Crash: I’ll just highlight what I think are the worst and most harmful teachings of Christianity that are somewhat unique to that religion.
1) In Christianity, human beings are the scum of the earth. This is the only religion I know of that trains children and adults (from cradle to grave) that they are born sinners and will die sinners. There is no such thing as a good person, no one can ever become good, no matter what you do. You exist as a fallen creation, you’ll never be good enough for God, you’ll never measure up, and you can’t do anything on your own. (Which is why everyone “needs” Jesus). Christianity is essentially the antithesis of everything that any psychologist has ever taught about how to raise children with positive self esteem, and how to grow into responsible citizens.
2) Hell! Not only did the God of Christianity intentionally create a napalm barbecue for the devil (which he also created), but he intends to ensure that most humans end up there. And even though humans are only capable of finite crimes, Christianity teaches that they all “deserve” infinite punishment...cause you know...torturing a conscious being who is now rendered harmless for all eternity is “fair and reasonable” and demonstrative of “love”. Admittedly, the Islamic God and the gods of other religions have similar failings in this regard.
3) Sacrificial atonement! Another thing shared in common with most other religions is that God is bloodthirsty. This guy really loves blood. In the OT is was the blood of animals. Animals had to suffer for human failings to “please God”. In the NT, human atonement requires human blood. But since it had to be a worthy human, and all humans are scum that meant that God had to come down as a human and sacrifice himself to himself to show just how much he loves his scum. Of course, he then gets to ascend into heaven and rule the universe for all eternity after that, so basically his “sacrifice” amounted to nothing more than a bad weekend.
4) Policing thought crime! Whereas most religions teach that people can be good or bad based on their actions, in Christianity everyone is already declared bad. So how do you convince everyone that they are evil, wicked sinners even if they have a conscious and always act conscientiously? Simple, have thought crime as part of your “everyone is a sinner” doctrine. That way it’s not just doing bad things that makes you a sinner, it’s also having bad thoughts. And since God cursed the land everyone lives in with death and despair, and since no one can control their own thoughts, they will always think bad things making all of them “sinners” by default. Got that one wrapped up in a nice little bow!
5) Suspension of Justice. Also unique to Christianity is the fact that evil doesn’t have to be punished. Regardless of how evil you are or how much harm or suffering you have caused, you can get a get out of hell free card just by acknowledging what Jesus did for you. The fact that he “atoned” for your sins (after arbitrarily declaring everyone to be a sinner) in order to create a loophole for the failed system that he put there in the first place means that despite everyone deserving to be tortured for all eternity, some people (including the worst of the worst) don’t have to be held accountable for anything at all. In the Christian system, a repenting Adolf Hitler gets to live in paradise with Jesus for eternity, while Anne Frank, the Jewish girl he tortured and murdered gets to spend eternity burning in hell for not worshiping Jesus. Because...you know...”mercy”!
While most religions serve to scare people into moral behavior by promising to punish the bad and reward the good, in Christianity morality is largely irrelevant. Not only does this life not matter (since the perfect creation will replace this one), but anyone can be saved or damned regardless of any actions they take. In Christianity, human well being isn’t important at all. It’s about “glorifying God” (or rather satiating a narcissistic monster) by keeping people enslaved to a concept, rather than establishing an actual relationship with them. Human children do not “owe” their parents anything. Parents have the duty and responsibility of raising their children (for their own benefit) with nothing in return. But in Christianity, humans “owe” God and God apparently has no responsibility whatsoever for providing for humans. But he wants you to call him father (despite being a deadbeat) and he expects your reverence as an authority, knowing that he doesn’t owe you anything. The Christian God holds human parents to a much higher standard of behavior than he holds himself.
Despite the tone snarkiness in some of the language I’m using here (mostly for emphasis), these are the cold hard facts of Christianity. This isn’t just my opinion, or my interpretation. All of this is actually based on official doctrine and supported with bible verses (which I can quote if necessary).
Islam is objectively the WORST major religion right now in terms of how extremists are able to use it to cause destruction and suffering in ways that other religions don’t. However, in terms of ideology and theology, Christianity is the worst religion because it has been designed to distort the definition of morality so that any believer must necessarily view amoral behaviors as immoral (without demonstration), and defend immoral behaviors perpetuated by their God with special pleading!
Any “godly” behavior perpetuated by a human being we would almost universally condemn as deranged, psychotic, or sadistic. Example: If I had the power to stop a child from being raped by a molester, and was aware that this act was about to happen, every other human being would charge me with the moral responsibility of stopping it. And yet, the Christian God (who is all-powerful) merely watches the molester rape the child, and then threatens both of them with eternal suffering unless they both repent their sins. Because this god is only interested in being worshipped, not actually protecting kids from rape. But despite that, Christians will call this God’s actions morally just, and then claim he is “good” for acting in a way that they’d call us evil monsters for. That is the level of brain damage that is caused uniquely by Christianity.
