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Religion is the biggest scourge against humans. Controlling behavior, brainwashing the young and stolen untold trillions of $$. Fuck religion. They all need to be labeled as cults and treated as harshly.
Religion, at its core, is basically rules that state "don't be a dick." Unfortunately, all of the dicks didn't get the message.
It's not "don't be a dick'.
It's "do as we want you to do"
Plenty of the rules are "be a dick, like this:"
Plenty of the rules are "don't do this objectively harmless thing"
Plenty of the rulez are "do this ridiculously pointless thing"
Yes, modern religion has many rules made by the dicks once they took over. Before the dicks rules were things like don't steal shit, don't fuck your neighbor's wife, don't murder people, don't lie about shit, etc. The dicks were so bad that some other guy had to come along and say "seriously guys, stop being dicks". But the dicks didn't like that so they killed him.
Most declarations of what religions do and don't don't do miss Discordianism pretty hard, but you got us on those.
Exhibits: A) Don't eat hotdog buns. B) Go off alone on a Friday and eat a hotdog with a bun.
Good looking out for us religious minorities.
All of culture is "do as we want you to do." We're hierarchical animals.
Ish.
Many religions are more "don't be a dick to your fellow brothers in faith, but feel free to be a dick to others". In-group out-group dynamics were historically quite important.
You know - "don't murder", but at the same time Deuteronomy says
Also
If you take each verse at face value, this is a problem and what you imply is true.
But the thing you quoted from Deuteronomy were instructions to the Israelites. It's recorded history, not instruction. You can't just point to a verse in the Bible (like Acts 8:8 "Saul, for his part, approved of his murder") and say "see? The Bible says to do bad things!"
And going deeper shows that the Mosaic Law (the laws in the old testament, excluding the ten commandments), part of which is in your second block quote, was superceded by the Law Covenant when Jesus died. Again, it was a law directed specifically at Jews of the time.
You can kinda think of the first five Bible books (called the Torah in Judaism) as a speed run of history. So much happens in terms of time covered in those five books.
Not everyone who considers Deuteronomy to be scripture is Christian. For example, basically any rabbi would disagree with you.
The Deuteronomic code is literally presented as instruction from Moses to Israel as a normative set of rules for israel to follow. Many of the rules in it are included in the traditional lists of the Torah's 613 commandments.
I don't know of similar commandments in the new testament, but it's had its fair share of religious leaders inciting sectarian wars, pogroms, persecution, etc. For example, Pope Paul IV wrote a decree that forced the Jews of Rome into a ghetto in 1555, prevented them from owning property or working most skilled jobs. The Spanish Inquisition primarily targeted Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity under threat of exile.
Have even met a single rabbi, no two rabbi's agree on anything.
While rabbis don't agree on much, the official line of all the denominations is that messianic Jews are Christians, not Jews.
Every "rabbi" that accepts that the Torah was superceded by Jesus is a messianic Jew, basically by definition. That makes them not a rabbi, but a Christian minister in cosplay.
I don't disagree with you entirely I was pointing out that using absolutes with Jews is fraught with contradictions. I wasn't necessarily trying to support the person you responded to. Even within the framework that they were rules to follow there is an extremely wide variety of interpretation. And while I agree with your messianic assessment, as an atheist Jew that remember a tiny amount, I also think gatekeeping a religion is sketchy territory. Most fundamentalists don't believe any other sect is truly part of their religion, hard to draw lines using the perspectives of people that have a clear in group mentality. To me, if you say you're a Jew, you're a Jew, I have no reason to challenge the claim.
Sure, but this thread is mostly about Christianity (the post is about the Pope and the Catholic Church).
Yes. I said basically this. I wrote: But the thing you quoted from Deuteronomy were instructions to the Israelites.
Because there aren't any like that.
And? Your next door neighbour can be a "Christian", go to church every week, etc, but then find out he's a regular thief and had murdered someone. Would you then conclude there must be a commandment somewhere in the Bible that condones stealing and murder? Or would you conclude that he didn't follow the principles of the Bible he proclaimed to believe in?
Examples of people doing bad things in the name of the Bible is not evidence of anything against the Bible. It's just an example of terrible people being manipulative, exploitative, and ultimately evil. Many people throughout history (and many alive today) have realized that many people are more willing to listen to and accept what you say when you claim it's from the Bible. These people don't care about the Bible, they just care that it's a tool they can use for manipulation.
Christianity, and catholicism more specifically, are more than just the Bible itself.
Religious teachings evolve over time based off of new reinterpretations of old passages, teachings from influential leaders, folk traditions that spring up, etc. Those are all part of the religion, too.
