Ok, this one came out of left field. Are we flipping the script? interesting.
You're the one deflecting. I criticized christianity for being a death cult. You brought up gnosticism as if it's somehow better or somehow erases christianity.
Gnosiscism does have many branches that are still believing in magic, but they dont all and i dont think they where originally if i interpret the older literature.
Why can't we focus on reality instead of scripture?
There is some evidence that they orginate from Plato, doctorine is the cave. Know what i mean?
Then write about that instead of magic, and leave christ out of it completely.
But more to the point how can you see that this is many branches and ask which one but not see how i have repeatedly asked the same question every single time you mention the bible because truly all religions are like that.
Because the many branches of christianity are all based on the same shitty story about an abuser god sending his son to die to save us from his own punishments. IT IS A DEATH CULT.
And gnosticism is still a branch of christian Jesus-character philosophy
If it's christian, it's a death cult.
If it respects the teachings of Jesus, it's a death cult, because Jesus taught that he is the son of god, that he is christ.
Why are you ignoring what Jesus died for?
Jesus does not make claims to be the son of god in every text, most of the texts i grew up with in a catholic school did not mention god.
The Nicene creed explicitly states Jesus is the son of god.
What do you reckon the pope meant when he said "Jesus reveals the Father to us by involving us in his own relationship with Him"?
Sure some did and they helped me lots in understanding that yaweh is the egomaniac cancer and jesus the example of moral acts (still on occasion misused by bad interpretations)
Someone should've told Jesus. Lying is not moral, please stop sanewashing his claims.
Your referring to the interpretation of christ as dying to take away all sin?
The one most christians believe, yes.
But the one time we where told that one it came with a warning that its figurative and does not mean we cant do evil.
The one time? LOL.
God was commanding sacrifices since Genesis, including human ones:
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Is this a figurative animal sacrifice? God loves the smell:
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth
Why did he make us evil in the first place? That's what we need "salvation" from, the "sinful nature" he created us with.
Leviticus 17:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
Numbers 29:
It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the Lord: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the ram, and one tenth for each of the seven lambs; with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you
Now let's get to Jesus.
Hebrews 9:
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Matthew 26:
For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
John 1:
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
As previously mentioned, 1 John 2:
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world
Romans 5:
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Ephesians 1:
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
Colossians 1:
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Revelation 1:
And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
I do not think anyone sensible still takes that one literal
Please stop pretending they don't exist. I'm not saying they're sensible. I'm saying there are more death cultists than you realize, and you enable them by pretending their book of bullshit isn't a huge problem.
Can you acknowledge each of these points?
A: yahweh is a death god
B: the bible describes yahweh as loving
C: the bible is perhaps the most widely read book of all time
D: most christians think reading the bible is important
E: our experiences, including what we read, shape our beliefs
F: our beliefs drive our actions
If you can follow that line of logic, you can understand why my parents are getting away with child abuse. There are entire communities that revere the bible, and I had no means of escape.
This same abuse and worse is still happening to others because people like you refuse to hold them accountable. You think the poison is not a problem as long as no one drinks it, but the poison itself contains instructions that say "drink me and shove me down everyone else's throats, too."
Repeat after me: christianity is a death cult.
Magical thinking is killing us.
If you have questions, ask. I can help you understand if you stop denying reality.
