Religions are fairy tales for adults. Should we encourage them to grow up?

My mind set is close to Daniel Dennett as far as what religious people / theist should become after they grow up.

Personally, I like a lot of the social functions and appeasement of our need for fellowship, hivishness and tribalism offered by religious institutions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5tGpMcFF7U

So I do not want to kill all religions but just encourage them to be more moral, tolerant and give equality to women and gays.

Having said the above, People and recent trends to read scriptures literally have cause many to forget that religions were invented as theatre and myth and were never meant to be read or taken literally. They were designed to seek God, not to find one.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03132009/watch.html

Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, said that when asked to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching, while he stood on one leg, said, "The Golden Rule. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah. And everything else is only commentary. Now, go and study it."

Please listen as to what is said about literal reading.

"Origen, the great second or third century Greek commentator on the Bible said that it is absolutely impossible to take these texts literally. You simply cannot do so. And he said, "God has put these sort of conundrums and paradoxes in so that we are forced to seek a deeper meaning."

As you can see from the following, religions and temples have always been about entertainment and fellowship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7BHvN6rZZA

If Christianity and Islam could return to the old way of seeking God instead of idol worshiping false Gods, perhaps jihadists and other fundamental believers might chill and get along the way they have at some points in our past history.

Religions are fairy tales for adults. If this is a truth, we should encourage Christianity and Islam as well as all other religions to grow up and return to their better past of seeking God instead of idol worshiping Yahweh and Allah. Both of them are mythical and manmade Gods.

To just leave Christians and Muslim idol worshipers to continue as is means that we may never rid ourselves of their institutionalized homophobia and misogyny. The kind and moral thing to do is to try to correct our immoral religious friends to recognize their myths as fairy tales for adults. Do you agree?

Regards
DL

Gnostic Bishop wrote:Religions are fairy tales for adults. Should we encourage them to grow up?

Sure Gnostic Bishop and you could start with your religion of Gnosticism.

Gnostic Bishop wrote:If this is a truth, we should encourage Christianity and Islam as well as all other religions to grow up and return to their better past of seeking God instead of idol worshiping Yahweh and Allah. Both of them are mythical and manmade Gods.

How about,we can make ourselves into true man made gods instead of those false idols?

Flann 5 wrote:

Gnostic Bishop wrote:Religions are fairy tales for adults. Should we encourage them to grow up?

Sure Gnostic Bishop and you could start with your religion of Gnosticism.

Gnostic Bishop wrote:If this is a truth, we should encourage Christianity and Islam as well as all other religions to grow up and return to their better past of seeking God instead of idol worshiping Yahweh and Allah. Both of them are mythical and manmade Gods.

How about,we can make ourselves into true man made gods instead of those false idols?

That's the ticket and what Gnostic Christianity and Jesus preach so why your first comment when your religion does not?

Regards
DL

Gnostic Bishop wrote:Having said the above, People and recent trends to read scriptures literally have cause many to forget that religions were invented as theatre and myth and were never meant to be read or taken literally. They were designed to seek God, not to find one.

This is a generalisation which requires more than an example of illusionist mechanical trickery in an ancient temple in Egypt to establish.
Judaism had a temple and a sacrificial system but there is no suggestion that it was intended to entertain or hoodwink but rather had a moral and spiritual significance. This is spelled out in the n.t. book of Hebrews.

Gnostic Bishop wrote:Please listen as to what is said about literal reading.

"Origen, the great second or third century Greek commentator on the Bible said that it is absolutely impossible to take these texts literally. You simply cannot do so. And he said, "God has put these sort of conundrums and paradoxes in so that we are forced to seek a deeper meaning."

You are mistaken in your understanding of Origen, G.B. I think myself that he went too far overboard with his allegorising, but he did not divorce it from that historical framework which is quite obvious in the texts themselves.
This is what you want to do with the gospels and is what you find in reality in the Gnostic 'gospels' with their disembodied talking head Jesus.
This on Origen. http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/article_o ... rtney.html

Gnostic Bishop wrote:To just leave Christians and Muslim idol worshipers to continue as is means that we may never rid ourselves of their institutionalized homophobia and misogyny. The kind and moral thing to do is to try to correct our immoral religious friends to recognize their myths as fairy tales for adults. Do you agree?

As an enlightened modern Gnostic,here's a question for you G.B. According to your church is it a woman's right to clinically have an abortion of let's say a 20 week old fetus, on the grounds that she doesn't want to have the baby?

Flann 5 wrote:

Gnostic Bishop wrote:Having said the above, People and recent trends to read scriptures literally have cause many to forget that religions were invented as theatre and myth and were never meant to be read or taken literally. They were designed to seek God, not to find one.

This is a generalisation which requires more than an example of illusionist mechanical trickery in an ancient temple in Egypt to establish.
Judaism had a temple and a sacrificial system but there is no suggestion that it was intended to entertain or hoodwink but rather had a moral and spiritual significance. This is spelled out in the n.t. book of Hebrews.

Gnostic Bishop wrote:Please listen as to what is said about literal reading.

"Origen, the great second or third century Greek commentator on the Bible said that it is absolutely impossible to take these texts literally. You simply cannot do so. And he said, "God has put these sort of conundrums and paradoxes in so that we are forced to seek a deeper meaning."

