For the former, you have my sympathy. The self-righteousness is appalling..Have you ever tried publicly declaring an unpopular faith (or lack thereof) like Satanism or atheism? You might find it's harder to draw sympathy when you're on the other side of the fence. My wife was Christian; the only Christians who get verbally abused are the ones who are obnoxious about it, ie- try to steer conversations toward their religion at every opportunity, etc.
As far as the latter, you'd actually be surprised. I deliberately refrain from forcing Christianity onto other people as it tends to be entirely ineffective as well as trivializing my own faith. This year at UPS, there have been some pretty nasty incidents towards a bible study I'm helping to lead, merely for the fact that it is Christian.
I don't think its an inherent attribute to religions themselves, but I do think it is an inherent human attribute. It is the same instinct that leads to creating structures for discrimination and superiority within culture, and combined with religion it tacks on an extra 'holy' element. That makes it that much more ugly..Actually, as much as you might like to believe that this is universal to all religions, I don't think so.
Not necessarily. Consider different approaches at atheism, including Nihilism, and the same cannot be said.atheism does not claim any sort of moral superiority since atheism has nothing to say about morality one way or another; atheism only claims superior logic.
1. The Torah was the first five books of the Old TestamentNo need or do I need to point out the Jewish Good book only contains the first four books of the Bible? Not Mark, Not Mathew not anything BUT those first four books?
2. The person I quoted referred to an absence of quotes in the New Testament on Hell and the Devil. I provided them.
Given that we appear to be taking the Bible at its word for the sake of argument..There where five things the Messiash was supposed to do, Thats what God said, Jesus did not do them he is not the Messiah
Christ's activity on this earth was to be three-fold:
1. Coming during the time of the Romans
2. Perpetuation via the Holy Spirit
3. Second Coming
Those attributes which cannot be ascribed to Christ in the first or second could be claimed to come during the third. The story is incomplete and thus cannot be judged in the fashion you propose.
But anyways, I apologize. This is getting highly tangential, so I will remove myself from this thread.
'peace.
yet another reason to hate him. (i didn't know he said stuff like that, i try to listen to the news as little as possible, its all propaganda in my opinion)
