*Warning: May contain nuts, Christians and/or both

[Atheos]

The greatest big punch I have for ya'll, is the verses contained in the Bible. Go back and give them another read. Even if you're not a card carrying, Jesus died on the cross and was raised again, Christian - , I'm sure you'll agree, it is a book full of wisdom that does nothing less than push all of us towards betterment. What's wrong with that. Do good, flee from evil. Do not be perverse. Do not return evil for good. Are you so opposed to that?

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

- Jesus

 

[Sarpedon]

Do not be perverse

And here be one of the traps. Who defines what 'perverse' is? You accept these vague terms as important, and then allow other people to tell you what it means. Do you not see how this allows them to control you?

 

[Atheos]

"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

-Jesus

 

[Keith&Co.]

Do not be perverse

And here be one of the traps. Who defines what 'perverse' is?

Man, I hope it's not my cousin, the 6 year old who thinks kissing is gross. On the other hand, Jeffy wants unisex bathrooms. He went into a woman's room one time and is fascinated by whatever it was he found there. He thinks there should be just one restroom for everyone, mostly so he can find out what some of that stuff is for.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Learning something is great, even religious books have good things to teach, so learn. All those bibles are translations with biases, lies, mistakes, omissions, additions, etc. which is good to remember.

Go ahead and be religious but be rational first. Really think about those magic creatures you idolize. Are they real or does it just feel good to pretend?

 

[southernhybrid]

Here ya go 1I. These are a few of my favorite verses in the NT. I'm using the KJV version since conservative Christians usually like that one.

From Matthew 7, I think.


Judge not, that ye be not judged.
[2] For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
[3] And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
[4] Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
[5] Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

I know that Christians try to interpret this simple concept in all kinds of weird ways, maybe because there are a lot of Christians who love judging other people. And, while it's not always easy not to judge someone else's behavior, especially based on their beliefs or political ideology, I do like the concept of not judging others, and try to remind myself not to be too critical of others because If I were influenced by the same genetic heritage and environmental things as they were, I'd be a lot like them.

So, sure there's some pieces of wisdom in the Bible, but there's a lot of other places to find wisdom as well, especially considering that the Bible is a very old book, with many different interpretations, translations, and versions, along with numerous contradictions. So, try and cherry pick the sweet fruit and throw out the bitter cherries.

And yeah. I know that bothers a lot of my atheist friends, but atheists are not easy to herd and we all have vastly different opinions when it comes to how we feel about religion. Diversity of opinions is what makes life more interesting.

I'm meeting up with a small local group of my fellow atheists tonight and I'm sure we will have different opinions about most everything we discuss tonight. Or not!

 

[Rhea]

The first time you quoted me here, Rhea, you left out the happy face after that comment. Nicely edited. Here though, you can see that there is a little happy face, which to some, would mean that I am joking.

Oh yawn. Wake up girl!

You think the smiley-face takes away the insult? Gives you a free pass? So did my boss. So does Donald Trump.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

The greatest big punch I have for ya'll, is the verses contained in the Bible. Go back and give them another read. Even if you're not a card carrying, Jesus died on the cross and was raised again, Christian - , I'm sure you'll agree, it is a book full of wisdom that does nothing less than push all of us towards betterment. What's wrong with that. Do good, flee from evil. Do not be perverse. Do not return evil for good. Are you so opposed to that?

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

- Jesus

How many times is Jesus quoted as telling his followers to sell all the have and give to the poor?

 

[skepticalbip]

The greatest big punch I have for ya'll, is the verses contained in the Bible. Go back and give them another read. Even if you're not a card carrying, Jesus died on the cross and was raised again, Christian - , I'm sure you'll agree, it is a book full of wisdom that does nothing less than push all of us towards betterment. What's wrong with that. Do good, flee from evil. Do not be perverse. Do not return evil for good. Are you so opposed to that?

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

- Jesus

How many times is Jesus quoted as telling his followers to sell all the have and give to the poor?

Jesus also tells people to not work for a living because they cannot serve both god and money. And not to worry about food, clothing, or housing because all will be provided for them if they just serve god. (Matthew 6;24-34)

It seems to me that most Christians worry a lot about the state of their finances. Why?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

How many times is Jesus quoted as telling his followers to sell all the have and give to the poor?

Jesus also tells people to not work for a living because they cannot serve both god and money. And not to worry about food, clothing, or housing because all will be provided for them if they just serve god. (Matthew 6;24-34)

It seems to me that most Christians worry a lot about the state of their finances. Why?

Kids love Santa because Santa will give them things. Adults have the same relationship with Jesus.

 

[steve_bank]

How many times is Jesus quoted as telling his followers to sell all the have and give to the poor?

Jesus also tells people to not work for a living because they cannot serve both god and money. And not to worry about food, clothing, or housing because all will be provided for them if they just serve god. (Matthew 6;24-34)

It seems to me that most Christians worry a lot about the state of their finances. Why?

Sounds like the wandering Buddhist and Hindu monks who wander living on charity while dispensing wisdom.
In India the wandering Sadhu. Pot in this instance is involved. Perhaps the original Hippies were Christian followers..

 

[skepticalbip]

How many times is Jesus quoted as telling his followers to sell all the have and give to the poor?

