• shawn1122@sh.itjust.works
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    12 hours ago

    As someone who was raised Christian and considers myself one, I think Christianity has a few fundamental philosophical flaws (every religion does).

    The major issue is hinging everything on an abstract ideal of faith. Under Christian doctrine one can only get into heaven by believing in Jesus. He is the only path to salvation.

    This creates a mk Oral quandry. Could the worst person in the world beleive that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour and get into heaven? Perhaps not, they must also aspire to live a Christ-like life, and the worst person likely isn’t doing that.

    Let’s instead imagine the most Christ-like and righteous person in the world. What if they don’t believe in Jesus? According to Christian doctrine, they will burn in hell for eternity.

    If this is the case, what’s the point of living a good life? Can’t we all just believe in Jesus and just coast through life being morally ambiguous and still make it into heaven in the end?

    What you end up with is a religion where it starts to feel like only one thing matters - do you believe in Jesus? It doesn’t take long before moral principles are thrown out the window and people start judging others less so by their thoughts, words and deeds but instead by just how much they beleive in Jesus.

    Other religions have their flaws but particularly Eastern religious philosophy at least attempts to tackle how to live a good life a bit more directly.

    The deeper you go into the Christianity, the more obsessive it becomes about faith and the less concerned it is with how to live a good life.

    Which is pretty warped if you think about it - shouldn’t the whole point of religion be to learn how to live well?

    • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 hours ago

      What I think is flawed with the religious MAGA is that they forget one of the biggest fundamental thing of christianity: forgiveness. They don’t care about that. They just use their religion as a basis for their hatred towards others so they can create their perfect world. It’s like they only want to be a good christian if the setting is up to their standards. And they are willing to do anything to reach that setting, no cost is too great. Christian values only apply when you’re dealing with other Christians. When they aren’t Christian (exactly the way you want them to be, like white cis hetero) you can dehumanize them and do whatever you want to them with a clear conscience. Like, how fucked up are these people?

      Religion is a way to show people how to live. Many people need it so they don’t have to think about it themselves. They need the structure. Sure, I can understand, even though I think it’s dumb. Why the need to believe in something unnatural, a fantasy, to know how to live like a proper human and how to treat others? But ok, sure some people need that apparently. But MAGA does that only selectively, whatever fits their agenda. It’s the same with pseudo-science. Instead of trying to find ways to destroy your theory (and if that fails, the theory becomes more solid) they try to find ways to support their theory while neglecting the rest. This is nitpicking. That’s not how it works.

      Either you’re a christian or you’re not. You can’t be half christian and use it as support for your actions, while your actions go against everything christianity stands for. Same goes for other religions of course. But there are always extremists who abuse it. Whether it’s a religion, a system, whatever.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Let’s instead imagine the most Christ-like and righteous person in the world. What if they don’t believe in Jesus? According to Christian doctrine, they will burn in hell for eternity.

      That’s not just a moral failing of judgementalism over actual morals, but a logical inconsistency

      This guy disagreed with that tradition and tried to reset his church toward empathy, care, morality

      • shawn1122@sh.itjust.works
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        4 hours ago

        Francis’ words are a departure from traditional Christian dogma which is that those who know of Christ and do not become Christian are choosing not to believe in him and are destined for damnation. Its why the church takes spreading the word so seriously, to the point of seeming aggressive at times, because those that are sharing the message feel that they are quite literally saving you.

        There’s a reason a spokesperson immediately intervened with