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Christianity is for the weak minded!
Posted by CrazieShamrock • 16 days ago • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: atheist, christians, joke thread
That's right, you heard me. I'm going to throw down the gauntlet and just say it: Christians are people who simply don't think deeply enough experience fact.
Don't misunderstand, this is not to say all or even most atheists or agnostics are somehow deeper thinkers than Christians. For the same reason that people who reject truth are simple-minded, so too are people who blindly believe what they are told equally simple-minded, if not more so.
But miles ahead of these two types are the third type, people who have truly come to understand that Theism is completely insane, the crazy, the "nuts" as some have put it.
One last thing, as I am speaking in generalities I'm bound to leave out exceptions, there are some free thinkers out there who self-identify as Christians, however, I have to say that most of the time, people like this really have no business calling themselves Christians.
After seeing the last thread, I just had to see what this one does.
www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/atheism-is-for-the-weak-minded#comment_11...
User Comments
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In 2008, intelligence researcher Helmuth Nyborg examined whether IQ relates to denomination and income, using representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, which includes intelligence tests on a representative selection of American youth, where they have also replied to questions about religious belief. His results, published in the scientific journal Intelligence demonstrated that on average, Atheists scored 1.95 IQ points higher than Agnostics, 3.82 points higher than Liberal persuasions, and 5.89 IQ points higher than Dogmatic persuasions. "I'm not saying that believing in God makes you dumber. My hypothesis is that people with a low intelligence are more easily drawn toward religions, which give answers that are certain, while people with a high intelligence are more skeptical," says the professor.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence-
LOLZ!!!! i am gonna start a religion targeted at getting "lower Iqed" people. -
I am in! for anything with you Lolita! -
I can believe this. There are huge costs to following Christ, it's not an easy thing to do, and the more intelligent someone is, the more they question, the more hell they raise in and outside of the congregation, the more doubt fills their mind, the more sin is cooked up by their imagination, the greater these costs rise. Higher cost means, obviously, that you have to want it more to get it. Add to this the effect of pride, and you get a situation truly toxic for the soul of a man - not that the gifts of intelligence aren't well worth it!
It's just like with aircraft. The fastest, most maneuverable types of airplane are the ones that can most quickly go in to an end over end spin, hitting the ground at supersonic speeds and killing whosoever is inside, just like Lucifer in Paradise Lost, the third most beautiful creature God ever created, a great angel of brilliant beauty whose pride from his own brilliance destroyed him completely inside. Those of less ability are like the cargo planes: level, straight, fixed, flying exactly where they are supposed to go and the pilot can, in most weather conditions, fly them very drunk. -
I think one would have to be a dumbass to believe those stats weren't biased and inaccurate.
Given many (most) the world's scientists have a faith as do ALL world leaders the stats are clearly utter crap.
Note: I do not have a faith. I am merely stating FACTS
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personally, i don't care either way. what i care about is people holding the rest of the world to the standards their religion "dictate". You could pray to the moon or believe that god is a dragon for all I care: JUST DO NOT TRY TO CONVERT ME. DON'T TELL ME I AM GOING TO HELL. DON'T TELL ME THAT YOUR RELIGION IS THE RIGHT ONE. I don't care.
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And what if the believer believes what the bible says, that god told them they should kill gays, atheists, so-called witches, etc...? Is this not worse then them trying to convert you? You don't care unless it directly affects you?
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Morgan please don't assume.
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What did I assume?
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@morgan: LOL! That's right, we're gonna kill ya!
IT SHOOTS NUTS!!! -
If you didn't cherry pick from the bible what to believe and follow and what not to, then you very well would.
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@morgan: No, it is the killers who cherry-pick. I look at all of it. "He who is without sin..."
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amen sweet cheeks - i hate it when people try to convert me - for christ's sake, i've already had Catholicism crammed down my throat for 12 years, you really think I need more bullshit spoonfed to me? Worship what you want - leave me out of it!
