Your thoughts?: "Jesus", if he even existed, is, incredibly, MORE immoral than the Old Testament god because the OT didn't spell out Sheol as being as bad as the INCREDIBLY UNFAIR, horrifically illogical, incredibly torturous "hell" of eternal dam-nation that Jesus himself clearly advocated. You know, all Hindus, Muslims, modern Secular Humanists, Buddhists, etc. DESERVE to be tortured longer than Hitler could ever even imagine torturing Jews, because they made one little mistake: bucking lottery-like odds in choosing the wrong invisible superhero out of the 200,000 that have existed in history. Axiom: if you're going to torture people if they make one easy mistake, then you sure as heck had better first prove to them that you're real! (Uh, actually torture is wrong, but you get the point....) If I'm wrong on this let me know. Both accepted slavery. Neither spoke up for women's rights, specifically. Neither said to not kill gays, specifically. Not surprising, really, because "Jesus" said he came to fulfill the old laws (ie basically the Old Testament), and did NOT come to abolish them, in Matt 5:17: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Source: http://bible.cc/matthew/5-17.htm
As an atheist, I just don't have any stake in this battle. But the old guy who said, "forgive those who trespass against you" wins most morality quizzes in my book.
So it's kind of like discussing a battle for moral superiority between say, Saddam and Jack The Ripper.
Jesus does not forgive: he won't forgive the Hindus for picking a different superhero, even though he provides no proof to this day of his existence....instead he's so UNFORGIVING that he'll see that those "bad people" burn, burn burn! He won't forgive the Muslims, modern Secular Humanists, Buddhists, atheists, Zoarastorians, etc. either.....he was clearly a bad man, who could not forgive. If there were only, say, 100 Christians in the world, then that warped SOB would NOT forgive 99.99999999% of all humanity. I left that cult once I started to rely on science, reason, critical thinking, and common sense, and was finally able to became morally strong enough to throw off the shackles of the illogical "fear of Jesus" that my parents put in me.
No need to tip a bucket on Jesus for the policies created and wielded by those who historically have used His name in order to get what they want in this temporal existence. Compare Jesus with the earlier Jewish prophets and there's no comparison.
If he's the most moral teacher of all time, all-powerful, all-loving, etc., like they claim, then we should clearly not "set the bar so low". For example, my 8 year old nephew compares quite favorably to the earlier Jewish prophets. As a modern Secular Humanist, I'd compare Jesus not to ancient barbarians, but to say Richard Dawkins....I bet Dawkins would forgive (not wish eternal torture on them) a moral, say Hindu, for not buying into a particular religion, now wouldn't he? Of course he does. That's because Dawkins is far more moral than Jesus/Mohammad/Moses/David, etc. Jesus, the end of your rule by fear is near.
I wish more of the people who feel compelled to file lawsuits over every little thing today felt that way. Of course, it depends at least a little on the circumstances, such as motive and severity of the trespass in question.
If you start an overall belief system and have to resort to unproven magic and fear, then you’ve failed.
Isn't it a failure just to start a belief system at all? Who needs such a system? Belief should simply be fact-based. That's my belief system
True. A belief system doesn't have to have supernatural elements, but sadly most have, over the years. Most people equate "belief system" with "religion", but I don't think that's necessarily true.
Spirituality is a form of fantasy. Fantasy isn't bad at all - I think it's great that people imagine strange things and write stories about them. I'm a huge fan of the novel The Neverending Story, for instance - it's actually a good, deep, thoughtful work with interesting food for thought. At one point, a villain character - the wolf, or whatever it was exactly; I think its name was Gmork - explains what happens to fantasies that are lost from Fantasia. He explains that they become lies. There isn't a more apt description for religion than that.
