Devout Christianity! Living the Myth!

[President Camacho]

he.... He? God? In every religion it's 'he' that endorses that particular belief. Christians are no different than the rest of those disillusioned and brain-washed sheep.

[Seraphim]

If so, EXPLAIN WHY! Give me a break, it makes me feel exactly, 180 degrees away from inferior.

You hit the nail on the head Stahrwe. What you need is a quick lesson on perspective. 180 degrees away from inferior means you feel "superior". The condescention wafting from a pulpit always made me feel inferior. Whatever "superiority" the preacher had, he sure didn't share it. It's an oft used religious tactic to play a guilt trip on people for being born in sin, then offering a 'way out'. I remember feeling more guilt in church than at any other time. It's a disgusting filthy belief system to put kids through that.

As you said, it's an 'oft used religious tactic,' but not always used. I grew up knowing that I was a sinner, but that it was perfectly normal because I was human. Not to say that sinning is a good thing, but that we can't expect to be perfect and not sin. We must just strive in our daily lives to be better people and live better lives. If we sin, ask for forgiveness and guidance to do better. There was never any condescension from the priest for he knew and acknowledged that he was a sinner as well, just like all of us. I've never felt guilty for being born in sin because there is not one among us who wasn't.

I've never been one for the scare tactics that you mention. I think it's a horrible way to bring people to the church and keep them there. In college, every Wednesday, we'd have a group of radicals who would yell at everyone walking by, telling them that they were going to hell. Everyone in the world was going to hell except them. Well, if they are to be the only ones in Heaven, then I'd rather be in Hell. These people who throw religion in your faces and make you fear God give all religions (not just Christians) a bad name, and I feel sorry for them because they clearly are not living happy lives. How can one be happy when they are always so angry and yelling at everyone? It's teachings and tactics like that which I despise. Church should not make anyone feel guilty or dirty because they are a sinner. I believe it's there more for guidance in one's own personal journey of faith. I know I have more questions than answers about my faith, but I take it upon myself to study and learn and believe what I choose, and I don't try to force my beliefs on anyone.\\

And now you know the rest of the story......as Christians seem to think that Christianity is the only religion he sees or knows.

Not everyone. In my view, most if not all religions believe in some higher power, and we all just practice different ways of worshiping that higher power. Who's to say who is right? Who's to say there is even a God at all? I don't know if there is, but I'd like to think that there is, and that is what my faith is based on.

[Azrael]

he.... He? God? In every religion it's 'he' that endorses that particular belief. Christians are no different than the rest of those disillusioned and brain-washed sheep.

I agree.....disillusioned sheeples............hehehehehe.........


"the way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason" Ben Franklin

[Penelope]

Star Burst wrote:

And now you know the rest of the story......as Christians seem to think that Christianity is the only religion he sees or knows.

It is no use being angry at history - for the Pilgrim Fathers sailing to the New World and living by Christian tenets of faith. It is just the way history has unfolded.

It is no use trying to cling on to the old ways of thinking, in the light of new discoveries. That is like trying to put new wine into old wineskins - the old wineskins burst:

"No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. [37] And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. [38] No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. [39] And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' "


The above is what Jesus is reputed to have said in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 5 - Vs. 33-39.

Never a truer word was spoken.

Inayat Khan, the Sufi mystic said:

"Sleep is comfortable, but awakening is interesting."

....and guess what? He was a Muslim!!

[stahrwe]

Well if it does not create inferiority what would you call it? Why is Christianity so threatened by Islam and other religions? Why? Cause they are trying to keep from looking inferior....."the way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason" Ben Franklin....Christianity has never opened its eyes to reason. God did not create it, he did not endorse it and he never knew about it supposing he even exist which I doubt. You might say Judaism is the only religion God ever created, there again if he even exist............

Do we need to do the Ben Franklin quote study again? You can make any quote you want the Murdock way. The Bible says, "There is no God." Ps 14:1.

The full quote is:
Psalm 14:1
The fool has said in his heart,“There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.


Ben Franklin:
"The Way to see by Faith, is to shut the Eye of Reason:
The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle."
'Poor Richard’s Almanack (July 1758); the first portion of this sentence is often quoted without the context provided by the complete statement.'
wikiquotes

Ben Franklin also said:
"That Being, who gave me existence, and through almost threescore years has been continually showering his favors upon me, whose very chastisements have been blessings to me ; can I doubt that he loves me? And, if he loves me, can I doubt that he will go on to take care of me, not only here but hereafter? This to some may seem presumption; to me it appears the best grounded hope; hope of the future built on experience of the past."
Letter to George Whitefield (19 June 1764), published in The Works of Benjamin Franklin (1856).

Sounds like BF is talking about God to me and not in the manner some deist would either.

One more thing. Christianity is not a religion, and if you search the OT you will not find the word religion ther either.

[stahrwe]

If so, EXPLAIN WHY! Give me a break, it makes me feel exactly, 180 degrees away from inferior.

You hit the nail on the head Stahrwe. What you need is a quick lesson on perspective. 180 degrees away from inferior means you feel "superior". The condescention wafting from a pulpit always made me feel inferior. Whatever "superiority" the preacher had, he sure didn't share it. It's an oft used religious tactic to play a guilt trip on people for being born in sin, then offering a 'way out'. I remember feeling more guilt in church than at any other time. It's a disgusting filthy belief system to put kids through that.

I am not the one who composed the post I was responding to so don't indict me for the antonym I was forced to. The quote was:

"To live by a book thats impossible to live by? Face it. You cannot live by the Bible without breaking some rule its inevitable your going to. Thats what its about, to make one feel inferior and weak and succumb to the faith of the myth."

