Nope my friend, not going Jesus freak on you at all. I firmly beleive that religions are social constructs, collectively invented over long periods. All communities develop certain norms, some for clear benefit (everyone has a taboo against murder, for example), and some random things that the priests make up.
The Abrahamic religions were invented by desert people. If you're living on the edge of a desert, there's a scarcity of resources and nowhere to go if the neighbouring tribes come and take your land. So those religions are chock full of master race mentality, because if they didn't believe in being God's chosen people they wouldn't believe in their absolute right to resources over others.
Keeping milk and meat separate, not eating the blood of slaughtered animals and quarantining those who do is wise in hot climates with no refrigeration. Banning masturbation, homosexuality and menstrual sex is good if you have a high mortality rate. So important things like this weren't just bandied around as nice ideas, they were given as the Word of God.
With our big brains, humans can't get by on what's in front of us, we constantly think in the abstract and have vast emotional capacity. These combine to make us spiritual, see symbolic value and understand long term consequences. So those Words of God take root and become our spiritual traditions.
Then the vicious desert religions spread to fertile lands and crush the gentler religions and spiritualities found there. Then those brought up there still adhere to the beliefs and practices of the desert religions even though they serve little practical purpose any more, except to bind the community of believers. Whilst that last thing's important, there's better ways to do it than threatening people with an eternity of torture and believing in the inferiority of others.
I'm willing to talk on these terms with anyone. I'm also willing to talk with Christians on their own terms, as I've been doing on this thread, because as a religion it makes no sense so it's very easy to prove all Christians to be unChristian. Any religion that can contain the Queen of England, Martin Luther King and the Ku Klux Klan at the same time is obviously a bunch of arse.
So, Glitter Sausages, I'm trying to highlight how your belief in social adaptation and working out morality for yourself are at odds with Christianity which, being a revealed text religion, is unchanging. It's a choice between the two. And it seems you're instinctively compassionate enough to know which one to go for - choosing love over God, way to go!
And Lawrence, if you're saying 'maybe' and 'whatever that force may be' then it's not Christ you believe in. Christ is the only Messiah of the Bible's God, the sole redeemer. If you're willing to tie what you understand god to be with other beliefs, then it's not Christian, it's your own spirituality you've got there.
I do believe we're smart enough to figure out our own morality, and I think we're compassionate enough to act on it without needing the Bible God's threats of torture or bribes of afterlife. I think we can do it because we believe it to be good for us and those around us, and that's actually enough of a reason. No scary guys with big beards required.
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