Topic: Religion and Morality. - page 4. (Read 857 times)

Saint Paul said, Galatians 5:14:(Commandments 4 - 10).

But Jesus says that you are to love God above all things (Commandments 1 - 3), and then your neighbor as yourself (Commandments 4 - 10). Why the difference?

Because when Jesus died on the cross for all people, taking away the sins of all, He made God into family. It's not that God isn't God any longer. It's simply that God has become a neighbor, through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I agree, everyone has a unique perspective based on their own individual knowledge and personal experiences. This knowledge and experience is subjective due to the numerous variances that help shape and mold the human Psyche. Through the eyes of another, definitions and interpretations tend to vastly change, for example: "One mans trash, is another mans treasure. One mans pain, is another mans pleasure."
   Religion or better said, spirituality often becomes mans basic necessity, it gives man a sense of self, a feeling that maybe the life he lives and experiences is actually bigger than just himself. Religions can be dogmatic when taken to the extreme of course, but the underline principal is that religions contain basic morals & ethics that a religious follower can aspire to live by.

Hypothetically speaking for arguments sake

Example: In the religions of Catholicism and also Judaism, there exists a set of 10 basic commandments followers must adhere to.

10 Commandments

1.“I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me.”
2.“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
3.“Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.”
4.“Honor thy father and mother.”
5.“Thou shalt not kill.”
6.“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
7.“Thou shalt not steal.”
8.“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
9.“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”
10.“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.”

Now, looking at religion through an outsiders perspective, the Commandments 1 - 3 might seem a bit absurd, especially to an atheist, while commandments 4 - 10 seem like basic codes and tenants any man regardless of their race, political affiliations, gender, sexuality, religious doctrine, or creed could live by.

You are correct. Those who are not Christians are condemned to Hell. The question revolves around what it takes to be a Christian. There are 3 basic places where Christianity is found (Jesus is the Christ.). But only one of them is clearly understood. It's really the only one to work with for people who want to be Christians. I will place it in #3, below:

1. Not clear. In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve had sinned, remember how God was walking in the Garden in the cool of the day? Adam and Eve hid themselves. God is a Spirit, so how could He walk in the Garden? It was Jesus that was walking. This conforms with the Old Testament term, "Angel of the Lord," which is understood by many (most?) Bible scholars to be Jesus preincarnate. The Angel of the Lord is found throughout the O.T.  Google "preincarnate."

2. Not clear. Most people understand the idea of a embryo/fetus/new-born to be innocent. To understand what Jesus has to do with this, we need to understand that Jesus has all authority in Heaven and Earth (Matthew 28:18), and that it was He who put us together in Mommy's tummy (Psalm 139:13) because He has all authority. Since Jesus is the salvation, the embryo/fetus/new-born knows nothing other than Jesus, since he/she is in formation by Jesus, the Christ. The new embryo/fetus/new-born is automatically a Christian, but he/she will probably lose the memory of it when learning the many things of the world in later life. In addition, a forceful spirit might reject Jesus at a very early age.

3. Clear. The New Testament, particularly the Gospels; the deep explanations of parts of the Gospels are found in the Epistles.

Obviously, what I have written here is very brief. So, realize that you might have slightly different understandings of what I have written. Of course, Solomon says, "The more the words, the less the meaning." So, brevity might be the best thing.

I do disagree profoundly with you about religion and God, but I'll admit I'm not an expert on the nuances of Christianity. Could you help me on one point? I had always thought a big part of Christianity is that those who aren't Christians are condemned to hell. Have I misunderstood? Is it a fact of Christianity that your soul can still be saved and you can still go to heaven just through being a good person, even if you're not a Christian?

Think a little, rather than simply believing Wikipedia quacks.     

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mythology

Read more, write less.

No. Those were gods, not God.

Many groups of people and individuals understood God without the Bible, because they understood through their spirits some of the words of the Bible that they had not seen biblically.

There were also angels, people and myths that were considered to be gods by some people.

The God of the universe Who is a spirit, and Creator Controller of all things, that is God but not a god. If one of the more-than-3000 gods are portrayed like that in the writings about him, without portraying wrong things about him, then they are referring to God, as well.

The best bet for talking about God is to use the way He is described in the Bible.

