Unconventional Religion

[Consilius]

But as a theist aren't you pushing the superiority of an objective basis for morality? (Sorry, I haven't been following this discussion or I would probably already know the answer to this question.)

An objective moral standard doesn't mean that "my God told us what to do when he wrote it on a mountain." Many morals have evolutionary bases. We cannot survive as a species unless we follow them. They are as much a part of us as the laws of physics.

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Fully expecting you to start rationalizing with with cries of "but these are not instructions not to own":

I prefer to call it 'tearing it down with regards to the unity of the Bible'.

Matthew 6:19-21 - Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If you treat wealth as your 'treasure' (the kind of treasure in the bolded phrase, of which you can only have one, your primary treasure), your heart is in the wrong place. Morals first, money second.

Timothy 6:10 - For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.

Money is good. It should not be admired in itself. There is no inherent virtue in material possessions or in having them.

Acts 4:32-35 - Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

This is a description of an early church community that shared its possessions equally, physically and mentally, striking a balance between the poor and the rich, who were not better people than the poor were.

Matthew 19:21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

I underlined your misquotation.
The rich young man thought he could earn heaven by doing stuff. “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He forgot that salvation was a gift he needed to get from God. Since he was bent on doing things, Jesus offered him a much harder vocation. Jesus proved that he wasn't DOING as much as he thought he was. The life of an evangelist just wasn't for him, and his shame taught him that no amount of work is superior to any other, and there's nothing you can do to earn salvation.

Bill Gates is a good person. Do I need a software company to be good as well?

If you believe that it is his software company that makes him good, then yeah.

I know it doesn't. The same way I know that the extreme religious life is a road some people just choose to take. Their calling and not mine. We both get to the same place if we try hard enough.

Children nee a lot of material possessions to be happy.

That's not what you said a while ago:

So all children and the poor and are sad?

Poor, yes. Children - not so much.

What a child needs is love, like you said, and, even though life becomes difficult, a meal won't prevent him or her from taking joy in it's mother's arms.

I didn't say I needed love to survive - I said I need love to live.

Fine. Why do you need love to live, if not to survive?

Because they never pretended that I was deserving simply due to being alive.

Then why DID you recieve those years of care? You didn't get a medal for being born, and, in fact, your existence was most likely disadvantageous to a family. Why not send you to an orphanage?

Where quite a few biological instincts are concerned, ofcourse it goes against the 'natural order'. Why is that a problem?

The slippery slope. When you stray to far from the roots, you lose sight of the consequences.