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Socrates vs. Jesus
Great religious debate.
http://www.unm.edu/~humanism/socvsjes.htm
http://www.unm.edu/~humanism/socvsjes.htm
Comments
Interesting debate, nevertheless. For what I know, which is not much, I always though that Jesus was followed and walked a lot to spread his message. I bet he did his best but then again no one was forced to listen to him. Well, that is what I know and as you can see, is not much :P
I've always figured Jesus was a pretty rational normal guy and Christianity sprang up around him in the way these things do. Kind of like John Maynard Keynes and Keynesian economics.
I'm not correcting you, this is just who Jesus is according to Christian beliefs (which is what I believe, but this will be just FYI, not me forcing it on you.
That's where Jesus came in. He grew up to be a great teacher that performed miracles such as healing the blind, deaf and lepers. He obviously was a great rhetorician and motivational speaker with the mobs of people that followed him. Some of you may remember the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand people.
So, about the sinful nature, like I said, nothing we can do about it. We are condemned to hell (Jewish law was abolished according to Christian doctrine the moment of Christ's death when the tapestry in the tabernacle was ripped in half by God.) This is why we celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection. When the son of God died on the cross, he took every one of the people's sins on his shoulder (all of the current people and all the people forevermore.) so that we may inherit eternal life with God in heaven. All this is to say that we do have a reason for following Jesus Christ as our savior. I'm not gonna force it on you, but now you know why.
Anyhow I like most people until they get preachy and try to impose their points of views, believes over others. I say: "treat others the way one want to be treated", with respect. try to understand others (it is hard but still), and be patient with people (even if is a total moron). And even if they get preachy I just listen to them until they get tired and they want to talk about something else. Because, maybe under a different shadow that person might be interesting and like other stuff. Well but i think that is because of the big cultural different that exist in the various regions in the world. But that is my silly point of view.
Well, but as you can see I do not know much :P
At least the Muslims have a definite author of their holy book and a tradition of how it was written (Gabriel dictates it to Muhammad who then has it written down and never changes it, if you buy the initial premise of an angel telling him what to write then the validity of the modern Quran is rock solid). The best Christianity can claim is the diaries of some guys who, we're pretty sure, used to hang out with Jesus but that doesn't stop them from quoting chapter and verse to back up their ideology.
The history of how a faith came to be is vital. The fact that the early days of Christianity are so far removed from any modern interpretation doesn't speak well of it's validity as a true understanding of God.
Having read the works of both Socrates (okay, diolouges more like) and Jesus, I believe that Socrates would have been a Christian if he had met Christ. He was very close to Christian beliefs already, and not just because he spoke of God. I could go on, but I don't know how much more would piss y'all off and come across as evangelizing.
All theological predispositions aside, the debate wasn't fair. Jesus would have been much more eloquent (aside from the bizarre nature of literally translated Hebrew). As Tuttle says, Jesus had magical powers.
Elvis didn't do no drugs!
Every time I've been to a church for one reason or another I've been absolutely horrified to see what people will listen to attentitively. The stuff in those speeches? Not subtle, guys. Not at all. It's only profound if you buy into the bible. Maybe. Mostly it's repetitive. Saying it more than once doesn't make it truer! I know repetition is a huge part of public speaking but there's a line there somewhere!
So... I love the ideas that Christianity uses, I guess, but the Church scares me and so do most Christians. Something like that. Even though I have very good friends who somehow manage to instantly turn into scary Christians the moment they step into a church.
I've always stuck to "treat others as you would want to be treated", "If you have nothing nice to say (and it's not important and silence won't come back to get you later) nod, smile, and try to make a lame joke that can't possibly offend anyone" and "be incredibly patient with everyone. Always". Also "three strikes THEN be drastic". Some combination of those will cover most situations.
A book that was so good that people thought it was truth.