Transsexual Jesus sparks protests

[arnie666]

While Iam not religious myself, I do go by the socialogical functionalist view of religion that it does provide a good moral code to live by. Love thy neighbour, doing good work, not killing not sleeping with someones wife , so perhaps on one level it's a pity that for many religion is sniffed at because it is provides a good way to control people by pointing to a supernatual being.

I also find these atheists who try to push their view onto others using 'science' and 'logic' just as annoying as the god botherers and bible bashers.

I also don't buy all this about religion causing all the wars because humans being humans if it wasn't god and allah they are fighting over and about it would be something else even if religion didn't exist.

However I do find the fundementalists annoying whether they be Christian or Muslim. It has to be said that the muslim ones are particularly nasty. As we have seen by the Fort Hood massacre. It might come to a stage when fundementalists muslims have to be eradicated or interned in camps for their own and others protection if we had more atrocities. Because lets face it when some bible bashers screams 'praise the lord' at people , people just look on them with annoyance with a hadji yells 'allah akbar' personally Iam going to want a firearm to shoot him or her in the head.

[phobun]

While Iam not religious myself, I do go by the socialogical functionalist view of religion that it does provide a good moral code to live by. Love thy neighbour, doing good work, not killing not sleeping with someones wife ,

These are only some of the commandments from the bible. Of the 10 commandments, many arguably have nothing to do with morality, and the balance is notable for lacking any sort of injunction against vile crimes like slavery or pedophilia. If you take the whole of the Old Law, you find no morality in the deadly misogynism, the cruel and unusual death penalties such as stoning or the multitude of silly prohibitions. Many of the absurd and immoral practices are well-illustrated here:
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/index.html
In many ways, the Old Testament, and parts of the New, are the very antithesis of morality, and only serve to emphasize the superstitious ignorance and cruelty upon which faith is founded.

[SarahG]

There's quite a bit of a difference between criticizing a religion, and arguing that people are not equals, no?

Belittling someone for their beliefs does not make them equal with an individual belittling the individual.

If what you say is the case, there is still a difference insofar as, in the case of the "christain wet dreams" only those they hate or see as unequal would be burning for eternity. Whereas, in the case of the atheists, their "wet dreams" would apply to everyone including themselves & their friends; no one would have an afterlife.

However, they get an extra kick when it is directed towards people that believe in an afterlife. The "extra kick" is similar to those "christian wet dreams" because the atheist thinks that his/her belief is correct and the non-believer is going to get a surprise when they die.

Fair enough I suppose.

By the way I hope you dont get offended by me asking but I've always wondered are you a real girl, a gg i mean?

Lol, If I got offended easily I wouldn't make half the posts I make on here

To answer your question, I am not a gg.

The whole SRS thing is just a quirk those persians have. Nothing to do with tolerance. After they become women they become like 3rd class citizens anyway.

That would be correct. There was a big case over there over this a year or two ago. IIRC a father passed away, one of his children was at the time of his death a postop MtF, but the father's will had not been updated since she had SRS. So she filed whatever legal process they have over there regarding inheritance. Eventually the decision their system came to was, after SRS she was legally female in every way, and as a result was not entitled to any of the inheritance from her father's estate, and it all went to her male relatives (brothers etc.).

I don't know if they have yet had many cases dealing with FtM's to see if things work the same way for them over there.

While Iam not religious myself, I do go by the socialogical functionalist view of religion that it does provide a good moral code to live by. Love thy neighbour, doing good work, not killing not sleeping with someones wife ...

The problem is that there is such a wide difference between what I would call the spirit of the texts, and the specific letter of the texts. In the spirit of the texts, I would agree 100%- the spirit of the texts clearly is for being "a good person" and not going around cheating, stealing, murdering, while helping others- stuff like that.

Thus its the literal interpretations that pose the problem because they, instead of caring about the spirit of the texts, only care about the letter of the texts which include passages that most certainly would be very evil to implement & practice (like various types of slavery, stonings, rape and the like).

I also don't buy all this about religion causing all the wars because humans being humans if it wasn't god and allah they are fighting over and about it would be something else even if religion didn't exist.

I think very few wars really have to do with religion. Religion is usually the excuse, not the real underlying motivation for conflict.