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Dude didn't u know the last game of the series was on,u can't talk bout us simpletons this way when we are off watching something totally unproductive,but FUN!!!!!
I will think of something tomorrow for this thread,but right now I have to get back to the series thread and rub the philly fans nose in it
Ta ta 4 now -
you sure are crazie, Shamrock. -
Maybe. But Christ isn't... -
This must be how Coolio felt when Weird Al did "Amish Paradise." -
"however, I have to say that most of the time, people like this really have no business calling themselves Christians."
A Christian is a disciple of Christ, just like a disciple of Plato or Socrates. If anything, it's the Religulous who have no business calling themselves Christians. -
Both the fideist and the atheist have not sollicited their neuron as far as it can go.
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Nourish your spirituality by having personal relationship with God. Having a personal relationship with God means you should include Him in your daily lives. Pray to HIM, read His words and get to know Him better. Pray for wisdom. A man of wisdom cannot be deceived. A man of wisdom does not allow himself to be controlled by the wickedness of the others. Wisdom is the most valuable asset we could ever have. Take your requests to Him in Jesus' Name. Jesus is the one who loves us enough to give His life for us (Romans 5:8), and He is the one who bridged the gap between us and God. Be bold in proclaiming your faith and trust in the Lord Almighty. -
I'm faithless. I try to keep an open mind. If there is a god, I don't presume to know or understand his desires, beliefs, and what he/she/it would consider to be right action. I don't even presume that there is a creator or a god.
In other words, I don't know anything, and no one else does either. If they say they do, you should check your wallet because they most likely want your money. -
@SODD: Keep on exploring and realize that no official doctrine is perfect truth, nor will you find perfection, for as Paul put it: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Corinthians 13: 12) Still, you will know far more then you did, and excel beyond you did in all ways, and it is worth the struggle. Even the sufferings shall seem beautiful to you.
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I think one would have to be a dumbass to believe those stats weren't biased and inaccurate.
Given many (most) the world's scientists have a faith as do ALL world leaders the stats are clearly utter crap.
Note: I do not have a faith. I am merely stating FACTS
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Decline of religious belief during the course of the twentieth century as the intelligence of the population has increased.
There is evidence for a decline of religious belief during the course of the last 150 or so years, while at the same time the intelligence of the population has increased. The increase in intelligence is a well-documented phenomenon that has become known as the Flynn effect. The decline of religious belief has been shown by statistics for church attendance and for belief in God recorded in opinion polls. For instance, in England self reported weekly attendance at church services in census returns (these numbers may be exaggerated) declined from 40 per cent of the population in 1850, to 35 per cent in 1900, to 20 per cent in 1950, to 10 per cent in 1990 (Giddens, 1997, p.460); Church of England Easter week communicants declined from 9 per cent of the population in 1900 to 5 per cent in 1970 (Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi, 1975); the attendance of children at Sunday schools declined from 30 per cent of the child population in 1900 to 13 per cent in 1960 (Goldman, 1965). In Gallup Polls 72 per cent of the population stated in 1950 that they believed in God (Argyle, 1958), but by 2004 this had fallen to 58.5 per cent (Zuckerman, 2006).
There has also been some decline of religious belief during the course of the last century in the United States. Hoge (1974) has reviewed several surveys that have found a decline of religious belief in college students. For instance, students at Bryn Mawr were asked whether they believed in a God who answered prayers. Positive responses were given by 42 per cent of students in 1894, 31 per cent in 1933, and 19 per cent in 1968. Students enrolling at the University of Michigan were invited to provide a “religious preference”. In 1896, 86 per cent of students did so; in 1930 this had dropped to 70 per cent, and in 1968 it had dropped to 44 per cent. At Harvard, Radcliffe, Williams and Los Angles City College the percentages of students who believed in God, prayed daily or fairly frequently, and attended church about once a week all declined from 1946 to 1966. Heath (1969) has also reported a decline in belief in God among college students from 79 per cent in 1948 to 58 per cent in 1968 Among the general population, Gallup Polls have found that 95.5 per cent stated that they believed in God in 1948 (Argyle, 1958), but by 2004 this had fallen to 89.5 per cent (Zuckerman, 2006).
