(March 13, 2016 at 4:56 am)Huggy74 Wrote: No, the subject is about "teaching children about Jesus at a young age", which you guys turned into being about indoctrination.
I realize you're behind a thick wall of bias here, Huggy, but get real. An impressionable child is told -as truth- that a god, made-flesh, walked the earth performing miracles and espousing common sense and commands from on high alike and then died to save them from a fate worse than death... what do you expect us to call that?
I say "as truth" because you really can't expect me to believe that the vast majority of Christian parents don't do their Christian duty and try to "save" their children from damnation. I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule but I'm willing to bet my bottom dollar they are few and far between, and they aren't the ones I would take issue with.
Quote:My original point was that for the Christian, there is no commandment but to love everyone, even the undeserving. For if you only love the deserving, where is the reward? No one deserves God's love, yet he loved you anyway; And THAT"S what being a Christian is about, 'to Be like Christ'.*my bold*
You will find many Christians who disagree with that first portion in bold, but, again, that's beside the point even if it were true.
As for the second, if you wish to love those who will only answer it with contempt, violence and abuse then feel free to do so. The only reward I can see is the twisted sense of self-serving martyrdom and a boat-load of heartache.
Quote:No one deserves God's love, yet he loved you anyway; And THAT"S what being a Christian is about, 'to Be like Christ'.
This is one of the things I find most repulsive about Christianity. It sees us as wretched, inherently unworthy, creatures but God supposedly loves us unconditionally. Yet we are met with conditions. We must suspend our critical thinking and embrace what can't be proven with all that we are, and if we don't we burn for it.
To take from Hitchens; within the scope of Christianity we are made sick and commanded to be well, and that's utterly unacceptable.