They’re only ‘meaningless’ to you personally because you’re clearly an atheist. I’m not wasting my time with atheists, they’re sadly more often than not a lost cause, and certainly put no value in scripture
[Scripture is] only ‘meaningless’ to you personally because you’re clearly an atheist.
You should know better. Fundamentalist faiths like to veer away from the beatitudes, and from anything that challenges the hoarding of wealth and power. Post-enlightenment Christians like to avoid the large sections that discuss and openly endorse human slavery, or massacres of villages to the last child and livestock. For most Christians there are large segments of the bible that they disregard entirely, because it doesn’t fit into their own understanding of social norms. There’s a Buddhist saying, Everyone is a biblical scholar when it comes to passages they don’t like.
And then there are atheists who were Christians and deconstructed. Biblical passages have quite a lot of meaning to them. There are a lot of deconstructed Christians who create content on social media. And they talk about the bible and what it means to them.
My own path was more meandering, and my own ethics were gained by deliberation and reading what moral philosophers have figured out. In my experience, societal values are not revealed, they’re constructed.
Atheists aren’t antagonistic to you. At least this one is not. I anticipate you will get exactly the same salvation, the same redemption, the same afterlife as I will. I see that you live in the same cinematic universe as I do and are subject to the same physical laws. I see that there is no justice, no kindness except for that which we collectively decide to create for ourselves. Ultimately, we all go to the same grave. And I anticipate neither of us will be disappointed.
It’s your rival ministries that believe their congregation is blessed by fiat, and yours is profane, also by fiat. It is they who believe good and evil are binary, the paint on chess pieces. That once they determine someone is in league with the Devil, they are free to do anything they want to them. And they do. So, yeah, I am concerned this is the model that reflects your beliefs as well. I hope not.
The old and new testaments are meaningful to me the same way the Koran is meaningful to you. And Christian faith is no more or less valid than Muslim faith, or Shinto faith, or Hindu faith. I believe only in what I see, what I understand to be true. What is consistent with my experiences. And yes, it means having to confront that I am not special or chosen. Nor are any of us. In the zombie apocalypse, we’re all just zombies.
Though, if you have to be Christian, perhaps you should consider being Universalist. They, at least, are optimistic about the nature of humanity.
They’re only ‘meaningless’ to you personally because you’re clearly an atheist. I’m not wasting my time with atheists, they’re sadly more often than not a lost cause, and certainly put no value in scripture
[Scripture is] only ‘meaningless’ to you personally because you’re clearly an atheist.
You should know better. Fundamentalist faiths like to veer away from the beatitudes, and from anything that challenges the hoarding of wealth and power. Post-enlightenment Christians like to avoid the large sections that discuss and openly endorse human slavery, or massacres of villages to the last child and livestock. For most Christians there are large segments of the bible that they disregard entirely, because it doesn’t fit into their own understanding of social norms. There’s a Buddhist saying, Everyone is a biblical scholar when it comes to passages they don’t like.
And then there are atheists who were Christians and deconstructed. Biblical passages have quite a lot of meaning to them. There are a lot of deconstructed Christians who create content on social media. And they talk about the bible and what it means to them.
My own path was more meandering, and my own ethics were gained by deliberation and reading what moral philosophers have figured out. In my experience, societal values are not revealed, they’re constructed.
Atheists aren’t antagonistic to you. At least this one is not. I anticipate you will get exactly the same salvation, the same redemption, the same afterlife as I will. I see that you live in the same cinematic universe as I do and are subject to the same physical laws. I see that there is no justice, no kindness except for that which we collectively decide to create for ourselves. Ultimately, we all go to the same grave. And I anticipate neither of us will be disappointed.
It’s your rival ministries that believe their congregation is blessed by fiat, and yours is profane, also by fiat. It is they who believe good and evil are binary, the paint on chess pieces. That once they determine someone is in league with the Devil, they are free to do anything they want to them. And they do. So, yeah, I am concerned this is the model that reflects your beliefs as well. I hope not.
The old and new testaments are meaningful to me the same way the Koran is meaningful to you. And Christian faith is no more or less valid than Muslim faith, or Shinto faith, or Hindu faith. I believe only in what I see, what I understand to be true. What is consistent with my experiences. And yes, it means having to confront that I am not special or chosen. Nor are any of us. In the zombie apocalypse, we’re all just zombies.
Though, if you have to be Christian, perhaps you should consider being Universalist. They, at least, are optimistic about the nature of humanity.