The Trans Movement Just Hit Home.......

[Stewy]

(05-06-2023, 12:10 PM)Dill Wrote: If you are addressing me, and talking about Jesus, then "looney" doesn't really describe my attitude.

I think Jesus was an intinerant "teacher" who distilled Essene and other Jewish teachings into an ethical code still worthy of emulation. 

In the generations after his crucifixion, he was deified in stages, first by his own followers, and then Gentiles who syncretistically mixed Hellenistic conceptions of divinity, the soul, and immortality with Jesus teachings, which kept the Jewish focus on individual responsibility and a deity with extensive interest in how humans behaved. 

These teachings also included the notion of equality in heaven, a foundation for eventually making equality on this earth a goal. So the Hellenization of Jesus' teachings in a Roman world was a crucial point in so-called "Western Civilization." 

So my attitude towards Christianity in general is not hostile. C. has been used for good and bad, and I'd be lying if said Jesus teachings were not valued by me and generally worthy of personal aspiration. But like all religions, it is adapted to whatever historical society that absorbs it.
Charlemagne set out on yearly "jihads" to convert pagans, killing them if they did not convert. I attribute that to emerging feudal organization in what would become modern France and the lowlands. Lutherinism became the established church of Nazi Germany.  That's not because Jesus teachings or Christianity are intrinsically "NAZI." When my father gave ex-convicts a chance to earn some money painting our house or my mother gave a hungry beggar a sandwich, that was more expression of Jesus teachings. (My father was a minister and a missionary, if you didn't know.)

So I guess you could say I do care about ethics and history (materialist history), and don't see Jesus as a "looney." In ethical terms, I judge Christians in my life by the same standards I judge everyone else. Some Christians may be bad and misled by politicians and bad pastors, but rarely do I see Christianity as a "cause" of that behavior. I do see Christian behavior in peacemakers. (Same for Islam, by the way.) 

Also, I am an atheist for sure, but I find many atheists lack any kind of historical understanding of religion, especially where they make beliefs a matter of
individual psychology.  

It was more of a general response.  And my own philosophies.  Thank you for your perspective.