Why do people still believe in Jesus and Christianity?

[Cypress]

Many ancient cultures taught a tradition of sacrifice and ethics.

Not the Greeks or Romans.

^^ Here is the original and laughable claim.

Plato wrote three entire dialogues about the trial and death of Socrates which spoke to ethics, morality, the meaning of life, and sacrifice for a higher principle.


Ethics and Sacrifice in the Greco-Roman Tradition:
https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...75#post3983975

[CFM]

Several of you fools do that & think it makes you look smart

As per this example, it has only made you look stupid again....

You have not figured that out yet, prob never will..........

Be that on you, you always have that option I mentioned, keeping your mouth shut..

It's not about me looking smart. I already do. It's about making you look foolish, which you do.

You always have the option of trying to shut it for me. Funny thing is you've never shown up to try.

[votebiden]

https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...75#post3983975

^^ Your laughable claim that the Geeks and Romans did not speak to ethics and sacrifice was ass backwards, dead wrong

Personal attacks from you. Just admit you failed.

[votebiden]

^^ Here is the original and laughable claim.

Plato wrote three entire dialogues about the trial and death of Socrates which spoke to ethics, morality, the meaning of life, and sacrifice for a higher principle.


Ethics and Sacrifice in the Greco-Roman Tradition:
https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...75#post3983975

Have some dignity. You failed.

[Into the Night]

I've never understood the "war" between science and religion.

There really doesn't need to be one.

But we can see what happens when religion wins -- the Dark Ages are a good example.

Nope. During the so-called Dark Ages, religion retreated into monasteries built like fortifications, to keep the rot OUT. Most people at the time were quite atheist, even approaching savagery. Few traveled the old Roman roads in those days. Too dangerous.

So is what happened to the Arab world when fundie Islam dominated.

This same religion gave us astronomy, some advances in chemistry, better clocks, our form of writing, rescued a lot of Greek culture and science from the effects of the Dark Ages, and had some of the most notable artwork and water gardens in the world at the time.

Islam is not the problem. Dictatorships are. Dictatorships that hijack a religion as their excuse for being dictators are particularly a problem.

We still use the term algebra and the Arabic names for the stars, but few of them are excelling in mathematics and science these days.

Because of the dictatorships, not because of Islam.

[Into the Night]

Right science and knowledge are two different things. But I think you got my main point it's not religion and religion doesn't completely different thing than science does. Religion guides the morality. Science is just a process for which we find the answers to questions.

Science isn't even a process. It is simply a set of falsifiable theories. No more. No less.

[Arks&sparka]

He likes to "translate" things. The problem is his translator is broken and he doesn't realize it.

He flunks at putting words in people's mouths

[Arks&sparka]

Science isn't even a process. It is simply a set of falsifiable theories. No more. No less.

It is an approach to a question, attempting to mitigate bias

[CFM]

He flunks at putting words in people's mouths

He has no problem putting things in his own mouth.

[Arks&sparka]

He has no problem putting things in his own mouth.

Feces?

[CFM]

Feces?

Based on where he puckers his lips, it's the only thing it could be.

[Into the Night]

The Catholic Church threatened to kill Galileo. A permanent stain on the Church.

WRONG. The Catholic Church threatened to torture Galileo.

Torture actually has a procedure. First, the victim is threatened with torture. If they do not comply, the victim is taken into a room and shown the instruments to be used to conduct the torture. If they still do not comply, a professional wielding these instruments would conduct the torture, usually publicly. If the victim STILL does not comply, then, and only then, is the victim put to death.

For Galileo, a man well aware of the capability of such instruments of torture and what they could do, complied at the mere threat of torture. He did not need to recant his publication, was required to state the Church was the highest authority, and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his days and did not go against the Church again.

Others within the Catholic Church, inspired by Galileo and others like him, began to question the scripture as interpreted by the Church. Even priests, cardinals, and bishops were raising questions. THAT was when the Pope invented the Inquisition. Very nasty stuff. THAT was a stain on the Church.

Out of it came Lutheranism, the Church being forced to recognize science at least on some level, and a few more atheists. Christianity fractured into a chaos of different religions, each enhancing some aspects of the gospel and tending to discard the rest.

But God and Christ are not the authors of chaos. How will this resolve?

[Into the Night]

well Jesus Is God so he has some abilities that we don't really everything we believe about it is told to a second hand from his experience. Our testimony is uninformed because we haven't died and come back. If you believe Jesus about the resurrection that's one thing but not everybody does.

Not everybody needs to. Christ has promised resurrection for others as well. So far there is no public event of it ever happening yet.

Agreed that was actually the point I was trying to make. If I take this from the perspective of an atheist then the things people believe is of no consequence to me. I tried to approach all of this from the perspective of an atheist.

A hard thing to do, since not having an opinion on the matter leaves a void.

That's why I always answer the question when someone asks why do you believe because I want to.

But this is theism.

[Into the Night]

Oh okay I get what you mean. I tend to find these people fall for some other religion like veganism or the impending climate catastrophe religion.

Bingo.

I think with a lot of these people it's more about convincing themselves that they're correct than it is about asking believers why they believe.

Again, you are very observant here. Kudos. They do, however, try to force others to believe as part of their fundamentalism. Such people are often about controlling others, leading right down the rotten road of the Church of Karl Marx, and all of the religions it has spawned, including the Church of Green (where veganism resides), the Church of Global Warming, and the Church of Covid. All of these religions are fundamentalist in nature. All of them are out to control others. Several of them are seeking to become state religions.

[Into the Night]

A stain indeed. But....
That was not the Middle Ages, the topic of my post
They did not threaten to kill him.
Galileo was a scientist and a devout Christian.
The house arrest and sanction of Galileo was a political issue - a consequence of the counter reformation and religious conflicts of the 16th century.. It did not reflect supposed long standing and historic Catholic animosity to natural philosophy and scholarship.

The Catholics established the first western Universities, and Catholic support for higher education, science, and universities is one thousand years old. And continues to this day. Some of the world's greatest institutions of higher learning are Catholic and Jesuit universities, and some of the most profound scientific discoveries in history have been made by Catholic priests and monks

Indeed. The problem the Catholics had with Galileo was not that they disagreed with him, but that they wanted to be the ones to mete out this information to the people in their own way, as final authority of God's will. Galileo told them to get lost and published anyway. THAT was when the conflict started.