The main points of Christianity?

[emilynghiem]

The main point of Christianity is redemption.
Didn't see that in your list above.
Wonder why.

Hi professor
redemption is a step in Restorative Justice.
Not everyone understands the term redemption.
Can you spell it out in secular terms?

if we can spell out the steps in Restorative Justice,
including forgiveness healing correction and restitution,
we can align terms that Christians use and ones that make sense to secular users.

I tend to use the terms above in bold ^
I find the term redemption is more relative to different people
and would ask to have that spelled out more specifically. can you pls help? Thanks!

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Justice is not yet proven to exist, and certainly hasn't come back for all humanity. Same with Jesus.

Nitpicking is something I do, and this is something I thought I'd make a small comment on. There is a difference between saying Justice is not shown to exist and Jesus is not shown to exist. Justice is a concept, a value that we hold as the basis of morality. It's not a physical thing. Saying you can't prove justice exists is like saying you can't prove math exists, or you can't prove ethics exist.

Jesus was a person, or a group of people who were congealed into one via mythologizing history. Either he existed or he didn't. It's pretty clear that the Jesus of the gospels DID NOT exist, but did a philosopher of his type exist at the beginning of Christianity to give birth to the figure portrayed in the gospels? Possibly. There were a lot of them in the area at the time.

As to the OP, I've given it some thought. First, I don't think those are the main points of Christianity. Some of them aren't even implied by Jesus. Not wanting people to be covetous and wanting people to help the poor is not the same as telling people to be starving beggars. The points listed don't prove the religion false, the fact that none of it happened does that just fine enough.

Hi Natachan
I am saying that Jesus represents or embodies the spirit of Justice.
Maybe this is a different angle for teaching the meaning of Jesus for secular gentiles under natural laws. But it's the same Jesus.

When I teach math, some students just want to work the symbols and get the right answer. Other teachers and students are all into this weird way of using visuals to count the values and show what is being moved around. I don't need that and can't stand that way. But the math works the same, whether you focus on the symbols or you tangibly see touch and move the physical quantities around.

I notice many people complain they don't recognize the other way of doing math which looks foreign to them, and their brains just don't process that way.

I am guessing the same is happening when I go around explaining that Jesus represents Justice on a collective abstract level and doesn't have to be symbolized in personified form with all the religious ritual attached. I didn't understand that way of teaching it, so I explain in secular natural terms that make sense to me. And I relate to other secular minds more like mine who can grasp the same concepts and process that way.

the other way always seems a bit mystifying to me, but I understand that's how other people relate and get it. I prefer the secular explanation that i find more practical to real life application and change in the real world I can see, feel and appreciate.

Thanks! I don't think it is fair at all to only teach Jesus one way, and judge people for not getting it that way if our minds don't process like that.
I'd rather form a consensus that Jesus can be taught this other way for secular gentiles, and then reconcile the two ways of teaching it where we all agree it's the same concept and process.