-http://www.amnation.com/vfr/IQ%20and%20religious%20belief%20paper%20by%20Lynn,%20Harvey,%20Nyborg.doc-
More likely it has to do with fewer Americans living in small towns and thus being exposed to Church life, combined with a rapid deterioration in the Christian intellectual tradition, a tradition as old as Saint Augustine that has profoundly reshaped the world but seems to have first begun to decline in the early 1900's and then come to a complete screeching halt by about 1970.
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Everything man-made is for the weak minded.-
LOL! So true...
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Oh wow...here we go again, I guess.
I don't see why there is this debate between religious believers and athiest/agnostics. EITHER way you are beliveing in something (or nothing) that is NOT 100% PROVABLE.
PROVE to me God doesn't exist....go ahead.
PROVE to me that he does...
Until those two questions are answered the common thread between these people who BICKER over religion or non-religion is this:
The biggest fool in the world is the man who believes he knows everything.-
WOW! I was trying to figure out what to say. But this is the best response thus far
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The conception of God that most people around the world have simply cannot exist. First, let me define what most people think of as God: An all-powerful being, who created the universe, who is all-good. Now, you would think that a universe created by such a being would be a wonderful place to live in. Of course, as we all know, this is not the case. Innocent children get raped by pedophiles. Criminal CEO's rob people of billions and get away with it. People in third world countries work their asses off and yet they live horrible lives. If God is both willing and capable of stopping these perversions of justice, then why doesnt he? The answer, of course, is that he doesn't exist.
No religious person has EVER given me a satisfactory answer to this dilemma. Here are some of the crappy arguments they have made:
1) God does not cause evil, the Devil does.
OK, this one is perhaps the stupidest one. If you believe the Devil is capable of subverting God's will and causing evil, then you believe that the Devil is as powerful as God, and you shouldn't call yourself a monotheist. Plus, if the Devil can do whatever he wishes despite God's will, then God is not all powerful. Therefore this argument doesn't fly,
2) God is all good, evil comes from man's free choice.
I don't buy this one either. God created everything (according to the religious people). Therefore, he must have created both humans and free will. Now why would he create free will if he knew some men would choose evil? You might say that evil people turn away from God, so he has no responsibility towards them. Ok, fine. But what about the innocent, good people that are harmed by the evil people? Doesnt God care? Of course not, because he doesnt exist.
3) Evil exists in the world for reasons we don't and CAN'T understand. God's reasons are unknowable because we are mere puny humans.
This is probably the best reason, but I still don't buy it. According to this statement, you are supposed to just accept evil because you trust that god has a reason for it. Now, I simply can't accept this. Why would God give us intelligence if we weren't meant to use it? If God simply intended for us to be herded around like sheep, why didn't he make us sheep? The answer, of course, is that God did not make us, because he does not exist.-
I think the words "Never" "Can Not" "Will Not" or "Always" are extremely ignorant to be used in a discussion about "God"
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@RogerTheAlien: Did it ever occur to you that there might be beauty in struggle and freedom? Did it ever occur to you that we have more power then we think? Did it ever occur to you that Criminal CEO's have been reigned in before and India saw nowhere near as many deaths as Indonesia when the Tsunamis came in, despite having more people live along those costs? Why? Because they set up Sonobuoys, for military use, and with these picked up the disaster coming at them before it hit, giving them 10 minutes to evacuate.
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Jeremy, do you like Strawberry-Lemon Spritzers? Cause I can make one that you'll die for. Come up to my bar sometime.
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I thought Christians were supposed to kill people.
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I was gonna feed you to the lions, but I don't have any, so I'll feed you to the fish in my attic.
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@RTA: Nah, that's fine, you won't have to feed me to anybody because my mountain lion will eat you since I'm a Christian and thus really good at killing everybody.
