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As to the OP, the NT does NOT teach absolute morality, so the only thing that may or may not separate followers of Christ from atheists is the basis for the conditional morality practiced: that we should be concerned for the well-being of ALL.
Jesus was a revolutionary. He advocated a revision of religious dogma, thereby legitimizing continuous revelation. Christians don't like to talk about it, but Paul revised Jesus, and Nicaea revised Paul, etc. Continuous revelation was the general order of even allegedly eternal Christian belief through much of its early history. There is practically no one who advocates a religious belief system these days (other than religions created in the modern era) that reflects the actual dogma of the religion's origination. There will always be reactionaries driven by fear who resist change, but in the modern era there's no long-term quarter for such backwards thinking.
All religion continuously revises itself, it just does it in a delayed fashion so that it seems more immutable to any given generation. The RCC rescinded its excommunication of Galileo, hundreds of years after the fact and has basically dropped the doctrine of Limbo, etc. Fundamentalist Christian women (mostly) dress in a way that does not cause them to stand out from society, but it would have been seen as lewd and licentious a hundred years ago. Fundamentalists regard opposition to abortion as a litmus test for orthodoxy and most evangelicals have the vague notion that this idea is in the Bible somewhere, yet prior to around 1980 this concept did not exist, it was invented by Falwell and others. Opposition to evolution was not always a fundamentalist ideation either; the first scientist in the US to endorse and promote Darwin's ideas was a devout Christian in fact.
I don't see this as starting with Jesus, it has always gone on. While Christians claim that god and the scriptures are immutable, nothing could be further from the truth. It is an illusion. God himself is a projection of each generation's hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears and insecurities, so he is always evolving in realtime.
You really ought to learn to grasp the concept of context.
Really? And what context would that be?
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The Mosaic Law was given to the nation of Israel - ancient Israel. I'm not an ancient Israelite. Because of Jesus I don't have to obey it to be righteous.
Ah, Jesus and his disciples were ancient Israelites and the Book of Matthew clearly states:
The Fulfillment of the Law
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.a 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.b 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Now I realize, in context, that there are other scriptures that others rely on and interpret differently, which is one of my central problems, either some god lays down the law or they don't. If it is the former then there shouldn't be a problem with "interpretation" or it is the latter and it the Bible, Koran, etc means what someone wants it to mean depending on the occasion.
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But...and get this, because it's actually kind of tricky
Now....I'm sure you and the rest of the usual suspects on this thread will completely miss my point....but I figured it was worth a shot. At least maybe some lurkers will get it.
And maybe some lurkers will think, "He's wrong again."
That's one of the really cool things about the human brain. When using it people are capable of reaching their own conclusions.
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