(April 24, 2012 at 1:17 am)radorth Wrote: Assuming hypothetically the NT is true, what's not to love about Jesus other than perhaps his statements on punishment?
He talks constantly about justice and equality, loving our neighbors. He addresses phony religious people with bitter sarcasm. He gives us similies more powerful (IMO) and certainly easier to understand than Shakespeare's. He sets up a moral standard that should make all of us cringe with conviction, and stop judging each other immediately. (Anyone who judges another after reading his Sermon on the Mount is a fool, Christian or not)
He takes a thief who has probably done nothing good to paradise, merely for recognizing him as Lord. He is surprised and pleased by the faith of a Gentile centurion, not a follower apparently, who recognizes his authority to heal. He promises to return and make all things right when the world finally is ready to vote him King. He comes to preach to the downtrodden that God loves them all the same, and gives them hope for peace and justice in a desperately evil world. Then he goes and dies on a cross so we don't have to die in our sins, doing what Ghandi called "the perfect act" of love.
What's not to love?
Although there might some truth to all this, this is quite irrelevant as to why I don't personally believe.
I don't believe not because it doesn't appeal to me or because I don't 'love' something in it. It's because as a free thinker I can't honestly say I believe it and keep a straight face. There's flaws that stop me from rationally being able to believe in Jesus.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
