Matthew 6:5

[BidenPresident]

Christians suck... "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen."

Pretty much decimates most of Christianity. If they were not praying in public there would be no religion.

[TOP]

Are you? If so, please explain why.

A pretty good one....are you? (if you know otherwise, please explain...was there some bad Christian info in the PM?)

[ThatOwlWoman]

A pretty good one....are you? (if you know otherwise, please explain...was there some bad Christian info in the PM?)

You are a good Xtian in the same way that Sister Stench is -- a legend in your own minds.

You're a Christian like I'm a bus driver in Mumbai.

[ThatOwlWoman]

Pretty much decimates most of Christianity. If they were not praying in public there would be no religion.

I don't think that the verse means you're only supposed to pray at home. I think it's a warning against virtue-signaling. I have never attended a worship service in a synagogue -- does the rabbi or kantor lead the people in group prayer, said out loud like we do in Christian churches?

[BidenPresident]

I don't think that the verse means you're only supposed to pray at home. I think it's a warning against virtue-signaling. I have never attended a worship service in a synagogue -- does the rabbi or kantor lead the people in group prayer, said out loud like we do in Christian churches?

Seems obvious what Jesus meant.

[ThatOwlWoman]

Seems obvious what Jesus meant.

Hopefully some of our self-anointed Jesus Interpreters can explain it better. It's an admonishment against self-righteousness and virtue-signaling, IMO. No doubt though as heathens, we got it wrong. lol

[BidenPresident]

Hopefully some of our self-anointed Jesus Interpreters can explain it better. It's an admonishment against self-righteousness and virtue-signaling, IMO. No doubt though as heathens, we got it wrong. lol

Praying in public. Seems obvious what Jesus meant.

[evince]

That's one view point. In the days before books, radio, television and the internet, people spent a lot more time sitting around the campfire talking.....about 200,000 years worth of talking.

Like you and I, they pondered the meaning of existence. Depending upon the region of the world they lived, a consensus developed. All tribes/cultures have "origin" stories. For some reason, at least in the US, only the Christian origin story is ridiculed. Atheists don't ridicule other religions and cultures for some reason, which I find curious.

That said, as human tech advanced, those stories were eventually written down. For Jews, Christians, Muslims and Mormons, Moses (either a person or a small group of people) wrote down the first five books of what evolved into the Bible. Regardless of the writings used, the written beliefs became the cultural norm for human societies for over a thousand years before radio.

Before the printing press was invented in the 15th century, a tribe or village might only have one book. If they did, in Western Society that book was a Bible, usually held the the local priest. Very few villagers had the time to become literate because they were too busy trying to stay alive. After Guttenberg, lots of books were printed, but the best seller remained the Bible.

Less than a hundred years after the mass printing of the Bible, Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses and a slow explosion of various ideas followed, including literacy of the population. Yes, the rich learned to read first and the poor last, but literacy spread.

Back to your point: I disagree. Yes, powerful assholes seek to dominate other people. They'll use whatever tools are available including, as Marx wrote, the opium of the people. No tool is evil, wrong, bad or even good, right. It's just a tool. It's how it's used that matters. Yes, evil people have misused religion just like evil people have misused other tools and forms of power. Your claim that religion is only like Marx claimed is wrong since it's much more than a tool of evil as evidenced by the good people have done with it.

Go get the post of mine where I say religion is evil?

ORGANIZED religion creates the perfect scaffolding for evil people to climb to power over people


Religion that preach love for all mankind are fine with me


Religion soothes the desire for mans brains desire to seek answers


Most of the time that man has been alive was spent in a lack of known facts


Science has now reached a level that it can explain enough to quell that need for understanding the world


I go by facts


Guess what we now know because of science


That human brains include a group that have a need for a higher being

They call it the god gene


Why would I begrudge those people what their brain needs

All the invented gods man has created serve a purpose

None are reality but they do serve a purpose


If your imagined god makes you love mankind I’m fine with it


Most major religions were started by great philosophers


I don’t need to share their myths to love their aims


Love mankind and you are my sibling

[ThatOwlWoman]

Go get the post of mine where I say religion is evil?

