Posted: Feb 27, 2018 12:22 am
Rumraket wrote:jamest wrote:Beyond physical miracles, what would you expect of the The Christ?
That it made sense.
Why did he need to put himself into human form, get himself killed on purpose, resurrect himself and then forgive us? Why did this take place 250.000 years after the first anatomically modern humans evolved, and what is it's purpose and how is that achieved and why did it even need to happen in the first place through these fatuous symbolic acts of torture and theatrics?
The whole thing is stupid from start to finish.
Well sure - if you put it that way.
The Divine (or a closer approximation to it than say: me) needed to be put in human form in the hope that the rest of us would raise our bar. And he got killed because some didn't/don't want the bar raised because it's too big a leap for them. He resurrected because you can't keep a good meme down. And the trick is to forgive yourself. It took place when it could, which I'm thinking is way more than once. The purpose - information - more specifically, Knowledge, to help guide evolution. Sadly, the torture was more than symbolic.
Forget all the evidence, forget the history, forget evolution and all that. In it's central message the story of "The Christ" is complete fucking gibberish. The concept of skapegoating, and vicarious redemption, is simultaneously both evil and nonsensical.
Scapegoating is evil, not doubt about that. I see it more as a powerful story that can teach just about all you'd ever need to learn about the dynamics of human behavior. That said, if I was on scene I hope I'd have enough sense to physically remove him from danger before he got himself crucified.
Even if you managed to convince me that God exists, that he made himself become human, have himself killed and resurrected, and through this act forgave me and everyone else who ever lived of our sins, I would still not become a christian and it would still not make sense to me.
That's the spirit. It seems you've already learned much that the story has to teach.
I would become a theist in that I would then believe a personal God exists. But the actions this God took, the whole story about coming to us in human form and performing these various acts, and their stated purpose, would appear to me nothing but meaningless theatrics.
Perhaps once you and this personal God hooked up you would be given a slightly more credible explanation of what went on.
If God exists and did the acts and miracles for the purposeses stated in the bible (kill and resurrect himself to forgive us), then God would have proven to me that he is just a confused madman with lots of power. I would not worship or follow this God, I would pity it's confusion and lunacy.
What rational person could take issue with that?
The central failure of the new testament and the Christian religion in it's essence is that it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make logical or even emotional sense.
And yet for thousands of years something in the story has deeply touched the hearts and minds of billions of people. Are they all or is there something important that the story somehow communicates despite it's irrational, and sometimes downright troubling surface appearance? I suggest, just learn what you can from the story that does make sense and is good. Like, scapegoating is always wrong.