Here’s my question: do atheist take anything away from the death and resurrection of Christ as a metaphor, even if you don’t believe in the story? Or do you just keep on ignoring and making fun of it and the people that have belief and faith in the story? Do you get nothing from the basic philosophy of life in the New Testament, or the Bible as a whole, even if you assign no supernatural spirituality to it? Anybody? Anybody?
Well the first thing I would say is that I find the death and resurrection of Christ to be eerily similar, if not plagiarized outright, to older religions whose deities also died and came back to life (almost always three days later) such as Osiris, Mithras, Dionysis, etc. (I’m sure google will bring up more, I’m just extremely lazy at the moment) The Dionysis story is lifted almost word for word. (ie. born from a virgin mother by a god-Zeus, turning water into wine, the whole body and blood part) So I believe the whole thing to be just another fable which cannibalized other fables of the time.
I find some of the philosophy in the bible to be perfectly fine. The problem is you have to wade through a lot of crap to find it which means it is up to people to pick and choose what set of rules they want to follow. And that’s not limited to christianity.
So to answer your question before I collapse on the sofa, no, I don’t draw much from the basic philosophy of life in the New Testament or bible because I don’t believe that human morality is derived from religion, although I seem to be in the minority on that opinion.
I was raised a Christian, but over the past ten years I’ve been studying Buddhism, which seems to hold more for me. However, I have a couple of books on the like philosophies of both Jesus and the Buddha. My thing is, the same truth occurs to all wise individuals. I do think it is strange how a single individual has to be singled out to bring this message to the masses, because the masses don’t have time to consider these things themselves…why is the burden put on one special person? I have known of moral and ethical persons, my father being one, who didn’t have to use the church or religion to prop up what they believe in, but, que sera, sera. A good person is a good person. I’m extremely annoyed these days with the slime that uses religion to try and bring everybody, regardless, in line with fear and loathing. Oh, and my posting name changes depending on what computer I’m using! LOL…
Oh, and I am aware that modern Christianity is a mish-mash of numerous pagan celebrations, which was probably how the early church appeased the masses to get them to come to the cathedral…I drop this bomb in the middle of discussions with fervent Christians, and watch them have meltdowns…it’s funny. I am about historical fact, as well as spiritual truth…
My basic philosophy, boiled down as much as possible, is basically “play nice”. I don’t need mythology to reinforce it and, to put it bluntly, I think there’s more value in my choosing to follow it than there is in those who have it, or similar, dictated to them.
Let’s turn it around: What’s the difference between a christian following orders from a god who tells them to “play nice”, and the extremeists following orders from a god who tells them to blow up infidels? How can anyone who does what god tells them to do have anything but respect for suicide bombers etc., without being hypocritical?
Comments
5 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Here’s my question: do atheist take anything away from the death and resurrection of Christ as a metaphor, even if you don’t believe in the story? Or do you just keep on ignoring and making fun of it and the people that have belief and faith in the story? Do you get nothing from the basic philosophy of life in the New Testament, or the Bible as a whole, even if you assign no supernatural spirituality to it? Anybody? Anybody?
Hey GeeBee, aka Gwenny
Well the first thing I would say is that I find the death and resurrection of Christ to be eerily similar, if not plagiarized outright, to older religions whose deities also died and came back to life (almost always three days later) such as Osiris, Mithras, Dionysis, etc. (I’m sure google will bring up more, I’m just extremely lazy at the moment) The Dionysis story is lifted almost word for word. (ie. born from a virgin mother by a god-Zeus, turning water into wine, the whole body and blood part) So I believe the whole thing to be just another fable which cannibalized other fables of the time.
I find some of the philosophy in the bible to be perfectly fine. The problem is you have to wade through a lot of crap to find it which means it is up to people to pick and choose what set of rules they want to follow. And that’s not limited to christianity.
So to answer your question before I collapse on the sofa, no, I don’t draw much from the basic philosophy of life in the New Testament or bible because I don’t believe that human morality is derived from religion, although I seem to be in the minority on that opinion.
I was raised a Christian, but over the past ten years I’ve been studying Buddhism, which seems to hold more for me. However, I have a couple of books on the like philosophies of both Jesus and the Buddha. My thing is, the same truth occurs to all wise individuals. I do think it is strange how a single individual has to be singled out to bring this message to the masses, because the masses don’t have time to consider these things themselves…why is the burden put on one special person? I have known of moral and ethical persons, my father being one, who didn’t have to use the church or religion to prop up what they believe in, but, que sera, sera. A good person is a good person. I’m extremely annoyed these days with the slime that uses religion to try and bring everybody, regardless, in line with fear and loathing. Oh, and my posting name changes depending on what computer I’m using! LOL…
Oh, and I am aware that modern Christianity is a mish-mash of numerous pagan celebrations, which was probably how the early church appeased the masses to get them to come to the cathedral…I drop this bomb in the middle of discussions with fervent Christians, and watch them have meltdowns…it’s funny. I am about historical fact, as well as spiritual truth…
My basic philosophy, boiled down as much as possible, is basically “play nice”. I don’t need mythology to reinforce it and, to put it bluntly, I think there’s more value in my choosing to follow it than there is in those who have it, or similar, dictated to them.
Let’s turn it around: What’s the difference between a christian following orders from a god who tells them to “play nice”, and the extremeists following orders from a god who tells them to blow up infidels? How can anyone who does what god tells them to do have anything but respect for suicide bombers etc., without being hypocritical?