Well, he explicitly condoned slavery, so…
xmunk@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Like uh… normal? Jesus, as described, seems like a pretty chill dude. It’s christianity that gets into the crazy shit.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
xmunk@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Like uh… normal? Jesus, as described, seems like a pretty chill dude. It’s christianity that gets into the crazy shit.
Well, he explicitly condoned slavery, so…
dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
I take it you haven’t read the book of John?
lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Yeah. There’s some good stuff there, like 8:32*, but it’s full of so much crap** that… urgh.
*“And you’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
**Give the whole chapter 5 a check, specially 5:14; crippling people is apparently their god’s punishment for sinning. Or 3:36, someone gets really pissy if you don’t believe him!
dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
I was thinking John 6 is pretty nuts tbh. There are a lot of problems with Christ, like how quiet and accepting he seemed about slavery, or how fragile he is about his ego and being respected as God, the central message of Christ is about his divinity, not about moral teachings. He threatened anyone who disagreed with his divinity with eternal damnation and so on. Just not the kind of person you would think of as a “chill dude”, rather the description “crazy” comes to mind when I read the book of John especially.
jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
His moral teachings are irrelevant. It’s like how when cops volunteer to do a charity car wash. Moral behaviour doesn’t get you everlasting life.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 months ago
John is way sus.
dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
not sure what you mean
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The Gospel of John is the last one written, much later than the others and is full of things that are suspicious. Almost as if it was specifically written to direct a nascent cult into the direction it wanted them to go and not particularly inspired by any actual events.
xmunk@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Nah, I was brought to church as a kid but I haven’t really read the Bible closely. Honestly, I’m just going off a general read of “dude who helps people in need and isn’t an ass”.
dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
I recommend you read the book of John!
I wrote a longer response to Kolanaki if you want to read that as well.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 months ago
Not since catechism. What weird shit happens? Cuz I don’t remember.
dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
The book of John shows the problems with Christ’s mental health much more plainly, it portrays him as a megalomaniac with paranoid and maybe psychotic tendencies. If you just sit down and read the book of John you will get what I mean.
Personally I was particularly struck by John 6. Christ has amassed a following, and seems to have trouble feeding and appeasing the crowd that follows him around. It almost seems like the subtext implies he wants to lose the crowd, so he runs away to the mountains (6:15) where they can’t follow to lose the crowd temporarily, and when he comes back, he makes a speech to his followers in which he claims to be God and demands belief in his divinity as the only way to be resurrected after they die is for them to believe him.
The crowd are a bit miffed about Christ’s suddenly weird behavior, since they knew him growing up it was hard to take him seriously as a supposed god now:
Christ re-iterates he’s the only way to God, and then things get even more weird:
The people are stumped (6:52):
Christ doubles down on this alienating cannibalism talk:
People didn’t love the boasting and claims that he was God, but they especially didn’t appreciate this cannibalism angle, so his followers abandoned him:
And there were only twelve people left who supported the clearly unwell guy who claims to be God and who requires you eat his flesh to allow him to resurrect you after you die.
The ones remaining re-affirm their loyalty, and in response Christ says:
This comes across to me as incredibly paranoid, and in conjunction with the cannibalism and claims about being divine, they paint a picture of Christ as unhinged and mentally unwell. Of course Christians these days take communion and have normalized the cannibalism angle so it doesn’t seem so crazy, but I read the book of John without the context of communion or transubstantiation, and furthermore the followers of Christ who heard his speech about eating his flesh and drinking his blood likewise didn’t have that context, otherwise they would have found it so alienating and disturbing such that he would have lost all his followers (but the twelve that remained and were on-board with the whole cannibalism and necromancy thing).
I’m apparently not the only one who thought Christ seemed mad, there are observations of this made in other parts of the gospels as well, like Mark 3:21–22:
or John 10:19–21:
So yeah, while there are some interesting things Christ has said, there are plenty of reasons to be wary of choosing Christ as a role model. You essentially have to ignore all the problems and just take the good parts to protect Christ’s image, but then I would ask why you would do this if you weren’t some kind of Christian. It seems unmotivated, there are other people who lived lives of more virtue and with less baggage, there is no reason to choose Christ in particular, unless you have some kind of loyalty to Christ as a figure in particular.
the_toast_is_gone@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If he was simply insane, then how would he have performed any of his miracles? Or are you going to throw out the parts of the Bible you don’t like and keep the ones that support your position?
Also, I’ve dealt with, and am friends with, plenty of people with what you would call “paranoid and psychotic tendencies.” That you would accuse someone who walked this earth more than 1,900 years ago of having them suggests you either have supreme medical and historical knowledge. Perhaps you’ve spoken with him so you can make an accurate diagnosis?
If he is, then that explains everything he said and did in the Bible. It’s pretty obvious that if he’s God that he would want people to follow him.
He was talking about Judas, who was stealing money from the ministry and later sold Jesus out for a handful of silver. Calling that out isn’t paranoia.
If he was just a madman and the people he was “curing” of “demons” were also madmen, those “cures” wouldn’t have happened. No person with schizophrenia has ever been cured of this disorder simply because another person with schizophrenia touched them. I’ve had the disorder for about seven years at this point; I wish it were that simple.
I agree with you that following Jesus doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you’re worshipping him. His entire message is based on his own divinity. If he was just a prophet, then if he was a good one, he wouldn’t be saying things like “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 2 months ago
Knowing the context of communion and transubstantiation, I feel like Jesus was talking in metaphors but some people took it literally. Maybe it’s because my Christian teachings were from a Lutheran church where nearly everything is just taken as a metaphor. I also suspect that’s why I am an atheist, to begin with; none of it was ever claimed to be real. 🤷🏻♂️