ItsNotWhatItSeems wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2023, 5:20 am
The most popular religion of today says it says the beginning of wisdom is “fear of the lord”. And it says much else about unbelievers having to face hellfire and brimstone. All of that is proven false by an individual seeing that love and fear cannot logically coexist, it’s insane that so many don’t see the logical falsehoods in their beliefs. They may convince themselves they love god and ignore the “or else” part, but the “or else” cannot actually be put aside from their reasoning. That makes that love selfish and based in fear of punishment.
Not a good start, but I’ll entertain you. I am critical of many aspects of Christianity (which seems to be the religion you are pointing to) especially the literalist reading of the Bible, which overlooks the fact that the OT contains so many genres, from a vast stretch of time, and clearly displays a development of perspective, including the melding of Yahweh with El, going from a pantheon of gods to absolute monotheism. Clearly then, it is unsuitable to be taken literally. With the NT it is also clear that an original story contained in the Gospel of Mark, was later “corrected” or “improved” by Matthew and Luke, and John’s gospel comes from a completely different background. So, we must consider each source first of all for itself, and then the problems you run into aren’t quite so big.
Jesus seems to be a prophet in the tradition of the OT prophets, and emphasises much of what they did, but he puts a new slant to it and despite the apocalyptic aspect that seemed to be popular in his day, he emphasises love, which was mentioned in the OT, but becomes a prominent aspect of his teaching. But he also emphasises the internal nature of the kingdom, encourages introspection, and he mentions the dilemma of failing to live up to one’s (own) standards, only to be confronted with that after death. There is also the aspect of being one with the “Father” and praying that his followers being one with him, as well as deeds that are done for “the least” of his brothers are done to him also. This entwinement, also present in Paul’s words at Athens, “in him we live and move and have our being,” vaguely suggests panentheism, God in all of us and we in him.
So, as you can see, there are varying perspectives or readings of the teaching of Christ, but also various views on how the Roman church transmitted that message, especially after Constantine empowered the church, which in many ways took over the structure of the empire. The emphasis of power over an emptying of ego, the raising up of the suffering servant to a heavenly monarch with a royal court, churches laid out like courts of law, and the authoritarian framework, all did the message of the good news a disservice. The good news only survived in pockets of loving communities throughout the empire, which were careful not to be seen to criticise the papal authority but supported the local communities with medicine and horticulture.
So, there is another picture to paint that is perhaps not so popular. Admittedly, it isn’t quite so entertaining, and doesn’t supply the heroes and foes that popular entertainment enjoys, but that is history.
ItsNotWhatItSeems wrote: ↑October 22nd, 2023, 5:20 am
The fact along with truth is not a discovery seen through concepts or a window screen of ideas, it’s fact. I’m not laying down the law, truth is not our own particular preference. By definition that would make it not truth. What is true is not projections we create, it’s already there, but the religionists invent all kinds of projections. Christianity and most other religions are based on this concept of reward and punishment. And if one is utterly serious and throws out every kind of authority, spiritual or otherwise, they have more energy. This energy is needed in our daily lives and I find that most religion is malevolent but for many more reasons hard to explain. For those reasons I have convictions in that religion has actually been planted to deceive people, harmful intentions, energy harvesting etc.
I would say that Christianity, like most other traditions, speak about the consequences of actions, perhaps a little differently to Buddhism, for example, but it is the foundation of our justice system. It is no more malevolent than society generally is, because it is part of society, and the people in it are like you and I. It definitely isn’t “perfect” – whatever than means – and I have lots of criticisms, but we have to try and be objective.
Christianity is also very diverse and became more and more diverse as it spread around the world, so it is difficult to pin it down, let alone classify it the way you have done. In some cases, you may be right, but in many cases – very many cases – you are wrong.