Jesus also tells people to not work for a living because they cannot serve both god and money. And not to worry about food, clothing, or housing because all will be provided for them if they just serve god. (Matthew 6;24-34)

It seems to me that most Christians worry a lot about the state of their finances. Why?

Sounds like the wandering Buddhist and Hindu monks who wander living on charity while dispensing wisdom.
In India the wandering Sadhu. Pot in this instance is involved. Perhaps the original Hippies were Christian followers..

Yes it does. And it does fit the theory some have offered that Jesus was in India studying Buddhism during his missing years until he returned to teach the lessons of the Buddha to the Jews.

A big unmentioned problem of teaching people to survive on preaching and alms is that if all the followers actually did it then there would be no one working to offer alms and food for those wandering 'holy men'.

 

[C_Mucius_Scaevola]

The greatest big punch I have for ya'll, is the verses contained in the Bible. Go back and give them another read. Even if you're not a card carrying, Jesus died on the cross and was raised again, Christian - , I'm sure you'll agree, it is a book full of wisdom that does nothing less than push all of us towards betterment. What's wrong with that. Do good, flee from evil. Do not be perverse. Do not return evil for good. Are you so opposed to that?

Sure, there are some good things in the bible. Some "wisdom", if you like. But none of that "wisdom" is unique to the bible; it can all be found in other sources or simply through reasoning and logic, without having to wade through pages of mythology, pseudohistory and downright nonsense to get to it.

Just as an example, take the passage cited as the pinnacle of moral law by many xians: the 10 commandments. The first 4 are nothing to do with morality at all; they're about divine exclusivity and taboos. The rest are things that every society had already worked out for itself, from the very beginnings of the concept of "society". Unless you can point me to a society where murder, theft and lying were considered reasonable, moral occupations?

There's nothing special about the bible's moral passages, unless it is that, to be a true bible believer (or a bibliolater, as many xians appear to be), you have to swallow a whole lot of crap along with the moral teaching.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

How many times is Jesus quoted as telling his followers to sell all the have and give to the poor?

Jesus also tells people to not work for a living because they cannot serve both god and money. And not to worry about food, clothing, or housing because all will be provided for them if they just serve god. (Matthew 6;24-34)

It seems to me that most Christians worry a lot about the state of their finances. Why?

Sounds like the wandering Buddhist and Hindu monks who wander living on charity while dispensing wisdom.
In India the wandering Sadhu. Pot in this instance is involved. Perhaps the original Hippies were Christian followers..

Jesus was telling his followers that the world as we know it was about to end. To be saved, and enjoy the new perfect world to come, one had to be perfect. That meant abandoning wealth in this world. Serving God, not Mammon. But the world did not end, and the new Kingdom of Heaven never came. Amazingly, very few Christians can read the Bible and understand this simple observation.

 

[Learner]

Sounds like the wandering Buddhist and Hindu monks who wander living on charity while dispensing wisdom.
In India the wandering Sadhu. Pot in this instance is involved. Perhaps the original Hippies were Christian followers..

Jesus was telling his followers that the world as we know it was about to end. To be saved, and enjoy the new perfect world to come, one had to be perfect. That meant abandoning wealth in this world. Serving God, not Mammon. But the world did not end, and the new Kingdom of Heaven never came.

Amazingly, very few Christians can read the Bible and understand this simple observation.

Well not before, as Jesus said: Go out into the world and preach to ALL parts of the world (FIRST), which your (plural) observations have "overlooked"! Some believe we are almost there, and certainly the "Centres of Christianity" has been moving from nation to nation as currently in China with the rise of Christianity for example. Whereas Europe and other Western nations have had-there-turn (with Atheism rising) so to speak.

Hmm North Korea next maybe?

 

[Atheos]

I Thess 1:8 - For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing

According to Paul the "word of the Lord" had been preached to "every place." Job done, time for Jebus to cue the trumpets.

 

[Learner]

I Thess 1:8 - For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing

According to Paul the "word of the Lord" had been preached to "every place." Job done, time for Jebus to cue the trumpets.

I doubt it ... there was still pagan worship all over the place . Even then, Caesar and Empire was woshipping Jupitor (Zeus) or Mars, so to speak. Then what for example Afirca and the rest of Europe back then?

 

[Keith&Co.]

I doubt it ... there was still pagan worship all over the place . Even then, Caesar and Empire was woshipping Jupitor (Zeus) or Mars, so to speak. Then what for example Afirca and the rest of Europe back then?

You said he said preach to all, not that all had to be convinced....

 

[Learner]

I doubt it ... there was still pagan worship all over the place . Even then, Caesar and Empire was woshipping Jupitor (Zeus) or Mars, so to speak. Then what for example Afirca and the rest of Europe back then?

You said he said preach to all, not that all had to be convinced....

True ... Christianity was not so well known throughout the Roman empire at that time, it seems to me. Christianity only became the main faith later in Rome.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I doubt it ... there was still pagan worship all over the place . Even then, Caesar and Empire was woshipping Jupitor (Zeus) or Mars, so to speak. Then what for example Afirca and the rest of Europe back then?

You said he said preach to all, not that all had to be convinced....

True ... Christianity was not so well known throughout the Roman empire at that time, it seems to me. Christianity only became the main faith later in Rome.

You're still inserting 'practiced' when Jesus said 'preached.'
Does it make any difference to what Jesus said, and what Paul said, if it was mainstream or cult?