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What do you atheist think of Jesus Christ? Do you like his teachings on mount of sermon? Do you have Jesus statue or images of him in your car or house?
I myself is an atheist, but I still admire him. May sound silly, but I do have Jesus picture in my house and a cross in my bedroom even though I do not believe in god(s). I do not see Jesus as god, but as an amazing person. Even Gandhi agreed with it.
I treat the philosophy of Jesus as I do any other prescription for living...take from it whatever I find of value, don't concern myself with the rest.
In general the whole love your neighbor/other cheek concept really only works if there is some reward/punishment based post corporal state of being. Otherwise you are just going through life permitting others to take serial advantage of you.
I found some of the parables to have what I view as bad moral points, especially the Prodigal Son tale where the irresponsible wastrel son gets placed above the loyal, hard working son, simply because he finally staggers home after years of debauchery. Yeah, that was fair.
Some of the other parables, I couldn't figure out what the moral was supposed to be. The Wedding Feast one where the king's bigshot friends send excuses for why they can't attend the prince's wedding ("I have bought some oxen and must try them" is my favorite) so the king invites all the lower class people to the wedding instead and at the wedding he finds one who isn't wearing a wedding garment. This fellow is cast into the darkness with the traditional teeth gnashing etc. The moral, Jesus explains, is "Many are called but few are chosen."
Huh? wtf? Are they sure they heard Jesus correctly? Maybe it was actually "Many are cold, but few are frozen."
What do you atheist think of Jesus Christ? Do you like his teachings on mount of sermon? Do you have Jesus statue or images of him in your car or house?
I myself is an atheist, but I still admire him. May sound silly, but I do have Jesus picture in my house and a cross in my bedroom even though I do not believe in god(s). I do not see Jesus as god, but as an amazing person. Even Gandhi agreed with it.
I hate religion, but love Jesus.
I just see him as another human moral philosopher who can be, and should be, studied along with all the other moral philosophers our species has churned out over the centuries. There is nothing useful or interesting he ever said that requires you to subscribe to unsubstantiated nonsense in order to study and incorporate into your own life.
As for keeping images and statues of him around... seems like pointless kitsch to me. He is no more (or less) special than any other philosopher there has been and my house would get quite cluttered if I were to give equal time to paraphernalia related to them all.
Jefferson was as atheist as it was possible to be in those times. He did not believe in his divinity, miracles or resurrection. On the other hand he admired his moral teachings and thought the Bible the best code of morality and to that extent he even considered himself a Christian.
For myself, I do not admire the Gospel Christ figure and even his forgiving attitude towards sinners is flawed, because he never stops to ask whether whether they require understanding rather than forgiveness. His over - mild attitude towards his enemies is both impractical and ...well, it feels insincere. On the other hand, his personality is spiteful, moody, irrational, unstable and patronizing. I don't blame him though, but the scriptwriting evangelists.
I've never met the guy, so I can't say whether I like him or not. As portrayed in that old fiction work, I get the impression that he was a political and social rabble-rouser.
I admire some of the sentiment / ideas / principles attributed to the Jesus character even though I very much doubt he's a real, individual, historical person. I wouldn't take it so far as to have Jesus pictures / idols / icons in my house, but then I don't have Ghandi or Einstein memorabilia lying about, either. The most I would ever do in that regard is perhaps a small saying on the wall or more likely on my computer wallpaper. But that's just me.
Meh. He had some nice stories. I'd say I more have a respect for the stories that comprise the Jesus concept and the global change they resulted in. I think the teachings and stories attributed to Jesus created a paradigm shift in how people in the Western world viewed each other and codified an appropriate way to treat one's fellow man, but I think Buddha did something similar in the Eastern world.
What do you atheist think of Jesus Christ? Do you like his teachings on mount of sermon? Do you have Jesus statue or images of him in your car or house?
I believe he is a myth and never walked the face of the earth. Therefore, I have no statues, crosses or anywhere.
Yeah, if I leave off the Divine Son of God bits, I tend to find him not a very compelling character. I think Marcus Aurelius or Epicurus have philosophies that hang together a lot better, and seem more compelling. Even just in the bible, I find the Teacher in Ecclesiastes to resonant much more with me than I do Jesus.
-NoCapo
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