Why Fundamentalist Christianities are Godless and reject the Bible

[angellous_evangellous]

I think that fundamentalist evangelical Christianity has its fullest expression in atheism because of its godless nature. There are many reasons for this, but the root of all the problems (at least that I can think of) are rooted in the fundamentalists ruthless, brutal, and mindless commitment to the literal interpretation of Scripture (or what they think is a literal interpretation).

So with respect to ethics, it doesn't matter how insane a practice is, who it harms, or how stupid it is, if it adheres to the perceived literal interpretation of Scripture, then they will do it. That is Godless - no attention or fear of God with respect to the commandment to love (many other commands notwithstanding). It is Godless to ignore the needs and nature of ourselves and our fellow human beings because God created us in his image. So yes, homosexuals are created in the image of God.

As for its full expression in atheism:

Fundamentalist evangelicals believe that the bible is God's inerrant and infallible word. So basically the Bible is completely perfect.

1) On the one hand, just about all the teachings of Jesus may as well be toilet paper because evangelicals never tire of completely disregarding them

2) More importantly, an evangelical who sees that their literal interpretation is incorrect has to resort to atheism because God would no longer be the perfect God that they worshiped.

This is why fundamentalist beliefs are inherently Godless. They think that the Bible is perfect from a perfect God, but they treat the Bible with the greatest contempt and when they wake up from this pipe dream they have to deny Christ.

What a shame.

 

[Draka]

That is an interesting take on it. I always find that those who are so adamant about the bible being flawless are more concerned with defending it and trying to ignore that which proves it wrong than with actually living a good and kind life full of love and caring. Which is supposed to be the whole point of the message in the first place isn't it? Instead of trying to think rationally and use the brains they believe they were given, they spend so much effort to not use them so that they don't have to face the glaring errors in the bible that prevent it from being a literal document. It's very much all or nothing. If one does finally admit to the possibility that the bible is not a literal historical account then their whole faith seems to fail. Not much of a faith if one can't entertain the thought that meaning can be found in allegory and myth just as much, if not more so, than a literal story.

 

[Photonic]

Someone finally speaks the truth about bible literalism.

Take note people, this is a true Christian.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I guess that makes me a non-fundamentalist. I know my God is a jealous and vengeful God. He tells me to not do as he does but to do as he commands, (the ten commandments).

Anyone who studies the Bible and does not see any flaws must have blind faith in what fallible man wrote. Many things where passed down verbally before they where written.

Many things where discarded for various reasons. I suspect to keep women in their place as if that is even possible.

To me being a Christian is pretty simple. I read the Bible and ask God to help me find the truth.

The truth that I have found is to not judge anyone, love your neighbor and treat folks like you would want to be treated.

Other advice I would give is not to cherry pick verses and apply them out of context.

When my fellow Christians that have no problem with obese, shell fish and pork eaters who have been married several times and raise unruly children start to condem homosexuals but fail to see the hypocrisy of their ways, I cannot worship with them any longer.

 

[Villager]

evangelicals believe that the bible is God's inerrant and infallible word

Like the RCC, Lutherans and Anglicans, then.

evangelicals never tire of completely disregarding them

Like the RCC, Lutherans and Anglicans, then.


What a shambles.

 

[Awoon]

So the bottom line is, "dump yer church?"

 

[That Dude]

I read your entire OP and you make a lot of claims. Like, Fundamentalist don't follow the bible or listen to Gods commandments to love one another, but I only seen you give one reason for all of them.
This here.

So yes, homosexuals are created in the image of God.
.

I consider myself to be a conservative Christian and I do believe that homosexuality is a sin. Just for clarification, male and female.
But I also believe that homosexuals have as good a chance as anyone to get saved.
And I certainly don't hate homosexuals because they're sinners. Everyone sins and if I hated someone for sinning, I'd be hating everyone.

I've recently become a Christian and I still have quite a few atheist and agnostic friends.
A friend of mine described homosexuality from a heterosexual perspective fairly easy, and he's a liberal atheist.
He said it like this.

If I seen a guy eating a pile of maggots, I'd be concerned. My first response would be to ask him if he's starving and I'd ask him if he wanted some normal food. If he said no, he likes eating maggots, I'd be cool with it. I personally don't like maggots and I'm certainly not afraid of maggots. So you can't call me a maggaphobe. I just don't find maggots appealing.
If the guy invited me over to his house, I'd hang out, probably even be his friend so long as he didn't try to make me eat maggots. But if I went to his house and seen that his entire life was devoted to maggots, and he had like a maggot night stand with a maggot lamp and coffee table, itd probably be the last time I visit. Not because I fear the maggots, but because we obvisouly have nothing in common.

