Monday, April 12, 2010
Who would Jesus sucker punch?
Fort Worth, Texas:
The saying goes that "An Atheist believes in only one less god than you do."
But at least in the disagreement between the Christian vs the Atheist the question boils down to a relatively simply choice between "yes" or "no". But when the disagreement is between two, or even more, differing versions of Christianity the question becomes "how". How do we worship? How do we interpret the teachings of Jesus? How do we get to Heaven?
The idea of that this difference in teaching the words of Christ to the masses would erupt in a fist fight is almost tragically comical. This is not even an argument about whose god can whip the other gods ass, this is a question about how best to worship the same god.
I may not be an expert, but it seems to me that if you resort to violence to convince others that you best represent the teachings of the Prince of Peace, than you undoubtedly do your entire religion a terrible disservice. Or did we learn nothing from the past?
For those who are interested in the differences between the Jehovah's Witnesses and Catholicism I encourage you to click the links to learn more. Personally I find comparative religious studies to be uniquely fascinating.
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I took a comparative religion class in college, taught by an agnostic priest at the Univ. of Santa Clara back in 1979. It was my favorite class and reinforced my disbelief in any and all religions.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am concerned, whatever you believe in is fine as long as it 1. makes the world a better place and 2. makes you a better person. If any religion does not do these things it is nothing more than a power trip for whoever is running it (Ratzinger, Dobson, et al).
That is the trouble with all these "religionists" who believe that they have the only right and true religion. There are too many of them but they could exist in peace with all the other religions except for one thing, they either believe that they have to "save" the other believers or they have to "eliminate" the other believers. This leads to war on a larger scale or scuffles such as this one on a smaller scale. It is so sad that something so personal is taken to such extremes that it even disrupts our whole world order.
ReplyDeleteIt leads to people like Sarah and her ilk trying to dominate the culture. They use lies, a pretty face and a back up of the militia. It is only the threat of violence at the moment but they are flirting highly with the possibility of outright violence.
For the record, I am not religious and I am not a Christian. But, over the years, we have all heard, read or been exposed to stories from the life of Jesus. The people who claim to be Christians have forgotten many of his lessons:
ReplyDeleteJesus healed the sick; he would not have opposed health care reform.
Jesus was non-violent; he turned the other cheek. He would not have carried a gun, attacked people, even shout out the most hurtful violent rhetoric.
Jesus cared for the poorest of people, the castoffs of society, even the lepers; he would not have been against social security, medicare, any social programs.
Jesus practiced forgiveness. To this day, Sarah Palin is still carrying grudges against anyone who crossed her path.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Sarah has sold her soul in her quest to accumulate as much money as possible.
Love your enemy as you love yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do not judge others. Sarah and the Religious Right have not been listening.
The list is endless. The people who profess to be the most religious are the biggest hypocrites.
I don't think it has anything to do with religion. Nice people act like nice people. Not-nice people- don't. And it doesn't really matter what religion they are, nice people will be nice. Religion just confuses the issue, because lots of people stereotype religions ("Christians are good people") which makes them easy to manipulate. My mother, for example, preferred to shop at stores where an ichthys fish was on display, because, she said, a Christian wouldn't try to cheat her. And no amount of reasoning could persuade her that the store owner might have just put the fish up to deceive people, or that Christians are just as apt to cheat others as people of any other faith. She spent her whole life amongst Christians, and never noticed they're just people.
ReplyDeleteAs a nonChristian, I can certainly see Christians getting into a fight. There is no reason why they shouldn't. Modern christianity appears to be structured into power-over-their god will save them or doom them, and they have a book to tell them about it- a confusing book that is a mix of history, myth, poetry, and just plain craziness. It's tailormade for people who need someone to tell them what to do ("interpret the texts"), and when you have people who want to be told what to do, somebody will show up and tell them. Or beat them to a pulp if they don't agree.
And then there are good people who say "prince of peace" as you did, Gryph, and forget the verse about "I come not to bring peace but to bring a sword." Naturally there is fighting. Given human nature, it's bound to happen.
Gryphen, Off topic. I don't know what happened but since you changed your format it takes forever to download your site. Sometimes if I click on an item or picture it reloads again. Slowly. I am having no trouble with any other sites.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, thanks so much for posting this. I have friends at work who are Jehovah's Witnesses and have to admit, I have just never understood why anyone would want to follow this. But then, I am not very big on any organized religion. And ITA with anon@7:23 am, most religions are power trips for those in charge.
ReplyDeleteI may not be an expert, but it seems to me that if you resort to violence to convince others that you best represent the teachings of the Prince of Peace, than you undoubtedly do your entire religion a terrible disservice. Or did we learn nothing from the past?
ReplyDeleteMay of the so called christians today rely heavily of the Old Testament, lots of hell fire and damnation in that!
The Old Testament is used frequently for all sorts of condemnation. It's hard to use J Christ's "love one another" to condemn gays.
But.... if you home school and want to skip over the history part or twist it in such a way to support your on views, then you will learn nothing from it.
It will be a bloodbath if the christians get their way and make this a 'christian' nation.
Religion... I can think of nothing worse. The teaching of it to children should be viewed as child abuse.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of Catholic Church is this? Did I hear him say the Jehovah's Witness told his DAUGHTER that she would burn in some kind of Hell? A) I thought Catholic Priests do not have children (at least not that they openly acknowledge) and b) the last Jehovah Witnesses to come to my house distinctly said that there is no such thing as Hell or anything like that.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'd have to take the Jehovah Witness side in this particular brawl, which is funny because I think that in general, the Jehovah Witnesses that I know are much crazier than the Catholics that I know. Though I have to admit it's pretty dang crazy sticking with a religion that puts out a collection plate every Sunday so that you can pay for all the nasty crimes against children that your clergy commit on the other six days of the week. bt
If they really believe in Eternity with god, why do they care so much about every extra dime in taxes or what other people do in their own bedrooms?
ReplyDeleteBecause they DON"T believe, they say they do but they don't trust this god to punish others or make sure they get nothing they didn't work for, so they must punish and control people for God, since their god has left the building, apparently.
I get that people are afraid of death so belief in an afterlife is a powerful draw.
ReplyDeleteI understand MORE the need for justice, the hope of a judgment day for the likes of Palin and Massey energy, that is a more powerful draw for the Biblical god.
but no one knows anything for sure so believe what you want, but leave everyone else alone!!!
7:46
ReplyDeleteYes, I am having the same problem, only with this site, since he changed it. Frustrating.
He's a Catholic priest and has a daughter. What am I missing here?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the daughter issue, I think priests and nuns can take vows later in life, for example, after they lose a spouse and probably under other circumstances as well. I might be wrong on this, but I believe I've heard of this happening. It wouldn't be strange then that they have kids.
ReplyDelete