Disbelief is the Ultimate Value
2003-11-29 20:38:55 UTC
The Morality of the Christ?
by Daniel G. Jennings
The basic idea behind Christianity is that "God" somehow turned
himself into an ordinary man named Jesus Christ and lived and worked
here on Earth as an average person. Christians and their apologists
present this belief as profoundly moral and proof of "God's" superior
morality. The question we should ask ourselves: is the basic Christian
belief, that of the "God-man," really a moral belief or not?
My answer is that this belief is not a moral one because Jesus Christ,
the God-Man described in the Bible (if he really existed), would be a
liar, a fraud and a sadomasochist. Obviously a liar, a fraud and a
sadomasochist couldn't be an example of superior morality or
"Christian" values. So there is no real morality in the story of
Christ as presented in the Gospels.
Jesus would be a liar and a fraud because if he were God, he could
never be an ordinary person. No matter how hard Jesus worked at being
an ordinary person, he would still be God because he could in the
blink of an eye change everything. Jesus wouldn't be a man, he'd be a
God playing man. If Jesus went around telling ordinary people that he
was a man he would be a liar and on some level a fraud. Jesus Christ
wouldn't be a man, then, he'd be a fraud, a hollow mockery of
humanity.
Worse, Jesus would be a sadomasochist, that is a person who enjoys
inflicting pain and suffering upon himself. By experiencing life in
First Century Palestine in all its glory, Jesus would be inflicting
pain, torture and violence upon himself. He even allowed himself to be
whipped and tortured to death by the Romans. Such behavior isn't an
example of morality, it is an example of psychotic behavior.
If experiencing such suffering himself wasn't bad enough, Jesus chose
to let others suffer along with him. Jesus not only enjoyed pain and
suffering but he made sure everybody else suffered as well.
Would anybody consider a doctor who had the drugs needed to cure a
painful disease but refused to use those drugs on his patients, then
injected himself with the bacteria which caused that disease so he
could feel his patients' pain, a moral or a great person? Of course
not. Such a doctor would be arrested, stripped of his license and
quite probably committed to a mental hospital.
Yet that's exactly what the Jesus Christ described in the Bible was;
he had the power to end all human suffering, but he didn't use it.
Instead he experienced that suffering himself and then arrogantly
claimed moral superiority because he was sharing people's suffering.
The God who walked on the Earth as a man would not be an example of
higher morality. He'd be an example of lunacy and mental illness. And
since God is supposed to be perfect, God couldn't be mentally ill. So
whoever or whatever Jesus was, he couldn't have been an omnipotent
God. Since Jesus wasn't God then what was he? Most likely Jesus was
just a man who suffered from some sort of mental illness.
Since the basic belief behind Christianity is not a moral one,
Christianity cannot and should not be seen as a faith that encourages
real morality. Instead it should be seen as a faith that discourages
morality by promoting a set of beliefs that encourages its adherents
to teach falsehoods as the truth.
Copyright 2003, Internet Infidels, Inc. Copyright info here.
http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=323
by Daniel G. Jennings
The basic idea behind Christianity is that "God" somehow turned
himself into an ordinary man named Jesus Christ and lived and worked
here on Earth as an average person. Christians and their apologists
present this belief as profoundly moral and proof of "God's" superior
morality. The question we should ask ourselves: is the basic Christian
belief, that of the "God-man," really a moral belief or not?
My answer is that this belief is not a moral one because Jesus Christ,
the God-Man described in the Bible (if he really existed), would be a
liar, a fraud and a sadomasochist. Obviously a liar, a fraud and a
sadomasochist couldn't be an example of superior morality or
"Christian" values. So there is no real morality in the story of
Christ as presented in the Gospels.
Jesus would be a liar and a fraud because if he were God, he could
never be an ordinary person. No matter how hard Jesus worked at being
an ordinary person, he would still be God because he could in the
blink of an eye change everything. Jesus wouldn't be a man, he'd be a
God playing man. If Jesus went around telling ordinary people that he
was a man he would be a liar and on some level a fraud. Jesus Christ
wouldn't be a man, then, he'd be a fraud, a hollow mockery of
humanity.
Worse, Jesus would be a sadomasochist, that is a person who enjoys
inflicting pain and suffering upon himself. By experiencing life in
First Century Palestine in all its glory, Jesus would be inflicting
pain, torture and violence upon himself. He even allowed himself to be
whipped and tortured to death by the Romans. Such behavior isn't an
example of morality, it is an example of psychotic behavior.
If experiencing such suffering himself wasn't bad enough, Jesus chose
to let others suffer along with him. Jesus not only enjoyed pain and
suffering but he made sure everybody else suffered as well.
Would anybody consider a doctor who had the drugs needed to cure a
painful disease but refused to use those drugs on his patients, then
injected himself with the bacteria which caused that disease so he
could feel his patients' pain, a moral or a great person? Of course
not. Such a doctor would be arrested, stripped of his license and
quite probably committed to a mental hospital.
Yet that's exactly what the Jesus Christ described in the Bible was;
he had the power to end all human suffering, but he didn't use it.
Instead he experienced that suffering himself and then arrogantly
claimed moral superiority because he was sharing people's suffering.
The God who walked on the Earth as a man would not be an example of
higher morality. He'd be an example of lunacy and mental illness. And
since God is supposed to be perfect, God couldn't be mentally ill. So
whoever or whatever Jesus was, he couldn't have been an omnipotent
God. Since Jesus wasn't God then what was he? Most likely Jesus was
just a man who suffered from some sort of mental illness.
Since the basic belief behind Christianity is not a moral one,
Christianity cannot and should not be seen as a faith that encourages
real morality. Instead it should be seen as a faith that discourages
morality by promoting a set of beliefs that encourages its adherents
to teach falsehoods as the truth.
Copyright 2003, Internet Infidels, Inc. Copyright info here.
http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=323