RE: How can Christians not admit Christianity is all a pile of garbage when ...?
February 21, 2012 at 6:20 pm
(February 21, 2012 at 4:31 am)chipan Wrote:(February 20, 2012 at 7:38 pm)Abracadabra Wrote: The God of Abraham never taught anyone to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
Maybe not the old testament god but the Golden rule was originally quoted from Jesus. Matthew 7:12
As others have pointed out, the Golden Rule was around long before Jesus was ever born. In fact, the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama taught people to treat others as they would like to be treated. So it easily goes back 500 years before Jesus was born.
And Siddhartha Gautama wasn't the first person to suggest this either.
So it's a fallacy for Christians to think that this idea originated with Jesus. In fact, many people (myself included) believe that the person who gave rise to the Jesus rumors was most likely a Jewish Buddhist. Mainly because the moral teachings that are attributed to this man are very much in line with the moral teachings of Buddhism, specifically the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, which was the most popular form of Buddhism at the time Jesus would have lived.
The teachings attributed to this man called Jesus are also clearly in stark opposition to the teachings of the Torah and the God of Abraham.
In fact Jesus taught that he and the father are one (which is precisely what a Buddhist would teach). And when questioned on this and accused of blaspheme he pointed to the Torah and said to the Pharisees, "Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are Gods"?
In other words, Jesus was pointing out that he was not proclaiming to be anything special in stating that he and the father are one. This is clearly true for everyone. That would indeed be the stance of a pantheistic-minded Buddhist.
So not only did Jesus not teach anything new, but he was clearly rejecting the teachings in the Torah, and even referring to it as "your law" when speaking with the Pharisees.
Sure, he tried his best to use their ignorant fables to support his Buddhist views. In that sense he supported the "Torah" (or used the Torah to support his views). But only in that sense.
Jesus was not the demigod son of a hateful jealous God.
He was most likely a Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva who was trying to get people to wise up and behave better than how the ignorant teachings of the Torah had taught them to behave.
So there is actually quite a bit of evidence pointing to the likely truth that the man who sparked the New Testament rumors of Jesus was actually favoring Buddhism and trying to renounce the ignorance and immoral behaviors that had been instilled in people by the Torah.
Jesus taught nothing new, and was probably educated by Mahayana Buddhists himself since his teachings were far more in line with those of Buddhism than they were with Judaism.
Many people don't realize also that many Jews of that time period actually had a quite pantheistic notion of God themselves. This notion of God as being a jealous humanoid in the sky is actually a modern facade created mostly due to Christianity.
Christian - A moron who believes that an all-benevolent God can simultaneously be a hateful jealous male-chauvinistic pig.
Wiccan - The epitome of cerebral evolution having mastered the magical powers of the universe and is in eternal harmony with the mind of God.
Atheist - An ill-defined term that means something different to everyone who uses it.
~~~~~
Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
Clearly Jesus (a fictitious character or otherwise) will forgive people if they merely know not what they do
For the Bible Tells us so!
Wiccan - The epitome of cerebral evolution having mastered the magical powers of the universe and is in eternal harmony with the mind of God.
Atheist - An ill-defined term that means something different to everyone who uses it.
~~~~~
Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
Clearly Jesus (a fictitious character or otherwise) will forgive people if they merely know not what they do
For the Bible Tells us so!