Cormac wrote:Seth wrote:Cormac wrote:Seth wrote:
Christianity is what Christ taught, which is why it's called "Christ-ianity," and Christ NEVER taught people to kill or burn anyone.
Hi Seth,
Would you care to specify your sources for your pure and authentic teachings of Christ, seeing as:
a) You reject Matthew, and
b) You are claiming to know what "True" Christianity is by declaring what it is not.
Generally, any good version of the New Testament highlights Jesus' actual statements, as opposed to statements or interpretations made by the Apostles. I'd be very interested to see any direct quotation by Jesus calling for the burning of witches.
Which parts of the New Testament are valid, and which aren't?
Well, we can start with the stuff Jesus actually said, or is alleged to have actually said.
Given that the entire NT is at best hearsay, how do you identify those bits that he "actually said" from those that are more dubious?
"Alleged" is the key word here, I think.
I'm merely forwarding the argument, not rendering judgment on its veracity or accuracy. What's important in this context is what Christians believe about the NT, not what you or I believe about it.
But the point remains. No matter what some group of people claiming to be Christians might do, by way of burning witches or anything else, it's illogical, unreasonable, bigoted, prejudiced and hateful to imply that ALL Christians are culpable for some despicable act by an individual or group.
I agree with your general point that tarring all Christians with the same brush is unreasonable. I think most people here would as most of us have family and friends who are Christian, and most of them are probably good people.
But I don't think that is how this current debate started. I think the matter of burning arose as an example of where Christians have behaved in a reprehensible manner, and I don't think it was intended as a statement that all Christians behave that way.
And I pointed out that they aren't Christians, first of all, and that there was, and usually is no distinction made between people-burning barbaric savages in Nigeria, pedophile priests and their co-conspirators in the US and elsewhere, and the billions of perfectly harmless, peaceful, loving, good people who happen to subscribe to Christianity and Catholicism.
It is a commonplace canard for Atheists to cherry-pick some horrible example of human depravity committed by a Christian or Catholic and impute that character to everyone of religion while simultaneously ignoring the idiocy of that fallacious logic by, for example, getting all hot and bothered when I point out that it's estimated by credible research that as many as five MILLION children a year are molested in public schools by public school teachers, and yet we do not see an outcry against teachers, teachers unions, or public education and we don't see people tarring all teachers with that broad brush.
It's a rampant, obvious and commonplace hypocrisy and intellectual pygmyism by bigoted, prejudices Atheist zealots who cannot reason carefully, have no logical faculties, and are interested only in bashing anything remotely touching upon religion. They as much trolls looking for people of religion to demean and insult as the worst evangelical Christian zealot ever seen on an Atheist forum.
And it happens to be my pleasure to point out such intellectual pygmyism from time to time, just to demonstrate the fact that Atheists are not inherently more intelligent, more logical, or more capable of reason than a theist. In fact, they are some of the worst of the worst when it comes to mindless hatred, bigotry and prejudice, and they give atheism and atheists a bad name, which is highly detrimental to the cause of gaining public acceptance and tolerance for atheism.
"Seth is Grandmaster Zen Troll who trains his victims to troll themselves every time they think of him" Robert_S
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
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