually
believe in God/Christ/all that jazz, but that's more a societal thing than actually being a believer, but that leads into "being Christian in name only" and all that.
Anyway, the fundamental viewpoint that man was created by the Abrahamic God
for the Abrahamic God is something I and others could never agree with because it relies on what is essentially "what if?" fears and faith with zero evidence/proof, and that Christianity (and other religions) themselves are works of fiction because of their origins.
If an angel, a
real, Biblical angel, descended and everyone worldwide was shown that all that religious shit was real? Well, yeah, I and others like me (the sane ones, at least) would admit we were wrong and likely develop faith/belief. But I'm willing to bet my last pound that an angel will never appear
because they don't exist.
But Christianity, and indeed every other religion, can be traced back to other religions like language families can be through historical evidence/archaeology. Hell, Christianity and Islam as we know it are the bastardized offspring of several other religions and cultures, especially Judaism... which in itself is a bastardized cult from ancient Fertile Crescent religions. It's all fiction.
Hell, I see parallels between new age cults, like Scientology, and Christianity in a world-building sense -- if Scientology were created a thousand years ago instead of in the modern day, there's zero doubt in my mind that it'd be considered a religion like Islam, Christianity, et cetera now. Mormonism, for example,
barely got away with it around two hundred years or so back.
So when I see (typically Americans, so yes that stereotype about your culture is true) blab on about God and Christ being all they need as a solution for the world's ills like a magical cure all, it does make me roll me eyes because they're always
not talking about Christian culture/networks but blind belief/faith in a Sky Fairy. They also bring such comments up out of the blue when the ongoing conversations have zero to do with with religion, as though they were winning arguments, statements, and uncontestable facts.
If such comments were just about sticking to Christian morals and attitudes, like not being a dick to your neighbour, not being a whore, not being a degenerate and having orgies in the middle of a street, I'd actually agree with them because that is (or was, considering the last depressing few decades) the norm for Western culture and society. It's what our civilization was basically built on with the foundations being from Greece and Rome, and someone doesn't need to believe in a Sky Fairy to abide by all this.
But they're not. It's almost always the above mentioned "cure all" Sky Fairy/faith, and believing that those who don't are subhuman in some way, and even when it is about culture than belief, the line is almost always blurred with Americans, which is
why you've all gained a reputation for being religious nuts.
That is arrogance;
not the guy/girl not believing in a Sky Fairy or that a book of fables is a book of facts.
Fucking groomer; not much else to say except "search his hard drives".
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Another groomer peddling mental illness as being the norm. Fucking hell.
