Okay, this'll be my last post on this topic in this thread. I'll try and wrap it up as nonconfrontationally as I can.
no, i'm merely suggesting that christianity can be a philosophy as well, even if it's not commonly taught that way.
I get the idea that pieces of the Bible can be used as philosophy, divorced from the underlying religion. But that is qualitatively different than Buddhism, where the main point of the religion is not obedience to one God who will return one day as messiah.
One is a contemplation about the nature of suffering and ways to avoid it, the other is a tract which specifically talks about our relationship to God, past and future, and what we must do to follow his word.
It takes more to divorce the religion from the philosophy of one than from the other.
i think buddhists tend to believe that his holiness the dalai lama is the reincarnation sidhartha gautama, the buddha. this is clearly a religious belief.
The concept of reincarnation itself is a religious belief, so this is true regardless of the Dalai Lama's status in specific. Again, this is much more easily divorced from the practices of Buddhism, than whether Christ is the Messiah. Indeed it would be absurd to call onesself a Christian and then say you only mean the philosophy Jesus talked about, and not that he was
the Christ.
it's a cause and effect philosophy. from a philosophical standpoint, if i'm suffering, it's either because i've done something wrong that's causing it, or someone else has done something wrong to me. the way to end suffering if follow the teaching of christ: be compassionate. if everyone does it, suffering should end.
You have your answer within this very statement. As it stands if everyone follows the "golden rule" all suffering will NOT end. There is plenty of suffering without people doing things to each other, even if much is created by others. That is what is covered by original sin. Like you said, if someone didn't do something to us, we must have done something wrong. Why do good people suffer? Because no one is truly good.
Life is a stain we are trying to escape from. The whole point of Jesus being the Christ was to help us remove the stain.
When the second coming occurs, then all suffering will end.
i actually one of my good friends a book for christmas this year on how original sin and the idea that god expects us to be perfect are complete lies.
I wasn't saying that God wanted us to be perfect. I was saying that original sin carries down through the ages and for which all humans must atone. I am unsure how any author is going to explain away the concept of this. The Bible is pretty straightforward on this point.
and yet the teachings of christ all focus on what to do with THIS life. i am totally unprepared for any afterlife, and so is every other christian. i'm starting to not even believe in one. christianity, as taught by christ, is not about following god's commands, or sticking to the law. it's about love, compassion, charity, etc.
This does not resemble anything I read in the Bible. While he addresses ways to make life better, he certainly talks about the Kingdom of God and how to reach it through him. He positioned himself as the King of the Jews and attempted to overturn their practices because it was offensive to God.
the groups who treated christ more as a philosophical teacher instead of the literal son of god have all but disappeared. but they did exist.
I get that people can follow his golden mean teachings as a rule of thumb philosophy, however Christ was not his last name, it was a title. If these people did not believe he was the son of God, or that he was not the key to everlasting salvation in the afterlife then they didn't believe he was Jesus the Christ, just Jesus. They would be patently unXian.
"LOVE people who are different." he even says to love your enemy. that's really a far cry from "kill the heathens"
Again you seem to jump over the point. Buddhism is not just saying love those that are different, it is ACCEPTING of all faiths. While Jesus practiced tolerance, he also said that only through him will people make it into heaven. That is a major qualitative difference, in philosophy or religion.
much of the new testament *IS* greek philosophy. the misogynism, sexual taboos, dualism, etc, is all greek in origin, not strict original christian. original sin and the fall have more in common with pandora or prometheus than genesis. the idea simply doesn't exist in judaism, or the teachings of christ.
Oh that's right, it was the Greeks that refused to have women in powerful positions, and female Gods, and engage in incestuous and homosexual and group sex activities.
Please, the above statement is patently false. While there are connections between mythologies and some social practices of Greeks, and the Xian religion, the idea that misogyny and sexual taboos inside the old and new testaments sprang from them is bizarre.
Indeed original sin is not rampant throughout Greek thought, though a form existed within some of the religions. Remember these guys had pantheons.
The fall does exist in genesis and is within Judaism as well as the teachings of Christ. I am uncertain how you can claim they are not.
what makes it different is that it's not attached to "BELIEVE in buddha." that's the difference between philosophy and religion. and belief in christ is not neccessary to understand and follow his teachings.
No, whether the Buddha was divine is not needed to practice the teachings. Whether the Christ was divine is the whole point of Christianity, including the practices which come with it. If you believe he was just a philosopher, then you are not a Xian, you are either a Jew, a muslim, or someone following the philosophical teachings of carpenter named Jesus.
Jews were not upset at the time to have a wandering philosopher, they were upset by a guy claiming to be their king and messiah. It took that belief to make you a Xian.
i think it's possible the hebrews made the story up around the time of the babylonian/assyrian exhiles, as a metaphor for their captivity there.
I realize you said you were taking a guess, but I am interested in why they would do such a thing. Why was it important for them to say captivity in Egypt, rather than Babylon?
holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)
™ Version 4.2