It's like the challenge was how to hold in one's mind "being Christian" and simultaneously going down a checklist of actions and words listed as defining Christianity and doing the exact opposite. Though, By 320 CE, that was the status quo.

Jesus's whole way at talking truth to power was to acknowledge and show compassion for those marginalized and hated by the Romans and the Pharisees. His main problem with the Pharisees was literally the hypocrisy of them saying they follow the laws of the religion, and then not doing any of that. It was dangerous to call them hypocrites due to their political power.

Sound familiar yet?

I don't agree when you say "racism and homophobia". American Christian values are racism and homophobia and misogyny.

Oh I was raised by bigots. Both full narcissists. Its why democrat and republican mean nothing to me. My democrat dad switched to a republican without changing one racist bigoted opinion. Made sure everyone knew how generous he was. Only he was generous when no one was around to see. Then he was cruel and mean. When I stopped being his victim he disowned me. Of all those christians he was hanging around ninety percent of them were just like him. They were incrediblly mean to people and always justified it using the bible. If their afterlife were a real thing then they wouldn't be that way. The reason why they can be that way is that they know its all a scam. If jesus ever existed that jewish dude wouldn't be someone they cared for.

I long for the day they are taxed for their donations and then we will see how christian they are. Whats left might be worthy of my repsect. But I doubt it.

Yeah so I was raised in a reasonably devout household, and I've never really been able to resolve this.

Its related to the fundamental attribution error - we judge others by their actions but ourselves by intentions. Except its more than that because religion creates this us vs them dynamic, where anyone who is "us" has good intentions, but anyone who is them does not.

Let's suppose a "good" person is one who performs acts of altruism, has integrity, and a high level of emptiness self awareness.

In my experience these "good" people are a small part of any group. Any race, creed, city, social group, whatever.

With that in mind, I don't think religion makes people good - rather its a system of beliefs that allows people to perceive themselves and their friends as good.

Really I think this explains why religion is so prevalent. Ultimately being "good" isn't a very good gig. Imagine doing destitute because you've spent your life performing acts of altruism. OTOH if it merely allows one to form a cohesive group of "good" people, i can see how that would be perpetuated.

You can be all of those things and be Christian.

I only realised this after I was well past my "Angry Atheist" phase: There are good verses in the Bible and there are also bad verses. Most of the Christians cherry pick. How they cherry pick depends on who they are. In my opinion, there aren't any real or fake christians. There's only good christians and bad christians.

'Its all part of gods plan sweetie'. Had my mom feed me this line when I wanted to help a homeless person

Sometimes I wish I could do that, just ignore all logic and believe what you want.

So those people starving in Africa? Oh no God's plan.

People getting killed in Gaza? Also God's plan

That Kirk guy getting shot? Evil left, nothing to do with God.

Immigrants trying to find a better life in a different country? The worst people, nothing to do with God.

Aunt Marget died of cancer? Poor Marget, she was just unlucky,

It did not help she had no health insurance? No thats not it, that's communism

But if something bad happens to them, it's because God is "testing them."

It wasn’t open to interpretation.

And yet, 2000 years later, here we are.

The problem is that you actually read the Bible. These "Christians" never have. They interpret all right but read....nah.

You know how the Romans collected taxes in there less "Roman" providences? They have rich guys a contract to basically raise taxes and the rich guys payed up front what was owed for their division of it. Then they were allowed to collect taxes beyond what they paid the Romans to make a profit. This is mainly why they were hated so much. Many people might imagine some official going around and collecting taxes fairly, but the reality was they were operating much more like a Mafia extorting protection money out of people, and taking more then most people owed, often to peoples ruin or near ruin. You can also imagine how nepotic this becomes. People who have loyalty to the dominant ruling class would often catch a break, while those disfavored by the dominant faction would often be harassed.

“If Jesus was here, he would join the front lines”, my incredibly Catholic relative that needs to re-read the sermon on the mount.

Meh for me it was the child fucking.

Buddhism has a more Christian example of Christ-like behavior concerning a "living being Satan". That is to say, if "living being Jesus" was real, he would be a Bodhisattva, perhaps akin to Kṣitigarbha.

In the story, Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha vowed:

“Until the hells are empty, I will not become a Buddha.

Only when all sentient beings are saved will I attain enlightenment.”

It is a vow to never abandon any being regardless of their state.

I like that idea. Boundless love and compassion doesn't stop at the bounds of some hell. It is boundless. It has boundless time, so it will spend an eternity reaching out to even cyclic hells.

Lucifer/Satan never even actually kills anyone in the Bible, whereas Yahweh commits literal genocide on multiple occasions.

It should also be noted that the serpent never even told Eve that she should eat the fruit, just that she COULD.

Side note that always puzzled me... 1) why would God create a tree that has fruit that teaches you the difference between good and evil? 2) why would god put this tree in the garden in the first place? 3) why would anyone (particularly an omniscient) ever think that the people who have no concept of right and wrong (before eating the fruit) are going to be able to resist it? And finally, 4) WHY IS KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL A BAD THING??

It's all just so fucking idiotic that it hurts my brain.

That's not just Americans that do that... That's pretty much anywhere with any religion.

And don't forget, those are the people who tell us atheists that "without the Bible, where do you get your morals from?"

Well, we can see what these biblical morals are - you mentioned it: homophobia, racism etcetera. It makes people hateful, while claiming it is charity and compassion.

Religion poisons everything.

Grew up in the south before social media existed. It's the cause of a lot of problems, but this one predates it by a wide margin. It definitely made it worse, but there is no greater hate than Christian love.