Now you will have to ask Star Burst what he meant by 'inferior'. I took it, in context, to mean; useless, unloved, unacceptable in God's sight. With that in mind, the antithesis would mean, useful, loved, and acceptable in God's sight.

What condescension wafting from what pulpit? I would bet you that if you and I could travel in time to any church service where you felt condescension from the pulpit and we could see what the preacher was feeling at that moment you would find that preacher preaching to himself as much as the congregation. Of course the church is full of hypcrites and we know that we are. You don't get born again as a spiritual adult it is just as much a growth process and growing from a newborn baby. Some people embrace that and mature, others get arrested in their spiritual development in infancy, or two year old, or teenage. And when you meet Christians you are meeting people in that entire spectrum. There are Mother Theresas and Benny Hinn's.

Perhaps you should have spent more time contemplating the reason you felt guilt rather than being angry and contemptuous of the preacher. Guilty for being “born in sin”, I doubt that was the point of the sermon. One is not guilty for being born.

[Penelope]

Could you tell me why you say that Christianity is not a religion?

What criteria are you using to define religion?

This is the one I found when pondering your statement:-

Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Isn't this what Christianity is?

As far as I can understand - Christianity grew as a World religion, from the believers in the man Jesus. It hadn't become a religion yet, when the New Testament writings were being compiled.

Judaism is a religion is it not? Or are you arguing that Judaism is a Nation, which it is but it fits the quote above by definition. No?

[Azrael]

Star Burst wrote:

And now you know the rest of the story......as Christians seem to think that Christianity is the only religion he sees or knows.

It is no use being angry at history - for the Pilgrim Fathers sailing to the New World and living by Christian tenets of faith. It is just the way history has unfolded.

It is no use trying to cling on to the old ways of thinking, in the light of new discoveries. That is like trying to put new wine into old wineskins - the old wineskins burst:

"No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. [37] And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. [38] No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. [39] And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.' "


The above is what Jesus is reputed to have said in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 5 - Vs. 33-39.

Never a truer word was spoken.

Inayat Khan, the Sufi mystic said:

"Sleep is comfortable, but awakening is interesting."

....and guess what? He was a Muslim!!

Jesus was a fake! Just like the religion named after him...stop the pity party for Christians.

[Azrael]

Well if it does not create inferiority what would you call it? Why is Christianity so threatened by Islam and other religions? Why? Cause they are trying to keep from looking inferior....."the way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason" Ben Franklin....Christianity has never opened its eyes to reason. God did not create it, he did not endorse it and he never knew about it supposing he even exist which I doubt. You might say Judaism is the only religion God ever created, there again if he even exist............

Do we need to do the Ben Franklin quote study again? You can make any quote you want the Murdock way. The Bible says, "There is no God." Ps 14:1.

The full quote is:
Psalm 14:1
The fool has said in his heart,“There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.


Ben Franklin:
"The Way to see by Faith, is to shut the Eye of Reason:
The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle."
'Poor Richard’s Almanack (July 1758); the first portion of this sentence is often quoted without the context provided by the complete statement.'
wikiquotes

Ben Franklin also said:
"That Being, who gave me existence, and through almost threescore years has been continually showering his favors upon me, whose very chastisements have been blessings to me ; can I doubt that he loves me? And, if he loves me, can I doubt that he will go on to take care of me, not only here but hereafter? This to some may seem presumption; to me it appears the best grounded hope; hope of the future built on experience of the past."
Letter to George Whitefield (19 June 1764), published in The Works of Benjamin Franklin (1856).

Sounds like BF is talking about God to me and not in the manner some deist would either.

One more thing. Christianity is not a religion, and if you search the OT you will not find the word religion ther either.

Yeah how about we do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did."
- letter to his father, 1738

". . . Some books against Deism fell into my hands. . . It happened that they wrought an effect on my quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist."
.

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it."
- "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion", 1728
.

"I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity."
- Works, Vol. VII, p. 75
.

"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. They found it wrong in Bishops, but fell into the practice themselves both here (England) and in New England."
.

"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."
.

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."
-in Poor Richard's Almanac
.

"When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."
.

"I looked around for God's judgments, but saw no signs of them."
.

"In the affairs of the world, men are saved, not by faith, but by the lack of it."

"It is much to be lamented that a man of Franklin's general good character and great influence should have been an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to make others unbelievers" (Priestley's Autobiography)


ANd while the hell we are at it lets add a little Jefferson to the damn mxi why don't we!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose."
- to Horatio Spafford, March 17, 1814
.

"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth."
- "Notes on Virginia"
.

"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.
- letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787
.

"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not one. But this constitutes the craft, the power and the profit of the priests."
- to John Adams, 1803
.

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose."
- to Baron von Humboldt, 1813
.

"On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind."
- to Carey, 1816
.

"Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself."
-in his private journal, Feb. 1800
.

"It is not to be understood that I am with him (Jesus Christ) in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of Spiritualism, he preaches the efficacy of repentance toward forgiveness of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it." - to Carey, 1816
.

"The priests of the superstition, a bloodthirsty race, are as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore."
- to Story, Aug. 4, 1820
.

"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man. But compare with these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.
1. That there are three Gods.
2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, is nothing.
3. That faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit the faith.
4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former can damn them; no virtues of the latter save."
- to Benjamin Waterhouse, Jun. 26, 1822
.

"Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a common censor over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth."

[Penelope]

Star Burst:

Jesus was a fake! Just like the religion named after him...stop the pity party for Christians.

It is necessary to attempt to reason with people when they hold unreasonable beliefs, otherwise they are inclined to feel righteous in blowing the rest of us to bits.

I don't believe in being deliberately confrontational. It doesn't get us anywhere:-

War does not
Determine who is right, war determines who is Left.