By Freddieb42 ~
I'm not going to lament my time spent as a Christian or write about how I wailed and gnashed because of how I was brainwashed. Suffice to say that I'm glad I got out of Christianity's clutches.
My comments are about a Christian doctrine and how their most important teaching is an offense to humans and humanity.
The doctrine that all humans are born as sinners is an outrageous concept and could only have been dreamed up by sub-intellectual people long ago who were seeking control over other humans. The definition of sin would certainly be a lengthy diatribe that could burst forth from my keyboard, but suffice to say that Christianity teaches that sin is the breaking away from god and not obeying god's laws. Simplistic to say the least! Suffice to say that god's "laws" do not meet the expectations that most decent human beings would see as being societal norms. No mention of racism, homophobia, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, physical abuse, slavery, etc., while working on the Sabbath or worship of graven images are given prominence.
So then. Christianity offers a solution for all humans who can't bear to be considered a "sinner": Jesus, son of God.
We can be free of sin only by believing in this somewhat elusive and dubious character who, it is taught, was illegitimately born of a virgin, conceived via remote-control by an invisible deity, preached love and acceptance for all of humankind and somehow saved us all by dying on a Roman cross of crucifixion reserved for criminals and then became "alive" after dying. The nasty stuff that he preached is never mentioned; the churches gloss over that.
By groveling, singing strange words, praying and repenting of sin and donating money to the church can people be saved from eternal death (burning forever in hell), receiving the reward of eternal life alongside god, in heaven.
What a control mechanism and a wealth generator this little story turned out to be for the Romans! They must have thought that the gods (all of them that they worshiped)
were smiling on them when they thought up that tale!
If any self-respecting, intelligent, logical-thinking member of the human race expects me to believe that my beautiful children, my darling grandchildren, all the
members of my lovely family, (all amazing examples of society and the human race), are all "sinners" because they have not "found" Jesus or his mythical father, then they are sadly mistaken and delusional.
So if we take away that basic tenet, that premise of Christianity, that all humans are "born sinners" what does Christianity have to offer? Absolutely nothing! If we
are not all "sinners" then we do not need "salvation" and Christianity becomes defunct.
If we break societal laws and are convicted, then we pay the price, according to those laws. If not found out or if we commit an aberration that while not unlawful we would not usually find acceptable(and we probably have all done things that while not law-defying, we are not proud of) then we have a conscience and we have to deal with that in our own way, not kneel and ask for forgiveness by pie-in-the-sky. What a cop-out!
So if religious leaders, priests, preachers, pastors cannot honestly and with a clear conscience sincerely believe that all humans are born as sinners, then they have shot themselves in the foot and have no reason for their religion to exist. If they do believe that all humans are born sinners then they fail completely as human beings
in the face of reason.
I'm not going to lament my time spent as a Christian or write about how I wailed and gnashed because of how I was brainwashed. Suffice to say that I'm glad I got out of Christianity's clutches.
The doctrine that all humans are born as sinners is an outrageous concept and could only have been dreamed up by sub-intellectual people long ago who were seeking control over other humans. The definition of sin would certainly be a lengthy diatribe that could burst forth from my keyboard, but suffice to say that Christianity teaches that sin is the breaking away from god and not obeying god's laws. Simplistic to say the least! Suffice to say that god's "laws" do not meet the expectations that most decent human beings would see as being societal norms. No mention of racism, homophobia, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, physical abuse, slavery, etc., while working on the Sabbath or worship of graven images are given prominence.
So then. Christianity offers a solution for all humans who can't bear to be considered a "sinner": Jesus, son of God.
We can be free of sin only by believing in this somewhat elusive and dubious character who, it is taught, was illegitimately born of a virgin, conceived via remote-control by an invisible deity, preached love and acceptance for all of humankind and somehow saved us all by dying on a Roman cross of crucifixion reserved for criminals and then became "alive" after dying. The nasty stuff that he preached is never mentioned; the churches gloss over that.
By groveling, singing strange words, praying and repenting of sin and donating money to the church can people be saved from eternal death (burning forever in hell), receiving the reward of eternal life alongside god, in heaven.
What a control mechanism and a wealth generator this little story turned out to be for the Romans! They must have thought that the gods (all of them that they worshiped)
were smiling on them when they thought up that tale!
If any self-respecting, intelligent, logical-thinking member of the human race expects me to believe that my beautiful children, my darling grandchildren, all the
members of my lovely family, (all amazing examples of society and the human race), are all "sinners" because they have not "found" Jesus or his mythical father, then they are sadly mistaken and delusional.
So if we take away that basic tenet, that premise of Christianity, that all humans are "born sinners" what does Christianity have to offer? Absolutely nothing! If we
are not all "sinners" then we do not need "salvation" and Christianity becomes defunct.
If we break societal laws and are convicted, then we pay the price, according to those laws. If not found out or if we commit an aberration that while not unlawful we would not usually find acceptable(and we probably have all done things that while not law-defying, we are not proud of) then we have a conscience and we have to deal with that in our own way, not kneel and ask for forgiveness by pie-in-the-sky. What a cop-out!
So if religious leaders, priests, preachers, pastors cannot honestly and with a clear conscience sincerely believe that all humans are born as sinners, then they have shot themselves in the foot and have no reason for their religion to exist. If they do believe that all humans are born sinners then they fail completely as human beings
in the face of reason.
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