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Friday, August 8, 2008

Questions for Christians: The Ethics of Jesus

First, the usual disclaimer: the purpose of these posts is to pose questions to Christians who come here (or go anywhere, for that matter) with the intent of converting us to Christianity, but also with an open mind about their own faith. You may post your answers here, or answer them privately, at your discretion. My ultimate goal in asking these questions is to have you deconvert from Christianity. If you are not open to at least the possibility of that happening, then I suggest you not respond to these questions, as that will be a waste of your time (and possibly our bandwidth). At the same time, I am open to the possibility of learning a thing or two about Christianity along the way -- but if you answer these questions publicly, with the intention of being a teacher instead of a learner, then please don't bother doing so here. These questions are for your educational benefit.

This is one in a series of "Questions..." posts that deal with the Bible, the scriptural compilation that constitutes the conceptual framework of the Christian faith. If you were ever a Christian, chances are you've read some of the Bible. If you are still a Christian today, chances are you haven't read all of it.

These questions deal with the ethical system set out in the Bible -- specifically in the New Testament. I could, if I so desired, devote an entire post or two to asking you about the atrocities committed by the God of the Old Testament, either directly or by commanding his human followers, but there seems to be little point -- being a Christian, you are probably accustomed to making excuses on God's behalf. Instead, I will be asking about the ethics that God, via Jesus, wants you to abide by.

1. Have you sold everything you own, and distributed the money to the poor, in order to follow Jesus (Luke 18:22)?

If so, whose computer are you using to read this post? If not, why not?


2. Do you hate your family, and yourself (Luke 14:26)?

Note that this verse isn't instructing you to love your family and yourself less than you love God, or to make them a lesser priority than God. That verse is instructing you to literally hate your family and yourself. Do you think that's good advice for anyone to follow? If not, why does Jesus command it? If so, what does that say about your humanity?


3. Do you think evil should be resisted?

If so, why did Jesus command you not to resist evil (Matthew 5:39)? If not, if you think evil should be allowed to occur unresisted, doesn't that make you morally neutral at best?


4. Is Ray Comfort in danger of hell?

Matthew 5:22 states that whoever calls someone a fool is in danger of Hell, and Ray Comfort is rather famous for meeting that qualification. You cannot object that it is the Bible, not Ray, that is calling people fools -- name-calling by proxy is still name-calling.


5. What positive intellectual virtues did Jesus preach?

The closest thing to a teaching on intellectualism that Jesus himself purportedly taught that I have been able to find is a negative one: he based his entire message on faith, and said that you won't enter Heaven unless you become like children (Matthew 18:3). Did Jesus have anything positive to say about critical thinking?


6. Where in the gospels does Jesus preach against slavery?

Or do you believe, as does Jean Gasho-Musuka, that slavery is perfectly acceptable if done in a "godly" way?


7. Where does Jesus preach against rape?

8. Against war?

9. Against racism?

10. Against discrimination?


Some Christians, having failed to find such explicit teachings in the gospels, state that they're all encapsulated in the "Love Your Neighbor" commandment. In the first place, however, this idea is scarcely original to Jesus -- and in the second place, the Jesus depicted in the gospels was not shy about explicitly denouncing other immoral actions, actions as minor as name-calling and failure to be doubly charitable than asked. Why would he not explicitly preach against issues of so much greater moral import?


11. How can a person who honestly believes that God does not exist fulfill what Jesus purportedly called the greatest moral commandment, namely to maximally love God?

Apologists such as Ray Comfort will tell you that no such person exists, that anyone who says they believe that God does not exist is being dishonest, or just "pretending." However, that thesis is flatly contradicted by overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary, and for that reason is rejected even by most Christian philosophers and theologians. So how can certain people be moral, or even try to be moral, when they don't believe that the being they're supposed to maximally love even exists?

10 comments:

  1. I'm really enjoying this post series.

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  2. Define "open to the possibility of being deconverted from Christianity."

    I mean, I'm open to the possibility, but I trust and have faith that I'll find an answer to things that challenge my faith.

    Does that count?

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  3. Rob,

    It depends. How long do you intend wait to find an answer before deciding that that your trust and faith are misguided?

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  4. Pardon me -- I wrote "misguided," I think a better word would have been "misplaced."

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  5. @ silent dave:

    Not sure. I've never reached that point.

    I have, however, changed my mind about my religion quite a bit. When presented with compelling discussion by my mentor, I decided that I no longer believed the Bible to be inerrant. I've been mostly convinced of open theism.

    I don't know where that line you're looking for is, but I can say with certainty that my worldview is not one that has assimilated information in the past.

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  6. Okay, Rob, let me try putting it another way -- and I'm sorry if it seems like splitting hairs here, but . . .

    You said,

    I mean, I'm open to the possibility, but I trust and have faith that I'll find an answer to things that challenge my faith.

    Are you open to the possibility that the answer that you trust and have faith that you'll find is that God does not exist?

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  7. About the hating your family bit: someone pointed out (I don't remember if it was on rdnet or somewhere else) that the ancient Hebrews had a very un-nuanced language. Allegedly they had no in-between forms of love and hate (much like modern Americans either love a movie or hate their teacher ;) ) in their vocabulary. If that's true, then I think it exhibits a very strange idea of God to make a people his chosen (to bring his word and law to humanity) who had a less well developed language than some of their neighboring cultures, respectively not inspiring his chosen people to improve their language in the light that other cultures did so apparently without extra inspiration.
    I mean, it's like trying to teach circus animals commands in Portuguese instead of the German they understand so much better. Sort of. ;)

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  8. @ Silent Dave:

    Well, I don't guess that I am if I where really honest with myself.

    I've met him too many times. I suppose that if some one could convince me that I were crazy, I'd be open to that idea. And then I'd get help.

    But, to the specific question "Does God exist?," I don't suppose my question will ever change for that. Maybe how I think of him, but probably not ever his existence.

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  9. Rob said,

    Well, I don't guess that I am if I where really honest with myself. I've met him too many times. I suppose that if some one could convince me that I were crazy, I'd be open to that idea. And then I'd get help. But, to the specific question "Does God exist?," I don't suppose my question will ever change for that. Maybe how I think of him, but probably not ever his existence.

    Then to answer your earlier question, no, that does not count as being open to the possibility of being deconverted.

    ReplyDelete

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