Majority of religious people do believe those things. And religion explicitly conflicts with evolutionary theory. The creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis proves that.
How is the prize for people to believe religion is irrational when you already said religion is irrational? Why is that a good thing for them?
The bible itself also tells people not to believe it literally. Its somewhere in 2 Corinthians, iirc.
The Adam and Eve story isn't about our physical creation. Its a formulaic and symbolic description of our consciousness entering this body and reading starts the process of completing the work that we're meant to do.
Yes, most people believe wrong stuff. I'm still putting pieces together.
If you’re not supposed to believe the Bible literally then it shouldn’t be used at all imo. If you leave things open to interpretation, you literally create the circumstances for the incorrect beliefs that followers of that religion hold today. Because there most definitely are wrong interpretations and the majority of religious people are sheep that can’t think for themselves. That’s a very fragile system that is vulnerable to initiating horrible atrocities and suffering. And we literally see that in the world today. People killing each other over varying interpretations. Even within the same religion. Christians killing each other because they’re not catholic or whatever.
For example, let’s say a new sect of Christianity formed today based on someone’s new interpretation. And let’s say this new sect believes that it is essential to stop evil wherever it is seen. By any means. Well now you have a sect whose interpretation is that murdering all non believers is essential. Is that wrong? Of course. But you can’t tell them it’s wrong if the Bible isn’t supposed to be interpreted literally. And if the truth is that you’re supposed to be peaceful and not fight back (turn the other cheek and what not), then the sect will kill off everyone without any push back just because they disagree with their interprets. And this will go on until all that’s left is the believers of this new sect. And that’s how you end up in a world where everyone follows a religion with insane and nonsensical beliefs. An extreme example but it illustrates my point well.
That's correct. And even worse, even if the whole world was forced into a single belief system, they would continue murdering over beliefs because religion selects via purity tests, which shift goal posts to ever more extreme positions.
Its not up for interpretation because it was written with an original intent. We fail to interpret it correctly because we're not the original writers. Its fairly obvious that symbolism is used quite heavily. Understanding the symbols is not interpretation - its just understanding. Literalism is the interpretation.
So why would god expect us to understand a message that isn't literal (when it easily could be simplified and made literal by god)?
Huh?? Now you're saying it should be interpreted literally?
An omniscient god who wrote out his own book for us to explain who he is and what he wants from us.
Clearly a monster in his own PR material. Or within a rounding error 0% of people understood the book.
There is no path through a basic observation of the world around us and the bible where omniscience and goodness both hold up.
Maybe god is a troll who finds it entertaining to watch humans suffer lol
nostr:nprofile1qqs9tatnkeg7lu63mdtmqcqayvpzmrzn97vztkcs54ena0eehe92yxcprfmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuum0wejhyetfvahzuctswqhsz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ehhymre9ejx2a30fd30qs and I have talked about this before. If I came to believe in the supernatural tomorrow the christian god is a false god at best, more likely the devil. So I'm two miraculous changes of core beliefs away from Christianity at this point.
If satan does exist and had a religion, I don't think it would look like what people imagine a satanic religion looking like.
Agreed.
Or just see that the Christianity of Christ is nothing like what passes for Christianity now.
Christians may dislike you for being irreverent, but they **_hate_** me because I don't sell my soul, and they do. Crusades and inquisitions don't target atheists - they target Christians who don't conform.
But there is no evidence to believe what you are saying
Which part?
This version of christianity you believe in
There are several versions which I take seriously, without giving belief. My beliefs are simple. Jesus was/is the Christ, and the hope of salvation for individuals and the world, and the method of achieving salvation is humility and love, which are really the same thing anyways.
Every other detail that Christians have tacked onto it is suspect and speculative. That's why you can't just take the meaning at face value. Symbolic language is used - find the meaning of the symbols, or you can't understand it. That's just logical. Logic is logos.
I agree with that but in this case I was attacking the bible not the religion as it stands. I do make that distinction.
No I'm saying there's no interpretation if you speak the language, and that language is symbology - there'd still be the linguistic interpretation, but that's not what we're talking about.
God speaks through what is. The Bible is humans speaking, but with the intent of conveying what they learned from or about God. Its not literally God's word - God's word is reality itself.
