What good does religion offer the world today?

@TheCobbler,

Cobbler, I wish you would listen to what this Christian minister had to say.

http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs136/1103452602711/img/529.jpg

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@TheCobbler,

TheCobbler wrote:

Christians non violent, what a ******* joke!

Can we get an age on you?

13? 14?

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

Read a little history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolence

Also Christianity is filled with violence,...er the crusades, doesn't sound non-passive to me.

North Ireland and England protestant vs Catholics
etc

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

Can we get an age on you?

13? 14?

I think he is closer to 40 and only wears those shoes when he's out in drag. His main objection to the Bible is the moral standards don't sit well with him.

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@argome321,

Sadly, most calling themselves christian do not apply John 13: 34,35.
That's not God's fault. It was foretold in Acts 20:29 and other places.

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Damn FBM!... I guess no one ever told that to Dr. Martin Luther King, who earned his PhD in theology.

Dr. King looked at Christianity and saw love, forgiveness, hope and resolve. I suppose it is possible that Dr. King had a overly simplistic view of Biblical Christianity that gave him narrow that corrupted his ideas of what it meant...

... then again, it is possible that you do.

A few more inconvenient truths:
a) MLK plagiarized his dissertation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr._authorship_issues

b) Theological colleges are far from objective and genuine criticism of the religion can get you expelled.

c) Exodus 21:1-11; 25:39-55; Deuteronomy 15:12-18, Luke 12:47-48, Ephesians 6:5-8; Colossians 3:22-4:1; Titus 2:9-10, etc.

d) Matthew 5:17

1 Reply

@Kolyo,

Kolyo wrote:

I think King's avowal that Christianity drove him is pretty relevant.

Revolutions require a simple set of slogans and parables that people can connect with.

The Bible provides tons of them.

True that. It also provides a ton of slogans that the KKK likes.

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@argome321,

Quote:

Also Christianity is filled with violence,...er the crusades, doesn't sound non-passive to me.

Human history is filled with violence. You are justifying hatred of Christianity as if Christianity is unique in having committed acts of violence. There are two problems with that.

1) You are justifying hatred.
2) Christianity is far from being unique in terms of having violence in its history.

Pretty much every religion has violence in its history (including Jainism... you can fight in a war and follow Jainism). And, it is not only religion-- atheism has some pretty brutal bloodbaths.

The point of tolerance is that you accept people as individuals rather than labeling them as a cultural stereotype.

Singling out a group for hatred, be it homosexuals or Jews or Christians, is not justified, especially when there are people of good will (such as Ghandi and Dr. King) who are part of these groups.

1 Reply

@FBM,

FBM,

Really, you are going there???

Sure Dr. King was a human being with the general shortcomings that comes with being human. That doesn't take away from the fact he had a major impact on US society and took a courageous stance with non-violence. He took the beatings and he ultimately gave up his life for what he believed in. That is more than I have done.

If you feel the need to pick apart Dr. King's life (presumably because of his religion) how about Ghandi's life?

Ghandi was also a human being with some pretty large shortcomings.

Have you met any human being without shortcomings?

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@FBM,

Even though Martin Luther King was a Christian, comparing him to the KKK seems a little ridiculous, don't you think?

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@maxdancona,

I know lots and lots of people with doctorates who didn't plagiarize their dissertations and public speeches. I'm not attacking MLK himself. I admire him. What I'm attacking is the fallacy that just because he used Christianity as a tool to achieve his just ends, this somehow says something about Christianity itself. It doesn't. It just says something about MLK and the society he was immersed in, which was imbued with liberation theology. The Bible has been/is being used by numerous hate groups, snake handlers, faith healers and suicide cults, and to point to MLK and ignore them is just cherry picking.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Even though Martin Luther King was a Christian, comparing him to the KKK seems a little ridiculous, don't you think?

I think making a strawman argument is more than a little ridiculous.

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@FBM,

I am saying that it is wrong to attack Christians as a group. It is also wrong to attack Hindus a group, or homosexuals as a group, or Jews as a group, or Atheists as a group. It is all the same. Bigotry is bigotry.

I am consistently against bigotry. I oppose bigotry no matter who the target is.

You can come up with violent acts, or violent sects using violent scriptures from most every religion. Christianity is included is this as well as Judaism. So is Hinduism and Buddhism and Shintoism and all the other isms. You can also come up with violent acts committed by Atheists. I don't believe Christianity is any better or worse than the other religions (although sure, familiarity breeds contempt).

If you are attacking Christianity as a whole, then yes you are attacking Martin Luther King himself. Reverend King was religious Christian, and said so consistently until his death. If you hate all Christians, then you hate Dr. King.

If you are not attacking Christians as a group, or religious people in general as a group, then we are OK.

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@maxdancona,

I think that's where we've miscommunicated. I'm not attacking people; I'm attacking bad ideas. I'm cool with the people themselves, as long as they're not doing something to hurt society or others.

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@FBM,

Christianity also has some pretty good ideas (as shown in the words of Dr. King). Are you open minded enough to see and support the good?

Any religion or culture or person has a mix of bad and good. If you are just looking for the bad and ignoring the good, then of course you are going to end up hating them.

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@maxdancona,

I do see the good parts in Christianity and the Bible. I'm not ignoring them. However, in the context of this discussion, others are already cherry picking the good parts and pretending the bad parts don't exist. I'm just trying to bring balance to the discussion.

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@maxdancona,

Human history is filled with violence. You are justifying hatred of Christianity as if Christianity is unique in having committed acts of violence. There are two problems with that.

Quote:

1) You are justifying hatred.
2) Christianity is far from being unique in terms of having violence in its history.

Pretty much every religion has violence in its history (including Jainism... you can fight in a war and follow Jainism). And, it is not only religion-- atheism has some pretty brutal bloodbaths.

The point of tolerance is that you accept people as individuals rather than labeling them as a cultural stereotype.

Singling out a group for hatred, be it homosexuals or Jews or Christians, is not justified, especially when there are people of good will (such as Ghandi and Dr. King) who are part of these groups.

Thanks for proving my point. Christianity isn't special... and sure doesn't offer anything special.

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@FBM,

I guess I saw the opposite happening; TheCobbler and Argome seem to me to be decidedly anti-Christian. I was trying to balance it the other way.

I suppose you and I are basically on the same side on this one.

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@maxdancona,

Ah. Gotcha. I just kinda dip in and out of the thread. I don't read every post. That's probably kinda rude. I should make sure I know the whole context before commenting.

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@maxdancona,

Quote:

I guess I saw the opposite happening; TheCobbler and Argome seem to me to be decidedly anti-Christian. I was trying to balance it the other way.

I am not anti-christian per se, I'm anti-religion.
How about living life for life sake?

1 Reply

What good does religion offer the world today?

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