ORGANIZED religion creates the perfect scaffolding for evil people to climb to power over people


Religion that preach love for all mankind are fine with me


Religion soothes the desire for mans brains desire to seek answers


Most of the time that man has been alive was spent in a lack of known facts


Science has now reached a level that it can explain enough to quell that need for understanding the world


I go by facts


Guess what we now know because of science


That human brains include a group that have a need for a higher being

They call it the god gene


Why would I begrudge those people what their brain needs

All the invented gods man has created serve a purpose

None are reality but they do serve a purpose


If your imagined god makes you love mankind I’m fine with it


Most major religions were started by great philosophers


I don’t need to share their myths to love their aims


Love mankind and you are my sibling

Well said.

[Earl]

I seem to remember a certain fake "teacher" -- a fake sped teacher of all things -- recently mocking Biden's stuttering disability. Remember that, Toxic? You wanted to hear him say a tongue-twister?

And you wonder why no one respects you or believes that you had anything to do with teaching other than cleaning up the teachers' lounge after they all went home for the day.

Just for the record, Mujer de Buho, I respect TOP but I don’t respect a person who uses an owl on a womans’s face.

[Doc Dutch]

So what, exactly, is "God's light"? Is that merely a belief in some deity, or is it a way of life in which the person behaves ethically in their dealings with both humans and other life forms? What if the person doesn't espouse a belief in any deity, but still conducts him/herself ethically?

Why do you think it's wrong to go next door and murder all of your neighbors? Is it because you are just a trained chimp who is taught murder is wrong? Would you murder those lying bastards for fucking up your rose bushes but you fear going to jail? Or do you have an innate sense that it would be wrong? Are your morals merely social conditioning? Genetic? What is the origin of your morality?

Do you know the difference between right and wrong without someone else telling you the difference? If so, why?

I characterize "God's light" as truth, a fundamental morality of the Universe. The understanding that killing a dog for no reason is wrong, but killing a rabid dog is merely putting a dog who is in pain and cannot be cured of its misery. Murdering your neighbors is wrong if it's over your rose bushes, but right if they are child murderers and, despite reports to local authorities, you know they will do it again even if you have to spend the rest of your life in jail. What about euthanasia? Helping a person find release from their pain? Right or wrong? Why?

I believe it's right. If my wife was in constant pain and, due to technology, would live in constant pain for another 6-12 months, I'd find a way to help her. Preferably something like morphine, but a 9mm bullet to the brain would work too. Would that be right or wrong?

[TOP]

.

Thanks... I don't respect people who don't pay up on bets

[Cypress]

Christians suck...

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen."

I believe it speaks to humility and a genuine form of faith, free of inauthentic acts of pretension.

That is a good lesson for inauthentic bible thumpers who wear their religion on their sleeve.

Jesus was not a Christian, he was a devout Jew, speaking to the Jews.

The apostles and the Apostolic Church Fathers are the authorities on what it means to be an authentic Christian.

The New Testament is not the sole authority on what it means to be a Christian. Yes, the Protestant tradition considers the bible to be inerrant and the sole authority on matters of faith.

But that is a minority opinion in world Christianity. Protestants are a minority of world Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church - who collectively represent the majority of world Christians - do not hold the bible as the sole, inerrant authority on theology and correct practice of faith. The writings of the Apostolic Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical authorities are given great weight in what it means to be an authentic Christian

[Doc Dutch]

Go get the post of mine where I say religion is evil?

ORGANIZED religion creates the perfect scaffolding for evil people to climb to power over people

Religion that preach love for all mankind are fine with me

Religion soothes the desire for mans brains desire to seek answers

Most of the time that man has been alive was spent in a lack of known facts

Science has now reached a level that it can explain enough to quell that need for understanding the world

I go by facts

Guess what we now know because of science

That human brains include a group that have a need for a higher being

They call it the god gene

Why would I begrudge those people what their brain needs

All the invented gods man has created serve a purpose

None are reality but they do serve a purpose

If your imagined god makes you love mankind I’m fine with it

Most major religions were started by great philosophers

I don’t need to share their myths to love their aims

Love mankind and you are my sibling

All religions are "organized".

Of the following religions please tell me which are okay with you and which are not:
Buddhism

Catholicism

Muslimism

Protestantism

Shintoism

Zoroastrianism

[Doc Dutch]

Just for the record, Mujer de Buho, I respect TOP but I don’t respect a person who uses an owl on a womans’s face.

For the record, Captain Earl, I respect all military personnel, active or vet, but I don't respect a person who uses their past accomplishments to justify anti-American beliefs and ideologies.