4 ms·

Jesus, because the world would be a better place if we were more like him.

nopassrecover 17y ago
I know this was probably to provoke a reaction but Jesus as I understand him was a revolutionary who pushed people to stop following the established religion and financing its greed and instead to start living a good life. In this sense he was like Martin Luther in that he envisioned decentralised religion as the ideal - moral living for the masses not blind expensive ritual controlled by the few. But I could be completely wrong.
- oldgregg 17y ago
  I totally agree with you on all counts. Except for the moral living part. It's establishment religious types that promote moralism-- Jesus' whole point is that your good works don't do jack squat.
  - joeyo 17y ago
    Sola fide is a controversial stance, at best. Consider James 2:26, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
    - defen 17y ago
      > Sola fide is a controversial stance, at best Talk about an understatement! The Protestant Reformation is one of those things that has had such a tremendous impact on the world that I think it might be impossible to imagine the world without it (I only spent a few minutes just now trying, though)
  - nopassrecover 17y ago
    Yeah my view on morals is more egoist than most but I assume that a system of morality is the best-case output of religion.
mahmud 17y ago
Who is downvoting the man for his beliefs? grow up.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- netsp 17y ago
  Threads like this are almost a poll. I don't see why beliefs can't participate in this discussion.
bokonist 17y ago
Hmmm. So imagine tomorrow everyone in the world started acting like Jesus. We all throw away our possessions, and wander around preaching to whoever would listen about being nice to each other. How long before everyone starved?
- diN0bot 17y ago
  at least we could turn the whole red sea into red wine!
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
araneae 17y ago
Satan, because without him we would have no free will.
- noblethrasher 17y ago
  Whatever your beliefs, the mythology suggests that God gave us free will by provding for the possibility of disobeying Him.
adharmad 17y ago
Ah....which Jesus? The real person about whom we know nothing or the fictitious facade that the catholic church has erected?
- bokonist 17y ago
  Our perception of all public figures is a facade. Walter Lipman's book "Public Opinion" comes to mind: Great men, even during their lifetime, are usually known to the public only through a fictitious personality. Hence the modicum of truth in the old saying that no man is a hero to his valet. There is only a modicum of truth, for the valet, and the private secretary, are often immersed in the fiction themselves. Royal personages are, of course, constructed personalities. Whether they themselves believe in their public character, or whether they merely permit the chamberlain to stage-manage it, there are at least two distinct selves, the public and regal self, the private and human. The biographies of great people fall more or less readily into the histories of these two selves. The official biographer reproduces the public life, the revealing memoir the other. The Charnwood Lincoln, for example, is a noble portrait, not of an actual human being, but of an epic figure, replete with significance, who moves on much the same level of reality as Aeneas or St. George. Oliver's Hamilton is a majestic abstraction, the sculpture of an idea, "an essay" as Mr. Oliver himself calls it, "on American union." It is a formal monument to the state-craft of federalism, hardly the biography of a person. Sometimes people create their own facade when they think they are revealing the interior scene. The Repington diaries and Margot Asquith's are a species of self-portraiture in which the intimate detail is most revealing as an index of how the authors like to think about themselves. (source: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Lippman/ch01.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Lippman/ch01.html )

I know this was probably to provoke a reaction but Jesus as I understand him was a revolutionary who pushed people to stop following the established religion and financing its greed and instead to start living a good life. In this sense he was like Martin Luther in that he envisioned decentralised religion as the ideal - moral living for the masses not blind expensive ritual controlled by the few. But I could be completely wrong.

oldgregg 17y ago
I totally agree with you on all counts. Except for the moral living part. It's establishment religious types that promote moralism-- Jesus' whole point is that your good works don't do jack squat.
- joeyo 17y ago
  Sola fide is a controversial stance, at best. Consider James 2:26, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
  - defen 17y ago
    > Sola fide is a controversial stance, at best Talk about an understatement! The Protestant Reformation is one of those things that has had such a tremendous impact on the world that I think it might be impossible to imagine the world without it (I only spent a few minutes just now trying, though)
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  Yeah my view on morals is more egoist than most but I assume that a system of morality is the best-case output of religion.

mahmud 17y ago

Who is downvoting the man for his beliefs? grow up.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
netsp 17y ago
Threads like this are almost a poll. I don't see why beliefs can't participate in this discussion.

bokonist 17y ago

Hmmm. So imagine tomorrow everyone in the world started acting like Jesus. We all throw away our possessions, and wander around preaching to whoever would listen about being nice to each other. How long before everyone starved?

diN0bot 17y ago
at least we could turn the whole red sea into red wine!
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

araneae 17y ago

Satan, because without him we would have no free will.

noblethrasher 17y ago
Whatever your beliefs, the mythology suggests that God gave us free will by provding for the possibility of disobeying Him.

adharmad 17y ago

Ah....which Jesus? The real person about whom we know nothing or the fictitious facade that the catholic church has erected?

bokonist 17y ago
Our perception of all public figures is a facade. Walter Lipman's book "Public Opinion" comes to mind: Great men, even during their lifetime, are usually known to the public only through a fictitious personality. Hence the modicum of truth in the old saying that no man is a hero to his valet. There is only a modicum of truth, for the valet, and the private secretary, are often immersed in the fiction themselves. Royal personages are, of course, constructed personalities. Whether they themselves believe in their public character, or whether they merely permit the chamberlain to stage-manage it, there are at least two distinct selves, the public and regal self, the private and human. The biographies of great people fall more or less readily into the histories of these two selves. The official biographer reproduces the public life, the revealing memoir the other. The Charnwood Lincoln, for example, is a noble portrait, not of an actual human being, but of an epic figure, replete with significance, who moves on much the same level of reality as Aeneas or St. George. Oliver's Hamilton is a majestic abstraction, the sculpture of an idea, "an essay" as Mr. Oliver himself calls it, "on American union." It is a formal monument to the state-craft of federalism, hardly the biography of a person. Sometimes people create their own facade when they think they are revealing the interior scene. The Repington diaries and Margot Asquith's are a species of self-portraiture in which the intimate detail is most revealing as an index of how the authors like to think about themselves. (source: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Lippman/ch01.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/Lippman/ch01.html )