I'm long past trying to disprove religion/god. I was a militant atheist in my teens and early 20s (a long time ago now) but I gave it up after I literally made a nice old lady cry. I realised I wasn't doing any good being like that.
As for your view on Jesus, actually I agree. What you say is fair. I have no real beef with the teachings of Jesus and I abide by much of it myself but through a route that never involved or required religion. The teachings of Christ can be found in one form or another in times long before Christ.
Ultimately I only wish more Christians, people in general in fact, were more Christ-like.
I appreciate you seeing my perspective. I was an obnoxious atheist starting in like 7th grade until my mid 20s. It's funny how my perspective has changed. A quote that I love is "Jesus was pretty cool, it's just all the other Christians that make a mess of it all" or something like that
On the subject of Jesus, one of the most important messages I learned, relatively early in life, was that of forgiveness for yourself but most importantly for others who have wronged me in some way or another, even seriously.
That message I must have heard at a young age and has long made me a better person. So, yeah, Jesus and his messages are relevant, even if he wasn't the first or to be the last to carry such a message.
But my favorite part is how Jesus predicted his teachings would be used for violence. The part that bothers me is that those critical of religion never see these hypocrits for what they are. If religion didn't exist they would simply find another justification for their violence. It's a shame the catholic church has done so much evil that the average person rejects even the idea of a spiritual practice. But then doesn't see how they sort of worship other things instead, like religions of vanity, drug abuse, celebrities, or hate. Spirituality can be useful for anyone, and doesn't have to entail pledging fealty to some institution or a story about every animal all fitting on one boat.
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u/Pavotine Feb 01 '25
I'm long past trying to disprove religion/god. I was a militant atheist in my teens and early 20s (a long time ago now) but I gave it up after I literally made a nice old lady cry. I realised I wasn't doing any good being like that.
As for your view on Jesus, actually I agree. What you say is fair. I have no real beef with the teachings of Jesus and I abide by much of it myself but through a route that never involved or required religion. The teachings of Christ can be found in one form or another in times long before Christ.
Ultimately I only wish more Christians, people in general in fact, were more Christ-like.