Reply to I don't get Atheism

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "I don't get Atheism"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Well, the fundamentalists have chosen their side, their religion over everything else. This is what religion teaches and they have followed it. They are honest about it with themselves and others. Now you say that much of the bible was not meant to be taken literally. But with that, you've revealed religion to be hollow and completely artificial, because now you have no foundation on which to base your practice. For example if the religion you believe in claims that Christ died and was resurrected, which conflicts with modern science in a very real sense, do you discount this as a "not meant to be taken literally?"  If that's the case then what really happened? if Jesus wasn't resurrected, then what proof is there that he is the son of God? If he never died in the first place, then how are the sinners of this world redeemed? Was there even a person named Jesus? And if there wasn't....

Where do we draw the line between facts/reality, and teachings/parables?

If no one knows for sure, how can you practice that as a religion, which requires a specific system of belief at its very foundation.

So given the above, while I don't find any religion to be valid or convincing, at least I can appreciate the mindset of the fundamentalist believers.

McLeanAthiest
[/quote]

I think you're way off track here. The most common belief is that salvation through Christ is the solution to many of the rules of the Old Testament. Belief and salvation are the post-Christ replacement for the sacrifice and ceremony aspects. The fundamentalists still selectively follow parts of the Old Testament. There are very few denominations that encourage women to cover their hair. Christians eat pork. They don't strictly observe the Sabbath. They don't sacrifice animals. They don't follow what it says about slavery, war or marriage. Those are just a few things.

Not only was I raised as a hardcore fundamentalist, I have spent years studying religions. I can see you've given it all some thought, but your understanding of Christianity is very limited. If I had the choice, I'd prefer not to have the level of knowledge that comes from total immersion in fundamentalism.

-another atheist[/quote]

I am not sure what you think we are disagreeing on. The narrative describing the life and death of Christ, and the reasons why all of that happened, is a fundamental aspect of Christianity. There are now moderate Christian denominations, or individual Christians who make the claim that the Christian system of belief is flexible, and that Bible is not meant to be taken literally - it's filled with some facts/truths, but also stories and parables. See the post I was replying to for an example of this mentality.

Now you can say that the rules about the Sabbath, eating pork, and even the instructions given about how to keep slaves and how much you can beat them, that these are all parables meant to illustrate some greater truth. We can go in circles arguing these things for days without a satisfactory answer because religion is man made and once you allow for flexible interpretation away from face value of the words written, well then it's like two guys standing in front of a painting arguing about the true artistic intent of the now deceased artist - the experiences are then almost purely subjective.

But the fact is that there is a line somewhere and a believer have to decide where it is. Was the story of Jesus all true? If you believe it is all true, how do you square the death and resurrection of Jesus with modern science. You have to choose whether you believe that Jesus died and was resurrected, or the science that indicates resurrection after death is not possible; these two claims are incompatible and you can't believe both at the same time. This goes to the heart of the argument. I don't really care how Christians square their lack of adherence to their faith in other comparatively minor aspects of their religious practice, but this fundamental core belief in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, is central and fundamental to their belief. You cannot be a Christian if you don't believe the bible's claims about Jesus.

Now bringing the argument back to the point about fundamentalism. I want to point out that "Christ is a fundamental aspect of Christianity" doesn't mean I think anyone who believes in this story as the truth is a fundamentalist, this is just an unfortunate coincidence in word usage. In drawing the aforementioned line separating facts/truth and stories/parables, the moderate Christians have made a squiggly one through the pages of the bible, picking and choosing as they go along with their study. The fundamentalists have drawn a straight line. What I am saying is that I have more respect for the mindset of the fundamentalists in this matter, rather than the fuzzy mindset of the moderates. If you claim you believe in something, you should actually study it and believe it, instead of choosing which part to believe in based on whether you feel it violates your worldly sensibilities.

McLeanAthiest[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics