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Originally Posted by lillarry518
I'm directing this mostly towards Christianity, since I don't know enough about Islam or Judaism to really say. Being a religious fundamentalist depends, first of all, on the Bible being 100% accurate. If it's not the word of God, then you're not bound to obey it. The Bible has undergone so many changes under the thousands of years of its existence from translation to translation that there are many parts that are in question. And how was it decided, which gospels to include? It wasn't God, it was an arbitrary, entirely human decision by the church fathers in Roman times, and a lot of political factors influenced it.
The words of the Bible contradict themselves so much that being a fundamentalist is an inconsistency in itself. You can't take it all at face value. There is nothing weak or wishy-washy about being a Christian but not believing every word of the Bible, and not believing that the million little rules of the Old Testament matter a bit. Everything important about Christianity is contained in Jesus's message. He basically tells people to be good people, to be good to the people around them and help those in need. There are many stories in the Bible to show that Jesus had absolutely no regard for the laws of the Old Testament. He saved an adulteress, who should have, by the laws of the Old Testament, been stoned to death. He worked on the Sabbath, a serious offense for Jews then. He specifically rejects "an eye for an eye." Jesus didn't take it all as literal truth, so why should we?
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Why do you take it as literal truth that Jesus existed if you believe nothing else in the book? That's a little convenient.
It seems to me neglectful of reason to assume the parts of the Bible you want to beleive are true while assuming that the parts that don't make sense to you aren't true. Jesus sounds as made up to me as anything else in that book. Why believe in him just because there's a book with his name in it? I don't understand how people can pick and choose what they want to believe without any evidence and still feel comfortable with their decisions. Actually I do know that public affirmation of irrational beliefs helps that out immensely, even when those beliefs have no grounding in reality.
What's so Holy about the Bible if it's so wrong? What's so Holy about Jesus? To believe anything in that book is to just be gullible in my opinion. I don't see what the point in believing in Jesus is. There's nothing wrong with believing in Jesus' message, but there's nothing wrong with believing in 1984's message to the same effect, only we know who actually wrote that book.
There's no good reason to assume Jesus existed in the first place other than a whole bunch of other people believe the same thing.