I'll be darned. Maybe I'm religious and just didn't know it.

[Scuba]

[liberal_at_heart]

1. Very accurate statement. People use them to fight for power.

[malthaussen]

2. Hell, JC is the third-most important Prophet in Islam.

Best definition of "Christian" is somewhere in Acts (I misremember where): A christian is someone who tries to emulate Christ.

Although Christ's profile in the Gospels is not exactly uniform, I think we can agree that there are a lot of people calling themselves Christian who do not meet that criterion.

-- Mal

[xfundy]

3. Jesus was a liberal Jew.

[Madam Mossfern]

8. Actually

Jesus was a Reconstructionist Jew.

[Schema Thing]

21. Actually

No one knows what or who Jesus was.

[RC]

26. Or even for sure that he was.

[libdem4life]

29. There is still some controversy, but even Jesus, as recorded, said it was not about Him.

But His work was to point to His Father/The Source/The Chi/Christ Energy. What may be most important of all is The Message that made it down the millennia through many great Masters whose spiritual Christ Energy was so powerful that it still exists in their writings, followers, believers, etc.

The Christ Energy created us, is with us and all around us and all true paths lead to The Source.

[Schema Thing]

38. well alrighty then!

that settles that!

[libdem4life]

40. I should have said...this is my understanding today...subject to change without notice.

[madrchsod]

27. more is written about mary in the koran than about jesus.

[defacto7]

4. Matthew 10:28 Jesus said....

"And fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Note the capitol "H" in the word Him. That's God.

The love of Jesus tells us of the destruction of the soul and body in hell. Nice.

[Scuba]

5. Fear is an excellent motivator.

[liberal_at_heart]

6. That is what Matthew said Jesus said. I don't believe that Jesus said that.

People such as Matthew and others used these great teachers to gain power.

[defacto7]

9. I won't argue the unlikelihood

that Jesus ever lived because it could put this OP out of service and referred to the "R" bin.

Mark 9, and Luke 12 also refer to Jesus discussing people/souls being thrown into the lake of fire (hell), and the valley of Gehenna (a burning garbage pit outside Jerusalem sometimes associated with hell... or not, doesn't really matter)

Were Mark and Luke also in cahoots with Matthew? I don't think any of them actually wrote much of anything really.

[Maraya1969]

13. I'll give you a Course in Miracles and maybe a Buddhist interpretation of that.

First the capital "H" was put there by the writers of the book. But even so I would think that this 'HIM" is the ego, or Buddhist, "poison like thoughts". Basically anything that will make you miserable so you feel like you are being destroyed in both soul and body in Hell.

Now who here has not felt that way?

So from the 2 sources I am referring to if you keep your mind on love and not the ego or the poison arrows then you will enter the kingdom of God, which is in your mind to start with.

I'm not talking about a romantic relationship either. I am talking about the people, 2 of whom I think were Buddha and Jesus, who learned to leave the egoistic parts of themselves, (jealousy, greed, self contentedness, all sorts of crap like that) and they "ascended" or moved I don't know the right word, into Heaven, or Nirvana, or The Christ Within. Whatever you want to call it

That is my 2 cents on this matter.

[liberal_at_heart]

34. That is a great interpretation Maraya1969.

I have been studying Buddhism for a while but only recently have I become truly ready to tackle my negative thoughts not that I'm on par with Jesus and Buddha but I am feeling more content and healthy lately.

[Maraya1969]

35. Glad to hear that. Buddhism is almost like cognitive therapy in a way in that

you deal with your past hurts, (by forgiveness and other things) and you start trying to act with loving kindness.

[phil89]

7. Jesus

if he even existed, taught offensive and irresponsible things.

[Skittles]

10. do go on

[Enthusiast]

11. How so?

Name one offensive or irresponsible thing taught by Jesus. I'm curious.

[phil89]

12. Well there's

Matthew 19:21: "Sell all your belongings and follow me". Sure, that's a plan for a great life. You'll get a reward in "heaven" though, even though there's no proof of such a place. Teachings about thought crimes are offensive to me: Matthew 5:22-26 "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Bizarre.

[Maraya1969]

14. I posted #13. You can use different words. The words in the Christian bible and

other such Holy books can be greatly exagerated. If you take them down a peg and try to look at them as though they were parables without the story maybe you can find a meaning in them.

[phil89]

16. I would never

look to a book that teaches such horrible things. There are so many other books with real knowledge I don't dwell on the supposed "holy" books.

[Maraya1969]

18. I went to this Buddhist center this week and did some chanting

and part of the chants upset me because they used words like, "evil" and "bad" and things like that and I thought Buddhists don't get into that stuff.

