Be atheist my whole life

>its unfounded in the 21st century

This is passable of death for heresy in muslim countries. Mohammed said bacon is evil so bacon will forever be evil and you're an evil apostate if you contest this.

Even if you want to be Catholic/Protestant, read some Orthodox versions of the bible.

It is time to take the bread pill OP.

Fuck off Satanist infidel.

Don't eat anything that may give you a tapeworm

Generally search for conservative or devouted christians and the ones that try to keep an open mind, avoid christcucks.

stop posting your unintelligible cancer on this tuvan throat singing forum

Stop it

...

Both beef and fish can give you tapeworm

>was a huge faggot who couldn't think for themselves
>Oh boy. Let me actually examine the shit I'm pointed to weekly
>wtf no one told me I was wrong and a faggot!
>help me understand!!! (Despite the fact I'm a weak willed, unintelligent, reactionary)

>Recently hear about various lessons taught in the old testament and realize that they are all a bunch of metaphors as opposed to things that people actually believe

Is this real? Did you actually read the text That doesn't sound like the Old Testament. 2/5 books in the Pentateuch are books of law, the other 3 are mostly the history of a nation. I wouldn't characterize any of them as 'lessons' and they clearly are written as though they literally happened.

This isn't Christlike, your witness is garbage.

Yeah I'm not sure what Bible OP was reading. Certainly there are metaphors or lessons but the majority is law or sacred history.

I can't help people are straight dip shits and can't sympathise with them.

read the bible yourself. use your own interpretation. youre smart, user. you'll be fine.

also, consider the Freudian perspective while reading. it'll give an interesting view.

Spoken just like Christ

>What are some resources for understanding the Bible and Christianity that aren't made by insane people?
any Catholic authority. Priest, bishop ect. protestants are all batshit crazy McChurches fucks or completely cucked gay trans woman priest tier bafoons

Done? It doesn't say anything about sympathizing with retards/heathens?

Perhaps I worded it wrong. Stuff like the Garden of Eden, the Flood, parting the Red Sea, stuff like that are metaphors. I don't believe the valid historical or law to be metaphors. I'm making my way through reading it, I just started it anyway. I hear from Veeky Forums itself that Orthodoxy is the denomination truest to the Bible's teachings so I might look into that more.

Read Dostoevsky. Understand the Truth of Christ. Love life to it's fullest.

t. trailer trash atheist

What makes you think that even those were intended to be metaphorical? You do realize that Genesis and Exodus were written in the same age that Classical Greece was around, right? Hell they probably also stem from oral legends that originated in the Bronze Age. What reason do you have to believe that 6th century BC Israelites did not legitimately believe the Torah when it was written?

>they are all a bunch metaphors
>pls interpret them for me no way they are as stupid as they look

Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Even if they believed those events to be true, that doesn't necessarily mean that there is no metaphor in those statements or that there isn't a lesson that can be gleaned from it. That's my thought at least.

literal interpretations of the bible, specifically genesis, are a relatively modern thing. like 1800s

What in the fuck are you talking about?

I can read Rousseau's Emile and he will tell me that God created man in the first sentence. Just a passing mention of God is literal just like that. Rousseau will go on to then describe moral theology, how a divine instructor orders the universe and governs all the movements therein. I mean, I don't know what else to tell you.

The entire religion of Islam, founded in the 700s is based on an act of God, and the act of God is sending down a book that affirms that all of the previous miracles/signs, like the parting of the Red Sea.

Honestly, I don't know what to tell you. There are literally countless circumstances of intellectuals treating what God does in The Holy Bible as real. That Adam and Eve actually existed. That we were created.

What started in the 1800s, friend, was the false theory of Evolution being propagated. Trust me, that is definitely a blight on mankind for sure.

There is nothing in the bible that explicitly denies evolution. Darwin himself was a devout Christian.

But user, you are either with me or against me. 9/11 was an inside job and God hates Fags.

