A place for the finest of dank christian memes to simmer.
This community isn't inherently religious, but don't be an ass to religious people. There's a fine line between poking fun at religion and being an ass to someone because of (or lack of) religious beliefs. Don't cross that line.
Other than that, just follow the lemmy.blahaj.zone instance rules.
If this flag offends you, I'll help you pack:
Mathew 6:1-6
Jesus was not a fan of public worship for the sake of public approval.
He is all about a personal relationship, not one you trumpet out to the world.
The public officials who use it as an excuse to garner sympathy are doing the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. Any "followers" who view such peacocking as a good sign are nothing but ignorant fools being led by same old in-group vs out-group tribalism, which again is specifically taught against in the Bible.
This is a concept as old as the Gnostics and expressed most vividly within the concept of the Holy Spirit.
If anything was invented, it was the Catholic Clergy as spiritual interlocutor. The entire Catholic/Protestant schism is predicated on reformers in the early Protestant sects denying Papal Infallibility, the sacrament of Confession, and the need for a singular Apostolic Church to officiate over the blessing of Communion.
And the Thirty Years War that followed was an attempt by the church to reassert control through military force, when dogmatic religious assertions failed to sway the public any longer.
Seems to me like their willingness to employ military force to assert their position should have disqualified them immediately from any association with Jesus or Jesus-related religious practices.
Matthew 10:34-36
Matthew 26:52
Matthew 420:69 lmao gottem
Certainly the notion of individualizing Christianity is as old as Christianity itself, but I would argue that the contemporary version of it is really pretty recent. Go back 50 years ago and even most US Baptist churches wouldn't recognize the contemporary version of it.
The concept that we have today really developed in the 80s and 90s.
Go back 50 years ago and even most US Baptist churches wouldn’t recognize the contemporary version of it.
I'd strongly disagree. The 70s era Evangelical movement has enormous amounts in common with the modern movement. Largely as a result of Televangelism and the political entanglement between conservative politicians and the church.
The Billy Graham Crusade would fit in just fine in the modern American church
Go back 100 and you'll find more space. But then you're seeing all sorts of differences socio-economically.
I'm recalling that the Anabaptists had some pretty strong ideas about a personal relationship with Jesus. But, nobody really liked where they went with it.
The idea of Adult Baptism could really only occur during the Enlightenment, when people felt the ability to reason their way to their religious beliefs was more important than adhering to a mystical tradition
Jesus did say "be perfect, even as I am" but he didn't say "pick up my cross and follow me".
He said "pick up your cross and follow me".
So there's a little bit of room for variation and individuality.
I'm pretty sure Paul claimed to have a personal relationship with Jesus. But what is this odd and specific talking point? Why does it matter what is in the bible, it is all made up nonsense anyway.
I'm curious. Why are you here? If you think it's all made up nonsense, why did you feel the need to comment on it in an intentionally insulting way?
Did that make you feel bigger?
I think it's an honest sentiment that believing in small falsehoods and fantasies paves the way and sets the mind up for larger and more damaging falsehoods because the psychological constructs to withhold disbelief in the face of evidence are established and present at that point.
Religion uses these in a form of mass indoctrination and political establishments operate off of these same mechanisms. It's a fairly modern thing and not universal that the religion and the state are fully separated things.
That being said, there is sufficient historical evidence to presume Jesus existed. They're mentioned in Roman records, other events and places in the gospels also line up, more or less, with the events presented as contemporary in the gospels.
When we live in a world where it's exceedingly challenging to get people to believe in an objective reality, it's very difficult to justify a practice which intentionally trains and indoctrinates it's members into a state of perpetual disbelief: faith.
So if a given religion wants to justify it's existence in the context of a world constantly manufacturing deception, it needs to be generating a preposterously large amount of good to justify itself.
I mean some of his contemporaries did have a personal relationship with him so technically, the concept is in the Bible
why do i need to see this hideous creature just to read your nice message?
Heath Ledger is and always will be a legend. Not an idol or icon, but a legend.
For many, exactly because he successfully portrayed the pictured Joker as such a, "hideous creature".
It is in the bible. It's also used by assholes to excuse themselves.
Book, chapter and verse?
