I will start. The core values of Christianity are pagan ones that the Roman Empire wanted to standardize in order to uniform the Empire.

BTW, GNP, I am only doing this in order to protect your thread from rascals, so you can thank me very much.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2012 11:17PM by forbiddencokedrinker.

What is and is not cynical is very often subjective. To try to exclude ideas based on such a subjective concept as cynicism is never going to work.

Wait, are you cynical of my plan to have an all cynical thread?

The most cynical value is that the ideas of christianity are fabricated by dependant people, and by the murderers Paul and Peter, and not by any charismatic sinfree leader. I suspect Jesus in some way was responsible for Barabas's killing the roman soldier, and that this was the real reason behind the roman desireto have him arrested - and since he was a leader of some sort it was better to have it done by the jews. Superior manipulators, much more clever than Jesus was able to become by the time (but he was then on his way to become a more clever manipulator).
Genealogy? 'Hey, aren't you meant to become a king, aren't you a true and morally clean and clever leader already popular and great and directly descended from the great David himself, and firstborn of a maiden?'

In was the standard of the time for every major community to have their own godman figure who performed miracles and and taught great philosophical truths. Jesus may have been based on a real person, some of the godmen were, some where not, but there is no evidence that he ever existed. We do know that a striking number of the stories in the New Testament bare a striking resemblance to the stories of much older godmen.

http://pocm.info/index.html

yall Friends: Thanks, Please refer to me as GNPE!

Could we split this into a thread on Paulinism and Christianity?

The first is the religion we have, the second is the religion that died off long ago...

Cool! I thought I was the only one who thought that Paul had mutated the basics of the religion. He seemed like an ancient equivalent of SWK writing Miracle of Forgiveness, heaping guilt and shame upon everyone he could reach.

It seems to me that S/Paul spent half his life partying then spent the other half demanding that everyone else not do what he'd spent his life doing. Doesn't seem very fair. Unfortunately his teachings warped the minds and hearts of followers for centuries upon centuries afterward.

That's my highly-non-academic, amateur view of things. ;-)

That's the core value of any institution. The rest is just PR.

And I don't think that's cynical, but the other thread is closed. I just think it the truth.

... is to exploit the fact that humans love to play tricks on themselves.

This is the Gospel according to Timothy ... Oh look, my shoes are untied!

Timothy

Very polite of you to start a new thread IMO.

Here's my list with regards to how Christianity has actually been often been practiced n history:

Judgmental and intolerant
Violent and coercive.
Repressive and closed minded

i