As a Conservative Christian, that pretty much summed it up for me to.
It probably sums it up for a lot of straight people, even fundamentalist.
It's generally not about hate or fear or holding a sin against you.
It's about an understanding heterosexuals more then likely, have in common that homosexuals are more then likely incapable of understanding.

 

[blackout]

I read your entire OP and you make a lot of claims. Like, Fundamentalist don't follow the bible or listen to Gods commandments to love one another, but I only seen you give one reason for all of them.
This here.

I consider myself to be a conservative Christian and I do believe that homosexuality is a sin. Just for clarification, male and female.
But I also believe that homosexuals have as good a chance as anyone to get saved.
And I certainly don't hate homosexuals because they're sinners. Everyone sins and if I hated someone for sinning, I'd be hating everyone.

I've recently become a Christian and I still have quite a few atheist and agnostic friends.
A friend of mine described homosexuality from a heterosexual perspective fairly easy, and he's a liberal atheist.
He said it like this.

If I seen a guy eating a pile of maggots, I'd be concerned. My first response would be to ask him if he's starving and I'd ask him if he wanted some normal food. If he said no, he likes eating maggots, I'd be cool with it. I personally don't like maggots and I'm certainly not afraid of maggots. So you can't call me a maggaphobe. I just don't find maggots appealing.
If the guy invited me over to his house, I'd hang out, probably even be his friend so long as he didn't try to make me eat maggots. But if I went to his house and seen that his entire life was devoted to maggots, and he had like a maggot night stand with a maggot lamp and coffee table, itd probably be the last time I visit. Not because I fear the maggots, but because we obvisouly have nothing in common.

As a Conservative Christian, that pretty much summed it up for me to.
It probably sums it up for a lot of straight people, even fundamentalist.
It's generally not about hate or fear or holding a sin against you.
It's about an understanding heterosexuals more then likely, have in common that homosexuals are more then likely incapable of understanding.

So by "eating maggots" we mean same gender sex?

What if the guy doesn't have a maggot night stand, or a maggot lamp or coffee table, but instead has a maggot partner.

For some reason I find this analogy meaningfully offensive.

Perhaps it's just me.

 

[Photonic]

If I seen a guy eating a pile of maggots, I'd be concerned. My first response would be to ask him if he's starving and I'd ask him if he wanted some normal food. If he said no, he likes eating maggots, I'd be cool with it. I personally don't like maggots and I'm certainly not afraid of maggots. So you can't call me a maggaphobe. I just don't find maggots appealing.
If the guy invited me over to his house, I'd hang out, probably even be his friend so long as he didn't try to make me eat maggots. But if I went to his house and seen that his entire life was devoted to maggots, and he had like a maggot night stand with a maggot lamp and coffee table, itd probably be the last time I visit. Not because I fear the maggots, but because we obvisouly have nothing in common.

That about sums up my view on theism in general.

Not to mention the religion you just became a part of is supposed to be completely about love. There is no love in hate.

 

[That Dude]

So by "eating maggots" we mean same gender sex?

What if the guy doesn't have a maggot night stand, or a maggot lamp or coffee table, but instead has a maggot partner.

For some reason I find this analogy meaningfully offensive.

Perhaps it's just me.

It might be that you are finding it offensive because you're confusing the maggots for the person.
Its the thing itself that the analogy applies to and not the person.
You can find something that a person does to be unappealing and not hold it against the person.

 

[blackout]

It might be that you are finding it offensive because you're confusing the maggots for the person.
Its the thing itself that the analogy applies to and not the person.

Ok, so let's do heterosexual than.
Since we're talking about a 'thing',
instead of a person.

What exactly would a heterosexual nightstand, lamp or coffee table look like?

and just for fun,

What would a homosexual nightstand, lamp or coffee table look like?

 

[blackout]

What would a christian nightstand, lamp or coffee table look like?

What would a homosexual christian nightstand, lamp or coffee table look like?

What would a heterosexual christian nightstand, lamp or coffee table look like?

What do these 'analogies' point to...

 

[That Dude]

What would a christian nightstand, lamp or coffee table look like?

What would a homosexual christian nightstand, lamp or coffee table look like?

