re: He is risen

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playing along with these idiots and the voices in their head does nothing but hurt. christianity is one of the most violent, oppressive, and evil forces the wold has ever seen. it needs to be treated that way.

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I know where you're coming from with this and I would certainly apply what you've said to that vile little douche canoe that told me to frick off and have a happy Easter, but Christianity had its reformation (unlike the death cult of Islam) and I refuse to blame the believers of today for the mistakes of their religion in the past. Bringing up the violence in Christianity's history is not how I like to debate religion and it isn't the discourse I want to engage in, even when the horrible crimes of nonbelievers are erroneously used as a debate tactic to show the immorality of atheism (Hannity and O'Reilly have been guilty of this numerous times to name just 2).

I will never forget those crimes, the horrific torture and all of the death associated with Christianity, but it's just not relevant to the believers in the year 2018. Indeed, if Christianity was never the main flavor throughout history, my guess is similar events--possibly worse ones--would have taken place by shitty, evil people wearing different robes and with the ostensible backing of a different theology.

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Comparing Christianity to Islam or mental illness is both nonsensical and unproductive.

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Can you point out where I did either? I can't find it anywhere. (This is a serious question btw, I'm not being rhetorical.)

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I was agreeing with you

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I thought that was the case but I wasn't 100% certain.

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Subjectively sure, and I suppose you could argue fulfilling our biological drive to survive and reproduce constitutes objective meaning in some ways.

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Meaning is pretty much always subjective in all contexts.

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But I do not believe there are any objective, eternal ramifications of our lives and actions.

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This is probably the aspect of Christianity that gives me the most pause. But then I realize I don't have to understand everything for it to exist. I honestly rarely think about the afterlife.

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This is probably the aspect of Christianity that gives me the most pause

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if there are short term ramifications to our actions, why wouldn't there be longer term and even eternal ramifications to our actions. Do we still not talk about actions of men 200 years ago? 500 years ago? 2000 years ago?

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But then I realize I don't have to understand everything for it to exist

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I honestly rarely think about the afterlife.

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get older, then get back with me

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christianity is one of the most violent, oppressive, and evil forces the wold has ever seen. it needs to be treated that way

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In what way, exactly, does the “force” of Christianity impel people to commit violent, oppressive, and evil acts?
What specific Christian teaching would cause or justify the acts you have in mind as being the fault of Christianity?

If you can’t point to such a teaching, which I know you can’t, are you saying that Christianity in some special way allowed people to do the evil things that people have always done, with or without religion, throughout history? If so, I’d like to hear how you think it did that.

Also, you say it’s “one of the most violent, oppressive, etc forces in history”...what are some other ones?
Can you pinpoint what you believe to be the some of the more benign “forces in history”?

Interesting thread.

My thoughts are:

1. The Bible was written by man and men are flawed.
2. Due to the course of time and changes to the Bible there isn't a true account of what was originally in there. It's sad that it's been changed throughout the millennia to fit people's agenda.
3. The big bang theory is just as far out there as a living God.
4. Aliens

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Since the word of women at that time held no weight, why not say it was men first at the tomb and not women?

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Jesus's ministry, as chronicled in the Bible, is full examples of this nature. Another example is the Samarian woman at the well.

Jesus shook things up.

He constantly taught that human nature and the things of worldly value stood in opposition to the nature of God. He had fellowship with sinners. He valued the meek and contrite heart over the proud and haughty. He pointed out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day. He took His chief persecutor, Saul, and transformed him into His chief proponent. Everything Jesus taught goes against our conventional wisdom, if we're apart from Him. It's just a shame that people focus on religion and not a relationship. His message has been warped and convoluted by those who committed atrocities in His name, by our quibbling within the church, the "prosperity gospel."

If only we would strip it down and focus on His message, His mission and His example, and get past all of the clutter.

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Due to the course of time and changes to the Bible there isn't a true account of what was originally in there. It's sad that it's been changed throughout the millennia to fit people's agenda.

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We know by comparing the Dead Sea scrolls to the text of the Old Testament that they were almost word for word. If God could preserve the text of the Old Testament, why couldn't he do the same for the New?

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With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we now had manuscripts that predated the Masoretic Text by about one thousand years. Scholars were anxious to see how the Dead Sea documents would match up with the Masoretic Text. If a significant amount of differences were found, we could conclude that our Old Testament Text had not been well preserved. Critics, along with religious groups such as Muslims and Mormons, often make the claim that the present day Old Testament has been corrupted and is not well preserved. According to these religious groups, this would explain the contradictions between the Old Testament and their religious teachings. After years of careful study, it has been concluded that the Dead Sea Scrolls give substantial confirmation that our Old Testament has been accurately preserved. The scrolls were found to be almost identical with the Masoretic text. Hebrew Scholar Millar Burrows writes, “It is a matter of wonder that through something like one thousand years the text underwent so little alteration. As I said in my first article on the scroll, ‘Herein lies its chief importance, supporting the fidelity of the Masoretic tradition.'”{6}

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