Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

I don't question why so much as the depth of thought put into it.

 

You write those words, but the content of your other posts shows them to be untrue. You don't say you don't mind criticism of Christianity, yet you whine about atheists doing exactly that and falsely claim that they really just don't like Christianity. It is just one of the elements of the hypocrisy and dishonesty in your posts on this topic.

You insist that atheists must live up to some standard of knowledge about all religions, yet you claim it is fine for you to reject all other faiths without meeting that same standard. Your reason for doing so boils down to, "The bible told me so." The bible isn't evidence of anything in this discussion except a source of understanding of part of Christian belief. I say part because the various churches also bring their own sets of rules and interpretations to the mix.

What you steadfastly refusing to acknowledge is that all non-Christians in this country have to deal with Christians and their impact on our society. On some level, we all have to care about Christianity. That includes atheists. We can't get away from it in the United States even if we wanted to.

 

There's a Hindu comedian who does a bit on religion. I'm sorry, I can't recall his name.

"I catch all sorts of crap about being Hindu. People make fun of all the various gods and their stupidly unbelievable origin stories. Let's look at Christianity for a second. God created the first man and the first woman, and all was well until the talking snake got the woman to eat the magic fruit that released evil into the world..."

I stay out of this thread because talking politics with strangers is bad enough. I'm not about to take on religion. I'm a cradle Episcopalian, and while I'm a very spotty church-goer, the power of the liturgy and the rituals is very comforting to me when I do go. I'm not dogmatic. Regarding other religions (who are not killing unbelievers or some such) I tend to take the attitude that there are many roads to heaven, that people who are kind and decent and treat others well are not just going straight to hell because they don't value the same religious texts as I do. I value Christianity for its core moral code. I see all the failings, excesses, and warts of the organized Christian faith and it's history, same as I do others. My experience is that the most sincere prayer of all, one that is offered up by believers and unbelievers alike, is some variant on "God, please, heal my child/get me out of this mess." People need to believe in someone or something powerful enough to make changes in their lives when they feel helpless.

None of us know a damn thing for certain. Even the most sincere and orthodox belief lacks measurable facts.

Back to Heinlein. "One man's religion is another man's belly laugh."

 

Admirable that you believe there are many routes to heaven. But that belief appears to put you at odds with one very basic tenet: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
This is the one quote that really bugs me.

 

Shrug. Like I said, I'm not dogmatic enough to think that my particular sect has a corner on the truth and that everybody else is gonna burn.

 

so some people believe that mass murderers who accept Jesus on their death bed go to heaven, but Jonas Salk, who cured polio and refused to make
Money off of it is going to hell because he’s Jewish.
And that’s why it’s a man made concept.

 

It should. Jesus is either a megalomaniacal sociopath or he’s exactly what he says he is.

 

I mean, it kind of sounds like a god-made concept, IYAM. If I surveyed 100 non-religious people and asked them which, between the mass murderer and Jonas Salk, deserved a good afterlife, I’m pretty sure 100 out of 100 would say Salk.

So if that’s what the regular man would say...what makes the opposite notion manmade?

 

As with any quote, you have to consider the person reporting it. These are words written down by men who are very motivated to manipulate people into following their faith as opposed to others.

 

Or, if he existed, his words were twisted by the people who wrote them down later.

 

Men wrote it down and then translated it over and over again. Didn't you play telephone as a kid? Didn't you learn that lesson? Even if he was real and even if people meant to write his words down correctly, there is a very high probability that they fucked it up or the people who translated later fucked it up.