True Christianity is athesitic
Offline True Christianity is atheistic
From Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God.
"...there is a sense in which Christianity is atheistic because it rejects its own understanding of God...God's name is above every other name that we could ascribe...
This process reminds us that God transcends all earthly names and, as such, escapes our attempts at absolute understanding...
In opposition to the fundamentalist, who can be defined as one who believes what they believe, the Christian can be said to operate with an a/theistic discourse, which makes claims about God while simultaneously acknowledging these claims are provisional, uncertain and insufficient."
This author goes on to posit that those Christians who equate their beliefs and theological systems with God as conceptual idolators who really worship their objectification of God rather than God. Idolatry is the attempt to make accessible either aesthetically (statues, icons, etc.
or conceptually via a theological system or dogma the essence of God.
While we might not agree with the author and see perhaps more of a practice of Christian agnosticism an interesting observation is apparent about most theologians (Craig et al) and theists in general ( for example Muslims as well ). They really believe in their conceptual construct rather than the god they profess
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
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They all invent a god of convenience.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Of course it is. It's a necessity for them to be atheists.
They have to reject all other purported gods, but by double standards.
They blatantly discriminate, and reject all other purported gods, by a much lower standard of scrutiny, than the one that they promote.
That's a massive conflict of interest.
They are the definition of bias, hypocrisy, discrimination, and militant dismissiveness.
They display completely unreasonable methods of drawing firm conclusions.
I keep asking myself " Are they just playin' stupid, or are they just plain stupid?..."
"To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy" : David Brooks
" Only on the subject of God can smart people still imagine that they reap the fruits of human intelligence even as they plow them under." : Sam Harris
I guess it gets down to my conceptual idol is better than your conceptual idol which is to say the Christian worships his/her own thoughts and ideas. A Muslim is really worshipping her/his own ideas.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
It is like Mickey Jagger's fans vs. John Lennon's fans.
LOL. I posted this once before on this forum. The first Atheists were Chrsitians. They were the first ones to be called Atheists by the Romans. The reason they were called atheists is that their belief in a one God (in three persons) caused Christians to deny the Roman pluralistic belief in 1000's of Gods. Their monotheism was called Atheism by them.
God says "Come let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet you shall be white as snow."
www.truthiswhatmatters.com & www.bibledoor.com
Isn't that true for all perception? You can replace the word idol with any noun.
"Don't seek these laws to understand. Only the mad can comprehend..." -- George Cosbuc
If that's true then the Romans didn't understand Greek, because atheist comes from the Greek 'a-theos' meaning not a theist. It doesn't mean not a multi-theist.
"Don't seek these laws to understand. Only the mad can comprehend..." -- George Cosbuc
I think the author makes that point elsewhere but that was not his point here. The real point is that since most Christians have a system of understanding about god then tend to worship that idea of god rather than god when in fact many of their beliefs about could are or could be wrong. They are then worshipping an idol that they have built rather and the subject of their language. They put god in a box. Obviously a Calvinistic god and an Armenian god are two different things/persons what have you. At least one of them is an idol and not god. Same thing with comparing a Catholic construct of God with one of the 30,000 protestant constructs. Seems like the title should be Christians are idol worshippers.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
This reminds me...
Why is it that the Romans supposedly didn't like Christianity? Christianity was actually perfect for them because it desired it's adherents to be subservient to earthly authority.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
Interesting.
In my current set of arguments against Theism, I use much the same point: while the existence of God doesn't really work as a plausible idea, IF He existed as such a mighty being, they could not know with any certainty anything about the specific attributes and motives of such a being, including how it actually regarded us mortals, if it cared at all.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Yes I have a little more sympathy for mysticism. The source or origin is beyond all knowing ... dang that Plank time. I wonder if it is mathematics. Is the two dimensional event horizon of our universe ( a la Susskind's string theory) which generates our space-time really pure math? Is it a pure mathematical potentiality field of Being ( in the classic sense ) which actualizes as existence or an infinite example of big bangs???? Pure speculation... and almost religious...
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
I thought of a similar argument: if people say God is above logic (which they sometimes do to dodge all philosophical arguments), then you can say that Gods decisions don't have to be based on faith the way we perceive it, but based on his superlogical way of judging people. We would perceive it as random, though, so it wouldn't matter what you would do...
christianity disavowed the cult of the emperor's divinity, and, considering pretty much every emperor after tiberius (excluding the "five good emperors"--and even most of them persecuted christians) were stupid and vain, that was a big problem for them.
add to this the fact that, unlike judaism, christianity claimed to offer a truth universally relevant to all humans, and indeed proselytized agressively, and you have something that annoyed the emperors very much. you have to remember that the religions of the ancient mediterranean operated in a way not unlike pokemon cards: trade 'em, collect 'em, gotta catch 'em all. christianity, on the other hand, taught that all loyalties were tentative other than the loyalty to christ. once again, this was bound to infuriate any stupid emperor, and make any intelligent emperor nervous for entirely different, and altogether justifiable, reasons.
christ's little speech about "render unto caesar" and paul's admonishments about obeying earthly authority were nothing more than dodgy diplomacy, and every early christian knew that.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson