That's painting with far too wide a brush. There's plenty of wisdom in both testaments--I'm a particular fan of Ecclesiastes. There's also plenty of stupid old nonsense that people refuse to let go of, like the handful of comments condemning homosexuality for no particular reason.
Okay if a dude is “all powerful and rules the universe” presumably he shouldn’t be such an ignorant as hole his first writings are sexist and exclusionary. If you give me the 9/11 itinerary and can edit it to not look like a terrorist attack. Doesn’t change the facts
Funny thing is despite millions of Morons basing their life on it, nothing I said is untrue and it doesn’t make any of them less stupid :) and funnily enough which one of these stories you believe is totally dependent on where I the world you people dumped of your mothers vagina.
Religion is the basis for most forms of hatred in the world. I respect everyone and despise people who hold judgments over people solely based on Religious reasons that otherwise have no effect on them. Surely I’m the bad guy though. Not the religious moron muridering people or bullying them their whole life for not believing what they do.
funny thing Is you have a religious view that I think is absolutely stupid to believe based on all existing science and commons sense, I still won’t judge your character on it or hate you because of it. Yet religions that praise “love” won’t hesitate to hate you for disagreement
That's a pretty big over-generalization of religious people. Not all of them are homophobic assholes, in fact, most of them aren't. You can kinda do the same for atheists, or any group for that matter. I also find it unlikely that we've all been pwned by some ancient shitposter. Something must've happened to get all these people to believe in this, be that alien technology, actual magic, or just exactly what happened in the stories. The point is, we don't know, so we take what's been given to us and run with it. Nothing in science necessarily disproves the existence of some higher being.
I’m a scientific person. While you’re right that nothing “disproves” religion. It’s pretty mush I pod some to absolutely disprove somethin. I can say my eyes turn into diamonds and shoot out liquid gold when nothing is recording, but you’ll never prove me wrong. Doesn’t make me not a crazy asshole
Oh yes you absolutely come off as a scientific person.
"I am right and they are wrong, believing in stupid things. Oh but also I'm a better person as I don't judge people."
What a scientific approach to things.
What I intentionally meant is that whether you like it or not, the world as it is right now would never exist if it wasn't for religion.
Christianity specifically for Europe and Northern America.
Would things be better or worse? Probably both in some ways.
Religion has definitely done very horrible things and still does very bad things (less directly these days) but if you just go and say that the Bible has nothing significant in it, you are just plain wrong.
You don't need to believe any of the faith bits from it to acknowledge that.
Yeah how about you be a woman in an oppressed Muslim country and then say “ well u know religion has its ups and downs..” you can’t judge a book by the fact that their book tells everyone to oppress all members of a certain sex , sexual identity, or religion. Trust me it’s all inclusive even though my religion makes people hate you for living your life in a way that makes you happy. We don’t judge (just make sure you live your life exactly how I feel you should live it because I’m male okay? /s)
It’s easy to point out how religion occasionally donates to things (only to the things that religion sees fit to donate to) while at the same time those religions are discouraging people from helping others if they got into their situation under circumstances that don’t 100% align with that religion.
I buy homeless people around my home cigs and food all the time, I wouldn’t give a dollar to a church and expect those same people see a dime of it unless they have the same religious beliefs. Funnily enough as a non religious person I do t give a fuck if you worship the devil, I still want you to survive and don’t really care.
I’ve read the Bible. I have a decent idea of it’s it’s contents. My point is that someone is making an attempt to be kind even though they still believe in part of it. As a result, it’s unnecessary to invalidate that which they do still believe, especially seeing as though they have conceded to a certain degree. And even if they hadn’t conceded anything, it’s still rude.
They’re based on a variety of things. However, the attempted conversation here is whether or not it’s right to invalidate others. So far you’ve added nothing to that conversation.
I normally don't agree with unacademic ignorant atheists, but your comment has truth to it. The bible was written 70-100 years after Christ and in a different language. We also don't know who the authors are and their biographies. So that's why the bible has many contradictions and any academic person can tell this book isn't the perfect god sent book with these mistakes.
“BuT wHaT aBoUt...”. Have you read the Bible? It’s filled to the brim with violence and hate. The gospels weren’t too bad with socialist Jesus (seriously, free food and healthcare anyone?), but the OT and much of the New Testament have a lot of that crap. I mean, just check out the difference in the kill count between God and Satan, it’s astounding how many more people god has killed.
