(April 9, 2014 at 4:22 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Jefferson liked Jesus much in the same way he liked Plato and Socrates, but he did not view Jesus as a man/god.
Having said that, if I could have lived back then knowing what I know now I would have argued with Jefferson, who would have enjoyed the challenge, that Jesus was not the moral leader he wanted him to be. I'd also get into Plato's faults too, but that is a different subject.
Jefferson cherry picked like they all do. "Love thy neighbor" "give to the poor" "turn the other cheek ", all sound nice, until you take take them into context with the other things he says and the entire bible itself.
Jesus also tells you that "I bring not peace but a sword" and tells you to abandon your own family and friends if they don't follow you. That is a conformist attitude and Jefferson himself didn't like the idea of blind obedience.
And without the consent of humans Jesus makes the decision for you whom you forgive which takes away your own autonomy. In reality if we don't like someone and want to leave them we can and we don't even have to like them or forgive them, even if we are not allowed to kill them.
And in the entire context of the bible the argument goes "that was the OT God, the NT Jesus/God doesn't do that anymore".
The OT God murders or condones the murder of rivals so that would like a serial killer asking you to forget prior murders because they promise not to do it again. Even with the NT, this God of Jesus, which is also the OT god, at the end of the book goes right back to getting violent with his rivals.
So pointing out acts of kindness in the NT would be like saying Kim Jong Un has a dog he doesn't kick anymore.
A- fucking- men to that !!!