1) Christinaity teaches people that they are flawed both in thought and action, that only God is perfect, and then gives them ways to handle their own corruption via the Bible through the teachings of that God. I may not agree with some of those ways, but to me, it's meant to inspire humbleness and self control.
2) Christian Hell is for those who fail to control themselves in the ways outlined in the Bible. In Christianity, the follower is given MANY chances to go to Heaven. A murderer, a thief, a rapist, an abuser, a wh*re, a drunk, a homsexual, a glutton, an idol worshipper-literally no matter who you are or what you have done, the Bible gives you a way to repent for it, if you choose to.
3) Christian sacrifices were all fullfilled when Jesus was crucified. The followers no longer need to make those offerings. At least, that is how I have understood it. I am not sure of this though.
4) The Christian God does police thought, because the Christian God is the only one who knows and sees all. The Christian can only police his or her OWN thoughts. And then of course action is a different story. A thought doesn't equal an action and we have control over what we choose to do when you're going by the law of the land, but in Christanity the thought is just as bad as the action because God sees and hears the thought. Also, I find it funny that you mentioned psychology in the first point you made, when it belongs in the thought policing point. Psychology is a form of passive thought policing, and in some cases not so passive. The notion that a mental health professional can decide who I am, what I will do, and what's best for me based only on categories that the professional has decided I fit into is much worse to me than people who believe that a God can see and hear, and punish them for, their thoughts. Because the God isn't real to me...the psychologist who believes he or she knows what I am thinking and what I will do based on his or her own "teachings" is VERY real!
5) As mentioned in point 2, everyone is a sinner, but everyone can also "sin no more." This isn't a supsension of justice. Justice still happens and the person committing horrible acts has to actually go through real change within him or herself before God accepts the person. And as mentioned in point 4, only God knows who is being sincere and who is not and furthermore, only God makes the decision of who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell. I think the point of this is to establish that we each have a choice to make. Again, I may not agree with the Biblical choices that are given, but they are at least given choices.
This is just how I view Christanity, being someone who was raised by and around Christians my whole life. To put it simply, I have no issues with religion of any kind. The only time I have a problem with people is when they take the attributes of a God-all knowing, all seeing, punisher of thought- and think they themselves have that power or right over others. And I have to say...you DO NOT have to be a believer in religion or Gods to behave like that!
Zanjan: 1) A real Christian knows that God is one; He's the God of all humans by whatever Name people invoke. His Name has never been "Christian". Ergo, there's no such thing as a Christian God, only Christian perspectives.
2) There's no such thing as "Christian" values, only human values, which may or may not align with what God values. There's a Christian standard of conduct but it's up to the Christian to ignore his own memes and subject himself to God's laws and guidance as given in New Testament scripture.
3) In the New Testament, Heaven and Hell are two different worlds. There's no middle world, nor in any other scripture either. No one is going anyplace - he is either in heaven or hell. Anyone who tells you otherwise is misinformed. Refer to text. God has put each soul in their appropriate place - one cannot convince God they belong somewhere else, one can only ask God to move them. The reason there's no middle world is that both worlds have degrees, their many levels of upper and lower ranks.
4) Thoughts vs action. A thought, be it good or evil, is worth nothing unless acted upon. It's a fantasy. God doesn't punish for thinking but for choosing wrongly. For the **educated** Christian, an evil thought is a warning. We all have egos - an evil thought is the product of the self. A Christian has the power to tell any thought to go away. This power comes through focus on God. The individual is accountable to God if he chooses to focus on self instead.
5) You aren't in control of who lives and dies; since you're not omniscient, you have no idea why one should die sooner than another, or determine how they should die. You cannot command this so you can't judge it either. Only hubris demands the universe to bend to your wishes. If you desire justice, then uphold justice at all times. Don't falsely accuse.
Zanjan: Furthermore, God is 100% just - He compensates the innocent for their suffering. No human can correctly estimate the right compensation. When God compensates the innocent, they'll be so happy, they'll say ALL they'd endured has been worth it. Although this is in the text, there are many testimonies from personal experience.
FunkyBiscuits82 in reply to Zanjan: "3) In the New Testament, Heaven and Hell are two different worlds. There's no middle world, nor in any other scripture either."
