What is wrong with Christianity?
In the previous post I mentioned the Enlightenment of Europe.
To go off on a tangent, it is here that the power of Christianity lost most of its credibility as a source of moral authority, resting as it does on superstition and political authoritarianism which it could no longer hold in the face of actual knowledge debunking religious dogma. Unfortunately, the history of Christianity to prevent violence and bloodshed in the name of God is almost non-existent and therefore has little to offer what does not already exist. In fact, its history and its current functioning in America as the last bastion of ignorant and illiterate people to feel good about themselves renders it a failure as a reasoning and wise teaching to follow.
Those people who manage to understand and practice the wiser parts of Christianity are themselves wiser and more spiritually evolved people to begin with and so are capable of rising above their superstitious brethren. As far as I'm concerned, the more wise have a duty to further the wiser elements and expunge its own ignorance of universal truth and reality. But if this is not possible, then perhaps they should find a better teaching.
On the moral development end of things, Christianity is essentially on the lowest rung with it's emphasis on black & white thinking, submission to authority, and on the carrot & stick method of punishment & reward for inducing good behavior. Sound familiar? This what parenting of children is like. It also the doctrine of the Conservative Movement.
To stay stuck at this level is to have one's moral development arrested making any further growth into internalizing moral behavior for its own sake and then developing a true understanding of the basis of morality all but impossible. This is where America stands today, morally arrested, stuck in narcissistic childhood, incapable of delayed gratification and long-term thinking, and uncaring of anyone but itself. As such, it is a failed religion just as America is a failed democracy. Both of these either need to evolve into something more humane, reasonable, and wise, or be replace with something better.
To go off on a tangent, it is here that the power of Christianity lost most of its credibility as a source of moral authority, resting as it does on superstition and political authoritarianism which it could no longer hold in the face of actual knowledge debunking religious dogma. Unfortunately, the history of Christianity to prevent violence and bloodshed in the name of God is almost non-existent and therefore has little to offer what does not already exist. In fact, its history and its current functioning in America as the last bastion of ignorant and illiterate people to feel good about themselves renders it a failure as a reasoning and wise teaching to follow.
Those people who manage to understand and practice the wiser parts of Christianity are themselves wiser and more spiritually evolved people to begin with and so are capable of rising above their superstitious brethren. As far as I'm concerned, the more wise have a duty to further the wiser elements and expunge its own ignorance of universal truth and reality. But if this is not possible, then perhaps they should find a better teaching.
On the moral development end of things, Christianity is essentially on the lowest rung with it's emphasis on black & white thinking, submission to authority, and on the carrot & stick method of punishment & reward for inducing good behavior. Sound familiar? This what parenting of children is like. It also the doctrine of the Conservative Movement.
To stay stuck at this level is to have one's moral development arrested making any further growth into internalizing moral behavior for its own sake and then developing a true understanding of the basis of morality all but impossible. This is where America stands today, morally arrested, stuck in narcissistic childhood, incapable of delayed gratification and long-term thinking, and uncaring of anyone but itself. As such, it is a failed religion just as America is a failed democracy. Both of these either need to evolve into something more humane, reasonable, and wise, or be replace with something better.
posted by NeoLotus at 11:05 AM
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