I figure there is no meaning inherent meaning to life so you can make it it anything you want it to be. This seems to me superior to the Biblical meaning of life which is to fear God and keep his commandments:
Even the ones about killing homosexuals?
Well, to a certain degree he did. Asking that those who crucified him be forgiven, for instance.
Why did God change his mind? A Christian might say it’s part of the accepting of a sacrifice in lieu of our paying for our own sins. A non-Christian can merely admire the growth in moral maturity from the OT to the NT.
Much agreement. Socrates doesn’t have very much to offer us. Plato, at least, described “The Republic,” without, however, addressing any of the outstanding flaws of his creation. He even admits, with some embarrassment, that it has to be based upon a myth, specifically crafted to satisfy the people in order to gain their acceptance of the rule of the Philosopher-Kings. I can’t find any way to respect “Let’s make up a story” as the basis for governmental legitimacy.
Which is why just as you mock the Protestants for justifying “things like adultery, serial killing” by being “saved”, they will mock Catholics for being able to rob and murder and making all it good as long as they get in a last minute confession before death. The devout Mafia Don scenario.
Most divorces are instigated by the woman.
Instead, you have households filled with violence and hatred; two people who despise each other forced to stay together. And you have “social damage” from kids being raised in a home at war with itself.
No; the Bible is an Iron Age collection of myths. It’s a roadmap for barbarism, because it was written by barbarians. It’s just as silly to expect it to equal modern standards as it would be to expect the law of ancient Rome to work in the modern world.
I’m not sure that’s is so much about not having sex for being sinful as it is that the long run results are incredibly damaging to society.
I think the Bible is fairly practical in that regard.
And of course, since the basic tenet of Christianity is that all people are sinners which I think is also simply a realism, the best anyone can do is view the rules as something to strive up to with the reward being a happier life generally.
People often think things, relationships, drugs, alcohol and/or the freedom to do those things when they want constitute happiness. Imo, I don’t think any of that really makes people happy.
People trend to being happiest when they are respectfully loved, appreciated and feel useful. Also, in my opinion.
Lol, where did you pull that from? Leviticus?
There is considerable debate about whether Jesus came to fulfill the law or change it and of course you’re talking about Jewish law which non-Jews weren’t liable to live up to in any event.
Believe it or not, the Bible isn’t a pamphlet attacking homosexuals. Unmarried homosexual sex is the exact same sin as heterosexual sex. The New Testament doesn’t ramble on and on about homosexuals. For homosexuals to assume any Church or it’s teachings are all about them is highly narcissistic.
Hey, as long as you pay your child support, go for it. I believe God has given you gifts to do good works, and that you will do good works for Him.
I find meaning in providing safe and affordable housing for the widows and orphans in my community. Where do you find meaning?
No, it isn’t. Premarital sex is certainly not “incredibly damaging to society”; Biblical prohibitions against it on the other hand are “incredibly damaging”. They have caused centuries of misery, violence and oppression. And “practical” is one thing the Bible isn’t.
Ridiculous.
We have the same laws now that correspond with the ten commandments because they are obvious. Don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t slander.
And even countries that have total separation of Church and State like the Scandinavian countries enact the same laws.
Without being able to protect yourself or your property only the strong would survive and then only temporarily until they were no longer capable of keeping or taking from others. Like Somalia.
Imo, Scandinavian countries are much more “Christian”, if you will, than America. They don’t underpay their workers, they have fantastic safety nets, they value motherhood so much they placehold jobs and financially supplement parents, and their overall approach mirrors what we would consider to be Jesus’ teachings. And clearly it does work.
The problem with Americans isn’t that they are Christians but that as a country we are hypocrites.
There’s exactly one sentence in Laviticus and I’m not looking it up. Frankly, I don’t know any homosexuals who say they are good and righteous Christians. All I know for sure is that I’m not gay, but I’m not really heterosexual either. Pffft … there is a third road, ya know, and I find both communities hating on me … go figure.
In the greater context of the rest of the Bible that was more a “forgive them for now” type of thing, so long as they later repent and worship later, wasn’t it?
Because he wasn’t really omniscient.
That makes no sense. God should just get over this whole sin thing and stop caring about adulation and sacrifice.
As a non-Christian I think I might rather be killed on earth than burned in hell, but I suppose everyone can make up their own minds on that. I still prefer my answer about God not being omniscient myself.
He’s better than Jesus by a long shot.
Socretes had a pretty big part in the Republic didn’t he?
That’s funny, coming from a Christian.
I completely disagree.
Tell me how social diseases and out of wedlock pregnancy aren’t incredibly damaging. Tell me how an entire society of greedy hedonists doesn’t make for a dangerous and negative society from deprioritized children expanding to effect incredible amounts of tax dollars, even if you set aside concern for warped people who will never be happy.