For example, most Christians would say that the serpent in the garden of eden is Satan. Yet Genesis doesn't say anything about that, and the New Testament doesn't explicitly say it either. Mostly, it's a folk tradition some people found a couple verses you could squint at to support it.
And particularly in the case of Catholicism, there's a world of difference between a pope issuing an official bull, and your neighbor being a catholic who happens to be a shitty person. There's a huge difference between a random person teaching to be nice to your neighbor but shitty to outsiders, and for St Jerome to do that.
Catholicism yes. Christianity, no. Christianity is literally based on the Bible and a "Christian" is a follower of Christ (it's actually what the word means).
Well, that's not exactly correct. It's true that in Genesis it doesn't say "the snake in the garden that spoke to Eve was Satan". However, Satan is referred to as "the father of the lie" and "the original serpent". Satan is the only one to directly challenge God's right to rule and the lie to Eve was the first challenge. It has nothing to do with folk tradition. There are other supporting scriptions also.
Yes, there is a difference in the sense that the Pope has a huge and wide reaching audience and the neighbour is mostly a nobody. But that doesn't matter when we're talking about their conduct as it relates to "doing the right thing according to God". Each person is accountable to God for their own behaviour and actions.
On the other hand, there's an argument to be had about whether or not Catholicism should even be considered Christian anymore. There are so many doctrines and teachings that aren't in the Bible, or flat out taken from other "pagan" religions (religious syncretism). Sometimes even going against teachings in the Bible.
Reference:
John 8:44 "You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a murderer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie."
Revelation 12:9 "So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan"
And yet the golden rule usually doesn't get written down until multiple generations after the religion is formed. Took almost a century for Christianity to bother.
When the rules are laws, lawyers argue in front of judges and define the grey areas. They change the grey areas from time to time. We as a society have agreed to have a single interpretation of those rules.
In religion, when people don't agree on the rules or how they should be interpreted, they can break apart and form their own religion. There is no governing body with the power to enforce the single interpretation.
Thus, people who missed the dont be a dick memo just find each other and pretend their interpretation of the thousands of years old text is more valid than the don't be a dick crowd.
"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"
We're doing pretty good on the king front, lets work on the priests a bit
We've just changed the form of monarchal feudalism, it's still very much alive. Just disguised as CEOs and Presidents in our present oligarchy. But they might as well be kings and queens. And an enormous amount of those people still manipulate religion as a means to holding on to power. We are a long way from strangling our last king or priest.
"Cult" is just something the big congregation calls the small congregation.
There's a whole list of 8 points over what constitute a cult.
I don't remember the whole thing, but it was something like : Cults don't let you leave. If you do leave, your family and friends who are still in the cult will not speak to you. Cults control you in details. They make sure you are tired at the end of the day, too tired to think for yourself. Cults make you dependent financially. Once you are that deep in, leaving means starting over economically.
There's more, but it is different from how most people experience mainstream religions (I mean there are pockets here and there that are very cultish, but really the religion as a whole is a different beast that just works differently than an actual cult).
Tell me more about how you've never been in a church in the south.
I've been to multiple churches in the south, like everywhere some are better some are worse.
IDK, if we're comparing scourges against humanity I'd say "the rich" in general are worse, be they kings, CEOs, religious icons, politicians, or whatever. Their pursuit of money and the power to keep that money corrupts everything. They ruin everything from companies to countries and even religions (makes them even worse).
Really though, the most evil thing is cancer. It kills indiscriminately and tortures its victims the whole way. Even if you win, you never get the peace of knowing it's truly gone. True evil.
Yuh if we're gonna go that deep, the rock are responsible for the deep corruption running thru society, across all society's ills around the world. I agree that american religion's descent into facism-promotion is a symptom of that rather than a driving force.
Religion can fuel some truly abhorrent things, but at the same time I know people who have used religion and faith to pull themselves out of a really bad spot in life.
There can be a middle ground between admonishing all religious practices and dogmatic bible thumpers, and that starts with religion being a understood as a personal choice and how people interpret the religion being a reflection on their self and not the every religious person ever.
No. Religion is a scam. Lies to all it's members. Steals from anyone that tithes or donates anything, including their time.
And yet a lot of people are still religious so if you're running around suggesting destroying the thing they love and feel positive about you might find they are unwilling to listen to anything you have to say. Right now I really would rather we focus on collective action over the climate than worry about whose version of faith is correct.
------ian doomsday fantasy is one of the major drivers of climate change. They have always viewed the world as disposable, indeed, the sooner disposed the better.
What middle ground is there?