It seems like it might be... implied? :-P
Yeah I was wondering if I was the only one thinking like "only 3" - we deserve better! :-P
Excellent illustrative points:-).
It is not enough to do the right thing - it also must be done in the right way, or it becomes the wrong thing.
He does have a right to express himself... up to a point. That point is when it crosses over to affect someone else, in a harmful way - e.g. yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater is a well-known exception to the Freedom of Speech.
If we are authoritarians, then we ask what the content was that caused the response - if we agree i.e. it was directed at the "other side" then we allow it, if we disagree then suddenly it is labelled "wrong". Similarly, look to the King to see if a joke was "funny" or not, etc. Hypocrisy is baked right into the system, by design.
But if we are liberals, then we ask whether the content harmed someone, period, regardless of the directionality, and label it permissible or not based solely on that. "Fair" is not just a word used to attempt to get our way here, but meant genuinely as in a goal worth enormous amounts of effort to strive for.
It gets slightly complicated b/c some that work forces burn crosses (claim to be authoritarian but are actually subversively opposing of the Will of The People) while some that march likewise merely claim to be liberal but actually uphold authoritarian principles, and anyway we all are guilty of something, somewhere, on a bad day, but the above is the theory as best as I understand it at least.
You do understand perfectly then:-D.
It could be neat if there was such a thing as like a FairPi (like FairPhone I mean, e.g. repairable). Arguably that would have almost defeated the main purpose of a $5 USD Pi, but sustainability is still cool, for those of us willing to pay 3x the price or whatever.
Me: the perfect title does not exist!
This post: hold my beer.
And I wish most non-Christians were more like you. Regardless of our "beliefs", there is work to be done, to make life better for people - not "kill them all and let God sort them out later", but right here, right now. I have found it exceedingly easy to get along with most people irl - it's called "not being a dick".
Tbf, "religion" itself is an extremely debilitating mental illness (inducing cognitive dissonance) when wielded by authoritarians for ulterior motives, obviously including diddling kids but even more so (at a higher scale I mean), allowing those in power to parasitize off of the backs of those who actually work in society. Ironically that can be cured by reading more of (rather than less) the texts lifted up as "holy scripture"... which is why access to that is curated and heavily obscured as people rush forward to tell you "what it really means is..." (e.g. give me money, and more importantly OBEY).
In short, greedy people have made society the way that it is now, for their own purposes, and therefore there is heavy resistance to trying to do things any other way - people are literally killed who try to buck the system (e.g. Jesus to name just one:-D). Also, religious authoritarianism is only one (particularly effective) way to implement that greed, but it is not the only way e.g. dictatorships.
As far as an all-powerful diety, I have no problem envisioning that (once you get past the fact that most religous "authorities" lie - for their own agenda - e.g. is God "good" like Santa Claus, peeping on little children to make sure they eat their veggies and get in all of their nappies; or is He rather good like Azathoth/Cthulhu, in allowing us to do our own thing even if that literally ends our planet and all life on it, whoopsie daisy!:-P), but ofc it makes just as much sense to envision the opposite too:-). We don't need to be dicks about whether chocolate or vanilla is better - so long as we agree that murder is bad etc.
Meh, for them it was a Tuesday - it's just how authoritarians are - and rightly so even, if you believe that way (it is internally consistent I'm saying). Overzealous mods banning people and murder are differences in degree, not of kind.
But, if you believe the lore, Jesus being "God" meant that He actually had the upper hand and while he could have stopped it, chose not to, instead allowing them their freedoms even at that cost and significance, to both Himself personally and others in the community and even around the world. It's a fascinating tale! One that I believe but regardless even, there's depth there.
Or you could go the other route and presume that Jesus was not any kind of "god"... in which case he lacked the upper hand - or did he? He could have altered his behavior to fit in with the authorities of his day, but chose not to. Like Robin Hood, he dared to defy those conventions that he considered wrong, and died as a result, knowing that would happen.
So either way, he was genuine. How could you look at the likes of Mr. Rogers or Jesus and think "he's a bad dude"? Except ofc if you want to keep people in slavery and ignorance, i.e. the religious leaders. Jesus was a revolutionary, a bad dude as far as they were concerned, but a good one for anyone who enjoys the idea of someone being authentically whoever they want/need to be, or for an authoritian who believes in God, there's really a quite narrow range in-between occupied afaict solely by piss-baby fascists who believe neither, and in my comment I was not caring about those who preach intolerance.:-P But obviously you are right, they do exist.
Whatever someone's "religion", I say:
Speak for yourself!
The gospels were dictated to someone who physically wrote the words down...
Oh wait, no I see the problem. Yeah at some point early scholars did get the timeline wrong and thought that the gospels were written 60 rather than 30 years after the death of Jesus. But there are TONS of holes in that theory - e.g. why not mention that the Jewish Temple had been torn down, which is like the largest event for them for thousands of years? I thought that this has been more or less universally debunked, but I could not swear to that especially for it to have permeated throughout the entire world.