Zanjan: Earth belongs to the physical plane of existence; it's parallel is the spiritual plane of existence. They co-exist as two inseparable dimensions. On both planes, there are many degrees of being, from lower to higher. Heaven and Hell are states of mind - you can't be in both places at the same time.
FunkyBiscuits82 in reply to Zanjan: Oh, okay. I see what you mean. Spiritual is one world (Heaven and Hell exist on that plane) and then the physical world is another, no middle world.
Crash: As usual, Zan is absolutely incorrect. Most everything I mentioned is absolutely NOT opinion. It is the very basic core doctrinal dogma of xtianity!! Attempting to change that demonstrable FACT by trying to say it's my "opinion" is not only dishonest , but just FACTUALLY Wrong!!
I see you haven't changed at all zan. Still puking up lies and ignorant assertions to push your narrative.
1) In Christianity, human beings are the scum of the earth. This is the only religion I know of that trains children and adults (from cradle to grave) that they are born sinners and will die sinners. There is no such thing as a good person, no one can ever become good, no matter what you do. You exist as a fallen creation, you’ll never be good enough for God, you’ll never measure up, and you can’t do anything on your own. (Which is why everyone “needs” Jesus). Christianity is essentially the antithesis of everything that any psychologist has ever taught about how to raise children with positive self esteem, and how to grow into responsible citizens.
2) Hell! Not only did the God of Christianity intentionally create a napalm barbecue for the devil (which he also created), but he intends to ensure that most humans end up there. And even though humans are only capable of finite crimes, Christianity teaches that they all “deserve” infinite punishment...cause you know...torturing a conscious being who is now rendered harmless for all eternity is “fair and reasonable” and demonstrative of “love”. Admittedly, the Islamic God and the gods of other religions have similar failings in this regard.
3) Sacrificial atonement! Another thing shared in common with most other religions is that God is bloodthirsty. This guy really loves blood. In the OT is was the blood of animals. Animals had to suffer for human failings to “please God”. In the NT, human atonement requires human blood. But since it had to be a worthy human, and all humans are scum that meant that God had to come down as a human and sacrifice himself to himself to show just how much he loves his scum. Of course, he then gets to ascend into heaven and rule the universe for all eternity after that, so basically his “sacrifice” amounted to nothing more than a bad weekend.
4) Policing thought crime! Whereas most religions teach that people can be good or bad based on their actions, in Christianity everyone is already declared bad. So how do you convince everyone that they are evil, wicked sinners even if they have a conscious and always act conscientiously? Simple, have thought crime as part of your “everyone is a sinner” doctrine. That way it’s not just doing bad things that makes you a sinner, it’s also having bad thoughts. And since God cursed the land everyone lives in with death and despair, and since no one can control their own thoughts, they will always think bad things making all of them “sinners” by default. Got that one wrapped up in a nice little bow!
5) Suspension of Justice. Also unique to Christianity is the fact that evil doesn’t have to be punished. Regardless of how evil you are or how much harm or suffering you have caused, you can get a get out of hell free card just by acknowledging what Jesus did for you. The fact that he “atoned” for your sins (after arbitrarily declaring everyone to be a sinner) in order to create a loophole for the failed system that he put there in the first place means that despite everyone deserving to be tortured for all eternity, some people (including the worst of the worst) don’t have to be held accountable for anything at all. In the Christian system, a repenting Adolf Hitler gets to live in paradise with Jesus for eternity, while Anne Frank, the Jewish girl he tortured and murdered gets to spend eternity burning in hell for not worshiping Jesus. Because...you know...”mercy”!
While most religions serve to scare people into moral behavior by promising to punish the bad and reward the good, in Christianity morality is largely irrelevant. Not only does this life not matter (since the perfect creation will replace this one), but anyone can be saved or damned regardless of any actions they take. In Christianity, human well being isn’t important at all. It’s about “glorifying God” (or rather satiating a narcissistic monster) by keeping people enslaved to a concept, rather than establishing an actual relationship with them. Human children do not “owe” their parents anything. Parents have the duty and responsibility of raising their children (for their own benefit) with nothing in return. But in Christianity, humans “owe” God and God apparently has no responsibility whatsoever for providing for humans. But he wants you to call him father (despite being a deadbeat) and he expects your reverence as an authority, knowing that he doesn’t owe you anything. The Christian God holds human parents to a much higher standard of behavior than he holds himself.
Despite the tone snarkiness in some of the language I’m using here (mostly for emphasis), these are the cold hard facts of Christianity. This isn’t just my opinion, or my interpretation. All of this is actually based on official doctrine and supported with bible verses (which I can quote if necessary).
