RE: Do you think you'd still be a believer if the bible were more pleasant/accurate?
May 4, 2016 at 2:47 am
(This post was last modified: May 4, 2016 at 2:49 am by Fake Messiah.)
There are better religions then ones that sprouted from the Bible like Jainism whose members believe in many ridiculous stuff about reality but non of which that could lit the fires of the Inquisition and yet it doesn't even cross your mind to join them, because there was no adult in your childhood to reel you into it and lie it to you that it's all real.
And also there really is no need for religion to scare people in order to be "good" or moral and overall altruism, it's just the way living beings function. We benefit from having a reputation for generosity since you expect to be repaid someday. Friendly relationships wouldn’t last long if you were always a taker but never a giver. Imagine if you have a friend that helped you move and then when your friend had to move she called you up for help and you replied "Fuck you I'm too lazy, do you want to meet next week for beer?"
That's also how animals live by, like this turtle - I mean is this turtle a Christian or Janist or in Scientology?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFT67kstFhw
And also there really is no need for religion to scare people in order to be "good" or moral and overall altruism, it's just the way living beings function. We benefit from having a reputation for generosity since you expect to be repaid someday. Friendly relationships wouldn’t last long if you were always a taker but never a giver. Imagine if you have a friend that helped you move and then when your friend had to move she called you up for help and you replied "Fuck you I'm too lazy, do you want to meet next week for beer?"
That's also how animals live by, like this turtle - I mean is this turtle a Christian or Janist or in Scientology?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFT67kstFhw
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
