How to approach the teachings of Jesus

[TSherbs]

Just out of curiosity what Bible stories do you teach?

Just last week with my 11th graders we read the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael. And with my 9th graders we read the story of Jesus naming/appointing Simon as Peter.

This kind of thing happens frequently in helping students understand Western literature, especially.

[Bold2013]

Just out of curiosity what Bible stories do you teach?

Just last week with my 11th graders we read the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael. And with my 9th graders we read the story of Jesus naming/appointing Simon as Peter.

This kind of thing happens frequently in helping students understand Western literature, especially.

Nice.

Biblical names, and renaming is a pretty fascinating topic.

[Chuck Naill]

I am sort of posting this as a response to something I read on the Supreme Court Thread.

He got into a lot of trouble for it, but Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason is a very thorough critique of the Bible. He was obviously a student of the scriptures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Reason

[kazoolaw]

I'm all set on the Jesus stuff. I have decades of history with the church and with the writings of many saints and Christian writers.

Neither of which is the teaching of Jesus.

The specific books that were read were never mentioned so how can you make that assertion?

Books about the history of a church, and writings by "saints" and writers are not in themselves Jesus' teaching. They may be writing about Jesus' teaching, but they are not, themselves, Jesus' teachings.

TS likes to characterize anything which challenges his assertions as trolling.

[Bold2013]

There are two main problems with the 'Five ways' presented by Aquinas.

1. They are all based on assumptions without evidence.
2. They are all sufficiently explained by science - physics, biology, chemistry.


In his struggles to understand the phenomena of our Universe at large and the world in local (bearing in mind that he lived in the 13th century CE), and being already massively biased toward religion, it is hardly surprising that he ascribed anything unexplainable (for the time) as a product of a mythical all-powerful being. It was a convenient get out of jail card if you will. This is not to say that his works are completely without value.

My study of biology makes me further marvel at the Creator.

It's a wonderful cop-out that can be used for absolutely any argument.

Not making an argument. More of an interesting observation. Why do you think we differ so much?

[kazoolaw]

The universe is eternal, a first cause is not required.

What a clear example of a statement without proof, taken on faith.

[Chuck Naill]

I am more satisfied with an intelligence behind the origins of the universe. I also think there are unknowns like the spiritual realm that we get occasional awareness. I enjoyed Frank Peretti novels for this reason.

No one has proven the spirit does not outlast the body, Willard noted. I do think there is an eternal condition of the spirit. What I do not know for certain is if God really holds his creation with a type of contempt awaiting a rebirth. What would make the second any different from the first if Free Will is allowed.

The Bible depicts God in parental vernacular. How many fathers here hold your offspring with contempt for simply being born and human? There are verses that cause me to think otherwise such as, who many fathers, if your son asks for a good thing, give them instead a bad thing, then followed by "how much more will your heavenly father give good things, or the HS to him who asks.

Parents are encouraged to be encouraging and a positive advocate to their children. Children born with mental disease didn't ask for it. I am sure Ted knows about having attention challenges. What would physical conditions that are of no fault of the child mean to a parent? Nothing, they love them the same.

I have experienced healing more than once, but I have also prayed for others and nothing happened. However, I don't stop asking.

Right now, as Paul noted, we do not see things clearly. Nothing wrong with admitting you don't know. Nothing wrong with making a judgement as some disagree. Nothing wrong with seeking as that's usually the path to finding out.

I think most would agree privately they would like to see more and experience more. Nothing wrong with asking.

[TSherbs]

Just out of curiosity what Bible stories do you teach?

Just last week with my 11th graders we read the story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Ishmael. And with my 9th graders we read the story of Jesus naming/appointing Simon as Peter.

This kind of thing happens frequently in helping students understand Western literature, especially.

Nice.

Biblical names, and renaming is a pretty fascinating topic.

There was more to it than this, but yes.

[Chip]

Given the recurrent massacres, persecutions, pogroms, slaughters, iniquities, fraud, pomps, and avarice practiced by those who profess to follow the teachings of Jesus, he must be pretty hard to understand.

The meek shall inherit the earth? Yeah, right. If the meek are scavengers and bacteria.

[Chuck Naill]

Given the recurrent massacres, persecutions, pogroms, slaughters, iniquities, fraud, pomps, and avarice practiced by those who profess to follow the teachings of Jesus, he must be pretty hard to understand.

The meek shall inherit the earth? Yeah, right. If the meek are scavengers and bacteria.

Both Atheists and religious have cause much harm.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

The universe is eternal, a first cause is not required.

What a clear example of a statement without proof, taken on faith.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[Lloyd]

Just because we don't know a cause to something YET doesn't justify ascribing an unprovable cause. We've yet to know all the answers. In religion, the unknown is attributed to God... no future investigations are needed. In science, the unknown is attributed to something currently unknown but further investigation is employed yielding, through a series of baby steps, the answers.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[TSherbs]

Given the recurrent massacres, persecutions, pogroms, slaughters, iniquities, fraud, pomps, and avarice practiced by those who profess to follow the teachings of Jesus, he must be pretty hard to understand.

The meek shall inherit the earth? Yeah, right. If the meek are scavengers and bacteria.

The behavior of hundreds of Catholic priests molesting and raping thousands of children and the complicitous and criminal and base behavior of the RCC in covering up the crimes should be added to this list. In recent news, the New Jersey diocese reached a multimillion (85?) settlement with victims. I think that the RCC of America should be sued out of business and all their properties confiscated and sold off as further payments to these victims and to victim support services.

[Lloyd]

Bad Rabbis secretly eat pork and shellfish. It seems that bad priests do FAR worse.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[TSherbs]

Here is the opening paragraph of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report of 2018 on the Catholic sexual abuse just in that state:

"I. Introduction

We, the members of this grand jury, need you to hear this. We know some of you have
heard some of it before. There have been other reports about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church. But never on this scale. For many of us, those earlier stories happened someplace else, someplace away. Now we know the truth: it happened everywhere."


6 diocese
300+ abusive priests
1000 victims (identified from church records alone)

This is just one state. The RCC of America had become a corrupt and foul and debased repository of the worst of human behavior and cowardly privilege and coverup. I can't overstate the horrors, endemic to the Catholic hierarchy, that this report reveals. Please read it, although I acknowledge it is dispiriting in the extreme and may be triggering to any victim of physical abuse. The horrors described here at times made me weep in sorrow and anger. But the cauterization of the evil of established and privileged patriarchal religious exceptionalism requires public exposure.

[TSherbs]

A copy of the report is here:
https://www.indianagazette.com/pa-gr...804713b00.html

[kazoolaw]

The universe is eternal, a first cause is not required.

What a clear example of a statement without proof, taken on faith.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

It's rare to see an atheist acknowledge the role of faith in his position.

[Chuck Naill]

Kaz, you and Bold have done a poor job with the opportunity here to discuss your personal beliefs. Are you trying to win the argument or advance the faith?

[Bold2013]

You know what we believe and why. You have rejected it. What more argument do you need? I leave it in His hands.

[Bold2013]

If you care to approach Jesus’s teaching I suggest you read the Bible cover to cover.

Get some commentaries to help with cultural context (which we can be ignorant of).

Let the text speak for itself. Don’t use your heart to figure it out, it’s His teaching not yours.