It’s basically a case in point that people are almost always much better than their religions. Human empathy combined with proper socialization will often overpower such dictates as “a woman may not have authority over a man” or “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
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I used to do anti-death penalty work, which involved coordinating efforts with several religious groups with traditions of progressive political activism. Anti-war work drew in a lot more people, including a lot more religious groups. I’m an atheist, but when it comes to who to ally with, I’d pick Cornell West over Richard Dawkins on any day of the week.
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In hypothetical micronation of Popobawa4u, chair sits on YOU!
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No choking chickens, no choking YOUR chicken! Repent, Sinner!
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What is sin? And why should I repent?
Seriously. If I can’t have reasoned answers for why I am supposed to feel guilty, then I refuse to accept someone else’s shaming. I spent years being ashamed of my body, and my natural impulses, and my reasoned ideas, when I should have spent them tearing down the preachers, elders, and youth ministers trying to brainwash me, rather than convince me with facts, evidence, and logic.
You may be joking, but I’d rather spend my time utterly destroying abusive traditions perpetuated by popular religions.
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Oh, absolutely, I just wanted to make a ‘choking your chicken’ joke. I’m pretty high today (I found opium poppies and made tea), ignore me 
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Do share. Before we get to the Emerald Palace, I’d like to be properly altered.
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I was at the beach yesterday, and the ones along the seafront were like fucking tennis balls. Sadly, I was there doing work stuff, so no amateur herbalism allowed. These ones were small and stunted and grow by the car park at the back of our tower block. I like July. More sun would improve things, but hey ho. Maybe a sacrifice to a Sun God, if’n we were thinking about going back on topic… 
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As an example, you quote from one of the many letters (epistles) written by early congregation builders who are trying to get traction for the new religion after the supposed founder has died. One of the things I pay attention to is whether someone who calls themselves “Christian” concentrates on the Old Testament, those early church bureaucrats, or the actual stories about Jesus. Those in the latter category seem to be in the minority.
In other words, if you believe your god said something directly, why would you trust the later words of men who contradict those god-given statements? “This is what he really meant” shouldn’t be the higher authority.
I know you’re explaining how it works that Christians supposedly don’t have to follow the earlier laws, but really it’s just a convenient excuse for them.
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Let’s hear it for the Sun God
He sure is a Fun God
Ra! Ra! Ra!
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How do you know that anything written in the gospels are the actual words of Jesus? Where does Jesus say that only his words are to be followed? Personally, I would look at all three as the Jesus in the gospels never claimed to be starting his own religion and strongly based his claims to authority on the Old Testament (as did the early congregation builders). In fact, I think the OT is badly neglected in these discussions as every second thing Jesus did was supposed to be fulfilling something or other and was meant to be understood in the light of the OT. Large parts of the epistles are also attempts to portray Jesus as a fulfilment of the OT system, not a break from it or contradiction of it. The gospel accounts might be quite different from what actually happened, but who knows? They were canonised by the same people that canonised the gospels. Unlike something like the Qur’an, there’s a lot of editorial work in the gospels and narrative or teaching that would be placed on a lower level is placed alongside more obviously authoritative content.
I don’t know - that seems to be the way that mainstream Christianity works as a system - there’s an evolution of the rules in the OT too. I think it’s all people making it up, others think it’s God speaking vs. God inspiring others to write authoritatively. It’s odd that many of these inspired decisions came from a committee meeting though. Authority is an interesting issue; the commonly accepted idea of Sola Scriptura are strongly opposed by Orthodox Christians because the church is given a much higher authoritative position even today:
Lest any be mistaken or confused, let me be clear: the Orthodox approach to the Scriptures is not based upon “scientific” research into the Holy Scriptures. Its claim to understand the Scriptures does not reside in its claiming superior archaeological data, but rather in its unique relationship with the Author of the Scriptures. The Orthodox Church is the body of Christ, the pillar and ground of the Truth, and it is both the means by which God wrote the Scriptures (through its members) and the means by which God has preserved the Scriptures. The Orthodox Church understands the Bible because it is the inheritor of one living tradition that begins with Adam and stretches through time to all its members today. That this is true cannot be “proven” in a lab. One must be convinced by the Holy Spirit and experience the life of God in the Church.
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The thing about the catholic church is that it allows people to be as immoral as they like, as long as they feel bad about it. The reason they ask you to believe the unbelievable and to behave in unrealistic ways functions as company stores once did, the accrued guilt of being imperfect keeps you tied to the religion which forever keeps absolving you of sin.
Sin is something that happens to you and is unavoidable, you personally are alright.
The things they ask you to believe may not be true, the way people reconcile those inconsistencies with their personal experiences is what leads some Christians to be bigots. Its a political reaction to sin is what I’m saying, and politics does not care about what is wrong or right, it cares about what is expedient.
When it becomes politically untenable to oppose homosexuality, the interpretation of scripture will be rationalized as is beginning to happen today.
I hope.
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Well, sure, I totally agree with you!
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already did, turned pagan when i was fourteen coming up for sixty fairly soon my beliefs may a delusion but at least i dont try to force them on others.
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gimme that old time religion its good enough for me.
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The elephant in the room that nobody is talking about is psychosis.
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Having had a close relative break with reality, decide he was a mystic, and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from my dying grandparents to give to a stripper who was important* to him in a past life, I definitely agree.
*She was either a daughter or a lover. Personally, it would be important to me to clarify this particular point, but then again, perhaps I am insufficiently in tune with the ways of the spheres.
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Rule #1 for dealing with a schizophrenic person or a psychotic person. Anyone with delusions who can potentially erupt into violence if they act on them really:
Rule #1 is: Don’t encourage, or reinforce their delusion.
Ask any psychologist.
Don’t play along. It’ll only hurt them to pretend that you agree, or tell them that they’re correct.
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That’s the original “don’t feed the trolls.”
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