Posts: 863
Threads: 49
Joined: January 2, 2021
Reputation:
11
The power of Christ...
August 8, 2023 at 3:42 pm
Jokingly, I said to a friend today, that if praying to Jesus as hard as I used to actually worked as it was sold to me and cured my ADHD, then yeah, I'd follow the Christian rules of conduct.
But actually thinking about it, I don't think I would. 1. Because the Christian god is probably a demonic entity that is masquerading as good and 2. Because I'd rather be happy in the way that I am, free to be me, than have to obey the dictates over my life and destiny this entity wants to possess. Just for a bit of stellar focus. Like, I could be like the normies. Just be able to think a thing and do it. Ehh, not worth it for the independence and autonomy I'd lose. Even the most progressive Christian sects require you to be a willing sheep to the shepherd demon at least in lip service(which is just as bad, because do we really understand how a supernatural contract system would work? You agree verbally aloud...what have you done?)
Anyway, how about you? In the hypothetical: Jesus allegiance works and can heal you of any maladies, so long as you declare it and submit to the power. Is it worth it? Do you fall for it?
Posts: 29819
Threads: 116
Joined: February 22, 2011
Reputation:
159
RE: The power of Christ...
August 8, 2023 at 4:21 pm
Posts: 17168
Threads: 462
Joined: March 29, 2015
Reputation:
30
RE: The power of Christ...
August 8, 2023 at 4:23 pm
(This post was last modified: August 8, 2023 at 4:24 pm by Fake Messiah.)
Magical Jesus falls flat in so many ways. NT says he had bros and sisters, so his sisters were illiterate slaves who were married off to arranged marriages - in other words, their lives weren't any better although they were related to him. So you see how these legends of him healing people are ridiculous when he did not change even the lives of his family members for the better.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
Posts: 46401
Threads: 540
Joined: July 24, 2013
Reputation:
109
RE: The power of Christ...
August 8, 2023 at 5:20 pm
The alethiological problem with praying to Jesus (or any other god) is that it is impossible to tell if it was prayer or chance that effected the results.
Suppose someone is stupid enough to be an inveterate lottery player. For years, this person spends thousands of dollars playing the numbers and never even wins enough to cover the cost of the tickets. Then, this person gets on their knees and prays to Jesus for a big win. At the next draw, the penitent wins a fuckzillion dollars. It simply isn’t possible to know of it was the prayer that did it, or if that person would have won the money without the prayer.
There’s really no call to label Jesus a demon - Bierce neatly pointed out the idiocy of prayer over a century ago.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
Posts: 33223
Threads: 1415
Joined: March 15, 2013
Reputation:
152
RE: The power of Christ...
August 8, 2023 at 8:04 pm
I always jokingly say, Not today, Jesus.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
Posts: 1988
Threads: 93
Joined: October 23, 2022
Reputation:
8
RE: The power of Christ...
August 8, 2023 at 8:52 pm
(August 8, 2023 at 4:23 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: Magical Jesus falls flat in so many ways. NT says he had bros and sisters, so his sisters were illiterate slaves who were married off to arranged marriages - in other words, their lives weren't any better although they were related to him. So you see how these legends of him healing people are ridiculous when he did not change even the lives of his family members for the better.
Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Posts: 8711
Threads: 128
Joined: March 1, 2012
Reputation:
54
RE: The power of Christ...
August 8, 2023 at 10:22 pm
The power of Christ is the Grace to become more like Him.
<insert profound quote here>
Posts: 35337
Threads: 205
Joined: August 13, 2012
Reputation:
146
RE: The power of Christ...
August 8, 2023 at 10:40 pm
(August 8, 2023 at 10:22 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: The power of Christ is the Grace to become more like Him.
Fictional?
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
Posts: 19789
Threads: 57
Joined: September 24, 2010
Reputation:
85
RE: The power of Christ...
August 9, 2023 at 1:41 am
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2023 at 2:47 am by Anomalocaris.)
(August 8, 2023 at 10:22 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: The power of Christ is the Grace to become more like Him.
I would think the temptation to be come mad, illiterate, ignorant, megalomaniacal, delusional, inclined to assemble gullible groupies, and to die a painful miserable and rightly shameful death just like him would the farthest conceivable thing from “grace”
Posts: 46401
Threads: 540
Joined: July 24, 2013
Reputation:
109
RE: The power of Christ...
August 9, 2023 at 6:21 am
It occurs to me that if the Thomists are right about it being impossible for God to act against his immutable nature, then either all prayers must be granted, or no prayers can ever be granted. If God were to answer some prayers and not others, then God would be whimsical.
Since God granting prayers is impossible on the face of it (both teams praying to win, for example), the only option left is that God never grants any prayers, ever.
So, why pray?
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
|