>I AM RITE AN EVERONE ELSE IS WRONG BECAUSE I SAY SO!

Maybe for Christians, but I have a difficult time believing that the Israelites didn't genuinely believe the Torah. If they didn't they'd be highly exceptional for their region and their era.

This is some funny shit, thanks user.

>I hear from Veeky Forums itself that Orthodoxy is the denomination truest to the Bible's teachings so I might look into that more.

This statement is utter nonsense. The 'bible' is a collection of many different books written by radically different people, there isn't a single 'teaching'. The Old Testament itself is an entirly different religion and the people which would 'teach' things totally different than the New Testament religion and even that has many different, even contradictory 'teachings' within itself.

>Stuff like the Garden of Eden, the Flood, parting the Red Sea, stuff like that are metaphors.
To the writers of the book these were not metaphors. The flood literally happened because the Old Testament postulates a geography that has enough water to flood the world (pic related) and beleives that the weater is controlled by God.

The red sea and the Eden invent are also literal; you can psycho-analyze them and try to find the 'meaning' of the myths or ascribe a metaphor to them but to the people writing this was an explanation of the world. Do you really think the old rabbis who were trying to keep their followers from going over and hanging out with the priests of Baal and Ashria would say," Well no Yawheh hasn't actually done jack shit for us. Why should you worship him over the other Gods? Sorry man I got nothing, it's all metaphors!"

Whatever, I cannot communicate with evolutionists. Darwin himself denies we were created in his book. Which shows you the belief was that we were indeed created was prominent. That was and is what people actually believe.

I feel like you're getting hanged up about the whole metaphor thing. I guess my question would be this: Aside from reading the Bible, which I'm already doing, what is a good starting point for understanding the religion in its purest form? I understand that "purest" is subjective, and to that I would ask, how would I find MY "purest?"

The US and England aren't "the west" you dumb nig.

>I understand that "purest" is subjective, and to that I would ask, how would I find MY "purest?"

There's a lot of good theology and biblical history lectures on youtube. I'd say sample them and when you find a branch you like look into the appropriate literature.

I don't think reading the bible straight without some sort of background is any good because it is not meant to be easy. Paul's letters for instance are written within their historical context and they won't make much sense if you don't have that history explained. Metaphorical readings all have their own little 'code' so to speak of how to interprete the text.

ok, here's my two cents.

Get yourself a copy of the synoptic gospels. This means its a special bible where Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all written side by side. That way you can see the differences between the different authors, how some drop or add other words and go into detail in certain stories/omit others from version to version.

This will give you perspective as to who actually "wrote" the bible, and help you consider some of the politics, concerns etc. that made those authors choose to write the way they did. For example, Luke seems to write alot more wordly, trying to bring greeks in to the tradition etc.

In the end jesus is just a collection of stories written by these guys. Beyond the gospels, which were written at least 200-250 years after the destruction of the temple/ jesus death, there is basically no mention of jesus as a historical figure, save a tiny mention in Josephus' History of the Jews.

The truth is that the bible isnt metaphors to help you live your life - it's propaganda to pacify society and make it accept imperial rule. Turn the other cheek. Do unto others etc.

Dont take my word for it though, look into the gospels, Jesus, Vespasian, Josephus and Constantine

>as he speaks english
Just admit that Anglo culture is the worlds envy

Do you unironically believe that Spanish, French, and Portuguese people read the KJV of the bible?

Read The Bible (and other works). The insane people tend to be in the vast minority. People (especially atheists) forget that The Bible is a collection of books of different genres, as such, writing techniques such as metaphors will be used accordingly.

Except looking at it metaphorically is not what people have done.

It's just not the intelligent viewpoint. C'mon you guys, academia is not correct. Not all science is accurate.

Same way you form a cohesive opinion on anything, I guess: life experience and discussion with as many people ans their viewpoints as you need. Though I've spoken with a lot of religious and areligious people, street poets to ivory tower ministers to reformed felons to nihilistic nuveau-riche, I'm still on the fence about God. I just can't seem to find a common ground between my pride, my morals, my experiences forming both, and the idea of God and religion.