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I'm an alien, I can probe you. XD Seriously.
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Does anyone have anything new to share on any side of this debate? I would love to hear a different perspective.-
What would you consider a new perspective? -
Something that the same participants don't say over and over again in these theist/atheist posts.
Nothing, you're profound, what can you offer us? -
I don't have any opinion one way or the other. It's not a subject that interests or concerns me.
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Right on, NothingProfound, wish I was like you.
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@NP: Well if you don't have an opinnion, how about enlightening us on random, detached and disinterested possibilities? Different answers that your mind can generate that you yourself do not believe?
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Jeremy, why would I or why would you want me to do that?
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@NP: I don't know why you would want to do that, but I'd kind of like to hear what you'd cook up. As for you, the only reason I can think of is as an opportunity to be "silly and philosophical."
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Thanks, Jeremy, but my mind doesn't work that way. I wouldn't be able to think of a thing.
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@NP: Ah well!!!
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good choice of a subject to discuss...-
What? That Christians are weak-minded?
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Some Christians are the biggest dumbasses in the world, such as the creationist crowd. They are an example why home schooling is a very bad idea. The creationist/fundamentalist crowd seems to drain all the oxygen from Christianity, which is a shame. As spokesmen for Christianity they have alienated/lost more souls then they saved. Christianity needs an upgrade with its advocates.-
Agreed, but in the end, my leader is Christ. All the others are just window dressing.
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yeah that's a gripe of mine also, I am a believer myself but I hate judgmental Christians, what can I say I want to bitch slap them sometimes....then of course I have to go to confession .... -
I think the majority of "christians" today are born and raised in it and they are simply ignorant and lazy. Try to tell someone some great truth, whether it's about poison in their drinking water, the incredible rates of car accidents a year, how the bible was written by men for men and it would be no different if a bunch of christians got together today and wrote another one claiming "God wrote it" and people practically cover their ears and hide. People do not want to be bothered, people want to sit in a hole for the rest of their lives believing that life requires no work, no thought, no consideration, no trials, no failings, and especially no change to their current lives. I really don't know why people are like this. But I was once like this. I'm not stupid but I was raised in christianity and it did take years being away from those people for me to finally start seeing things differently. Of course now I'm evil because I don't believe in one of a million other religions that exist in this world. It makes me angry and I have lost most respect for my immediate family because of their blind ignorance and judgment of other people, their insistence to push their opinions on everyone else and their insistence that somehow, in the entire universe, they are the only right-thinkers. Makes me sick and infuriated. I hate arrogance and this is the epitome of it.
I think christianity, like all religions, will run it's course. Everyone cannot remain this ignorant forever. I actually have that kind of faith in humanity... Isn't that sad? I believe the younger generations are going to break out of it. And I think the ridiculous running back (Mormons anyone?) to the 1600s people are doing right now is the proof of the pudding, the last ditch effort to try to salvage catholicism and convince people that modern times are evil. It will run it's course but I especially believe that the women will be the ones to finally cast it down. I say it again the bible was written by men for men and despite the teachings of Jesus that we are equal women remain on their knees with their mouths open and their hands tied behind their backs in every branch of christianity. It is this and many other ways that men have been given power in chatholicism that will finally be it's down fall.
On the other hand I think it would be naive and ignorant on our parts to think that the church with evaporate. People need a place to be needed; to make them feel like their doing something important and good. This will never change.-
I love you.
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"People need a place to be needed; to make them feel like their doing something important and good."
I ask out of curiosity, not out of sarcasm: what do atheists do of goodness and importance? I work in many non-religious humanitarian groups, but almost never meet a professed atheist. What organizations do they volunteer for?
I guess I'm coming from a perspective that volunteering and helping those less fortunate is a way of life, but maybe I'm assuming too much. -
In these non-religious humanitarian groups you work in, if they do not profess atheism and are non-religious, what DO they profess? Many secular humanists belong to these types of groups, but don't necessarily go around telling everyone, "hey by the way everyone, I am atheists and I am doing good deeds here! Amazing huh!" No. I don't think they feel the need to make that known.
