You're an omniscient deity. You don't need to test anything. You know their hearts and how dedicated they are.
Testing someone's devotion by abusing them is what...well abusers do. It's always been a bad explanation.
Mysterious ways!
I don't think omniscience is part of the source material
But the devil suggested you do. (Job)
This is an excellent meme. I wasn't expecting such quality.
To be fair, the new testament (the Jesus bit) is the least batshit crazy and has a pretty good message overall. The old testament tho...
Dude.
"Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them, He said, 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters β yes, even their own life β such a person cannot be my disciple,'" Luke 14:25-26.
That's some real emo poser shit right there from the ultimate nepo baby π
Fellow atheist here, ok, but what about where a crowd of people wants to stone a woman to death, and he says "whoever hasn't done something wrong can throw the first stone"? What about when he said the most important command is loving your neighbor the way you love yourself? Who is your neighbor? It's not just the people who like you, it's the poor, the sick, the persecuted. He says it's easier for a rich person to go through the eye of a needle than to get into heaven.
Yeah, God isn't real, and religion is used continuously by scammers to control people and get their money. Still, Jesus or his ghost writers had some good stuff mixed in there.
I think it's a mix of good and bad takes like most religious doctrine, not a good source for a model ethics but as long as you're not dogmatic about it you can take the good stuff from all religions into your own morality.
But, you can also form good ethics easily, without using any religion. There's plenty of good philosophy and general common sense without bring magical beings into it.
people wants to stone a woman to death,
7th century forgery. Also totally out of character of Biblical Jesus' teachings.
What about when he said the most important command is loving your neighbor the way you love yourself?
Golden rule. First recorded at least 5 centuries before Jesus. And well known to the Jews at least a century before Jesus. Also biblical Jesus robbed it of its power when he made God above humans and told people that loving him/god was the real Golden rule.
He says itβs easier for a rich person to go through the eye of a needle than to get into heaven.
He did? Pretty sure Paul said that when people weren't giving him enough money and Jesus was made to say that. Paul also said people who didn't give him enough money were worthy of death. Also even if there was a historical Jesus, he doesn't just get to declare that being rich is a sin, that has to be demonstrated. And even being rich were a sin I think you would agree that it in no way rises to the level of deserving an eternity of hell.
Still, Jesus or his ghost writers had some good stuff mixed in there.
Like the part when Jesus makes a woman grovel at his feet calling herself a racial slur before Jesus can be used to save her dying kid?
I would argue that the doctrine of Hell introduced in the New Testament is crazier than anything in the Old Testament.
Read Hebrews, it's a good summary. Everything is good and about love and not having to follow the law anymore--and then it abruptly switches into "therefore follow all the new rules or else you'll be super punished by God."
and has a pretty good message overall.
while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
OT god would take your stuff and murder you, but your pain was over. You got eternal sleep with your ancestors. NT God sent you to hell. I can't even venture a guess on the amount of human suffering on the society level and the individual level that was unleashed on the world from the belief in heaven and hell.
I've always found funny that republicans and conservatives put so much sweat into "but the children!" on a religion that is absolutely about a god one of whose favourite pastimes was killing children, or conning elderly people into killing children.
I guess that explains why they are all gung-ho bout abortion but couldn't lift an eyelid to vote universal basic income for child raising.
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