Wikipedia both backs me up on that one point:
Most scholars agree that they are the work of unknown Christians[49] and were composed c.65-110 AD.[50]
While in the very next sentence also debunking my claim that they are first-hand accounts:
The majority of New Testament scholars also agree that the Gospels do not contain eyewitness accounts;[51] but that they present the theologies of their communities rather than the testimony of eyewitnesses.[52][53]
So if we use that article as a surrogate for "world-wide consensus", then it sounds like we both need to read up on our knowledge of this theology:-D. I for one am fascinated - does this mean that those "first-hand accounts" were merely written in the style of a first-hand account, but also including someone in the community who really was there (they would have been about 60 years old at that point?) - at which point, what is the difference, really? - or... maybe the people were older & feeble (in their 70s?), so merely the result of prior conversations with them over the course of a few years?
First part:
Second part:
But I am not prepared to take the latter on faith alone - b/c free will is a bitch. Allowing a Lord of the Flies type of situation means... well... this.
Do you ever wonder how life must have been in The Matrix? Like, I've heard that the Bay of Pigs scenario brought us within like a hairsbreadth of WWIII, and it was only narrowly averted by what amounts to a probabilistic confluence of factors, but if you modeled it multiple times you could end up with VERY different outcomes - like after the fighting settled USA on top, or Russia on top, but the vastly most likely ofc would be nobody on top but everyone (1st-world participants anyway) obliterated, etc. So would The Architect there allow those permutations, or did he guide them towards a desired end? And if so, why bother, if he got what he wanted regardless? Or perhaps he didn't really care one way or the other, so long as sufficient people were alive to steal their energy from, but b/c of the latter he would work to prevent such a worst-case (to the machines' purposes) outcome. But if the Russians were capable of threading that needle, and taking over the USA without obliterating too many human lives, then was there an incarnation of The Matrix where Neo (or you know, The One by whatever name) was born to a Russian province, a conquered USA? Fun thoughts...
But anyway, regardless of all the religiosity add-ons (people that try to use Him for their own selfish agendas), Jesus was just a most excellent dude!
As for whether He is (a) "God" or not, people ofc disagree. I think yes, but I also join with others of many faiths who regardless or even outright because of their religion - including atheism - try to be the change that we want to see in the world, without getting hung up on our philosophical differences. Ironically the main camp in opposition to that are fascists, which at this point heavily features evangelical so-called "Christians" in the USA (who are also so-called "Patriots", so-called Pro-"Life", so-called "defenders" rather than destroyers of democracy - they really aren't big on telling the Truth, even/especially to themselves!).
This is the part where shit gets tough, b/c words no longer have meaning, if we (the tolerant) allow (tolerate) people (esp. the intolerant) to call themselves whatever they wish. Ofc nobody for one second would confuse Trump himself as an authentic "Christian" - they just use him for their own ends - but what then is a "Christian"? Is it someone who, like Jesus, is most excellent to one another by showing LOVE (kindness, patience, gentleness, compassion, etc.), or is it rather someone who Karens people, literally killing them... or worse (diddling kids, slavery, wage theft that is... is that even any different?!?)
Ironically, Jesus is only ever recorded to HATE one group of people: the intolerant religious butthurt crowd who say one thing, do the precise opposite, but expect you to go along b/c if you don't they will literally, flat-out, straight-up kill you. As they did Him.
So yeah, I would hope that even atheists could join in on hating the "Christian"/"Patriot"/Pro-"Life" crowd, as Jesus Himself demonstrated that He did. To them I would say the message: don't let the fascists confuse you with "words" - just b/c they call themselves something doesn't make it true. What then is a "Christian"? Who da fuq even cares at this point, it may be a lost cause, but The (OG) Dude I thought was pretty cool:-), again imho.
Nothing at allll... pleassse ignore ~~us~~ them and g̵̮̞̏̀̀̔̂ͅẽ̶͉̠̥̙͙̲͐̔̍̒̎͝ť̶͍͚̝̣̇̈́̄͝͝ ̴̢̢̨̦̲͙͒̂ä̷̖̖̮̙̥̮͇́̈́͒̆̕͘̕ ̴̡̧̨̟̬̠̑̈́̈́̊̅̀͜g̷͚̠̥͙͝ͅo̴̰̣͇͐ǫ̶̼͔̪̙̝̳͌͐̿͐̀̏͂ḓ̶̗̿͆̍̽ ̵̡̢̤̆̒̔̀̍̌n̵̞̫͇̫̓́̈́i̴̧̘̫̹̺̎̑͂͛̑g̸̡̭̥͉̦͈͌̂ͅẖ̷̫͕̲͕̼͒̃̔͊̈́̕t̴̬̲̱͎͛͘ͅ’̴̧̞̾̐̅͝s̶̘͍͕͇̥̀̚s̶̰̖͊͐̐͜ś̷̯͔̲͓̾̔̔͘l̵͔̤̪̈͌͊̈́̃e̸̳̋͒̽͠e̷̝̎͗̇̾̀͜͠p̸̰̲̙͖̩͙͓͆̑̿!:-)