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Morgan, usually the workers strike up conversations with each other, and while sharing info about ourselves, usually people mention belonging to such-and-such church (not that this guarantees strict adherence to their religious beliefs). Occasionally while these conversations are going on, some people will say that they don't go to church or don't follow any particular religion. We don't get into long conversations like, "What DO you believe in, then?" unless someone volunteers something. I've seen that most people share their specific beliefs (religious or non-religious) only when asked.
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So there you go, I wouldn't expect you to even know when you have met an atheist in these non-religious humanitarian groups. Because they don't go around "professing" their disbelief in a god. The most they might tell when a conversation is presented is that scenario is what you have said yourself that some say, "they don't go to church or don't follow any particular religion." So it is no wonder you almost never meet a professed atheist, because people don't go around professing what they "don't believe." Just like you don't go around professing that you don't believe in fairies, trolls, or goblins.
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I think we are agreeing for once. If those volunteers were non-religious, they may or may not speak up.
BUT, as I originally said, the majority of people I meet in humanitarian organizations DO mention where they go to church or what denomination they prefer. The number of people who don't talk about religion is very small.
In fact, this subject intrigued me so much that I started another thread on volunteerism. It'll be interesting to see who helps the less fortunate and what social problems they choose to address! -
That fact that there would be more believers in the group than non-believers comes of no surprise as well, because there are significantly more believers in the general population than there are non-believers. With less than 20% non-believers in the world give or take (according to various polls) it makes sense that various other groups reflect the same ratio.
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I would agree with you again - there is a larger proportion of religious than non religious in the world. So if we go by your 80/20 percentages, you would expect a group of ten volunteers to have one or two non-religious people. However, as I originally stated, I almost never meet someone who is non-religious. I haven't taken an exact count, but I'd say it's about 1 in 50. It's possible that my non-religious causes aren't the same ones that attract non-religious volunteers, but I also have friends working for other organizations who say the same thing.
So back to my original question: what do atheists do of goodness and importance? -
Atheists tend to gravitate towards Secular Humanist groups rather then Religious Humanists groups and volunteer for the same community services as believers. While believers involve themselves in many religious and church sponsored volunteer work, non-believers volunteer for community services and helping those in need that are sponsored and organized by Secular Humanist organizations. I am sure there are exceptions to this generalization, such as both parties volunteering to help where help is needed without any particular organizer, but it seems to reflect what I have seen.
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Yes, I realize that. I wouldn't expect to see many non-religious people serving in religious organizations, and in fact I haven't seen them.
Again, my comment was that when I serve in non-religious organizations (such as pet shelters, schools, homeless shelters, environmental groups, relief aid, and suicide hotlines), I rarely ever meet a non-religious person. So your claim "non-believers volunteer for the same community services as believers" may be true in some places, but in my experience and those of my family and friends, it is not true.
However, it is heartening to hear your belief that secular humanists do sometimes try to make a difference in the world. -
It's actually heartening to hear that some religious people and believers do sometimes try to make a difference in the world too. I was beginning to worry.
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Christianity is for those who forgot, period.-
forgot what?
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The truth they were born with.
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What truth were they born with?
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The same truth we were all born with, the things left untaught but known. Do you remember?
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Do I remember when I was born? Not really. Do you?
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I was told I was born on October 24 1994, but i don't believe this I really started to know reality when I was a toddler. Understanding equals birth.
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Ah, so does that mean you would be Pro-choice?
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I personally believe that Christian, this religion is mainly nowadays driven by money and strong funding, good looking priests and nuns and of course the branding from the many developed countries including the fictional da vinci code that convert Christian as a religion for Intellectuals. So many mistakes already been discovered about this religion, the bible, testaments, the divisions, Jesus who has actually never heard about Christian during his lifetime, yet believers still did not want to leave.
