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Originally Posted by Cantankerous
it's ridiculous to think that they're applicable to everyone. not everyone believes in only one god, and not everyone even believes in god. but christians act like whatever they say is the end all be all of everything. certainly it's very flawed. i don't understand how someone could be happy, trapped within the confines of words in a book and doing what other people say.
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If it helps: I promise you, Cantankerous, that I don't believe I understand the End All Be All.
I'm really not trying to say those more precise commandments are applicable to everyone, and I understand that not everyone believes in one God. But what's ridiculous to you wasn't ridiculous to those Jews who were, supposedly, conferring almost directly with their God at the time.
The non-religious/not nessacerily religious sometimes treat the Bible like one big list of what will send you to hell. But hell's part in the Bible is blown out of proportion to the whole message by many denominations (mostly Catholics), historically to scare ignorant peasants into submission by guilt-tripping them (Not as if you don't already know that).
But when I, centuries later being proudly literate and educated, read the Bible, I don't find the rulebook of some pissy God that wants nothing more than to limit the enjoyment and freedom I have on Earth and find every little loophole to fuck me over after I pass from it-
I find a God who sees and understands on my level that ofcourse the world around me is full of hate and misunderstanding and I find a God who would help me become a better person in myself, and in so doing would allow me to possibly help this fucked-up world.
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Originally Posted by Mostly Harmless
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love on another, even as I have loved you...." John 13:34
"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." Matt 5:44
"Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
John 8:7
The entire Beatitudes, already listed by Rob Instigator.
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"Doing what other people say" in this case means being nice to people even when they're being assholes to you, and showing love towards all human beings, no matter how hard that is. That's not guilt-tripping, that's a very noble quest.
If you're not familiar with that John 8:7 verse, it's referring to when some Pharisees brought out a woman accused of adultery and asked Jesus if they should stone her, which the old Law set down by Moses required.
And Jesus shows perfect, downright gutsy mercy and compassion on behalf of humanity, on behalf of man who is imperfect and prone to mistakes.
And that is my God. No matter what becomes of me, I have that badass on my side.
It's illogical to me to think that when people actually read the New Testament, they still act as if the Bible is God's big book of judgement condemning the little bothersome ants he calls Humanity. I don't think this would happen if people really jumped into reading the Gospels without any preconceived notion of what Christianity means.
In short:
I am not trapped in the confines of words-
I am freed with the life-giving revelation, the knowledge that imperfect as I am, no matter how much I happen to fuck up my life there is a God who understands, accepts, and loves me more than I could possibly conceive. And is willing, to his own death, to help me become the best human being I can be.
I hope that kind of explains where I'm a coming from.
I'm sorry if it got a bit grandiose with the wording there, but I get passionate about these things, especially when I haven't really slept.