If Christianity is man made, why does everything about it go against man’s desires? Does Christianity go against man’s desires? If so, is that evidence for Christianity? I answer this question, discussing the history of Christianity, the cognitive science of religion, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, and more.
The whole “atheists can’t answer this question” and “atheists can’t explain this” thing is really getting old.
If your gonna take the rules listed in the bible strictly, then sure. But your definition of Christian values is then far more strict than almost everyone elses interpretation, that its basically a “no true scotsman” kinda deal.
If you want to insist that the only true Christian is someone who follows scripture verbatim and never strays, fine, they are super controlled and oppressed.
“No true Scotsman” kind of how religion goes, yes? It’s why the Protestants fought the Catholics, the Catholics fought the Orthodox … and everyone else and everyone fought the Muslims.
There are always varying degrees of adherence, and this is also true of every religion that exists. You or any other believer might find particular rules absurd, and that is their business, but I’m willing to bet if you look at any single congregation, they’re going to have rules prescribing behavior in strange ways.
The Amish, for example. Or drinking alcohol. Or wearing certain types of clothes and wearing hair a certain way.
Not talking with members of the opposite sex is another common one.
mainstream Christianity (Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical alike) are all apposed to abortion.
Social control.
Just because the specifics change over time doesn’t mean it’s not there. In fact it’s there to such a degree that Christians in the US are trying to exert it on everyone- abortion, laws about who can marry whom. Porn consumption. Subject matter in libraries… video games…
All of it is social control. And they do not like being told to fuck off.
I’m not a believer, at all. I went to a Christian school for an education, and that was all. Neither of my parents were religious, and my Christian grandma married my Muslim grandfather. I am very much comfortably on the outside looking in here.
I’m not disputing that churches themselves are not based around social control, only that the core values as they were expressed to me are not that controlling.
To grossly simplify, if Jesus had just said “Be nice to each other”, most of us wouldn’t consider that overtly controlling. When a church later extrapolates that to “Every egg is life, killing life isnt nice, abortion is banned”, thats when it becomes control.
If you think that its impossible to seperate the church structures from the core beliefs, thats perfectly reasonable. The evidence is firmly in your favour. I am well aware of the bullshit being pushed by these “churches” in the US, and we have the exact same issues in Australia.
Anyway, thanks for you comments, i think we have both made our points, I wont waste any more of your time.