This religion is now like a movement, where the validity is not as important as it really should, what matters is the numbers of followers. Great religion that dominated the world by it numbers, yet is clearly not a correct religion. What to do? keep on following and may face the shame in front the real god, maybe, if any. Following a religion is actually not about those my friends is Christian so i am in, it is not as simple as that because this is my only life chance to see the real, and bravely reject the clones and other human made statue. bla bla bla... lets challenge ourself, googling, be it no popular analytic, for life in search for the real god.-
Software Gal, "the fictional da vinci code that convert Christian as a religion for Intellectuals"? Actually, you'd have to be pretty gullible to believe the ideas in the Da Vinci code. Anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence and an understanding of history would know that Dan Brown has written a book heavy on action and light on facts.
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See, I didn't say I believe in Dan Brown, yet Christianity has been overrated. No intelligent at all in believing Jesus as a God, yet so many intellectuals still want to believe on this.
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Christianity as a religion practiced today is almost completely antithetical to the teachings of Jesus as found in the gospels. The person therin depicted was enlightened, loving, endorsed the notion that god is in all of us (in an almost buddhistic fashion), spurned organized religion, taught in the outdoors that we should be as natural and unaffected as the lilies of the field. He would not recognize and likely would spurn the multitude of sects that profess to worship him. His message of seeing the divinity in everyman is so ennobling and magnificent that much of its strength perseveres even in the face of innumerable attempts to pervert it. Jesus was the original lover of humanity and seer of the nobility of each and every person. Truly awesome.
And I have no interest in setting foot in any church unless it is to admire the art and architecture or hear a good musical performance.-
No need to give sweeping generalities; just regular generalities will do! : )
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It is true that a large part of Christianity is disconnected and even fallen away from the teachings of Jesus. However his teachings remain true and they persist even until now. There are so many prophesies that talk about those who profess to know him but make no effort to have a relationship with him. The four walls of a building have nothing to do with the Jesus I know. I would have to say that it is not entirely weak minded to believe in something that cannot be disproved to exist, even statistics are on your side comparatively speaking... I say this a little tongue in cheek. I have faith in God, Faith is different than belief. I have Faith that God will continue to act in my life as he has in the past... he is an incredibly consistent and persistent force in my life. I know that God exists because I would be mad to ignore the incredible paradoxes of coincidences that have consistently occurred in my life. I would consider myself somewhat skeptical in regards to most unprovable things, however, God has been sufficiently proven to me beyond all doubt. But maybe I am just weak minded. -
A Christian is a disicple of Christ. Churches are useful, and you owe it to your countrymen to be part of the solution and not the problem and push people back towards the fold, but just because you're a Christian DOES NOT mean you have to do (or believe) what your church says, but what He says.
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If I weren't a free thinker I may have fallen for this effort to get a rise outta me. But I didn't. So free the thinkers! And free the weed to while you're at it! -
Faith is beyond sensual reality, Statistics are sensual reality. The two should never mix. -
My point is that the message of Jesus is so beautiful and powerful that it shines through the layers and layers of stupidity that churches have attempted to paste over it. It started with Paul, the apostate, who hijacked the religion and turned from just persecuting Jesus's original followers to founding a new religion that bore the name Christianity while deviating from Christ's teachings and spirit in almost every way. His successors eventually stamped out almost all of the original followers of Jesus and by the time the Roman empire made it their official religion, the faith had become almost unrecognizable. Fortunately the Gospels contain enough of Jesus's original teachings that despite these sad efforts at perverting the original message, many Christians have still managed to find the awesome truth of it.
There were several episodes of "The Naked Archaelogist" that have expounded on the above notions. I myself first became aware of them almost forty years ago when my mom and a few of her friends formed a Bible study group that met in each others homes and sought to find as much of Jesus's original sayings as possible and even expanded into the study of Aramaic , Greek and Hebrew. The wisdom they found when they stripped away all the detritus that had been heaped on the original message was profound and life changing. All attempts to embelish the original sayings of Jesus merely diminish them.
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