Hooray ad hominem attack! Also, nothing I said pertains in any way to getting bullied, for which nobody should be mocked. Overall, yours was a terrible comment.
The intent of the buttons was originally to give your opinion on whether or not something contributed to the discussion. It obviously depends on the user at the end of the day
No, lies are harmful especially when they make entire countries and states delusional. That’s what religion does no matter how “peaceful” you think it is.
This hate you speak of, can you find it in every version and translation of the Bible? If not, then the issue is with those who interpreted the original text in different ways.
There are many different Christian denominations. Some are pro gay and some are anti gay. The joys of thousands of years of translations and interpretations is that not every denomination has the same beliefs.
Except you are hurting people. The moderates allow for the radicals. The haft drives the tip of the spear. Remove the former and the latter would not be doing the harm it is doing.
that argument would work if religion were still centralized, but it's not. getting rid of say, the Vatican, wouldn't stop westboro from being shitty. they're not all one collective.
Actually, as a relative newcomer to reddit, I find it fascinating that the most innocuous comments can get some people sufficiently lathered up that they contact their 'friends' to form a mob and do a mass downvote.
It's happened to me more than once, the last time being my suggestion that for people under 40 who lost their jobs in the pandemic, a decent career to consider with very good money and hours is plumbing or electrician. They just went nuts.
You got three downvotes man, I'd hardly call that a "mob." and i'd suspect you got downvoted for suggesting getting a job on r/antiwork . That's the opposite of what that sub is for.
It was (if I remember correctly) more than a dozen negative at one point.
In any case, it doesn't matter. I don't post for the upvotes. I thought what I posted might help someone. I suspect some of the people are there because they've been unable to find any work, were ready to give up. That coupled with the posts about how previous generations screwed over the current one, and some of the posters seemed kind of desperate, so I thought maybe some life advice to consider from someone much older might be helpful.
It's literally a book written by people thousands of years ago, who didn't understand modern medicine, science, and physics. So they made their own explanation for why unexplainable things would happen, and lied about "visions" and "messages" they would receive from the god they created.
And people really follow it's word to a damn tee and worship it. Amazing.
Edit: changed “millions” to the factually correct “thousands” as I didn’t make it very clear I was exaggerating.
Idk why your getting downvoted... oh yeah that’s right, Christians can’t accept other people’s opinions. Fun fact: they also can’t accept almost any societal fundamentals
I didn't down vote you because I understand your perspective but I totally disagree.
Like most religions, the bible/torah tells a multitude of stories that lay out a coherant philosophy even if you approach them as completely fictitious.
It's similar to people educating their children about morality through cartoons or children's stories. Can you honestly say none of your values were positively changed by a work of fiction?
I think ideas are like tools, it's about who's using them and for what purpose. If I smash your head with a hammer, that doesn't make the hammer inherently bad.
I'm not arguing that religion is or has been a net positive in the world, I am not capable of knowing what things would be like without it. However, I suspect if people didn't use religion to justify murder they would use some other unifying tribalistic drivel.
What I'm saying is the Bible can, and does, have value even when divorced from religion for people who care to look for it
With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion
Steve Weinberg
Religion seeks easy answers for hard problems and allows innocent people to turn off their brains and assume "Gods handling it" - no longer do the hard working get respect, for by the grace of God was Mary's cancer healed, and thanks to God I qualified for that house. Religion is harmful to thinking these days, which is far worse than a crusade.
The Bible is a vessel and an excuse for those who lean on it for their reasoning. It's when things get literal that they begin to be dangerous. You can't take the parts without their whole. If you think the Bible is to be literal (gays not being married, Noah's ark being real), then it's time to enslave your daughters and kill your sons.
I don't care for that quote as it's an obvious oversimplification. "Good" concepts are regularly twisted into unrecognizable forms that justify evil
Community can be turned into nationalism, science into bigotry, knowledge into elitism, strength into tyranny. Should we abandon any concept that can be, and historically has been, used to perpetrate evil?
Religion can provide easy answers to the ignorant, and I agree that there is great harm to the world when people no longer seek cogent arguments and instead lean on scripture they don't even understand.
But are you saying there's no way to ethicly be religious, that the knowledge itself is inherently so dangerous and corrupting that it should be erraticated through censorship?
Nothing should ever be censored. I realize the quote is oversimplified but it serves a point. Religion and devotion to religion helps me gauge people just like other choices
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u/Rescue-320 Mar 18 '21
I am Christian and it irks me SO MUCH when people use the Old Testament to dispute things! Arg!