@xaade said in The Fun of Zen:
@sh_code said in The Fun of Zen:
well, then, i mean I agree, this kind of shit shouldn't be followed, but if it doesn't count, why the hell is it included in the printout of your "wholly good, wholly truthful and wholly worth following" book
It's not that it doesn't count. It was a covenant formed with the Jews during a period of time when having wars would be necessary. The Law wasn't a set of rules leading to perfect behavior. It was a set of rules that best fit the time and produced the best society for the context and circumstance.
No.
Galatians 3 is pretty clear that the Law's purpose is to bring us to Christ. The Law was purposely written to be impossible for us to keep in order to emphasize that faith, and not works, is the Way to avoid condemnation. See also Romans (especially chapters 3 and 4).
@sh_code said in The Fun of Zen:
the only difference is that christianity was forced to get significantly more sane
Yeah. Jesus came up with a new set of guidelines for producing a better fit religious culture for modern times. People were really upset that Jesus did that, so much so that they hung him.
Yeah, he made the rules easier to follow by stripping away the traditions that had built up around them.
And then pointed out that following the Law meant even keeping absolute control over your own thoughts and emotions, so that looking with lust is the same as adultery and hate = murder. OH, WAIT........
Why is a god not capable of changing the ruleset to fit the times?
It's not that He can't. It's that God wouldn't. Abrogation is not something that can be found within the pages of the Christian Bible. On the contrary, God is described as never changing His requirements for mankind's behavior.
@sh_code said in The Fun of Zen:
"but that's old testament, that doesn't count!"
It still counts.
It shows that people were unable to follow the law, or any set of laws, due to imperfection.
It shows how God guided Israel through that period of time.
Yep. They couldn't properly obey the Law then; we can't properly obey the Law now. The Law is our truancy officer to keep bringing us back again and again to make us realize that we need a Savior; we cannot do what we want (no matter how good we or others think we are) and expect good to ultimately come from it.
@sh_code said in The Fun of Zen:
is the same kind of abomination as any other religion, even islam.
The whole point of your post is to show that Christian is just as bad as Islam, and yet you only proved that Christianity was able to adapt and Islam was not.
Which makes for a really funny paradox. The Christian God is unchanging and steadfast, yet Christianity and whatever culture it encounters have mutually adapted to each other (except for the core part of Christianity, which is concerned with the core of Man).
And the Muslim god is described within the Koran as fickle and unknowable, yet Islam demands that all cultures submit to it.