You have it the other way around.

People took Genesis literally until the 1800s.

>Darwin himself was a devout Christian
No he wasn't.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Charles_Darwin#Darwin's_loss_of_faith

...

>*jordan peterson gets another $50 on patreon and converts a new impressionable kid to his cult*

The actual shit are you talking about?

Get yourself a copy of the Douay-Rheims Bible (there's a nice english/latin version I recommend) and a copy of City of God by St. Augustine. Read Genesis first, then City of God, then the rest of the Bible.

It will answer your questions. It did for me. There are ways to approach Christianity, most people approach it in a way you describe as...well, dumb. Augustine is the furthest from stupidity you can get, and his words illuminate your own reading.

God bless, OP.

I've never truly been able to understand what is so compelling about Christianity. Out of all the religions and gods which are out there, why am I to believe this one specific brand written down by some Jewish apostates and interpreted by thousands of Europeans since?

I'm not atheist, if anything I'm generally spiritual, but I haven't seen anything yet which shows Christianity to be more of a truth than any other religion.

Also, for the life of me I can't comprehend the people who vehemently refuse how similar Christianity and Judaism are, they worship the same god and share (part of) the same holy book for christ's sake

The answer to your question can easily be given over thousands of pages. Nothing I can say on a Tibetan stamp collecting forum could ever convince you. However, there have been lots of book charts posted in this thread which I'd recommend looking into. Particularly there was a book I read recently called The Case for Christ that may answer your question quite well. Essentially, it tracks a former atheist interviewing various different Christian academics about their beliefs. It may help you to understand why people chose Christianity as opposed to other religions.

I felt the same most of my life. The this isn't satisfying I'm sure but there is a reason as to why Christianity is uniquely compelling. I believe it lies in the notion of sacrifice, which is generally token or worldly in other religions. Not to say there isn't great sacrifice in other belief systems, but rather Christianity has managed to define divinity in wholly perfect distinctions of virtue. The son, the father and the divinity all being offered up as a sacrifice simultaneously - what more could possibly be offered up? What more could possibly be gained from such an act?

I'm sure not all will agree but there is faith in action. I began to act out Christian tenets, and I then found faith hidden in them. Mystery and beauty.

That's a stupid picture because I don't think any legitimate historian (not anons here) actually disputes Jesus existing, what it should say is "there is no evidence Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead other than the bible," which as far as I know is true

Otherwise I'll read a book on it, I'm not trying to convert just to understand

>Particularly there was a book I read recently called The Case for Christ that may answer your question quite well. Essentially, it tracks a former atheist interviewing various different Christian academics about their beliefs
funny how he claimed to be impartially investigating early christianity but miraculously ended up only interviewing fringe conservative protestant scholars.

You almost sounded like you were going to make a good post, why would you ruin that?

>Get yourself a copy of the synoptic gospels
That's not good advice for someone that just wants a solid basic interpretation of Christianity to counter the none sense most culture preaches.

However, I do recommend doing this at some point, OP, as it gives you the knowledge of the context to appreciate a lot in the Bible more.

>Beyond the gospels, which were written at least 200-250
Some of the earliest fragments are found ~120AD, good job padding the dates with at least a century to make your point look better.

>there is basically no mention of jesus as a historical figure, save a tiny mention in Josephus' History of the Jews.
It is a solid, if small, mention, and at least two other contemporary non-biased sources also speak of Jesus (a Roman historian and governor, respectively).

Your post leaves a lot in the dark about where you are coming from, but I have a feeling Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis would be good for you. Lewis goes over many common-sense reasons why Christianity should be approached with more reverence (he wants to say the most, obviously, but stops short of that) than other religions.

It’s okay to be afraid of dying OP. Deluting yourself with religion is good way out, just be prepared for that last minute of your life where everything will turn to black and your God won’t answer you because He was never there.

