RE: If you have a question about god, ask an atheist
June 1, 2011 at 1:23 am
(This post was last modified: June 1, 2011 at 1:31 am by RAD.)
(May 30, 2011 at 2:35 pm)FaithNoMore Wrote: I've never understood why Christians claim Jesus' teachings to be so 'profound.' All he was really doing, if he even existed, was spreading Buddhist philosophy to the west. In fact some people theorize that during the chunks of his life that were missing from the bible, Jesus spent time in Buddhist monestaries. Telling everybody to be nice to each other wasn't as profound or earth shattering as Christians make it out to seem.
He didn't tell everybody to be nice to each other as other atheists point out when it's convenient, being as they are often double minded and incoherent. Most can contradict themselves in the same thread. Today Jesus is telling his disciples to kill everybody, and tomorrow he's telling them to be nice. Our God is intolerant today, and tomorrow he saves all kinds of evil people. This is called "logic" and "critical thinking." Not
Quote:Also, when defending your religion, you shouldn't quote someone like Jefferson. He may have liked Jesus' teachings, but he despised your religion as a whole.
I don't need him to defend anything. I merely pointed out he separated the Baby from the bathwater as I do and atheists, with rare exceptions, don't. Atheists don't think about Jesus vs Christianity as Jefferson did, or the other founders did.
Quote:-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price, Jan. 8, 1789 (Richard Price had written to TJ on Oct. 26. about the harm done by religion and wrote "Would not Society be better without Such religions? Is Atheism less pernicious than Demonism?")
Jesus had the same regard for religion as Jefferson, and myself, and might call some Christians a brood of vipers for all I know. Religion is evil. You also fail to note Jefferson's ability to separate the Baby from the bathwater. He did not just "like" jesus' teachings. That's a straw man. He called them "the most sublime." That means profound. But you have to actually think to grasp the paradox, as the founders did, and Lewis, and Peck, and Gandhi BTW. He called Jesus' sacrifice "the perfect act."