You are mistaken in your understanding of Origen, G.B. I think myself that he went too far overboard with his allegorising, but he did not divorce it from that historical framework which is quite obvious in the texts themselves.
This is what you want to do with the gospels and is what you find in reality in the Gnostic 'gospels' with their disembodied talking head Jesus.
This on Origen. http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/article_o ... rtney.html

Gnostic Bishop wrote:To just leave Christians and Muslim idol worshipers to continue as is means that we may never rid ourselves of their institutionalized homophobia and misogyny. The kind and moral thing to do is to try to correct our immoral religious friends to recognize their myths as fairy tales for adults. Do you agree?

As an enlightened modern Gnostic,here's a question for you G.B. According to your church is it a woman's right to clinically have an abortion of let's say a 20 week old fetus, on the grounds that she doesn't want to have the baby?

Yes. Based on do unto others.

Are you ready to confine her for the duration of her pregnancy and insure that the baby is well taken care of after?

If not, who are you, and I do not mean you directly here, to force her to have and care for a child she does not want?

I know an irritating one step pony type of guy elsewhere who has a real bug about how bastard children are the majority of criminals and how single family homes produce such garbage children and goes on and on with his statistics showing the harm to society by these bastard children. He and I do not agree on much. He has many complaints but no solutions.

This song ends with a truism that I hope you recognize.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5YrB7TpT1Y

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"Judaism had a temple and a sacrificial system but there is no suggestion that it was intended to entertain or hoodwink but rather had a moral and spiritual significance."

I partially agree. You do a lot of discussing on religion. You gain pleasure from this. Right?

The drama of discussion and debate is the opium of the people and drugs and drama is the stuff of theater. Sacrifice is a part of that drama. I think that if the U.S. showed its executions on T.V. the vast majority would tune in.

You also forget that the Jewish sacrifice was a beast used to be consumed along with drugs and drink after it was cooked.

I will follow the link you gave and respond if I think I have something to add. Thanks in advance for it.

Regards
DL

Gnostic Bishop wrote:As an enlightened modern Gnostic,here's a question for you G.B. According to your church is it a woman's right to clinically have an abortion of let's say a 20 week old fetus, on the grounds that she doesn't want to have the baby?




Yes. Based on do unto others.

Are you ready to confine her for the duration of her pregnancy and insure that the baby is well taken care of after?

If not, who are you, and I do not mean you directly here, to force her to have and care for a child she does not want?

So what about the life of the unborn child? Is that not a human life that should be protected? After all your talk of God supposedly torturing babies,you think it's o.k for a woman to end a baby's life because she just doesn't want it.
Do unto others. Right, as long as it's not an unborn baby you are doing unto.

You guys just can't be consistent. I guess I'm misogynistic for saying the unborn babies life has human value. You can avoid that characterisation of you G.B., but your ethics make no sense to me.

Gnostic Bishop wrote:You also forget that the Jewish sacrifice was a beast used to be consumed along with drugs and drink after it was cooked.

Drugs and drink? Not in the o.t. law G.B. I guess you must be a vegetarian then based on what you say. By the way,anytime I check on Gnostic material on youtube for example there's an awful lot of psychedelic artwork on them.
Are you guys doing drugs or what?

You guys just can't be consistent.

Flann wrote:So what about the life of the unborn child? Is that not a human life that should be protected?

Prior to 20 weeks, the fetus has no consciousness, let alone self-consciousness. The only reason you define unformed life as fully human is due to your belief in a soul. The truth involves shades of gray that you refuse to admit. Stop thinking in black and white, because that skews your moral judgement.

Prior to 20 weeks, the fetus has no consciousness, let alone self-consciousness

Can you provided some evidence of this?
And what exactly is "no consciousness" to you?

Flann 5 wrote:[

quote="Gnostic Bishop"]As an enlightened modern Gnostic,here's a question for you G.B. According to your church is it a woman's right to clinically have an abortion of let's say a 20 week old fetus, on the grounds that she doesn't want to have the baby?




Yes. Based on do unto others.

Are you ready to confine her for the duration of her pregnancy and insure that the baby is well taken care of after?

If not, who are you, and I do not mean you directly here, to force her to have and care for a child she does not want?

So what about the life of the unborn child? Is that not a human life that should be protected?

You are good at ignoring my questions without even an attempt to answer.

What about the unborn? Are you ready to support it when born?

After all your talk of God supposedly torturing babies,you think it's o.k for a woman to end a baby's life because she just doesn't want it.

I value every potential human and have said so before but you ignore that as easily as the questions I pose you. Pro-choice is not a disrespect for the unborn. It is to respect the rights of the mother to choose what she thinks is best for her.

Do unto others. Right, as long as it's not an unborn baby you are doing unto.

Says the guy whose God has said that he will burn and kill the vast majority of us.

You and your God are quite the hypocrites in my book.

You guys just can't be consistent.

We are perfectly consistent. You just do not like that we choose a more moral path than yours.

I guess I'm misogynistic for saying the unborn babies life has human value. You can avoid that characterisation of you G.B., but your ethics make no sense to me.

It is not my fault that your religion has corrupted your morals to where you cannot recognize good ones.

Gnostic Bishop wrote:You also forget that the Jewish sacrifice was a beast used to be consumed along with drugs and drink after it was cooked.

Drugs and drink? Not in the o.t. law G.B. I guess you must be a vegetarian then based on what you say. By the way,anytime I check on Gnostic material on youtube for example there's an awful lot of psychedelic artwork on them.
Are you guys doing drugs or what?

[/quote]

Not my bag but I prefer to see people doing drugs and thinking in a moral way than to see teetotalers think immorally the way Christians and Muslims do.

I tell you though, if you continue to be such a dumb prick I will soon ignore you completely.

Regards
DL