>no kierkegaard

Go to church. They read the extract and then explain how it applies to us.

If you don't know how to do all the church stuff then just stand at the back

>they are all a bunch of metaphors as opposed to things that people actually believe
Do you think people would die and be tortured for the sake of metaphores?

Including ass

None of those sources were firsthand accounts. Many of them were decades after Jesus' supposed death.

>I'm sure but there is a reason as to why Christianity is uniquely compelling. I believe it lies in the notion of sacrifice, which is generally token or worldly in other religions.

If you love sacrifice so much you should worship the Aztec gods. The only "sacrifice" Christians make is letting some Jewish carpenter die for them, despite the fact that he came back 3 days later anyway.

>What are some resources for understanding the Bible and Christianity that aren't made by insane people?

A lot of people are giving you shit, but learning about religion can be extremely difficult when it's being told to you as if someone is trying to sell a car or life insurance. Here are my online recommendations you can check out immediately that are specifically designed with brainlettes or those disinterested.

youtube.com/user/jointhebibleproject
The Bible Project is a youtube channel narrated by two guys and animated by an in house team they have that works on donations n' so forth: they cover passages and better yet is they explain the bible not from an 'ultimatum' stand point, but from the perspective of biblical narrative and context. I especially appreciate them for going into detail about certain words or passages that were translated improperly.

thebricktestament.com/
The Brick Testament is literally just the bible recreated in legos, it's what I read as a teenager with absolutely no fucking patience and I still enjoy it and recommend it- it's a medium that makes the bible way more easily digestible.

There's pic related as well: The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb.
I've read it maybe three times after I took it out from my local library and loved it. It only covers the book of genesis/the old testament, but that's pretty much the most interesting and extensive part of the bible, so you're in for a good time. It's often panned for being graphic, but the bible is, itself, very graphic, so whatever.

sacred-texts.com/bib/index.htm
Sacred Texts is also a great resource page/site for any and all religious or mythological texts you'd like to read. They're a GREAT place, though, to read up on the non-cannon or otherwise not included/dropped texts of the bible. My personal favorite is the book of enoch, but it's all good shit.

this is absolutely misinformed. MOST legitimate historians submit that there is VERY little evidence that Jesus exists. There is only a tiny mention in Jospehus' history of the jews of a man who called himself cristos who was crucified. There is no mention of jesus in ANY other writings until the gospels, which we know were not written until 200 years or so after.

I mean there are scholars who say Shakespeare didnt exist and that all of his writings were authored by someone else --- you bet your ass there are TONS of historians willing to debunk the J man.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus

3rd and 4th cents.

isn't anyone the least bit suspicious that the roman empire threw its weight behind christianity? It only took a few hundred years to go from using christians as scapegoats in the colliseum to joining them?

It is impossible to read the bible without being imbued with the slave morality. "turn the other cheek" means, when someone hits you, present to them the other cheek, so they can hit you again. The fact of the matter is, the Romans liked christianity, since it pacified the frontier. The christians themselves did alot of work trying to make their religion appeal to the more greco-pagan pantheon (countless examples of parables, and sun worship stuff etc) and we know that as Rome was trying to expand its empire, it wanted to assimilate these populations.

It is very unlikely that Jesus was popular in his own lifetime -- if this were the case, you might expect his name to appear in several of the histories of the times-- and many qualified historians DID exist over the period, but very few of them felt it necessary to include Jesus in their chronicals. The only sources that mention jesus besides josephus are written by christians themselves, and cannot be believed.

So, how did a "religion" that offers little more than passive victim mentality, based around a figure who, if he existed at all, was unpopular in his own time, go from being the super fringe to the dogmatic center of imperial culture for centuries?

It wasn't a coincidence

wanna watch some rick and morty with me?