What would a heterosexual christian nightstand, lamp or coffee table look like?

What do these 'analogies' point to...

Its representative of a way of life. If a person who worshiped satan walked into a christians house and seen a bible on the coffee table and a picture of Jesus or a cross on every wall and an Evangelist on the tv and a stack of Christian music sitting next to the CD player, then it'd be pretty obvious that he has nothing in common with them.

If you're asking me to specifically describe a homosexuals home, then I'd have to ask why you're obviously trying to make me out to be something I'm not?

 

[Copernicus]

The OP makes the case that a literal interpretation of the Bible leads to rejection of Angellous' view of God, and it forces Christians to ignore what Christ taught according to Angellous' interpretation of those teachings. It does not make a case that fundamentalists are atheists, i.e. that they reject belief in God. They just believe in a very different God from that believed in by angellous_evangellous.

 

[blackout]

Its representative of a way of life. If a person who worshiped satan walked into a christians house and seen a bible on the coffee table and a picture of Jesus or a cross on every wall and an Evangelist on the tv and a stack of Christian music sitting next to the CD player, then it'd be pretty obvious that he has nothing in common with them.

If you're asking me to specifically describe a homosexuals home, then I'd have to ask why you're obviously trying to make me out to be something I'm not?

I also asked you to describe a heterosexual's home.

Certainly you know what a heterosexual's home looks like. ??

 

[blackout]

Its representative of a way of life. If a person who worshiped satan walked into a christians house and seen a bible on the coffee table and a picture of Jesus or a cross on every wall and an Evangelist on the tv and a stack of Christian music sitting next to the CD player, then it'd be pretty obvious that he has nothing in common with them.

If you're asking me to specifically describe a homosexuals home, then I'd have to ask why you're obviously trying to make me out to be something I'm not?

But their walls and coffee table and CD player might be Purple.:flirt:

You may not be a homosexual,
but who's to say that the house with the bible on the coffee table and the crosses on the walls and the praise music CD's
isn't ALSO the home of a homosexual.

 

[godtrap]

The OP makes the case that a literal interpretation of the Bible leads to rejection of Angellous' view of God, and it forces Christians to ignore what Christ taught according to Angellous' interpretation of those teachings. It does not make a case that fundamentalists are atheists, i.e. that they reject belief in God. They just believe in a very different God from that believed in by angellous_evangellous.

Agreed. The fundamentalist isn't an atheist at all. He has a God. His God is his book, be he a Muslim, Christian, Jew or whatever. For the Christian fundamentalist, "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1 The word is his God. He exalts it above all else.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Agreed. The fundamentalist God is his book, be he a Muslim, Christian, Jew or whatever. To the fundamentalist, "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

(Wait till Pegg reads this! )

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

A friend of mine described homosexuality from a heterosexual perspective fairly easy, and he's a liberal atheist.
He said it like this.

If I seen a guy eating a pile of maggots, I'd be concerned. My first response would be to ask him if he's starving and I'd ask him if he wanted some normal food. If he said no, he likes eating maggots, I'd be cool with it. I personally don't like maggots and I'm certainly not afraid of maggots. So you can't call me a maggaphobe. I just don't find maggots appealing.
If the guy invited me over to his house, I'd hang out, probably even be his friend so long as he didn't try to make me eat maggots. But if I went to his house and seen that his entire life was devoted to maggots, and he had like a maggot night stand with a maggot lamp and coffee table, itd probably be the last time I visit. Not because I fear the maggots, but because we obvisouly have nothing in common.

How would you feel if someone had the same reaction to your religion?

I don't know enough about yours specifically to say whether the analogy is a perfect fit, but in general, I've seen quite a few forms of Christianity (but not just Christianity) that are all-encompassing, generally harmful and dangerous to the person, and - to me, at least - inherently abhorrent.

The main change I'd have to make to the analogy to fit it to this sort of religion would be that the person wouldn't be satisfied just eating maggots himself, but also insisted on trying to get as many people as he could to eat maggots, too.

 

[Willamena]

So by "eating maggots" we mean same gender sex?

What if the guy doesn't have a maggot night stand, or a maggot lamp or coffee table, but instead has a maggot partner.

For some reason I find this analogy meaningfully offensive.

Perhaps it's just me.

One could do the analogy just as well with "eating jellybeans" --I suppose "maggots" is representative of a repulsive object (it includes an attitude in the story (if that's the case, then the whole analogy is hypocracy)).