Of course I am outraged by what they do, but you are accusing the wrong group of people when finding someone to blame for these crimes. You put the blame on the whole of Christianity.
I concede. I am unfairly blaming mainstream and liberal-enlightened Christians for crimes of the Catholic Church and the Fundamentalist-evangelical-Pentecostal fanatical cults.
The people who do these things are what I call "fundamentalists." They are people who believe that being a Christians means trying to relive every single concept they can find in the New Testament, including demons when it isn't socially practical. They believe you can't be Christian if you don't regard everything you find in the sacred texts to be "fundamental," hence the name "fundamentalist."
That is spot on. The Fundamentalist is neurologically irrational. He accepts self-contradictory, clearly mythological, highly irrational (i.e. delusional) ideas taken from literal reading of the rantings of Stone Age savages. I know many Christians in the UK who admit that they do not regard Jesus as a god. They have rejected one delusional belief. With that deleted delusion, they also reject virgin birth, god-man hybrids, and a man arising from true physiological death after 36 hours. That kind of Christian is not delusional and his Christianity is sane.
The "Christian" from the US south, believing that God impregnated a human girl to produce a god-man (forget DNA) that is intended for human sacrifice to atone for a primeval sin, is suffering from pathological delusion. His belief that the impossible god-man dies, his brain is anoxic for hours, resurrects 36 hours later
with an intact brain is delusional.
He believes that a human brain with billions of neurons, 10 times as many glial cells, arteries, arterioles, trillions of axons, synapses, and receptors really died (turned to non-cellular mush and pus.) In addition, he further believes that each neuron, axon, circuit, glial cell, and vast network connections are restored to their splendid complexity and microanatomy. Moreover, he believes that this complex circuitry is exactly reproduced to that of Jesus 36 hours earlier (pre-mortem) with no differences in a single neuron. He believes it is the same Jesus resurrected. And he is either ignorant of the complexity of the brain, or delusional. Otherwise, the resurrected Jesus is a copy of Jesus, not the original Jesus.
You can rebuild your computer silicon chip or blue diamond chip exactly like your old computer. Nevertheless, your new computer is a copy but not your original computer. Whether it is quantum mechanics or Chaos, there may be variations of the Butterfly Effect.
I oppose fundamentalism and what it does. Just don't put the blame on the whole of Christianity.[/quote]
I do not. I see your issue. The problem is that those who literally believe the fantasies and superstitions of Christian tradition force their brain's analytical and logical programmes to accept a defective meme. They might remain functional in general thinking (i.e. sane.) However, many (like in America and the Dark Ages) let the irrational beliefs affect their thinking. They accept "crazy" ideas. Phrases are extracted from scripture out of context with the words "smite all the men, women, and babies" make them think that faith justifies them killing unbelievers.
They even add non-scriptural ideas, unaware that they are not scriptural, such as the Rapture, and crusades. Their brain's moral compass (fragmented by the meme) thinks it is all right or even imperative to
kill homosexuals, unbelievers (blasphemers), and uppity women (i.e. witches.)
Even the mythical Jesus didn't impose negative stigmas on people with demons. He didn't go around hunting for demons either. He was not a witch-hunter. The people with demons were brought to him and he dealt with them straight away, so there was no need to to keep unnecessary stigmas around. The mythical Jesus wasn't obsessed with demon hunting. He had other important things to do.
Quite so. Fundamentalists extrapolated the concept to taking violent action against the person accused of demon possession. The result is that a twisted Christian meme was exorcism. The Jesus Myths has him use word commands to drive out demons. Fundamentalists used beating the victim, starving the victim, other horrible assaults, drowning, and recently the withholding of medications such as insulin, anti-epileptic drugs, anti-psychotic drugs, and water. Many sick people have died from clerical and general fundamentalistic practices that can only be characterised as insane.
Yes, the mythical Jesus did drive out demons, but Christianity isn't about demon hunting. It is about connecting with humanity, both within yourself and in others.
That is your opinion. I disagree respectfully. Who are the Christians who at the orders of Theodosius I, Theodosius II, and kings carried out extermination and persecution on Pagans, Older Jesus Followers, Gnostics, and other Christians (Arians, Nestorians, Monophysites, Pelagians, Donatists, Hussites, and Cathars)?
Are the Protestant Witch Hunters of Europe and America, Christians? Were the savage wars between Lutherans and Catholics (30 years War) done by Christians? Are the Americans who nearly exterminated the Native (Indians) while indoctrinating Indian children in prison like schools, where they were flogged for speaking Native Languages or talking Indian Culture/Religion?
Again, these people you are describing are fundamentalists because they believe they have to act out and live out every single concept they can find in the book, without which they supposedly cannot be Christian. But that isn't socially practical. These people aren't thinking about what it means to be human. No, they are deliberately seeking out these "demons" for sport.
I agree. The point is that I remember as a lad people identified as Anglican, Catholic, Calvinist/Covenanters, or Lutherans. The recent use of the word "Christian" by angry and aggressive fundamentalists, excluding all other denominations makes us suspicious of the word "Christian" when one identifies as such.
Amergin
