Serendipper wrote:Otto_West wrote:Life or existence is chaotic and we give it meaning. We plan for our lives and the lives of our descendants, that's it. There is no greater scheme beyond all of that.
If you study Christianity Jesus sought to reform Judaism not abolish it. Christianity is literally reformed Judaism. Jesus never intended to create a new religion, that's a Roman Catholic invention and besides Jews having a hand in creating Christianity so also did a decadent group of Roman emporers. So decadent were these Roman emporers that they utilized Christianity to murder their own Roman pagan counterparts in mass. The only difference between Christianity and Judaism is that Christians believe Jesus is the messiah whereas Jews believe the real messiah has yet to come, that's the only difference. His whole conflict with the Pharisees was because they did not worship or believe as he did. He wanted to convert them under his teachings and they rebelled.
I'm not sure "reform" is a strong enough word. He condemned them to hell:
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
The reformation that took place was stated best by Paul:
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Whatever work you can do will be something you can brag about. Therefore there is nothing you can do to save yourself. That is the reformation: to stop practicing religion!
"Formly you boasted before the guys about how many sins you committed; now you boast before the lord how many virtues you have. Same trap. You've traded chains of iron for chains of gold."Jesus said, "Whoever seeks to save his life shall lose it." It means if we try to improve ourselves, we'll will only make it worse because the reason we want to be better is the reason we aren't.
There is no way to help ourselves because any act of self improvement will only serve to perpetuate the condition we're already in. Therefore all we can do is have faith and anything we do should be for the purpose of fun and not self-improvement or to win brownie points with god.
The law was fulfilled, completed, finished. Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished." He beat the game. The greatest thing an all-powerful god can do is lay down those powers and allow his enemy to kill him. Obi Wan Kenobi allowed himself to be struck down and became more powerful through Luke. Neo in the Matrix was stuck down and rose again more powerful. The theme is used over and over in pop culture because it's the pinnacle of impressiveness.
Paul said, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are good for me."
The Jews could not stand this line of thinking because then they would have no power and no prestige. It was imperative to the jews that we have a set of traditions to follow for the purpose of one-upping each other and that is what condemns them to hell or, if you prefer, an eternity of riding the wheel, never to awaken.
The common denominator of christianity, buddhism, hinduism is the fight against the ego. That isn't so with judaism and islam which are centered around works.
Oh, I forgot to thank you for being considerate of my potential religious beliefs. That was nice of you. Maybe you can see now where I am with it... there is no religion.
Concerning the existence of god: whether god exist or not isn't relevant. If there is no god, then there is no purpose to the universe, so whatever, it doesn't matter. If god does exist, then what would an all-powerful god want to do for an eternity? Surely after a few 100,000 years he would tire of impressing himself with tricks, so eventually he would find himself right where you are right now. Either way you look at it, life is a game and meaningless. It just exists for surprise.
We look for surprise all the time. We lay down our powers of control then jump on a roller coaster to be at its whim. We prefer to watch a ball game slowly rather than have someone tell us who won. If a joke has to be explained, it isn't funny because the element of surprise is gone. The only reason I am talking to you is that I don't know what you will say to me. If I knew what you would say, then there would be no point. So surprise me
