When I voted, “all the same,” I was thinking about the belief system, not the way it is practiced by any particular individuals/groups. All religions are irrational and unnecessary, so in that respect, they are all the same. I guess if I were trying to assess the cumulative positive and negative impacts of various mythologies, I would be able to come up with some sort of a ranking system.
Come to think of it, I find many aspects of christianity very unpleasant and undesirable. As I understand it, several eastern religions lack the single vengeful onmipotent deity that punishes believers. The adea of fearing an angry God (not shared by ALL christians) is really distasteful. There are so many G/gods out there - I often wonder why someone would pick such an asshole.
So maybe I shoulda said worse - but I think I’m comfortable with just clumping all irrational beliefs together. Christianity = Judaism = Hindu = Islam = palmistry = witchcraft = etc.
Yeah, because that is literally what I said. :rolleyes:
To be sufficiently clear, there are some people who focus on certain parts of the Old Testament as their model of how others should be treated. Racism, slavery, misogyny, war, vengeance, retribution, etc. If you follow those instructions, you’re doing bad things and you’re a bad person.
Contrast that with Christ’s commandments to essentially ignore the Old Testament and be loving, kind, helpful, merciful, tolerant, forgiving, humble, etc… if you follow those instructions, those are good things and it makes you a good person.
I imagine there are other holy texts that similarly instruct people to do things good, bad, and nonsensical. I haven’t had much personal experience with people telling me how their behavior is directed by other religions, so I can’t speak to it.
I perceive Christian in more of a negative light because I’ve had more negative experiences with it than with other religions. Buddhist, Muslim, and Jewish proselytizers have never interrupted my weekend. And they don’t litter my front porch with pamphlets. Members of other religions have never smugly condemned me to hell or preached to me sanctimoniously about what I’m doing wrong in my life. Members of other religions don’t find it necessarily to inserts references to their religious beliefs in everyday discussions and debates. (I had a woman the other day tell me that of course psychics are real, because they are mentioned in the Bible.) And currently, it’s only Christians who are trying to turn the US into a theocracy. Of course not all Christians are behind this, but it is undeniable that this is a Christian-driven movement.
However, I have no doubt that if another religion was the numerical majority and I had been force-fed it during my formative years, I would have a problem with it as well.
It was literally what you said. Here, I will quote you (underline mine):
Jews follow the Old Testament and most value and honor the Golden Rule.
What about atheists? They don’t follow any religious tenets. Are they good or bad?
What I’m suggesting is that there are good people and there are bad people in this world, and they choose how to behave and use whatever interpretation of religious text is handy to justify that behavior.
I found it hard to vote, because I know SO MUCH MORE about Christianity than about any other religion (except Judaism, which is my religion.) So, I know more good AND more bad. I voted “same”.
Maybe I’m weird but I have different opinions both about different branches of Christianity and about other religions, and when I know enough about them I have different opinions about different branches of other religions. My opinions on Orthodox Christians, American-Style Evangelicals, Presbyterians and Catholics are different (and I also have different opinions about different subsections within Catholicism). My opinions on Jehova’s Witnesses, Scientologists and Orthodox Jews are different. It’s not “big homogeneous box marked Christianity” vs “huge homogeneous box marked Every Other Religion”. Did not answer poll.
No. I’ll walk you through this. If you pay attention, at the end you’ll have learned the meaning of ‘literally’, a very useful and practical word for grown-ups.
That’s literally what I said. I did not say “And no other religion practices these virtues.” I did not say “You’re not truly doing it if you don’t do it the Christian way”. I did not say “There is no other way to understand these virtues.” I did not say “The Christian way of practicing these virtues is is the best way”.
The Golden Rule is New Testament. If they choose to follow it, great.
If you believe “Jews follow the Old Testament” then that tells me you don’t really know what Judaism is or the Old Testament is. Learn that and come back for an informed discussion.
I will again direct you to what I literally wrote:
What am I saying about atheists? Nothing. Literally nothing.
I don’t care what you’re suggesting as long as you’re mischaracterizing what I wrote, attributing false implications to it, and demonstrating thoroughly defective reasoning while doing so.
That isn’t what Christ said. Christ said “I have not come to abolish the law” and also warned on many occasions of Hell and damnation awaiting those who did not repent, and also said “I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”
You people who are hating on Christianity should be glad you don’t live somewhere like Saudi Arabia (Islam) or North Korea (Marxism / Communism). For all its faults, Christianity is one of the most benign of religions.
Me? I’m a theist, but not Christian. I don’t really fit into any modern religion.
No, it’s one of the most malignant and destructive that has ever existed. It’s just not as firmly in power anymore; religions inflict harm in proportion to how much power they have, and over the last few centuries Christianity has lost most of its power.
Religion has far more power in Saudi Arabia, therefore it does more harm because that’s what religion * does.*
I’m a Christian who has more in common with a lot of atheists and agnostics than I do others who identify as Christian. I try to follow the teachings of Jesus as I understand them. Complicating matters is the fact that I’m pretty sure he didn’t really say everything attributed to him. He died long before any of the New Testament was written. How were the people who wrote the books to remember things accurately for that long. Certainly they also had agendas of their own. When adherents of any religion get too numerous, watch out.