(July 17, 2014 at 6:57 am)whateverist Wrote: I assume you still lean toward theism in your agnosticism.No, agnostic is another word for athiest (as you well know).
Quote:Personally, I think I have internalized what Jesus taught to some degree.It's interesting you should say that because in recent debates with Christians I can't ever get them to agree upon what Jesus taught. For instance - Jesus never teaches not to obey the whole of the OT law, ever, but what he does teach is that the "extra layers" imposed by the Pharisees is wrong. For instance the OT law God gives says do not work on the Sabbath - the Pharisees decided to define "work" far more strictly including telling Jews how far they could walk before breaking the Sabbath. The Pharisees taught "love thy neighbour; and hate thy enemy" and Jesus taught that was wrong (in this case to a lawyer with the parable of the Good Samaritan).
The part that most Christians do not want to think about is that Jesus is teaching Leviticus 19 to the letter in that passage in Luke 10, yet Leviticus 20 says "If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." What happened in the early church is that Paul and Matthew and James and the other early leaders decided to abandon those laws, and that's recorded in the book of Acts. But that happens after Jesus has come and gone. That's essentially the same thing as what the Pharisees did by imposing their "interpretations" of the OT law, and when you look at it that way Christianity doesn't hold together - the early church leaders went ahead and did exactly what Jesus told the Pharisees off for doing!
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke