okay first of all:
Narrock wrote:fact-based FAITH
there is literally no such thing. if there are facts, you don't need faith. faith is only required in the absence of facts.
but anyway back to the topic on page 1
it's not that i look around and see injustice and oppression and starvation and brutality and think "either god doesn't exist or he doesn't give a shit about us" - although that is a reasonable conclusion to reach. no, my issue with religion in general and christianity specifically is the gap i see between how christ himself spoke, acted, and treated others with the way his so-called "followers" speak, act, and treat others. in fact, i honestly believe that my LCMS upbringing as well as my religious inquiries (both collegiate and independent) have left me particularly well-equipped to notice that gap.
then there are the things i learned about various eastern religions - that there is a sort of all-encompassing balance in the kosmos, that the harmony of the universe compels us to do no harm, and possibly that we are obligated to offset
at least our own "bad" or "harmful" actions or thoughts (and those of others, if we are able) in order to either maintain or simply respect that balance and harmony. i do not see how the ways and teachings of christ conflict with this principle in any way outside of terminology, though i'm sure many would disagree.
there is one important religious movement that, in my opinion, connects these two ideas of christ and universal balance: gnosticism. one of the most compelling claims of gnosticism is also probably the one that got the original gnostics hunted down and their scriptures destroyed: they believed that the old testament creator god was a twisted copy of a flawed copy of an emanation of the original source of all, and that as creations of such a bent being, we humans are irrevocably bent as well. jesus, then, was sent - NOT by the creator god of the old testament - but by the source, as a way for people to see PAST all the negative bullshit that the creator god brought with him when he made existence as we understand and experience it, and as a way to reconnect with that original source. THIS is why there's such a major difference between the old testament god (who is vengeful, angry, murderous, capricious, jealous, and violent) and the new testament god (who is distant, omni-[everything], and has universal acceptance for all). it's also why no one understood a fucking thing about jesus while he was alive - even his disciples kept missing the point.
he was referring to a different god the entire time. no wonder they were so confused all the time.
anyway, that does a lot to explain one of the more persistent contradictions i see within modern christianity (the stark difference between old and new testament) but it still doesn't leave me with much to feel good about regarding the massive disconnect between what jesus taught and what christians do. perhaps it's caused by the attempt to reconcile OT god and NT god as the same being? preaching brotherly love and understanding, meanwhile destroying enemies and oppressing those not among the "chosen" (in the OT this means "of the jewish tribes" but nowadays i feel we've fully substituted "american" instead)? honestly i don't think many "christians" know a fucking thing about who jesus actually was.