Entry 1899, on 2018-02-07 at 20:44:34 (Rating 4, Religion)
I have heard many atheists arguments diminished by an admission that the teachings of Jesus are inherently good and that, even if he never existed in any form recognisable from the New Testament, at least the thoughts attributed to him are beyond reproach.
Well, here is my deeply meaningful, intellectual, theological response to this idea: bullshit!
Sure, there is stuff in the NT which can be seen as being really positive, but I think the overall tone and message is quite negative, although I fully agree that the tone can be interpreted in more than one way, and this can easily lead to totally contrary conclusions.
This is very much the problem with theology and some philosophy too. If we just look at the thoughts of an individual person, whether it be Jesus or Wittgenstein - especially when they are presented in metaphors and imprecise language - it is very easy to take whatever meaning you want from them.
But I also think there are parts of these people's thoughts which cannot be honestly misconstrued, and I think in Jesus' case this is both unmistakable and deeply flawed.
The fact that many modern Christians are quite moral people and exhibit quite decent behaviour overall is more to do with changing ethical standards, mostly separate from theology, than anything which is specifically part of a religion. They know what is right and look for a message in the NT supporting that view. When slavery was considered OK that idea was found to be supported by Jesus, but once social norms changed and slavery became unacceptable, a different message was found to support that.
My point is (and this is one I have made before) that religious texts are like Rorschach Inkblot Tests: the pattern is in the viewer's mind, not on the object being viewed (whether it is an inkblot or the Bible).
But some inkblots, along with some texts, do have an obvious meaning which requires some effort to get past and be ignored, and the New Testament, contrary to common claims, can easily be seen as an exhortation towards hate rather than love.
So what are the negative messages portrayed by the character of Jesus in the NT? Well there are three I want to concentrate on here: the idea that people must accept Jesus as their saviour or face eternal torment in Hell, that this life is unimportant compared to what you will get in Heaven after death, and the eschatological message which warns of signs of end-times eventually resulting in the return of Jesus and eternal happiness for the select few.
I know some people will debate whether these messages are genuine, and others will say they are real but should be seen as positive rather than bad, while others will say something like "sure that is true, and they may seem bad, but those are God's rules and we have to live by them".
In this post I want to concentrate on why these things are bad, rather than try to justify them in the context of the Bible, so let's just say these are either the only fair interpretation, or at least one very viable interpretation of the Bible, especially the NT.
In previous posts I have discussed why I think the Christian dogma of salvation through Jesus is evil. Basically my argument is that God gives us free will, yet punishes us when we use it. It's sort of like walking up to a voting machine (where they have them, like the US) and pulling the lever for the "wrong" party resulting in a safe falling on your head and killing you.
And it's like there's a sign in the voting booth saying "you can vote for either party, but if you choose the wrong one you will die in a horrible accident". Not only that, but both parties claim they are the one you should vote for to avoid the horrible punishment. And people who don't vote are treated even worse than those who do!
And just as the final icing on the cake, we are supposed to praise and thank this god for the system he has created, because of the claim that he has offered an escape from an evil rule he created. Gee, thanks God, you're so thoughtful, but why not just make it 100% clear which is really the right party, or give us real free will and forget about the punishment for using it!
The idea that this life is unimportant compared with what might come later is also very harmful. All the evidence indicates we only have one life, so any dogma discouraging people from not making the best use of it has got to be seen as really negative.
I suppose you could make a case to say that people are more likely to be accepting of their place in life, and experience a lot less stress as a result of believing in a better life after death. But this is also very harmful because it stops people from striving for something better. And the temptation for a political elite to use this superstition to keep the "lesser ranks" under control is a very insidious problem.
Finally there is the "end times" problem. If people think the world will soon end, and their current lives will be replaced with a far better one in heaven, then they are unlikely to get involved in any long term projects to make the world better. For example, why try to reduce climate change when the main effects won't be obvious for 50 years and the Rapture will have already happened by then making the whole problem irrelevant? This is a genuine issue because there are politicians who have made this exact point.
But it gets far worse than that, because many people not only expect Armageddon at any time, but they would like to try to speed up the process. They have been waiting for the final battle between good and evil for 2000 years and they can't wait much longer for that final destruction. Anyone with this belief isn't going to hesitate to use the nuclear option, or to start wars in politically sensitive areas of the world.
It is clear that these criticisms don't just apply to Christianity, of course, because it is obvious that Judaism and Islam (and probably other religions I know less about) are possibly even worse on some of these points.
But I have picked on Christianity for two reasons: first, it is often seen as the most forgiving and peaceful religion, where a case could easily be made for the opposite; and second, it is the most dominant religion in the world today, especially in the most dominant country. Whether Donald Trump really believes all the Christian BS he seems to espouse is highly doubtful, but the fact that he has to pretend to be a believer is telling in itself.
The Doomsday Clock is currently set closer to midnight than for any time since the Cold War. I'm not saying we can blame this completely on religion, and especially not on any particular religion, but those irrational and evil ideas can't be helping. Thanks a lot, evil Jesus!
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