Dan Peterson's Utterly Stupid Quote

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_Philo Sofee
_Emeritus
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Re: Dan Peterson's Utterly Stupid Quote

Post by _Philo Sofee »

huckleberry
I believe Christianity will be more healthy as it opens to be more understanding of others, as it values helpfulness above uniformity.


We can do that without Christianity. We can do that as decent human beings. Religion is not needed for this to take place.
Dr CamNC4Me
"Dr. Peterson and his Callithumpian cabal of BYU idiots have been marginalized by their own inevitable irrelevancy defending a fraud."
_Philo Sofee
_Emeritus
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Re: Dan Peterson's Utterly Stupid Quote

Post by _Philo Sofee »

huckleberry
The idea that all people who do not believe and join Christianity will be eternally punished is such a repulsive chaotic idea that I found it a serious barrier. I have given the matter enough consideration that not only do I not believe the idea because it is destructive of human respect and love but it poorly fits the general structure of Christian beliefs.


And yet Jesus himself preaches deferred violence, and quite gross violence for some rather blase "offences" done in life in Matthew 25. He says to those on the left, you didn't feed me, clothe me, or visit me, and for that you gonna burn forever! And with "eternal punishment." As Hector Avalos notes (The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015, pp. 102-104, using Matthew 25:31-46 as his text)

As does Christ in Matthew 25, Yahweh in Deuteronomy 32 promises to avenge his servants, As gruesome and violent as Deuteronomy 32 is, Christ goes much further. Christ does not only wish to kill those who harmed his servants. Christ wants to torture them eternally with fire, one of the most horrific ways to destroy a body... it is Jesus who emphasizes, more than anyone else before him, the idea that those who displease him should suffer an eternal torture. So the quality of the violence (burning) and the eternal duration of the violence are infinitely greater than almost any precedent I know.
Dr CamNC4Me
"Dr. Peterson and his Callithumpian cabal of BYU idiots have been marginalized by their own inevitable irrelevancy defending a fraud."
_huckelberry
_Emeritus
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Re: Dan Peterson's Utterly Stupid Quote

Post by _huckelberry »

philo, the subject is not some minor offense but living ones life brushing aside being helpful as a minor matter not be be bothered with. Well that can be a road of comfort and satisfaction for the superior so it is not nice to be reminded it is the road to hell.
_Symmachus
_Emeritus
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Re: Dan Peterson's Utterly Stupid Quote

Post by _Symmachus »

I find huck's Christianity to be a decent sort that I wish more Christians would get behind. I don't see what the problem is. And on hell, well, I have to say that the most disappointing thought that arises out of my atheism is not the absence of heaven for my eternal soul, which I wouldn't hope for, but the absence of hell for the souls of the unjust and brutal, which I do. I don't know about Christian believers today, but I can sympathize with the stirrings in the mind of a Jewish peasant yearning for justice in the cosmos.
"As to any slivers of light or any particles of darkness of the past, we forget about them."

—B. Redd McConkie
_moksha
_Emeritus
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Re: Dan Peterson's Utterly Stupid Quote

Post by _moksha »

Philo Sofee wrote:
“Christianity was never meant to be an explanation of anything in the first place,” ...

It took a number of centuries to cobble together Christianity as we know of it. There were wars and rumors of war among the cobblers. Homoousios eventually beat the stuffing out of homoiousios, but not in the first place.
Cry Heaven and let loose the Penguins of Peace
_Water Dog
_Emeritus
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Re: Dan Peterson's Utterly Stupid Quote

Post by _Water Dog »

Kishkumen wrote:Religion is about providing human community in the guise of solving problems that don’t exist or failing to solve problems that do and seeking to reconcile these contradictions and conceal the failures in bogus explanations otherwise known as theology.

This.

Symmachus wrote:I know some might appreciate this for its iconoclasm or some for its apparent cynicism, but for me this definition perfectly encapsulates why religion is so appealing and why even I, an atheist for all intents and purposes, am so deeply attracted to religion: it's about failure, which is how most things end up in life for most people.

And this.
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