Is the story of Jesus Christ the greatest story ever told? I think so.
There are many better stories with far more legitimate sacrifices.
The story of God sending His only son to die for our immorality, in order to redeem our souls, is a touching one, isn't it?
No it's a ridiculous one.
First Jesus IS God in Christian theology so it's not really his son.
Second an infinite God of reality wouldn't be bound by limitations of "my only son" which is a human thing. The God of reality can have as many sons as he likes.
Also a God of all reality strangely needing a sacrifice is obviously leftover even worse archaic thinking where you actually killed animals and gave them to a deity.With money.
On the eleventh day Pagiel the son of Ocran, prince of the children of Asher, offered:
73 His offering was one silver charger, the weight whereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering:
74 One golden spoon of ten shekels, full of incense:
75 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering:
76 One kid of the goats for a sin offering:
77 And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first year: this was the.....
yes this is the same God.
Jesus talks a lot about forgiveness. He doesn't say to forgive people after they bring you a burnt rabbit. Somehow the God of reality cannot forgive his completely flawed Great Ape Mammals who are not smart in comparison without at least witnessing a murder?
In order to redeem our souls........uh, so that is a Greek story. They did it first. If you have to have murder forgiveness as the best story you have ever heard what about it's not even original?
Next, magic blood atonement sacrifice demanded by sky-God as only way to forgive flawed creation isn't even a good story never mind greatest.
In the story non-believers get sent to eternal fire. So much for freedom of religion and thought.
It assumes that we need redemption. Don't we all? Jesus Christ offers us this in the most selfless way.
That is not the most selfless way. He went to a heaven right after?
We may need redemption in some way. Not in the fictional way where a God won't let us into heaven because of sins. Who told you we need redemption to get into an afterlife?
Oh the same book that has the sacrifice, wow that's interesting. It's all in one book, like a self contained story. Or myth that has nothing to do with the real world.
So the Hellenistic Greek religions decided we needed redemption first and they moved into Israel in 327 BCE. I'm sure all the ancient Greek religions only had true things in their theology.
Why would they make stuff up?
More than two billion people believe in Christ as the son of God who died for us. It's a story too good not to be true. I find myself desiring to believe in the story too.
It is a story that has endured for millieneum and changed the lives of billions of people.
If it is truly just a story, what a great and powerful story it is![/QUOTE]
Well there are billions of people who feel the same about the Quran, is that true?
It doesn't make sense but the savior deity myth was very popular for a reason and there is a reason why it spread from Greek religion to many other cultures who were then Hellenized. The story isn't great but if you convince people there is a demigod who cares about you and can get you into an afterlife then it's going to be popular with people who don't realize it's fiction.
The story didn't "endure". It was created out of many versions by elite rulers and then made law and brutally enforced. It was also evangelized around the world before people had access to other ways of thinking, comparative religion, historicity, literary analysis, skeptical and rational thinking.