Is religion just imaginary friends for adults?

[BrilloPad]

Right.... so the OT is now more of an inconvenience?

I think you'll find that for the majority of the last 2000 years, Christians have believed the OT.

That bad naughty vengeful God of the OT is not very appealing to modern people, so let's just say it isn't literally true anymore. Amen.

Disagree with that. It was always accepted that the OT was old law and surpassed by the NT new law. The OT contains some cultureal stuff that was acceptable thousands of years ago but not anymore.

I agree churches provide a useful role in society, but i find that by being a religious building it is very exclusive. I do a bit of voluntary work for a mental helth charity which operates through a church. The NHS waiting list in my area for certain types of care (CBT, NLP) is over 6 months, so a voluntary group was started, people won't go as it is run by a christian group

That is very very sad. As I said, the church has changed and people should give it a go.

[Gibbon]

No, there doesn't. Is it so hard to believe that things happen for no reason?

Epicurus.

[MyUserName]

Science supplies the how - the church supplies the why.

Where did this distinction come from? Is it just the church trying to give itself something to do?

The new testament is certainly supposed to be taken literally - except revelation.

How do we know this?

[MyUserName]

Disagree with that. It was always accepted that the OT was old law and surpassed by the NT new law. The OT contains some cultureal stuff that was acceptable thousands of years ago but not anymore.

Didn't Jesus state he had not come to change the old law?
Also, people were people then too - why were things okay then (murdering homosexuals, raping women from defeated nations etc) and are not now, especially as God is eternal and unchanging?

[BrilloPad]

Where did this distinction come from? Is it just the church trying to give itself something to do?


How do we know this?

My words. I don't think you will find many in the Catholic Church who disagree.

Didn't Jesus state he had not come to change the old law?
Also, people were people then too - why were things okay then (murdering homosexuals, raping women from defeated nations etc) and are not now, especially as God is eternal and unchanging?

Jesus said he came to fulfill the prophecies of the old law.

God gave mankind a place where they were free to do as they want. How we use it is up to us. God's love is certainly eternal and unchanging.

[MyUserName]

My words. I don't think you will find many in the Catholic Church who disagree.

But where does it come from?

Jesus said he came to fulfill the prophecies of the old law.

Doesn't he say this "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." which would seem to imply he is not changing the old law.

If the OT no longer applies can we ignore things like tithing and the 10 commandments?

God gave mankind a place where they were free to do as they want. How we use it is up to us. God's love is certainly eternal and unchanging.

I am not sure we are on the same wavelength. Have you looked at the OT and seen how many crimes have the death penalty? How is that being free to do what we want?

Even in the NT we are not free to do what we want as if we do not follow God's laws then we will be horifically tortured for eternity.

[Gibbon]

Disagree with that. It was always accepted that the OT was old law and surpassed by the NT new law. The OT contains some cultureal stuff that was acceptable thousands of years ago but not anymore.

This is so and is expressed forcefully in the sistine chapel. The lives of Jesus and Moses are painted down the internal opposing walls. Behind Moses the buildings are not complete but behind Jesus they are, so everything is perfect in Christ (perfect is latin for completed) but not so with Moses.

I don't like Peter or Paul's treatment of women though, basically put up and shut up. Also for such a family friendly religion it certainly didn't start like that. Paul exhorts in his letters that it would be better for everyone to be like him i.e. unmarried. Also the thing with homosexuality is in my view misunderstood. They believed that you shouldn't seek pleasure from sex but it was ok for procreation. Now seen as homosexual sex can't be for procreation it can only be for pleasure which is the sin, not particularly because it was two men. In fact a lot of the incontinent popes used boys as this was seen as less of a sin than a woman!

[MyUserName]

. Also the thing with homosexuality is in my view misunderstood. They believed that you shouldn't seek pleasure from sex but it was ok for procreation. Now seen as homosexual sex can't be for procreation it can only be for pleasure which is the sin, not particularly because it was two men.

But doesn't it just say that any man who 'lies with' another man should be killed?

[Platypus]

Even in the NT we are not free to do what we want as if we do not follow God's laws then we will be horrifically tortured for eternity.

But... it's YOUR choice!

[Platypus]

But doesn't it just say that any man who 'lies with' another man should be killed?

See Leviticus 20:13 "'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

You're right.