I think it's pretty clear that islamic fundamentalists hate the west, not because we're not Islamic, but because our western lifestyle is slowly eating away theirs as their women & children reject it for our culture.

Ever seen the music video for Amerika by Rammstein? American culture has gone global. Coca-cola is the world's most widely known word at the moment. Our music & movies are known all over the world. Women see all this from their part of the world, decide "hey, I don't want to live my life wearing a tent as clothing, I would like to wear jeans, show my hair in public, or drive a car" and suddenly even without us actually playing a role in-person, we pose a threat.

But we're not just strangers exporting our consumerism & popular culture, we do play a tangible, in-person role in the region and that just serves to pour gasoline on the fire.

[phobun]

You mistake sanctimony for sanctity.

According to the disciple Thomas, in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, an account of Jesus, not included in the traditional Bible, Jesus said the following:

when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female..... then will you enter the kingdom.

So as he was written about, Jesus preached for the transcendence of traditional gender. Portraying him as transsexual is arguably accurate and hardly an assault.

FK

Interesting, but the problem with this is that by using this quote, you're sort of picking and choosing.

I prefer to dismiss out of hand all superstition, and recognize that all of those "books" were written by partisans decades or centuries after any supposed events. Historians can't even agree on certain aspects of the lives of documented people such as dead presidents, let alone some fucker a couple of thousand years ago who may or may not have existed.

The Bible is all about picking and choosing. They picked and chose which gospels to include when they edited and assembled it. Major religions pick and choose which Biblical mandates they observe. There are entire cults based on a few picked and chosen passages about handling snakes. Ministers pick and choose which passages to preach. Politicians pick and choose which ones further their repressive agendas. Extremism, in either Religion or rationality is equally bad and dismissal on either part is not part of discourse. It might work for you personally, but it does nothing to further the discussion.

FK

I agree with your thoughts about picking and choosing. When I wrote that I dismiss the superstition out of hand, I mean to say that I reject it entirely, but not that I am unwilling to discuss my rejection of it or someone else's embrace of superstition. Furthering the discussion does not require one to be open to accepting superstition, just other ideas, so long as evidence is there to support those ideas.

[muhmuh]

"god does not play dice"

apparently its more like keno
http://www.machall.com/comics/20030924.jpg

Thus its the literal interpretations that pose the problem because they, instead of caring about the spirit of the texts, only care about the letter of the texts which include passages that most certainly would be very evil to implement & practice (like various types of slavery, stonings, rape and the like).

i think the real problem is caring about the letter of the text while postulating a general spirit of the text
ok that was a rubbish sentence what i mean is that the letter of the text only really begins to matter of you postulate that the entire book is the word of god which even the book itself doesnt claim to be
for the most part there are 2 bits in the bible where the bibel itself claims to have a direct written account of what god said which would be the 10 commandments and everything jesus said
if you leave out all the other dreary rubbish which according to the bible is not the direct word of god you end up with something very kant and hard to take issue with

[SarahG]

"god does not play dice"

apparently its more like keno
http://www.machall.com/comics/20030924.jpg

Thus its the literal interpretations that pose the problem because they, instead of caring about the spirit of the texts, only care about the letter of the texts which include passages that most certainly would be very evil to implement & practice (like various types of slavery, stonings, rape and the like).

i think the real problem is caring about the letter of the text while postulating a general spirit of the text
ok that was a rubbish sentence what i mean is that the letter of the text only really begins to matter of you postulate that the entire book is the word of god which even the book itself doesnt claim to be
for the most part there are 2 bits in the bible where the bibel itself claims to have a direct written account of what god said which would be the 10 commandments and everything jesus said
if you leave out all the other dreary rubbish which according to the bible is not the direct word of god you end up with something very kant and hard to take issue with

Would that include the material Moses was reported to have stated?

[muhmuh]

not sure dose it really matter though considering jesus pretty much simplified the whole ethical code into do to other what you would like them to do to you?

hm i hadnt realise this before but dose the kjv jesus always talk like a pirate?
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

[rockabilly]

When i hear "Akbar" i think "It's a Trap!"

[trish]

Captain Barbosa (in the Pirates of the Caribbean) said something to the effect, "Aarrrgh...it's less of a code and more like ... whatchya might call guidelines."