Was just thinking how until recently

[Marthe48]

I had the idea that most people with faith thought God was benevolent. Jesus said the Old Testament was replaced with the New. When I first heard that years ago, I thought it meant that the "My God is a vengeful God" was replaced by "I am the Way, the truth and the light"

But in a short time, the evangelicals, who have lost their copies of the New Testament, have replaced the representation of God without Christ, the wrathful God that Jesus replaced with his description of love and light. Not only are the christofascists trying to revive the idea of a fearful God as the faith standard in the U.S., they are festooning the image with their toilet paper ideas of sinfulness and errors.

Across the planet, people worship gods of their choosing. Or they don't worship. I like the relationship I have in my faith. In the Old Testament, some of the humans had conversations with God, and in spite of God being elevated, there was a sense of partnership in those conversations. I would rather have a pleasing sensation when I worship, than feeling fear.

The fascists, no matter what faith they pretend to, are perverting God's truth with their lies.

[NoRethugFriends]

1. god's truth in a book written by humans???

[Marthe48]

7. Nothing is perfect

Last edited Sun Apr 23, 2023, 03:28 PM - Edit history (1)

But I bet that in one of the books, one of the chapters, one of the verses, there is something that you were better for reading.

I particularly like the one in Revelations: "And Look! There was a crowd without number. And those were the ones who were saved." That one verse makes me think that in general, we are doing ok

[NoRethugFriends]

14. nope

[edhopper]

2. I don't want to dispute

your personal faith.
But the Judeo Christian religions have always been bloody, cruel and ruthless. The history of western religion is written in the blood of it's victims. Whatever peace and love they preached, they practiced brutality.

[Marthe48]

5. I'm not necessarily in the judeo-christian flock

I have read parts of the Bible, and it guides me as to how to concieve what/who I have faith in. Had people in general read and understood the New Testament, we'd have less blood in the name of the Lord. It is the same mindset that is weaponizing religion in our country now, that used it to bludgeon the world all this time. People like me want to feel the joy of this diverse world. I thought if I had created the world, I wouldn't have thought of making beaches sandy. I would've stopped with mud. I saw a butterfly drink nectar. Its proboscis was bright blue. My cat tried to pull the sunbeam down from the music stand to her spot underneath, with her paw. Little details like that refresh me.

One thing about having faith in the biblical god is that it states clearly that they are the light. To me, on my own, that means that the god in the Bible is not dualistic, that is, the god in the Bible is only good, and the darkness comes from elsewhere-whether the minds of humans, or if you want to make it supernatural, the devil. Humans are not beings made of light and if we want to be a representation of positive forces, we each have to create that in ourselves. It is not worship in God, no matter what you call your faith, it is living what you want the world to be.

[Cartoonist]

17. There is nothing new in the Bible

Humans knew the difference between good and evil before they could talk. Murder and theft were always frowned upon. The Golden Rule existed before Jesus was purportedly born.

F the Bible. I don't need a guide as to who I should hate or how to treat my slaves. The only people I would stone are those telling me who I should stone.

[Srkdqltr]

3. I never understood worship

I understand the social aspect of religion but never got the praise or worship part.

[Marthe48]

4. I'm the opposite

I have faith, but not religion. To me, faith is the spiritual part, and it is something that's been a part of me from a young age. My family wasn't religious or faithful, so who knows why I'm different?

And to me, religion (church) is a social event, which includes behavioral reinforcement. I attended different churches until I graduated from h.s. Now that I'm old, I notice that local churches, where I live now, are heavy on candy and other treats, which encourage my sugar happy grandkids to attend.

[multigraincracker]

6. If they call themselves Christians

they should replace the 10 Commandments with the Beatitudes. Just my opinion.

[Marthe48]

8. Yes, I agree

I like reading history. In the last couple of years, I've thought about Jesus preaching about love, at that time in human history. In that time, I get the idea that humans were at a point in their evolution that they were experiencing that emotion of love Jesus was talking about, and the Christian faith was giving people premission to express that overpowering feeling.

Just talking about Western culture, up to a certain point in time, marriages were arranged, loss of children was terribly common, and other personal relationships were based on practical or physical reasons. Too bad if you liked somebody else more, too bad if you wanted to cry over your lost baby. There were social mores that clamped down any feelings like that. Then here comes a religion that is all about love. Pretty powerful. If we followed that, we'd all be so much better off.

But not everyone feels love, or even if they do, they let all of the sins of the 10 commanments rule them. We have a ways to go.

[multigraincracker]

10. If you look at what was going on when the

Old Testament Profits wrote their works, you may see it differently too.

[Gore1FL]

9. Evangelicals did me a favor. With their help, I was able to rethink and then abandon religion. nt

[keithbvadu2]

11. You know yours is the one, true God when he hates the same people you do.

[Walleye]

12. I hate when religious types say "an eye for an eye" to justify the death penalty

Right, I always wanna say if somebody knocks out my tooth, do I get to knock out their tooth, I once went to a story interview with a guy whose eye had been put out by a cop who punched him with handcuffs, The brutality of it really got to me. Oh and the judge didn’t tell him he could go ahead and put the cop’s eye out.

[Marthe48]

13. That was supposed to go off the books too

Maybe we should keep morals and ethics separate from faith. Along with personal ideas of right and wrong, which may or may not agree with what the laws say, each person has their own idea of faith. I still like the old line: "Everybody has to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."

The punishments for crimes isn't solving crime. I don't have any ideas for what will.

[Act_of_Reparation]

15. Have you read the New Testament, my dude?

Because there's a lot of that vengeful God stuff in there, too.

[Major Nikon]

16. Any reasonable reading of the NT also means Christ had no interest in non-Jews

The whole idea that god suddenly became more benevolent after Christ came on the scene is both nonsensical and literally unsupportable. The whole idea that the Jewish scriptures go out the window only really came about when there was a need to do away with the circumcision requirement in order to bring the more affluent Greeks and Romans to the party. It certainly wasn't about anything Jesus allegedly said.

Those who claim Christians who pray to a vengeful god aren't real Christians are pretty far off the mark. It's more fair to say they are more true to a literal reading. It's also fair to say many of them had ham on Easter because that's what Jesus would have done.

The idea of a litmus test on who is and isn't a Christian is kinda silly. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian, is a Christian. Every one of them has their own idea of what that means and none are incorrect. It's all made up anyway so making it up as you go is pretty much the whole point.