Islam is objectively the WORST major religion right now in terms of how extremists are able to use it to cause destruction and suffering in ways that other religions don’t. However, in terms of ideology and theology, Christianity is the worst religion because it has been designed to distort the definition of morality so that any believer must necessarily view amoral behaviors as immoral (without demonstration), and defend immoral behaviors perpetuated by their God with special pleading!
Any “godly” behavior perpetuated by a human being we would almost universally condemn as deranged, psychotic, or sadistic. Example: If I had the power to stop a child from being raped by a molester, and was aware that this act was about to happen, every other human being would charge me with the moral responsibility of stopping it. And yet, the Christian God (who is all-powerful) merely watches the molester rape the child, and then threatens both of them with eternal suffering unless they both repent their sins. Because this god is only interested in being worshipped, not actually protecting kids from rape. But despite that, Christians will call this God’s actions morally just, and then claim he is “good” for acting in a way that they’d call us evil monsters for. That is the level of brain damage that is caused uniquely by Christianity.
1) Christinaity teaches people that they are flawed both in thought and action, that only God is perfect, and then gives them ways to handle their own corruption via the Bible through the teachings of that God. I may not agree with some of those ways, but to me, it's meant to inspire humbleness and self control.
2) Christian Hell is for those who fail to control themselves in the ways outlined in the Bible. In Christianity, the follower is given MANY chances to go to Heaven. A murderer, a thief, a rapist, an abuser, a wh*re, a drunk, a homsexual, a glutton, an idol worshipper-literally no matter who you are or what you have done, the Bible gives you a way to repent for it, if you choose to.
3) Christian sacrifices were all fullfilled when Jesus was crucified. The followers no longer need to make those offerings. At least, that is how I have understood it. I am not sure of this though.
4) The Christian God does police thought, because the Christian God is the only one who knows and sees all. The Christian can only police his or her OWN thoughts. And then of course action is a different story. A thought doesn't equal an action and we have control over what we choose to do when you're going by the law of the land, but in Christanity the thought is just as bad as the action because God sees and hears the thought. Also, I find it funny that you mentioned psychology in the first point you made, when it belongs in the thought policing point. Psychology is a form of passive thought policing, and in some cases not so passive. The notion that a mental health professional can decide who I am, what I will do, and what's best for me based only on categories that the professional has decided I fit into is much worse to me than people who believe that a God can see and hear, and punish them for, their thoughts. Because the God isn't real to me...the psychologist who believes he or she knows what I am thinking and what I will do based on his or her own "teachings" is VERY real!
5) As mentioned in point 2, everyone is a sinner, but everyone can also "sin no more." This isn't a supsension of justice. Justice still happens and the person committing horrible acts has to actually go through real change within him or herself before God accepts the person. And as mentioned in point 4, only God knows who is being sincere and who is not and furthermore, only God makes the decision of who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell. I think the point of this is to establish that we each have a choice to make. Again, I may not agree with the Biblical choices that are given, but they are at least given choices.
This is just how I view Christanity, being someone who was raised by and around Christians my whole life. To put it simply, I have no issues with religion of any kind. The only time I have a problem with people is when they take the attributes of a God-all knowing, all seeing, punisher of thought- and think they themselves have that power or right over others. And I have to say...you DO NOT have to be a believer in religion or Gods to behave like that!
2) There's no such thing as "Christian" values, only human values, which may or may not align with what God values. There's a Christian standard of conduct but it's up to the Christian to ignore his own memes and subject himself to God's laws and guidance as given in New Testament scripture.
3) In the New Testament, Heaven and Hell are two different worlds. There's no middle world, nor in any other scripture either. No one is going anyplace - he is either in heaven or hell. Anyone who tells you otherwise is misinformed. Refer to text. God has put each soul in their appropriate place - one cannot convince God they belong somewhere else, one can only ask God to move them. The reason there's no middle world is that both worlds have degrees, their many levels of upper and lower ranks.
4) Thoughts vs action. A thought, be it good or evil, is worth nothing unless acted upon. It's a fantasy. God doesn't punish for thinking but for choosing wrongly. For the **educated** Christian, an evil thought is a warning. We all have egos - an evil thought is the product of the self. A Christian has the power to tell any thought to go away. This power comes through focus on God. The individual is accountable to God if he chooses to focus on self instead.
5) You aren't in control of who lives and dies; since you're not omniscient, you have no idea why one should die sooner than another, or determine how they should die. You cannot command this so you can't judge it either. Only hubris demands the universe to bend to your wishes. If you desire justice, then uphold justice at all times. Don't falsely accuse.
I thought that Earth would be the middle world?
I see you haven't changed at all zan. Still puking up lies and ignorant assertions to push your narrative.