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Pope says 'backward' US conservatives replaced faith with ideology
(www.euronews.com)
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this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Religion, at its core, is basically rules that state "don't be a dick." Unfortunately, all of the dicks didn't get the message.
It's not "don't be a dick'.
It's "do as we want you to do"
Plenty of the rules are "be a dick, like this:"
Plenty of the rules are "don't do this objectively harmless thing"
Plenty of the rulez are "do this ridiculously pointless thing"
Yes, modern religion has many rules made by the dicks once they took over. Before the dicks rules were things like don't steal shit, don't fuck your neighbor's wife, don't murder people, don't lie about shit, etc. The dicks were so bad that some other guy had to come along and say "seriously guys, stop being dicks". But the dicks didn't like that so they killed him.
Phallus 6:9 - And lo' the Lord said unto Clitoris, "Be thou not a dick by thine actions, nor by thy words, nor by thy thoughts."
Amen!
Most declarations of what religions do and don't don't do miss Discordianism pretty hard, but you got us on those.
Exhibits: A) Don't eat hotdog buns. B) Go off alone on a Friday and eat a hotdog with a bun.
Good looking out for us religious minorities.
All of culture is "do as we want you to do." We're hierarchical animals.
Ish.
Many religions are more "don't be a dick to your fellow brothers in faith, but feel free to be a dick to others". In-group out-group dynamics were historically quite important.
You know - "don't murder", but at the same time Deuteronomy says
Also
If you take each verse at face value, this is a problem and what you imply is true.
But the thing you quoted from Deuteronomy were instructions to the Israelites. It's recorded history, not instruction. You can't just point to a verse in the Bible (like Acts 8:8 "Saul, for his part, approved of his murder") and say "see? The Bible says to do bad things!"
And going deeper shows that the Mosaic Law (the laws in the old testament, excluding the ten commandments), part of which is in your second block quote, was superceded by the Law Covenant when Jesus died. Again, it was a law directed specifically at Jews of the time.
You can kinda think of the first five Bible books (called the Torah in Judaism) as a speed run of history. So much happens in terms of time covered in those five books.
Not everyone who considers Deuteronomy to be scripture is Christian. For example, basically any rabbi would disagree with you.
The Deuteronomic code is literally presented as instruction from Moses to Israel as a normative set of rules for israel to follow. Many of the rules in it are included in the traditional lists of the Torah's 613 commandments.
I don't know of similar commandments in the new testament, but it's had its fair share of religious leaders inciting sectarian wars, pogroms, persecution, etc. For example, Pope Paul IV wrote a decree that forced the Jews of Rome into a ghetto in 1555, prevented them from owning property or working most skilled jobs. The Spanish Inquisition primarily targeted Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity under threat of exile.
Have even met a single rabbi, no two rabbi's agree on anything.
Sure, but this thread is mostly about Christianity (the post is about the Pope and the Catholic Church).
Yes. I said basically this. I wrote: But the thing you quoted from Deuteronomy were instructions to the Israelites.
Because there aren't any like that.
And? Your next door neighbour can be a "Christian", go to church every week, etc, but then find out he's a regular thief and had murdered someone. Would you then conclude there must be a commandment somewhere in the Bible that condones stealing and murder? Or would you conclude that he didn't follow the principles of the Bible he proclaimed to believe in?
Examples of people doing bad things in the name of the Bible is not evidence of anything against the Bible. It's just an example of terrible people being manipulative, exploitative, and ultimately evil. Many people throughout history (and many alive today) have realized that many people are more willing to listen to and accept what you say when you claim it's from the Bible. These people don't care about the Bible, they just care that it's a tool they can use for manipulation.
Christianity, and catholicism more specifically, are more than just the Bible itself.
Religious teachings evolve over time based off of new reinterpretations of old passages, teachings from influential leaders, folk traditions that spring up, etc. Those are all part of the religion, too.
For example, most Christians would say that the serpent in the garden of eden is Satan. Yet Genesis doesn't say anything about that, and the New Testament doesn't explicitly say it either. Mostly, it's a folk tradition some people found a couple verses you could squint at to support it.
And particularly in the case of Catholicism, there's a world of difference between a pope issuing an official bull, and your neighbor being a catholic who happens to be a shitty person. There's a huge difference between a random person teaching to be nice to your neighbor but shitty to outsiders, and for St Jerome to do that.
Catholicism yes. Christianity, no. Christianity is literally based on the Bible and a "Christian" is a follower of Christ (it's actually what the word means).
Well, that's not exactly correct. It's true that in Genesis it doesn't say "the snake in the garden that spoke to Eve was Satan". However, Satan is referred to as "the father of the lie" and "the original serpent". Satan is the only one to directly challenge God's right to rule and the lie to Eve was the first challenge. It has nothing to do with folk tradition. There are other supporting scriptions also.
Yes, there is a difference in the sense that the Pope has a huge and wide reaching audience and the neighbour is mostly a nobody. But that doesn't matter when we're talking about their conduct as it relates to "doing the right thing according to God". Each person is accountable to God for their own behaviour and actions.
On the other hand, there's an argument to be had about whether or not Catholicism should even be considered Christian anymore. There are so many doctrines and teachings that aren't in the Bible, or flat out taken from other "pagan" religions (religious syncretism). Sometimes even going against teachings in the Bible.
Reference:
John 8:44 "You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a murderer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie."
Revelation 12:9 "So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan"
And yet the golden rule usually doesn't get written down until multiple generations after the religion is formed. Took almost a century for Christianity to bother.
The problem is "don't be a dick" meant different things in different points in time. Now, enough time has elapsed that there are a huge amount of different iterations of "don't be a dick" rules and people just pick and choose which rules suits them.
If you're talking about all religions, I can't speak to that. But if we're talking about "Christians", then that's not the case. "Love your neighbour" and "Continue to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you" are pretty hard to interpret "differently". There's no excuse.
It's not about interpreting things differently and more about picking and choosing what to believe.
This is true also
When the rules are laws, lawyers argue in front of judges and define the grey areas. They change the grey areas from time to time. We as a society have agreed to have a single interpretation of those rules.
In religion, when people don't agree on the rules or how they should be interpreted, they can break apart and form their own religion. There is no governing body with the power to enforce the single interpretation.
Thus, people who missed the dont be a dick memo just find each other and pretend their interpretation of the thousands of years old text is more valid than the don't be a dick crowd.
Some dicks created religion.