atheists, what do you think of the teachings of Jesus?

Question

I am an Atheist and I think most of what is written that he said is fairly noble save for a few things. I still think the whole religion is a pile of nonsense. Most Christians don't even realise that the crucifixion is a story borrowed from an even earlier myth relating to someone else! I suppose Christianity is morality for the terminally stupid, so it's better than nothing. It is just said that we have crazy fundamentalist Christians trying to force their nonsense on the rest of us, like creationism.

I bet 14, any more?

interesting links:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/christmyth.html
http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Dawkins/viruses-of-the-mind.html
http://paulsen.home.netcom.com/iq_vs_religiosity.htm
http://w-uh.com/posts/031226a-religion_vs_IQ.html

to ditto: the question of whether religion and religious belief does more good than harm comes into play here. Religion without a doubt retards human intellectual development. Intellectualy development that we desparately need if we are going to solve global issues like war and climate change. Not to mention the hatred towards gays and people of different beliefs, oh yeah and the opression of women.

Answer 1

The teachings were fine (apart from the inclusion of god) unfortunately the religious establishment from the time of christ until now has corrupted his teaching so that now, organised religion is almost opposite of what he taught. The funda,entalists are worst.

Answer 2

I believe that his teachings were noble; he was a King and a Nazarite (Keeper of the Covenant) so his words often hid a deeper meaning than the one immediately detectable; Essenes used a criptic language made of allegories in order not to let their enemies find out what their real message was.

About 'Christians', as sad as it may sound, most of them are just blind-folded bigots using arrogance in order to prove their 'superiority'. Very few Christians live according to Jesus' teachings and show tolerance and respect to non-Christians; and those are the ones I respect and consider positive human beings. It's not a coincidence that the mean feature related to Christianity is 'to spread the Word'= to 'redeem' crowds; it's because their beliefs don't stand on their own, so they need to be a loud, arrogant crowd in order to feel stronger;) I pity them in a way because they're so far away from real knowledge....

Answer 3

The new testament offers some very good morality tales. If all christians lived the way their christ asked them to, then the world would be a much better place. Unfortunately the fundies seem to have the loudest voice, and tend to ignore the teachings of their own messiah, and just want to use christianity as an excuse for hate.

Answer 4

Well I'm not quite a atheist. I am Buddhist. However, I can not get with any religious text that states "owning" another man is okay. Don't know if that is supposedly a text from God himself or Jesus on the other hand they "He" is a trinity, right?

another thing since so much strife is committed in the name of God and he sees all,
Why doesn't he nod down and tell everyone to "knock it off"?

Why does he allow the Sudanese of Dar fur to suffer as they are?

questions, no definitive answers from the Jesus people.

nam myoho renge kyo

Answer 5

I think a lot of what Jesus is said to have done prior to the crucifixion is based, at least in part, on truth. I don't believe he actually gave sight to the blind or other types of healing - these things sound like myths, legends, or just exaggerations. I have no problems believing a man named Jesus lived about 2000 years ago, that he was a prominent figure in society, and that he was seen as a threat to those in power. I think it's even possible he was seen as a messiah. But at the end of the day he was just a man.

Answer 6

i feel that to say all Christians are terminally stupid, is rather harsh! I am a Christian and although i do believe in the teachings of Christ, i accept that MANY Christians do not follow these teachings. Any Christian that tells another human that he will burn in helll, is sadly off his rocker, we should not judge and i do not believe that anyone BURNS in hell anyway.

If everyone stopped saying how rubbish everybody elses choices ( of worship, beliefs etc) were and just concentrated on trying to be the best that they could be, things would be a bit better.

I believe in God- you dont, so which one of us is more intelligent, or a better person? I do not believe that all Athiests are dumb, and not all Christians are either. In fact it is possible to believe in God and be intelligent, and anyone with a moderate level of intelligence could surely accept that?

Answer 7

I think Jesus was a very intellligent and highly enlightened spiritual person to say the least. I think he truly could have taught this world many great things and ways of open-minded thinking if it wasnt for man skewing what he had to say, by potentionaly embelishing some story, even make some up, and most of all, remove books and chapters all together.

Answer 8

Yeah, he offered a good blueprint of how to maintain a peaceful society, most of his teachings are still applicable today. I see no problem with "doing unto others...".

I don't believe he was the Son of God, I think the idea of "God" is born out of a human sense of "being" whilst grappling with our consciousness. We can never understand God because consciousness IS our mind and therefore cannot be understood by a small part of it. Instead, like blind men describing different parts of an elephant, the religions of the world fight over how to describe the God they want to see, usually to satisfy their own pursuits in society.

The singer Roy Harper said that "a world that Christ fought is supported by using his name" which seems to me to be true. I can't see Jesus standing side by side next to Bush or Blair, or endorsing a particular car, or marching to war or doing "Jesus Saves (with HBSC)" type of adverts. Yet he is used to re-enforce our society and justify our actions (in the name of Christ). This has to be the biggest marketing turnaround in history.

There are of course lots of lovely people who are the unsung heroes of Christianity -e.g. those ladies who produce endless supplies of tea and charity, and if there was a "doing" God, then I'm sure he'd bless them.

In short, I like the teachings of Christ and wish they featured more in Christianity.

Answer 9

In general, I DON'T think of them. However, in fairness, since I studied them on the way toward my apostasy, I believe a lot of what he said makes sense. I still get irritated that he never seemed to answer a question directly, but he had some good things to say. It's a shame his followers ran out of his words many years ago.

Answer 10

Let the FIRES of HELL...... only kidding. LOL

I agree totally. When someone takes a little made up book seriously, then I must question their sanity. Especially a book full of contridictions and open to interpretation. A little saying goes (now I have your attention) Human that are not complete with themselves need something else to believe in eg. God, a higher power. As they cannot comprehend to why they are here and hate the thought of no life after death.

So bring on the fire I say, let me burn, burn, burn ;)