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Jesus was a socialist
This is a reminder there is no such thing as a “Christian” just people who pretend to be so they have an excuse to act unchristian like towards anyone they envy.
I was raised conservative Christian and I lost my faith in university. You're 100% right but I sometimes feel a strong urge to "convert" back but only practice the cool parts. Like I'd one-up christians and quote Jesus' most socialist verses at them. Maybe start a Facebook page about how the NT has been corrupted in this modern day, conspiracy-theorist style, but the hidden message is just Marxism.
I feel like somebody out there has embodied that, and I'd like to give them space to reclaim the word Christian for themself at least.
My father in law is a member of the communist party and was a theology professor at a prestigious university, he's also a catholic and went to seminary (didn't become a priest though). Point is that there are absolutely leftist Christians out there. You can lead by example.
But also keep in mind that there have been people out there spreading these words, the problem is that when they get too influential, they get disappeared or murdered
That is how most new branches of religion start. Instead maybe Christianity in its core is not what modern people think it is. The Bible itself is a collection and not a single written source. Think of it as a foss project that got forked early on, then a few people took parts of these forks and sample it into the versions we know today, which then also got forked with every translation.
So if you decide to do what said you should consider checking other religions such as Islam and see what you like there as well.
Oh I hate all religions you don’t wanna get me derailed
They’re all horrible.
I won’t split hairs and decide if one is worse than another.
They’re all anti human, and intolerant of logic.
“But what about my religion?”
Yeah yours too.
Science or magic.
One gives us vaccines cell phones and space ships
The other gives us anti vaccines, and a place for rapists to hide
I agree completely. I'm honestly a little annoyed by some of the antitheists in this thread. They should know that historically societies become less religious after quality of life and progressive outlooks develop, not before. So the way you "defeat religion", if that's even possible, is by raising living standards and fighting for equality. There are Christians who do more to end Christianity than most atheists.
Also using FOSS as an analogy for religion is hilarious to me for some reason. It works though.
Christianity is pretty much not about Christ at all, it's about leveraging him to confer authority over the words of certain people.
Please do this.
You just need to ask yourself why you feel the need to add all the extra baggage of a "god" when you can do and believe all of those things without it?
Rhetorical purposes. Religious people are more likely to listen to their god than listen to an atheist.
Who's asking anyone to listen to an atheist? All of the things you describe are completely separate from religion. This need to add some supernatural force, with zero evidence, adds absolutely nothing of value.
Im talking about people I know personally. People who know I'm an atheist and are more likely to consider my point of view if I added scriptures. That's all
I like imagining Jesus as a transgender man. Like, why would god have a Y chromosome?
I do get a little spiritual enjoyment out of it - the idea of a Christ like me, that I can aspire to be like - when I’m really stoned I can almost believe it.
Christ, the supernatural human born from a all knowning deity does not exist.
Christ as philosophical medium to carry a message of love, mutual aid and societal progress is very real.
I denounced Jaweh the demiurge in second grade, but his supposed “son” continues to be a rolemodel to me to this very day.
This is a reminder there is no such thing as a “Christian” just people who pretend to be so they have an excuse to act unchristian like towards anyone they envy.
I swear they need to change the name of the "No True Scotsman" fallacy to "No True Christian"
I don’t know about “true Christian”
But no sane grown up believes in the magical Christian story. My opinion is that there is no such thing as a “Christian”
No matter how much they claim to believe.
They only say it to have “righteousness” and the moral high ground when they want to abuse or kill or oppress or steal from someone who is not a “true Christian” like they claim to be.
But no sane grown up
that word is doing a LOT of heavy, heavy lifting lol
no such thing as a “Christian”
Huh?
Another socialist Christian a little more recent than Jesus: you might remember Dr. King. Christianity deserves much more criticism and this is an absolutely correct criticism towards most people who profess to be Christians.
But speaking so absolutely usually means you're wrong. There are plenty of Christians who actually follow Christ and are working to make the world better.
There are plenty of Christians who actually follow Christ and are working to make the world better.
Well... Maybe not plenty. Some. There really could be more.
If you believe in Christian magic, do I have an offer for you: a bridge for a low low cost of however much you have left after tithing
As a non religious person I take issue with comments like these, it’s as though you believe that for someone to have a faith that they must be stupid, and if that’s the case then I have a bridge to sell to you for the low low price which matches the number of brain cells you have.
My manager is religious and quite possibly one of the smartest people I’ve even met, he’s also the owner of our software consultancy and the lead engineer that has contributed massively to open source projects.
I’m not going to pretend to understand why he is religious or whether I agree but all I can say is never met someone as smart as him and he is really nice. We recently got pay rises and a reduction in hours. He spends loads of free time helping his parishioners and doing community work and just generally a nice man.
