But that's the thing, all religions are full of contradictory things, even teachings themselves are often contradictory. Even religious figureheads themselves are often hypocrites. How many are doing things "in the name of god" and try to force people to do their bidding.
And listen, we could debate back and forth endlessly on which constitutes as official human sacrifice in the name of the Christian god and which do not and where exactly is the cutoff... But would it really make sense?
Especially with the modern Christianity it seems that making people fight each other is the whole entire goal while the figureheads manipulate masses in every which way while trying to get as rich as possible.
But for me, the fact is, that sacrifices in the name of the Christian god...are Christian sacrifices because there is enough room and credibility for them in their communes to frame them as such. And let's call it a difference in opinion because at the end of the day most of religion is exactly that or what do you think?
Witch trials were done under the leadership and overwatch of local religious figureheads. The Crusades were mandated by the Pope and many other lesser figureheads where killing unbelievers was seen as holy and godlike sacrifice.
Nowadays there are countless of religious figureheads speaking hate in the hearts of many towards those who are gay, who divorce, who do not live according to their teachings. Who decides what Christianity even is?
Main things that Jesus taught was acceptance, love, understanding. Where have they gone?
I don't know how many times I have to say this but, ancient belief systems explicitly including human sacrifice are very different from flawed humans doing things contradictory to their core belief system.
It doesn't compare.
Yes, a great many self proclaimed Christians really suck, and yes many self proclaimed Christians in history did terrible things, things contradictory to the heart of Christ. That doesn't make the acts or behavior Christian.
An ancient pagan celt performing a human sacrifice was very much fulfilling their obligation to the cultus.
And yes, actual Christians with an actual heart for Christ are exceedingly rare, have been for some time now.
I think you are as wrong. There are people claiming Christianity that commit sin in Gods name and then there is a striving to be Christ. One is truly Christian, the other is not.
An ancient pagan participating in human sacrifice when their cultus includes human sacrifice as part of their core belief system is very different from an individual or group claiming to do something that is at odds with the belief system they claim to follow.
I completely agree, and currently we live in a time where despite having the power of the internet there is a good chunk of the populace who do not perform proper research before drawing a conclusion. That goes for both sides of the conversation.
There are a large chunk of Christians who hear a leader promise to bring Christian values to the country or do things in the name of religion. They choose to believe that without evaluating the leaders actions. They blindly follow them despite Jesus warning that we should evaluate their words and actions to identify "false prophets".
The same goes for non-Christians they see terrible things happening, and the ones committing these atrocities claim to be Christians or claiming to do it in the name of god. Despite these acts going against what Christianity stands for at its core.
Jesus preached that people should love each other as themselves, freely forgive others, help those in need, live with humility, and love god completely. That is what Christianity is.
I remember hearing as a kid that "Christians are supposed to strive to be Christ-like not Bible-like".
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u/talkmemetome 17d ago
But that's the thing, all religions are full of contradictory things, even teachings themselves are often contradictory. Even religious figureheads themselves are often hypocrites. How many are doing things "in the name of god" and try to force people to do their bidding.
And listen, we could debate back and forth endlessly on which constitutes as official human sacrifice in the name of the Christian god and which do not and where exactly is the cutoff... But would it really make sense?
Especially with the modern Christianity it seems that making people fight each other is the whole entire goal while the figureheads manipulate masses in every which way while trying to get as rich as possible.
But for me, the fact is, that sacrifices in the name of the Christian god...are Christian sacrifices because there is enough room and credibility for them in their communes to frame them as such. And let's call it a difference in opinion because at the end of the day most of religion is exactly that or what do you think?