"Laughing At Religion" Meme Thread

[Fake Messiah]

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Boru

[Fake Messiah]

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Boru

 I was brought up to believe that Jesus taught to love your neighbour, extending the idea with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The lesson there being everyman is my neighbour.

I discovered only recently that Jesus also told his followers to stay away from Samaritans  They were, and are a despised sect, not considered to be real Jews by mainstream Jewry. Also to stay away from gentiles. Staying away from gentile is a very big deal; it's here the great numbers of early christianity came; early christianity was very attractive to the marginalised, especially women and slaves.  Jesus was after all a pious Jew. The sect he founded was a Jewish sect for Jews.

Mathew 10: 5  "These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel."

It has long been my belief that if there was an historical Jesus, he has little or nothing to do with the sect which became of Christianity.

[polymath257]

 I was brought up to believe that Jesus taught to love your neighbour, extending the idea with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The lesson there being everyman is my neighbour.

I discovered only recently that Jesus also told his followers to stay away from Samaritans  They were, and are a despised sect, not considered to be real Jews by mainstream Jewry. Also to stay away from gentiles. Staying away from gentile is a very big deal; it's here the great numbers of early christianity came; early christianity was very attractive to the marginalised, especially women and slaves.  Jesus was after all a pious Jew. The sect he founded was a Jewish sect for Jews.

Mathew 10: 5  "These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel."

It has long been my belief that if there was an historical Jesus, he has little or nothing to do with the sect which became of Christianity.

Yeah. Paulism isn't very close to what Jesus preached.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

 I was brought up to believe that Jesus taught to love your neighbour, extending the idea with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The lesson there being everyman is my neighbour.

I discovered only recently that Jesus also told his followers to stay away from Samaritans  They were, and are a despised sect, not considered to be real Jews by mainstream Jewry. Also to stay away from gentiles. Staying away from gentile is a very big deal; it's here the great numbers of early christianity came; early christianity was very attractive to the marginalised, especially women and slaves.  Jesus was after all a pious Jew. The sect he founded was a Jewish sect for Jews.

Mathew 10: 5  "These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel."

It has long been my belief that if there was an historical Jesus, he has little or nothing to do with the sect which became of Christianity.

Yeah. Paulism isn't very close to what Jesus preached.

  
Been pretty much aware that Paul pretty much invented the  faith which came to be called christianity for some time..  I seem to remember reading that it was Emperor Theodosius 1 who was responsible for that name. IE he was the first person of note to refer to 'The Way' taught by Jesus as Christianity.

 Jesus is recorded  as saying:  "Matthew 5:17-20 NIV “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished"


---and there's the rub as I see it. Everything was certainly not accomplished.  Jesus said  Matthew 16:28:

"Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”(KJV)

The the return of Jesus was perhaps the focus of early christianity. It was considered imminent by his followers. When Jesus didn't return, the time of his return was quietly changed to some indeterminate  time in the future and de emphasised. It was only only ever mentioned in passing at my Catholic school.

Jesus failing to return meant they had no way of knowing if Jesus had come into his kingdom.   Christianity became just another  failed millenarian movement.

Arguably the most important changes Paul made was abolishing parts of the Mitzvot which deal with ritual. Most import being abolishing circumcision and dietary law together with allowing gentiles to join. That contradicted what Jesus said, in not approaching Gentiles or Samaritans. There is little doubt in my mind that Jesus may  have founded a small Jewish sect, intentioned for practicing Jews.

Over the last twenty years or so, I've taken the historic perspective.IE that at best  there may have been a wondering Rabbi in first century Judea called something like Yeshua/Yoshua bar Yusuf. He may have founded a small Jewish sect and may have been crucified by  the Romans for sedition. This was a not uncommon fate for a Jewish man in that time and place. That the rabbi Yeshua  bar Yusuf had little if anything to do with Jesus  the Christ in the New Testament.

In the last year or so, I've discovered Richard Carrier  and his mythicist approach. So far I'm intrigued but some way from convinced. So far, he seems to have problem distinguishing between correlation and causation. I may have misunderstood. I will persevere.

[Fake Messiah]

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

 
Don't forget God's chosen people slaughtering all of the Canaanites because Cana was the land promised to them by God.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. YHWH of the Torah is a dead cunt. 

 Without exception, religions reflect the cultures which in invent them and the people who practice them.  How could it be otherwise?.

The tribes which became the Jews were nomadic, illiterate bronze age sheep herders. Their lives would have been nasty and brutish and short.  Only natural  that their gods would be even more nasty and brutish.

Interesting to note that over centuries, El the petty Sumerian storm/war god became YHWH , the one creator god ,lord of the universe, god the loving father.
.
As Jewish society evolved, so did their religion.  Same thing has happened to Christianity, with different levels of success. Even so, we no longer stone people for adultery nor burn them alive for heresy.   IMO that is only because church no longer controls state, at least not to the degree it once did in christendom,  up to the early seventeenth century at least. 

I won't comment on Islamic societies  which have yet to evolve beyond brutal tribal law. 

It's been sobering to watch the behaviour of the extreme right all over the world in recent years. There is no doubt in my mind that many of those people would cheerfully see heretics, gays, commies et al murdered for being themselves. Probably broadcast it at half time during sporting events on Fox.

[Fake Messiah]

[Fake Messiah]

I'm...dreaming of a white...