A real treat is a bible with side by side translations from Greek and Hebrew with footnotes for clarity

>>Recently hear about various lessons taught in the old testament and realize that they are all a bunch of metaphors as opposed to things that people actually believe
You can view them as metaphors, but most Christians did used to actually believe them as actual facts before they were disproved.

>how can I understand the lessons that the Bible teaches without people screaming about nonsense about how everything that isn't Christian is evil?
but that is what Christians literally believe. Anyway, most of the Bible's lessons are not hard to understand. For example
>God floods the world and kills all the wicked people but saves the few good people
gee I wonder what it could mean.

>All 50 chapters
>Nothing left out!
>Adult supervision recommended for minors
They show Onan pulling out, don't they.

youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w&list=PL22J3VaeABQD_IZs7y60I3lUrrFTzkpat

Something like this?

>NIV
are you having a laugh m8?

A lot makes sense when you don't think in terms of literalness.

>the bible
>not the quran
Apply yourself, kafir

>Turn the other cheek.
I've heard the interpretation that it means to say that when someone backhands you across the face you should turn your head and make them hit you like a man instead.

>All these people on Veeky Forums who prefer the Old Testament

>And yet they're too scared to ocnvert to Judaism

That's because of Calvinist(?) traditions that encouraged everyone to read the Bible and brainlets read very clearly metaphorical language as absolute verbatim. Even the autistic shit about what type of fabrics you can wear are there for a reason.

This is actually one of the most contested good times lyrics of all time.

I forget the author, but its in a small book with an interesting interpretation of Jesus as a non-violent demonstrator, there is an interesting interpretation of the "turn the other cheek" thing.

Apparently at the time, if you were a Roman Legionaire in Judea it was OK for you to beat the shit out of locals so long as you did it with the back of your hand. In this context, if a Roman Legionaire hits you on one cheek with the back of his hand, if you then turn cheeks, he cant hit you, since to hit you from that angle, he has to use his other hand.

Under this interpretation, "turning the other cheek" is a "heheh i know the law fuck the police" type of resistance to roman rule.

Really anyone who is an atheist is either just a hard out libertarian who smokes weed all day, a fat neck beard who can't get laid or a child.
Majority of people are agnostic.

get into gnosticism and christian mysticism. also i think the qabbalah/kabbalah would also interest you. none of the people who wrote the bible thought of it the way the christian fanatics you see today did. literally just metaphors about the universe and it's workings. hinduism is the same. actually virtually every religion is the same. but do not look in the exoteric(outside) teachings always the esoteric mysticism. that is where the real kernels are

"I don't believe in God and "I don't know if god is real" are really not that far apart. Nearly everyone I know from work, friends, family, college buddies, is atheist.

Why do you think that those 2 things are mutually exclusive? Agnosticism is "not knowing," theism is "believing in a god," and atheism is "not believing in a god." You can be an agnostic theist and an agnostic atheist. If you're a person who claims to not know about the existence, or lack thereof, of any god, and at the same time are not worshiping or actively believing in any god, then that makes you an atheist. The idea that atheism is outright denying the existence of a god is a misnomer.

You shouldn't be surprised that someone making generalizations to that degree is an ignorant small minded fuck.

>"I don't believe in God and "I don't know if god is real" are really not that far apart

Atheism is really the hard stance that no God exists.

The moar you know

>>>/reddit/

>Atheism is really the hard stance that no God exists.

It's not, this is a middle school level misconception. It is lack of belief in god or gods, educate yourself trash.

He's now a /pol/ meme but still has value I think.

youtube.com/watch?v=DRJKwDfDbco&ytbChannel=Jordan B Peterson

Actually that's the middle school level misconception. Atheism used to have a definition before Redditors cucked it away.

>I insist on defining a word a certain way so that I can feel superior to people who apply it to themselves even though they're using a different definition than I am

Protestant

>not knowing the basic difference between the prefix -a and the prefix -anti

>a mediocre translation from the 17th century based on medieval manuscripts is superior to modern translations

Oh boy, here comes the obligatory "I'm better than everyone" agnostic poster