@Crusader
the “i am the son of god, doing miracles and stuff, accept me as your saviour” type of wizard, also known as false prophet.
————————————————————————————
“Who benefits from renouncing Jesus as the Son of God?”
That depends on whether Jesus is the son of god. Since there is no non biblical evidence, e.g. the only type of evidence that anyone in their right mind would accept as evidence, one can assume that he wasn’t.
Everyone would benefit from that, because it frees time that can be used for useful things, like, sorting your socks or building a homeless shelter. It also eliminates one of the driving factors behind the “us vs. them” mentality, in this case, “i worship the son of god and am already saved, thus better than you”.
————————————————————————————
“The extreme of any faith, based upon self-worship and self-importance, and encouraging behavior in others that would not be acceptable in ones own community-or outright wanton destruction of order, family, and anything remotely biblical, is the whole point of the need for the New Testement, the Christ and the Ressurection.”
If that was the whole point, and divinely mandated and orchestrated, then tell me, why did it so fail miserably in the past 2000 years? Apparently it has done nothing to improve the situation of human society, on the contrary, it has brought as much calamity, such as the dark ages, the suppression of science, which was responsible for the loss of many lives that could have otherwise been saved , the crusades, the holy inquisition, two world wars.
To address another point, the one about self worship, it is my impression that no faith is marked by so much “self-worship” as you call it, as christianity.
The entire concept of “being saved by having a personal relation ship with jesus and accepting him as the personal saviour” while all other who don’t, no matter how good they are will go to hell, reeks of self-importance and implies self worship.
————————————————————————————
“Do you not find it interesting that all the faiths of the world and lifestyles are generally opposed to (socially conservative) Christianity unless they are believers themselves?”
That is simple and pure “us vs them” mentality and is completely independent from which religion you adhere to.
Religions are generally opposed to each other, with the exlusion of buddhism, because every religion tries to impose their values, rules, and dogma on others.
Muslims try to impose their values on Christians, Jews, etc., Christian try to impose their values on Muslims, Jews, etc., but hey, the jews somehow don’t, they just seem to keep to themselves, in the western world at least (the palestina affair doesn’t throw a good light on Israel right now).
————————————————————————————
“Christians set a rigorous standard for themselves unlike any other group,”
Now that is simply not true.
The jews have a more rigorous standard set for themselves, the muslims have a more rigorous standard set for themselves, the Hindu have a more rigorous standard set for themselves, even the buddhists have a more rigorous standard set for themselves. Indeed, and that is what i was told by a “saved christian”, the christian mindset seems to be “do what you want as long you accept Jesus as your saviour. the right and proper behaviour will come automatically from being a saved christian”.
And truly, that doesn’t work in reality.
————————————————————————————
“Though any unbeliever can rarely find (temporary) refuge with other unbelievers”
That is inherent human bahaviour, being suspicious of strangers.
————————————————————————————
”(refuge with believers-interested in conversion/good samaritinism-is more common”
I have seen different.
There was this one episode on one of those wife swap series, where a woman, who adhered to new age spirituality, took the place of a woman who was herself and lived in a deeply christian community.
When the friends of the religious woman found out that the replacement wife was not a christian, they became extremely condescending and arrogant, even making fun of her beliefs.
Another one is a story that i read, that a 16 year old was thrown out of its home by its christian parents simply for being an atheist.
Then there is the general discrimination against atheists in religious communities.
All three examples happened within the US.
————————————————————————————
“though believers are rarely welcomed by unbelievers”
That is rooted in the above examples, while that would not be as extreme in Europe, as European christians generally are not as hell bent on converting other as their US counterparts. One of my best friends in school was the son of a pastor, who was also a very pleasant person.
The US christian attitude of wanting to convert everyone is what causes them being unwelcome in an unbeliever’s midst.
————————————————————————————
“hough many unbelievers are kind, and try to be honest they are usually not able to dicern the truth as they have not received the holy spirit.”
Again, that is simply not true.
On the contrary, we “unbelievers” (those who came to their lack of belief because of reason and logic) are generally better suited for discerning truth than believers, because we generally do not believe in things for which there is no evidence, like fairies, orks, trolls, unicorns, pére noel, and last but not least, the christian god.
Just look at the creationists. All have received the “holy spirit”, and none of them sees the truth that creationism is wrong.
————————————————————————————
“Remarkable the degree of social conservative Christian faith in America considering all the social, political, and economic drawbacks.”
Not so remarkable to me. I consider this an escape mechanism to alleviate the perceived peril. Purely psychological.
————————————————————————————
“God bless all the true social conservative (fiscal moderates) Christians/Orthodox/Catholic/Mormons, in Jesus name, amen.”
The “true social conservatives” are the ones (Bush, cheney and cohorts) that brought us into this mess.
The “true social conservatives” are the ones who defended slavery as their “god given right”.
The “true social conservatives” are the ones who defended the ban of interracial marriage on biblical grounds.
The “true social conservatives” are the ones who opposed the emancipation of women.
The “true social conservatives” are the ones who generally want to restrict the rights of others and impose their rules and values on them.
They should not be blessed, but pitied.
————————————————————————————
“Your reward is here if you continue to choose this path, not in the hereafter. But you have the choice, we all have”
I do not believe in the afterlife. And indeed, the more science discovers, the less likely an afterlife seems to become.
And furthermore, if your vision of an omniscient god is correct, then there can be no free will, there can be no free decisions, and we can have no choice in what path we choose. Because if god knows our decisions in advance, which follows from omniscience, our choices are predetermined, and we are incapable of deviating from them.
————————————————————————————
“Believe in the resurrection, have faith, and you will have another reward, eternal life-And blessings in this one, though Not Necessariy measured in a personal wealth.”
Putting aside that i do not believe in the ressurection, i do not want eternal life. I find it a horrible concept.
Composing members:
0
Composing members:
0