I am offended on behalf of him for your reductive view.
Yeah humans have the ability to be simultaneously dumb as rocks and smart at the same time.
Exhibit A: PhD students
In this case we are hoping enough of the stupid (brainwashed) part of the brain is exposed and willing to invest in a bridge. It's not complex.
I am offended on behalf of him for your reductive view.
Well that’s a compelling reason to change my mind? You’re offended on behalf of someone else that you admit that you can’t understand why they’re religious ?
You’re upset with me for being reductionist on behalf of someone else’s reductionist superstition?
Wow.
Why not. Ask him? “Why do you believe in magic? Do you really believe in magic?”
Second hand offense. Wow. Hot damn. I’ve never achieved that before.
No he doesn’t believe in magic. He just believes that there has to be a creator of sorts and that doesn’t necessarily need to be a person, it could be anything that we can’t comprehend.
I don’t believe the same but it would be mighty arrogant of me to claim my believe in we ended here out of randomness is any more convincing.
I don’t believe the same but it would be mighty arrogant of me to claim my believe in we ended here out of randomness is any more convincing.
You know you can just say "I don't know." It's not one or the other. How about don't believe either until we have compelling evidence explaining the origin of life?
That said, science already has far more compelling evidence on its side than religion regarding this topic. Which, as a reminder, has all of 0 evidence supporting it.
You know you can just say “I don’t know.”
If you take that to its logical conclusion you end up at "I cannot doubt that I doubt, therefore, I am" (which is what Descartes was actually up to) and need a leap of faith to re-introduce even the existence of the material world because solipsism has just as much tangible evidence when considered from that refuge of pure egg-headed rationalism.
That's not so say that such a position is untenable, or unworkable, you could e.g. say "I will take any position that is compatible with both materialism and solipsism", hedging around the question. Point I'm making is that you're a reddit atheist who hasn't thought as deep about any of this than you think you did. You're not interested in the question, you're interested in distancing yourself from a position you associate with people who have hurt you in the past. Valid, of course, but how about focussing on the "hurting people" part instead of "can find meaning in the concept of a god" because the two are, indeed, orthogonal.
What the fuck are you talking about?
"I don't know" is the default. That's how epistimology works.
Point I'm making is that you're a reddit atheist who hasn't thought as deep about any of this than you think you did
Yeah fuck right off. You know literally nothing about me. I probably know more about your hateful beliefs than you do.
Go beat your slaves (but not too much! Lucky for you, the Bible has very clear instructions on this!)
“I don’t know” is the default. That’s how epistimology works.
How do you know that you don't know? Can you be sure that you don't? Can you ascertain that you are not acting on assumptions you are not aware of, do not reflect on?
That is an actually skeptic mindset. Not your "Oh I don't share the same intuition as others they are wrong because they cannot justify theirs", but actually digging down into your own shit, seeing how much you can actually justify. Glass house, stones, and all that. Also that's not how epistemology is spelled.
You know literally nothing about me.
True. I sorted you into the category of "reddit atheist" because you act like one, argue like one. Can I inquire about your reasoning behind sorting me into "Christian"? Because you're fucking ways far off.
I really don’t care what has evidence and what doesn’t. If someone is nice and not harming people I do not care if they believe the sky is green.
Until "the sky is green" becomes "I don't vaccinate my children"
He vaccinates his kids, as I said he is the smartest person I’ve ever met.
You act like we don’t have crazy atheists that are anti vax, flat earth or any number of things.
If you think all religious people are the same then that’s just ridiculous. Are all atheists the same? No no group of people are the same.
Well, unlike you, I care about believing things that are true. So I will continue to care about evidence.
Not caring about evidence, on a societal level, leads directly to unnecessary suffering and death. And that goes way beyond vaccines.
So... magic.
It is pretty magical that we are here.
Agreed.
But I'm not convinced an old white dude named Jehovah, who is a raging narcissist who wants to torture anyone who doesn't kiss his ass forever, is the one who did it.
As I said above that isn’t really what my boss believes either. He just believes in a creator and really we are not going to refute that claim or substantiate any claim we believe.
I prefer to just judge people on their merit and actions and not my preconceived notions of religion, which is pretty skewed for anyone that spent any amount of time on Reddit.
I don't judge people because they believe in a magical, supernatural creator, who for some reason, always resembles us. That's convenient.
I judge people who try to force their ideology, morality, and judgement on the rest of us.
And yes, I know the "Faithful" always accuse those who don't believe as they do of the same thing. But for some reason, most Atheists and Agnostics don't want to kill, or imprison the "Faithful."
Why is that?
Awaiting the "But... but... Russia and China..." bullshit.
He broke the ten commandments tho
P sure that was god through Moses, not christ
I see what you did there
Not all Christians follow American Christianity. But too many do.