So I asked the Nun afterward what they meant and she said it was all about the negative thoughts we carry around in our heads. She truly believes, as did Jesus and Buddha that inside all of us is a golden core of goodness that is connected to every other person and thing. She doesn't really believe in evil they way our story books talk of evil. More so that it is a way of being that causes suffering. That is the "evil" that they speak of.

As far as the Old Testament, your on your own there. I got nothin.

[el_bryanto]

41. That's very revealing.

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. And yet that says "Matthew 19:21..."

Ever played the game Telephone?????

[phil89]

17. I'm not following

what you mean.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. Somehow, I didn't think you would.

Telephone is a game where a sentence gets passed from person to person on down the line until it barely (or not at all) resembles what was originally said.

The book of Matthew was not written by Jesus. The Bible has been translated and interpreted over and over again. Sheesh, I don't even believe, and I know that.

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. Nothing was written by Jesus, not one word. Additionally there is not one scintilla of evidence he

even existed that isn't traced back to a story somone else told years after the fact. None at all.

Further, both he and Muhammad were selling the after-life as a reason for submitting to the rule of parasites.

Love is the key, and what is credited directly to Jesus himself, except for the fantasy elements, we would all do well to practice what he preached.

[Maraya1969]

20. Say, regarding this from Matthew 19

"Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."

Maybe you could think of it as heart burn from getting upset too much?

[Schema Thing]

23. but why put such sweet but tortured interpretation into play?

My view of right and wrong is not affected one iota based on the thoughts of the writer of Mathew 19. I can't help but think I'm healthier for that.


And this in spite of the fact that, raised in a fundamentalist cult, my views for my first 36 years very much were based on the opinions of the writer of Mathew 19 and his ilk.

[Maraya1969]

36. I think that is where the human's ego came in. I doubt that those were the words that

were said. I think I remember someone teaching me that the Parish Priests wrote the new testament. I remember reading Greek plays in college and they talked about "shat" (shit) all the time. And I mean the real stuff. Who knows why people do what they do.

But I understand where you are coming from. I was in the same position years ago and it took a lot to get out from under the fundamentalist's ropes.

[uppityperson]

24. Matthew 19:21, you quote only 1 small part out of context. How is this "bizarre"?

http://biblehub.com/matthew/19-21.htm

New International Version
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

New Living Translation
Jesus told him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

English Standard Version
Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

New American Standard Bible
Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

(more at link)

[LeftyMom]

30. The gospels depict him casting demons out of people every ten minutes.

Considering how many people have been tortured or killed by idiots who believe in demon possession, perpetuating and encouraging that particular belief pretty much defines irresponsibility.

[snooper2]

22. ROFLMFAO

Really?

[Silent3]

28. Sorry. Nice sentiment, but not very accurate.

To the extent it's even possible to separate the real people from the legends built up around them (and I have my doubts that there even was a real historic Jesus), it takes a pretty selective, slanted reading of the teachings attributed to these people to claim that they were all about love.

What about the Jesus who brings not peace, but the sword? Muhammad seemed a lot more interested in establishing who and what should be considered authoritative in the Abrahamic tradition, in establishing religious law. Buddha was much more about enlightenment, detaching oneself from desire and pain. To the extent that love inspires one to help another to reach enlightenment, love is possibly useful, but it's also a potential distraction, something could derail you into desire and earthly concerns.

[1000words]

31. You just found God.

God is love.

[BelgianMadCow]

32. and we are love

so we are god.

It's why my Occupy sign with "rEVOLution" written on a heart got me so many positive comments. From passers-by at the station after a protest 2 years later. Still inspired by it. Occupy Love.

[LeftyMom]

33. Jesus does an awful lot of flipping tables and calling people out in the gospels.

And let's not even get started on waving a sword around, horseback in rivers of blood, head of the undead army Jesus of Revelation. Also, he probably wasn't an actual person who actually existed.

Muhammad was an actual historical figure (unlike Jesus, who almost certainly wasn't) who was a warlord and guess what? Warlords kill people.

All the documentary evidence for the life and story of Siddhartha Gautama dates from several centuries later (how many centuries being the matter of some debate,) and important details like where he lived and what order major events in his life occurred vary in those accounts. That he was a historical figure at all is also a matter of some debate.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. A nice sentiment, but a gross oversimplification of 3 very different worldviews.

I won't worry about the Western Monotheisms here because they don't personally interest me a whole hell of a lot, but The Buddha taught a lot of things, including compassion, but one of his central insights was more to the point of diagnosing the universal problem of suffering as an intrinsic aspect of existence and identifying its primary cause, namely attachment.

Buddhism as a philosophical worldview is significantly different from what constitutes Western "religious belief".

[Boom Sound 416]

39. And "love is all you need"

[CFLDem]

42. Ah yes Muhammad the loving war mongerer.

Seriously?!