A supreme irony, but some would say they had it coming.

[DanneSandin]

Trunkin said:

DanneSandin said:

Trunkin said:

DanneSandin said:

Trunkin said:

DanneSandin said:
I don't think we'll see the extinction of Christianity very soon - if ever. They'll survive as some odd cult at the very least. But if we're looking at what Christianity has become, none is true Christians any more. I mean, how many people are stoning gays? Or selling their daughters as slaves? Not a whole lot of them. So I'd call todays Christians for... Post-modern Christians; they have adopted a much more modern way of looking at things, or THEY would be the ones getting stoned...

But I'm glad to live in a world where more and more people are becoming Atheists - in no way can that be a bad sign of things to come. I just wish we'd see more of this also happening in the Middle East...

You're joking, right?

If you're referring to the bolded part; no, I'm not. I wouldn't call Christians of today for "real, hardcore" Christians. They've cherry picked what they want to believe from the Bible - but that goes for almost ALL religion; they've chosen by large what they want to adhere to, and what to ignore. The Bible clearly states that you have the right to sell your daughter as a slave, and not even the most fundamental Creationist would do that (I hope).

Religion these days are all about cherry picking the good parts - as well as they should; there are some pretty horrible things in most religious texts.

I find it flabbergasting that you can say that "true" Christians would be all for stoning gays and "selling their daughters" when Christ, the founder of the faith and a man the Bible says was perfect, was openly opposed such actions, preventing the stoning of an adulterous woman, and teaching to do unto others as you'd have them to unto you, which pretty much rules out slavery. The way I see it, discarding the barbaric ways of the Old Testament isn't a matter of "cherry picking", It's a matter of following the teachings of Jesus above those in the Old Testament, which Christ was supposed to have abolished through his death on the cross. There's nothing "modern" about it. 

Yes, ok, I'll give you that you probably can discard the whole of the Old Testament if you're following the preaching of Jesus. But that would mean you more or less would have to discard everything in it, no? Like how god created the world in 7 days, and the story about Adam and Eve... But that's not what's happening, since people still believe this is what happened. And then we have the homophobic right winged movement in the US that opposes abortion and gay marriages because it says so in the bible. What they are doing is disregarding the word of Jesus and is, in fact, cherry picking...

And then we have the fact that the New Testament have been heavily revised through out history, so what we have today is nothing like what Jesus was preaching... Cherry picking.

Ah, by "Old Testament" I was mostly referring to the the law of Moses. Too much of the NT would be rendered meaningless if you discarded the OT in it's entirety. That, I believe, is why Christians today still say that homosexuality, adultery, sex outside of marriage, lying, etc. are still wrong. The OT still has to be used as a guideline of sorts, but Christians toss out the parts that Jesus stood against. The story of the adulterous woman is a good example in this case, as he told her to "go and sin no more." He wasn't saying that adultery was okay, only that he would not condemn her for it. Although I do agree that it isn't "Christlike" to treat gays the way many Christians today do.

Now, I'm unfamiliar with any drastic changes made to the NT texts over the years, but, even if you're right, the commonly used King James Bible was written over 400 years ago, so my statement still stands: These teachings didn't just come around recently. Hence, not cherry picking.

Sort of OT: I don't know of any verses in the Bible that say that abortion is wrong. I am personally opposed to it, but more because of my own feelings on the matter than religion.

I have to admit that my knowledge of the Bible is all that great; I only know bits and pieces, so I can't make a full argument about everything in it. All I can do is look upon certain passages and say "heeey, wait a minute here! THAT doesn't seem very nice!" I don't quite know what Jesus said, so I don't fully understand what parts of the OT is rendered obsolete.

They keep finding parts of the Bible (don't know what they're called, evangelists? Those letters that constitute the NT from Peter and the likes) that DIDN'T make the cut into the book. And it wasn't until sometime around the 300's that Jesus officially was considered the son of god by the church. So there's been quite some cherry picking even before the Early Modern time period, in which the English Bible was written.