2dimes wrote:One more and I hope I can step back,at least for today. It looks like I'm stalking you or something. [tone=brokeback]I can't quit you Fitz.[/tone]
I'm actually just responding to things you happen to have wrote today that have engaged me for some reason.
AAFitz wrote:Mostly I think most religious people dont give a flying f*ck about people starving and just use religion as a delusion to get through the day, and block out all the injustice in the world, so they can justify their ignoring of the suffering of millions of people, all while pretending to be pious and righteous spreading the word of some God, whose message, they have clearly missed, or ignored.
I think though I disagree with how you worded it. I agree with my understanding or what I think you meant.
If I give money to a charity, that does not absolve me of my higher responsibility to treat everyone I interact with as well as I possibly can to the point of loving them. Actually choosing to do the right thing, everytime. Simply because it's the right thing even if in the end God was a neat fairy tail and in death I just cease to be. It by no means helps me to be rightous, though doing rightious works puts me closer, or takes me in the right direction.
I also admit I've been failing at least slightly more than half the time to most of the time at doing that for a while now.
At anytime if I'm not highly involved in a charity. I have no idea what's actually happening there. If they are high enough profile ie. Habitat for Humanity. I can be reasonably certain some of the money collected is doing good. Even then there might be one or more people stealling from it.
I personally have found in life that when I do the right thing kind of just because it is the right thing and consider what I believe Yahusua has taught me. I get the best results. Mostly based on past-tense experiences. I can't know if I'm just about to fall though. If we could people wouldn't make those mistakes.
And that's exactly why I said you completely missed the entire point of Christs teachings...because you think that is enough, or could even be mentioned without embarrassment.
That's a thing about God, us and where he seems to have put us. No actions by us can ever be enough.
That's when it becomes sensible to make this thread and accuse him of not doing enough because it looks like it, yet unlike us he is should to be able to fix everything.
Its ok, I was absolutely trying to engage you, and you are always respectful, regardless the level of your disagreement.
So...I will make the point I was eluding to.
If there is a starving, suffering child, and you can do more to help him. It is Christs teachings that you should. If Christ was here right now, and saw you playing a risk game, while thousands of kids died of malnutrition, something that is actually easily avoidable, I do not think he would thank you for the $100 donation.
Keep in mind here, I dont mean this personally. Im using you as an example, to mean anyone, including myself.
I fully believe, that everytime you choose to spend money on something for yourself, when you could use that money to save a childs life, you are a sinner as described explicitly by Christ's teaching.
I think an analogy is a weak tool, but I will use it here to shorten what I need to type to express the point I am going for.
If you are in a room with five other people, and you have enough money to buy food for all of them, but instead, by a fabulous window dressing, and two of those people die, you are a sinner, and practically, in some way, responsible for their death.
Mind you, I understand you cannot save everyone, but the fact is, every single person can save more people than they do, which means every single person has let children die, that they did not have to, which makes them responsible for their deaths, almost as much as pulling the trigger to shoot them.
Its less visual, less connected, and easier to remove oneself from, but on a basic level, there is absolutely no other conclusion that one can make. The only reason we do not do more to help these children, is because they are in another room, and we choose not to open the door, and pretend not to hear them screaming.
Now, this is not at all directed at the many people of many faiths, or the many atheists who obviously know this, and have devoted their entire lives.
Further, I fully recognize that some do way more than others and absolutely should be commended for their
relative contributions.
However, what it all comes down to is Shindlers list. He had a certain amount of money, and he realized all that money meant human lives and he used it all to save every single child he could, and I bet if you asked him, he would agree he should have done more, that if one child is dying or suffering, its one child too many.
Certainly Christ taught that was the case.
My point here, is that all of us, religious and non, do not do enough, and damn well know it. We justify it ten thousand different ways, but in the end, we choose to let children die, and no matter how you sugarcoat it, thats exactly what we do.
That is the basic point, and there are many variations and I could even delve into the Bill Gates scenario, where he robinhooded the entire first world, and is giving half of it to the third world, and argue its good, and argue its bad....but on a basic level, every time we decide to waste resources on ourselves, for something we truly don't need, we allow children to suffer and die.
My point is, that those that profess their belief in Christ and preach how Godless atheists are, are laughable, because on some level, every single one of them knows this, and simply lets it happen, because at the end of the day, they just don't care enough to do more about it, and absolutely no one in the world who is able to read this, especially on this site, can possibly argue its incorrect.
You can argue you think you do enough, or that you do more than others or that you cant save everyone, but you definitely cannot argue you do enough, and only the most self-righteous would say they would look Jesus in the eye and say they were doing enough.
I think in reality, any intelligent Christian would be frightened to their core of what would happen should their messiah show up at their house one day, and ask them how the battle to save His children was going.
My guess, is the lot of them, would just crucify Him again, as opposed to committing to the sacrifice that would be needed, to truly do as He wished.
This, is why I mock the religious for mocking atheists or those of different faiths, because they believe that believing and worshiping a God would mean something to Him, as His children died needless deaths, and suffered needless suffering.
And using another hated analogy. Imagine how you would feel when the nanny who let your child starve to death, said, sorry, but I love you and praise you, and Ill do it every Sunday, please forgive me.
I hate I even had to explain this thought, and I hate that even still many will miss the obvious basic truth to it.