I am an atheist interested in Christianity as culture and heritage. I'm tired of completely disregarding Christians and the Bible for all their flaws, and am now becoming more interested in what made Christianity ideologically successful and what the Bible can teach me now, as a secular man.
I have no faith in god and I will never "worship" anyone. I can't imagine any amount of research will change that. Can someone more knowledgeable re: the Bible and Christianity point me in the direction of scripture or other teachings that support self-reliance and strength over grace and humility? Is that all that Christianity has to offer? A cursory Google search mostly nets me verses laden with "through Him" and "for Him", but I would like to believe there is more philosophy for me to appreciate than just "the grace of God".
>am now becoming more interested in what made Christianity ideologically successful and what the Bible can teach me now, as a secular man Just read the fucking thing
Evan Taylor
>scripture or other teachings that support self-reliance and strength over grace and humility? Good luck finding some.
You could try the Thomas Jefferson New Testament.
There's Kierkegaard.
You could also try Zizek. He wrote a book called The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity. I haven't read it myself. Perhaps even God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse and Paul's New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology. Those last two books were co-authored.
Nicholas Ward
There is a ton of noise::signal though, I was hoping for a starting point re: my inquiry.
Ryder Sullivan
It sounds like you are seeking edifying philosophical texts rather than the essence of Christianity, which requires the thing which you refuse to give, which is faith.
If you want a heritage and culture to edify and inform you, look to the Greeks, who made a virtue of loving their neighbor while hating their enemies, and were wise to the human condition centuries before Christianity was conceived.
In short, look to Plato, Homer, and Aesop.
Carter Bailey
Well the New Testament says, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat."
Jace Gray
Reading list:
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years - Diarmaid MacCulloch
The King James Bible - Norton Edition
Theology/Philosophy (I'm not too knowledgeable in Christian phil, so feel free to add to this):
Confessions; City of God - Augustine (You may want to familiarise yourself with Platonic philosophy)
The Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius
The Shorter Summa - Thomas Aquinas (Aristotle will help)
Fear and Trembling - Soren Kierkegaard
Jace Cook
I appreciate your suggestion, and will take it into consideration, but I am interested in Christianity specifically because of its powerful influence on America and the western world.
I'll look into this.
This is not OP, but I agree. I read the new testament as a younger man and didn't learn much.
Even with the Norton annotations why would you read the KJV unless you were specifically studying the KJV? There are much better modern translations available.
Nathaniel Flores
because modern translations are dull and soulless
Bentley Kelly
What translations would you recommend and why?
Andrew Watson
Kek, no there aren't, except maybe Robert Alter's, and he only did the OT
Carter Wright
The New Revised Standard Version is very common and is fine for your purposes. The KJV might worthwhile to understand the culture and heritage of Christianity, but it's not the best way to understand the text.
I'd also recommend The Five Gospels by Funk and Hoover. It's based on the work of the Jesus Seminar, which attempted to determine the historical basis of the gospels and who Jesus might actually have been.
Matthew Lopez
The NRSV is awful, what are you talking about? The RSV is alright, but the NRSV does stupid things like use gender-neutral language.. The Oxford Annotated version of it even disses it in the apendix.
Just because it's the "new" version doesn't mean it's better, it's full of ideological pandering. A good rule of thumb is this: if the translation translates a word as consistently as possible while making sense, it's good; if a translation translates a word in countless ways, and uses different translations in arbitrary ways, it's a bad translation; the NRSV does the latter.
Nathan Baker
Anyone ever had a look at when God was personally involved? So recent, up to date?
Isaiah Davis
>I can't imagine any amount of research will change that. Literally as bad as a Theist.
This is why Athesits are cancer. >my unproven theory is correct >yours is not Fuck outta here.
ALso disregarding how =/= why.
Easton Wilson
Vulgate.
Wyatt Bailey
I used to be exactly like you. The truth does not rely in endless research, but in simple thought process. I won't tell you why God is real, and you should not listen to anybody at all. You need to find it within you. I recommend starting to read about Buddhism, because it's general idea is that the existence of God is irrelevant to begin with. Its teachings are extremely valid and it's what got me into religion to begin with. I consider myself a Christian now. But the teachings are the exact fucking same. From the Buddhist teachings, through simple thought process, I came to realize that God exists, then studied Christianity, which is extremely poorly understood by many. That's just the way I got to this point. You should try it and see what works for you imo. Try studying more, or even all religions, I only mention those two because they are the only ones I have deep knowledge of. Even if you reject God or Buddhism, you will understand "the guidelines for life". You already do anyway, it's burned into your brain already, you just gotta embrace it
Hunter Ramirez
It's people like you that keep hopelessly trying to convert others that make me dislike my religion
James Morales
>From the Buddhist teachings, through simple thought process, I came to realize that God exists
>I recommend starting to read about Buddhism, because it's general idea is that the existence of God is irrelevant to begin with.
>then studied Christianity, which is extremely poorly understood by many.
>I only mention those two because they are the only ones I have deep knowledge of.
Holy shit.
Leo Rogers
Read the Bible. Treat is as Literature. Start with Genesis
Translation: anything that translates YHWH as Yahweh or Jehovah (instead of LORD in all caps) in the 6,800 times it appears in the OT. It gives God a more personal feel
Pax Tecum
Jose King
>Start with Genesis Not Deuteronomy so you instantly see the utter retardation and treat the book as a work of fiction.
Carter Ward
low quality b8
Grayson Brown
I know you are, but what am I?
Jacob Robinson
Christianity is correct
Angel Morris
Research won't change my unwillingness to worship. My ideas can, will and have changed, which is recently illustrated by my act of reaching out to Christians for useful guidance, rather than endless "God's plan" and "Him Him Him" nonsense.
I just think there must be some good in Christianity for it to be so historically effective and influential, and I want to be open minded.
Levi Foster
K.
>"If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then turns against her, 14 and charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’ 15 then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16 "And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he turned against her; 17 and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, "I did not find your daughter a virgin." But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. 18 "So the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days. 20 "But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, 21 then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel, by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you."
>And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him.
Better start killing heathens and stoning virgins.
Adrian Walker
>it's general idea is that the existence of God is irrelevant to begin with. Hm, interesting. But it is terrible to Christians as an idea, because the whole meditational Christian idea stands on a person of God.
So where does a God, person enter?
Purely '''To get'''. Do you think of meditation in a Buddhist way if it is about this?
And what does being a Buddhist get you? Is this a same kind of question as what being a Christian gets you?
