One Of The Reasons Why I Am Skeptical Of Christianity.

I was brought up a devout Catholic. But all my life, especially by HS, I was getting more and more skeptical. About supernatural religious claims, in any event. (I still tend to believe in God, or at least a higher order to things. I know in some eastern religions they call that the Tao.)

But one of the things that soured my opinion on religion, or perhaps I should say more specifically the people in religions, is how they don't even live up to their own moral standards. The standards I eventually learned, that for Christians is found in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5, 6, and 7. In it Jesus said to love everyone. Even bad people, even people who have hurt you. If someone hits you on the cheek, don't complain. Offer him the other cheek, Jesus says. Now what Christian even comes close to that ideal? Most Christians in the US support things like the death penalty and hurting prisoners. A true Christian would be less to support those things. Even less likely to support the death penalty really.

That's why I may probably always believe in God and a higher power. But I am very skeptical of the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

 

I can understand your disillusionment. All world religions present the same paradox: high ideals, adherents whose practice falls way short of those, and a clutter of irrational doctrines that keep 'em separated. Humans are just ornery, which is why they need relgion, but cam mess it up. I think, by and large, religions are good, in the sense that without them people would be worse. I have friends who turned their lives around by embracing Jesus, and others for whom the promise of an afterlife gives meaning to their lives. For others, it's an incentive for altruism, organized or individual. But some forms of Christianity are toxic. I consider myself pretty religious, but also consider religious fundamentalism--Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) as one of the most serious threats to U.S. democracy and world peace. I think Jesus, as depicted in the gospels, offers a simple message of love for God and neighbor which, if practiced, would produce paradise on earth. (Possibly the Sermon on the Mount is a tad idealistic for countries in a rough neighborhood. See Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man, Immoral Society.) Many of the folks who wear the Christian label on their sleeves impress me as Latter Day Pharisees of the kind Jesus was frequently disputing. I also have atheist friends who could put some of the Christians to shame in terms of their adherence to family values and basic decency. It sounds like you're on the right track. For "what does the Lord require of you: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah:6: 8)

 

And I'm not saying what I am about to say now is always the case. But there are some atheists that are more Christlike than Christians. And as I've said before, the Unitarian church allows atheists to join. What other Christian church allows that?

 

The Unitarian Church has no creed at all. Atheists, pagans, Christians, Jews or anybody else is welcome, and it promotes humanistic, universalist values. I was at a book discussion there last night and there was a lively discussion of the late (Episcopalian) Bishop Spong's last book Unbelievable. Many of the folks there last night were, like me, ex-Catholic Seekers. Some expressed a strong faith in God, others not so much. Some believed in miracles, most didn't. One college student said she was there because she typed "Atheist churches near me" into a computer search, and this one turned up. I have good rapport with them, but prefer my own Methodist Sunday School class which is equally open-minded, and seems more like the Unitarians than traditional Christians.

 

Most of the Post Paul "Christians" Believe in the Trinity "Father, Son and Holy Ghost." It follows that they would accept the divinity of Jesus. Many of the Current Christian beliefs are not credited to the teachings of Jesus. Surely the crusades would not follow Jesus' beliefs. Since Jesus was Jewish there are followers in some circles that follow the Jewish or Muslim faith, citing that Jesus as a profit of God. Some Hindus recognize Saint Issa as a Profit o god and recognize his life was parallel to that of Jesus. Pick up a Koran sometimes and read about the teachings of Jesus. I have no knowledge of atheists following the Nazarene beliefs, but agnostics might be tempted to recognize Jesus' teachings as admirable and good "citizenship."

 

I agree with your main point, although I might quibble about a couple of details. It might be the case that some Hindus recognize Issa as a Prophet. Hinduism is flexible enough to allow followers to recognize holiness or divinity in just about anybody and his dog. But the legend of "Saint Issa" seems to be a western invention originating with the nineteenth century Russian war correspondent, Nicholas Notovich, who published the Life of Saint Issa in 1894, and later taken up in the 1920s by traveler Nicholas Roerich. He claims to have come across the manuscript from monks at a monastery in Ladakah, northeastern Kashmir. The monastery denied he'd ever been there, and said there was no such document. Most scholars regard it as a forgery, or as Indologist L. Von Schroeder put it, "a big fat lie". But lie or not, it satisfies the psychological need of some to fill in the gap in the Jesus story from his youth to the beginning of his ministry.
Some of the non-canonical infancy gospels met that need, as did the Aquarian Gospel of Levi Dowling, supposedly channeled to him from the Akashic records.( doo do doo do. My rendering of the Twilight Zone theme).
isa is the Arabic name for Jesus, who is indeed an important prophet in Islam who will come again in the last days. But what Jews are you talking about who follow Jesus? Jews for Jesus, founded by an ordained Baptist minister of Jewish descent?

But I do agree that Christianity, early on, became cluttered with creeds, doctrines, dogmas and rituals that got in the way of Jesus' main message of peace, love and inclusion. Attempts to unclutter is an uphill battle of Herculean proportions, although some, like the late Bishop Spong mentioned supra (Post #4) have given it a try. Pope Pius X characterized such efforts to keep Christianity up-to-date as the heresy of "modernism".

 

...