(March 31, 2021 at 10:42 am)HappySkeptic Wrote:(March 30, 2021 at 6:59 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: You're a history buff. Did the Christians (historically speaking) do unto others as they wished to be done unto them? Or did they treat people cruelly and persecute them, all while lamenting every bit of persecution that came their direction?
This is the contradiction at the heart of Christianity. There is the meek and mild Jesus preaching tolerance, as well as the Jesus teaching fire and brimstone.
For reals.
I think if you take the Sermon on the Mount at its word (and it may have been composed by Jesus, or it may have been composed by some jewish guy putting words into the mouth of Jesus) but whoever composed it, they made a serious moral argument for pacifism). But any time you bring up pacifism to a Christian, they immediately bring up a list of excuses why they don't have to be pacifistic. DESPITE what is written in their holy book... words that they presume come from the mouth of God. All they have are excuses. Not one of them wants to support the radical pacifism that is advanced by the author of the Sermon on the Mount.
They use it when they want to portray their religion as compassionate, but what they really think is worth practicing is the opposite. Smoke and mirrors. Slippery evasion. That's what you get when you discuss nonviolence with a Christian. Typically, anyway. I don't want to pigeonhole anyone. There are exceptions to this rule. But I'm just pointing out the rule. And how it is the rule.