You have school shootings, increased police, court and prison costs, increased national medical expenditures from everything like drunk driving car accidents caused by emotionally unhealthy people to widespread social diseases, decreased productivity in the workplace by alcoholics/drug addicts, and increased social costs for the poverty of single parent households, then look to two parent working families doubling the workforce and lowering wages artificially and all the damage that entails in literally hundreds if not thousands of ways.
You’re looking for a tree to single out, but it’s the whole forest, that’s why you don’t see it.
You’re not alone. I worry about me and my behavior and I leave others to worry about their own. If people on both sides of that one issue would do the same, wouldn’t society be considerably more pleasant.
I do know some Christian gays that say they are happy, seem to be happy and good for them.
Personally, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life discussing some strangers’ sex lives right or wrong. I just don’t care.
Christians believe it is. I have no daughters, so I’m not the person to ask why.
Of course. Leviticus is in the Bible and you were saying society is better if we follow the Bible.
I think Jesus was pretty clear that he came to fulfull the law, not change it. Don’t you Christians read your Bible anymore?
I guess only the non-Jews that don’t want to go to hell are liable.
Yes it is.
Right, just like sex you have with a divorcee, even if you marry her.
It does a little, among a lot of other things, like marrying divorced women and having sex with animals.
What homosexuals say that?
Let’s address the situation of domestic abuse which is very serious. In the 50s and up until then, basically divorce was so frowned on many people did NOT get divorced. I think there are pros and cons either way with a lot of hindsight. These women also didn’t suffer as single parents and particularly today be scapegoated, underpaid, guilt tripped for working, guilt tripped for not working or emotionally assaulted on a daily basis for years instead of being abused only in her home. It seems like kind of a toss up and I wouldn’t want to make the choice for another woman. Each woman gets to make their own choice and I feel the same way about abortion.
Ideally the abusive spouse (male or female) would be admonished for being in a state of sin and would hopefully confess, seek counsel from the priest and cease to be abusive.
But Catholics do another thing to keep this situation from occurring in the first place rather than having to deal with the fallout later. They have pre-Cana classes and workshops that involve an honest and serious approach to marriage in the first place, since in Catholicism marriage is considered a sacrament. Hopefully the pair will know each other very well BEFORE they get married, thus lessening the problem of divorce, single mothers and domestic abuse that leads to those things.
Really? Which laws are you referring to that enforce the first half of the list:
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No other gods before Me. Excludes all other religious worship, you heretics.
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No graven images. Penalizes photographers and sculptors.
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No taking of Lord’s name in vain. Don’t swear, asshole.
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Keep the Sabbath Holy. Go to church, heathens.
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Honor thy Pa & Ma. Yo Mama…
Not to mention the “no coveting” bullshit. Where are the laws against all these?
So safe sex is cool then? Lesbians must be out of sight godly.
Boy that almost makes the Crusades look good. :dubious:
That all pales in comparison to what Jesus has in store for us don’t it?
I’m not going to divide all these quotes with little boxes. I’ll address them in order.
Jesus says both things, that he came to fulfill the law and in other speeches he said he came to replace the original commandments with his two. Like most contradictory things in the Bible, I suppose you get to choose which part to adhere to.
Originally Christianity was only offered as an option to Jews. It was the disciples who later decided to accept pagan converts, not Jesus. If you look at the number in Revelations, the 144,000 specifically refer to 12,000 each of the 12 tribes of Israel. I think the people who get this most wrong are messianic Jews who are neither Jews not Christians. However, that said, any I’ve met are truly lovely individuals and I suspect God will overlook their genuine confusion.
You finally get it about sin. Lying is the same as adultery is the same as manslaughter is the same as stealing is the same as… endlessly. In Christianity, everyone is a sinner. It’s the greatest equalizer ever. No one is any ‘better’ than anyone else. That’s why we "judge not, lest ye be judged’.
Imo, in person I have yet to see gays hijack every single conversation or discussion of faith, politics or anything else to make every single participant talk about gays’ sex lives. Only internet gays do that. It has even crossed my mind that many gay posters are keeping being gay and annoying others in the public lime light just to make everyone so sick of hearing about it that we all vote it down. At the least, it wouldn’t surprise me if I found out that was true.
But internet gays seem to need to take every single subject across the board and use those threads as vehicles to try to force all readers to pat them on the head.
I do find that narcissistic and annoying.
Too bad Jesus didn’t think so.
Good thinking, maybe the woman should just let herself get beaten. Especially if marrying a nicer guy means they are adulterers. Better to be beaten on earth than burn in an eternity for sure, I agree, but that only matters if you think the Bible is the word of God.
Ideally yes, but suppose he doesn’t?
That’s great! If Catholics didn’t also tell people not to wear condoms and rape kids I might think they were pretty cool.