There were over 3000+ Gods in human history.  Yours is not that special.  It is in the same bucket as the rest of them.

Christianity, Islam, Judaism are mythologies.  None of them are based on historical figures.  They all start with the same God and Moses as the main characters. Enough said.

If you don't think these are mythologies, you need to research it.  All historians agree that Moses was not a historical figure.
All three religions are fairy tales, written to control people.

PS. Look up the definition of mythology.
https://www.google.com/search?q=mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_mythology

No, it's a sin because the knowledge of God is available throughout nature. Machines have makers.

The idea that God does not exist is mythology, and a sin, because it is easy to see machine nature all around us.

Sure. No problem.  Make it a cardinal sin. LOL. 

Mythology is mythology.

Not acknowledging God is sin... just as St. Paul says in the reference I showed you above. Your pic shows that even the ancient Egyptians acknowledged God, even though they didn't understand Him correctly. Therefore, you have no good in you, and will have no good until you change and start to acknowledge God.

9)

I am 1000% better than your God/Jesus/Horus or whichever mythological character you believe in.

In Jesus's parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), He talks about the good things that people do, and the results of their doings regarding salvation. So, on the outside of it, it looks like people are saved by the good that they do. So, what is all this talk about being saved by faith and not works?

When you think about it, you will realize that nobody is 100% good, and nobody is 100% evil, regarding the things they do. Some of the goats will be nearly 100% good, and some of the sheep will be nearly 100% bad. So, what is Jesus really talking about? Here's what.

Saint Paul says (Romans 14:23) that everything that does not come from faith (in Jesus salvation) is sin. So, the good that the goats do is still sin, even if a particular goat looks almost 100% good. This means that even a sheep that looks almost 100% bad has his sins forgiven in Jesus, just to be a sheep. So his bad is gone, and all that God sees is his good.

It's impossible to be morally good if you are religious. If you perform what you think is a good act, how can you separate out whether A) you did it because it was the right thing to do, B) you did it because God wants you to do stuff like that and you want to please God, or C) you did it because you want to go to heaven so you have to obey God's laws.

Every 'good' act a religious person performs is because of B and C. Sure there may be a bit of A in there as well, but how can you really know that?

Non-religious people may also perform some good acts for selfish reasons. But they can also perform truly good or altruistic acts with no consideration of reward or benefit for themselves - religious people can't do that.

Quit being so moral. You are starting to sound religious.     

You need to read more. Write less.

How in the world goofy are you. All of a sudden you start talking about children, and then say that that's what we were talking about all along. You're about as nutty as they get. But that might be acceptable, if you weren't such a liar.

Have you completely lost your marbles?  We are talking about killing children who cursed or disobeyed their parents.

Your God/Jesus is a bloodthirsty psychopath.  If some politician would come up with a bill that outlined to kill people for the reasons specified in the Bible, he or she would be asked to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Are you even reading my posts?

You seem to forget this part. You are enjoying an evening at home with your children and your wife. Some thugs crash the door down, tie you up, and proceed to rape and torture your wife and kids right in front of your eyes, for hours, before they finally murdered them.

Obviously you are tied up, so you can't do anything. So, you say, "Good work guys. I enjoyed the show," right? You would be happy if some thugs did such to your family, right?

Isn't it more likely that if you survived the ordeal, that you would work with law enforcement as hard as you could, to track those guys down to see justice done to them? And if you had the opportunity to literally punish some of them yourself with your fists... or maybe a baseball bat... wouldn't you do it?



God made the world and people out of love. Everything He did to punish evil people, he did because they were torturing and murdering His children. His law enforcement was Ancient Israel, some of whom were tortured and murdered by the evil thugs of the day.

And here you go, being a hypocrite about the things that God does, and becoming one of the evil thugs thereby. Be happy and be afraid, that God in his mercy and patience regarding you, allows you to live a little longer so that you have a chance to turn to Jesus-salvation.

And who wrote (or inspired) the OT?  According to your own mythology, it was Jesus himself (as he, God the Father and the Holy Spirit are the same entity).  What does it tell you about God's (Jesus') character?

Killing children?  C'mon, Hitler was more selective in his killing than your Jesus character.