Hiku said:
It didn't mention God, so when you say he didn't condone killing in the name of God, are you saying he condoned killing in his own name? But anyway, my issue with religion is not just that among the good things, there may be dangerous things. It's also the whole fundamental idea that people are encourage to have very strong convictions without proper evidence. And how this translates into other ereas of their life, such as politics. |
I said "God" as he was speaking on God's behalf, and the nature of his relationship with God spawned many, many competing Christian Sects, so I won't get into that lol
As I said, that passage was from a parable Jesus was telling; the King himself suggested that they kill in his name and not for faith-based reasons but rather over money and respect. Jesus was using the story not to suggest that people should kill one another in the temporal world, but rather as an example of what will happen should you stray from your faith and suddenly be confronted by God's judgement (as in should you die in the midst of being a doubter). Death is almost always unexpected, and the reason he used the parable was to demonstrate that one should maintain their faith even when they have reasons for doubt or times are tough, lest they be caught unready for death when it comes. A central theme of Christianity is the belief that one day the world will indeed come to an end, the savior will return, and all will be judged for their sins. Even then, he suggested the doubters would be the "least" of heaven, while the faithful would be the "greatest", so it's not even clear that he was saying those people would go to Hell.
If there's one group Jesus legitimately seemed to dislike, it was not those who one would expect the religious to dislike but is rather those who claim to be believers, make a big show of being believers, and benefit from being believers, but aren't actually so. It's why in the Sermon on the Mount he specifically warned against large congregations for prayer or wearing your religion on your sleeve, suggesting prayer should be done in private so that it may be sincere.
Otherwise, I wouldn't worry to much about the word "wretched" as it is not an insult, but rather indicates suffering. It was used a lot, such as when Solomon explains how God will save the wretched of the earth, and I'm pretty sure if we lived in the 1st century AD or earlier we'd agree that very nearly everyone led very "wretched", painful lives.
Finally, it's true that religion provides answers and doesn't necessitate critical thought (though it has certainly spurred it on for centuries), and inolves believing things that lack proper evidence. Unfortunately, that's something we're all eventually forced to do regardless of whether or not we subscribe to any particular religion. We all still have our own sense of what behavior is right, wrong, or at the very least should and should not be done, and no amount of philosophizing ever actually yields us foundational facts on which to construct a society. For now we all just have to discuss the issue and see how we feel about things at any given moment, but it will always include the adoption of things not based in fact.
