Your response here is the rhetorical equivalent of "nana nana boo boo stick your head in doo doo." I didn't lose the argument, you just stopped responding.
And I'm not threatening you, I have nothing against you. In fact this is what is meant by "love your enemy" because I'm actually trying to save you by warning you about your impending doom despite your seeming hatred of me and what I believe.
It's not a threat, but a warning. I will not be the one judging you.
“So helping the needy makes me Bernie?”
Preaching self-sacrifice as a moral virtue makes you an altruist and a piece of shit commie, yes.
So before you argue with strangers on the internet, you should Google what a strawman argument is, because that's what you're making here. Donating 20 bucks to a children's hospital or volunteering a soup kitchen doesn't make you a communist piece of shit. Bernie's form of "help" is forced and thus immoral. Being kind and helping less fortunate people, voluntarily, is absolutely a virtue.
Men of reason and self-esteem don’t engage in sacrifices. They live life as traders, trading value for value and never sacrifice others to himself of himself to others.
Wow, what a great path to a society of atomized, isolated, sad people with no community. Lending a hand to others is a great way to improve your community and feel better about yourself, you should try it some time, then you might be less angry.
Because I am a living human being and my life, like the life of every other living creature, requires that I am the ultimate beneficiary of my actions. Otherwise, I die.
Bro, donating a small amount of money or volunteering a small amount of your time will not kill you.
I don’t owe you shit just because you are a failure. Fuck off commie.
lol, so funny, I make six figures and I'm a computer programmer with a lot of nice things, a rightwing gf, and speak multiple languages. Yet there was a time where I was too poor to know where my next meal was coming from and almost failed high school. I needed some help. So are you saying that everyone less fortunate than you is a piece of shit? People should absolutely help themselves. Communism is bad. Handouts are generally bad. But people don't live in a vacuum. There is a middle ground between communism and never helping anyone out ever.
I only help those who 1. mean something to me 2. those who did not cause their circumstances, 3. who truly cannot help themselves and only 4. when and if I can.
Oh that's cool, RagnarDanneskjold420 is apparently the arbiter of whether people who need help caused their circumstances or who cannot help themselves. When's the last time you donated your time or money to help people less fortunate?
Most people who are out there begging for money and on welfare do not pass that test.
There is a grain of truth in this statement in that a lot of people feign helplessness or need and that is evil to do.
I would never be in that circumstance because I am not a piece of shit and I am not disabled.
You don't know that lol. You do not have that level of control over your life and could be made homeless tomorrow. Is it likely? No. Is it possible? Yes.
If it ever did happen I could rely on the voluntary, non-sacrificial charity of family and friends
Bold of you to assume people who may need help have either family or friends.
America and everything good about the west is not a byproduct of Christian thought -which had dominance over cultures and societies for centuries- but rather an explicit rejection of mysticism and the adoption of reason and humanism.
Right, which perfectly explains why western society is getting more degenerate as it gets less Christian, right? Humanism is a great philosophy. Transgenderism, polyamory, habitual intoxication, all of the behaviors that would be unacceptable under a Christian theocracy are made acceptable by you. What a great future we have to look forward to.
Christ himself openly preached that it was moral and good to give up your stuff to the poor
Jesus spoke in parables and he wasn't saying to literally give up everything you have to the poor. He was saying that it's good to help people out how don't have as much as you do. It's pretty rich that we have an atheist Googling Bible verses to try and lecture a believer on their own doctrine.
Matthew 19:21 is again a reiteration of God's wish that you should care more about your eternal destiny than earthy possessions and money, which don't last very long in the timeline of eternity.
Jesus would have been a pink haired commie faggot today and that’s a fact
Super edgy bro, keep demonstrating how little you know about him though.
Stop lying to yourself, quit being full of shit. You know I’m right, that is in fact what Jesus taught.
Quoting a Bible verse without understanding the context and then saying you're right over and over isn't an argument buddy. And someone disagreeing with your incorrect interpretation of scripture doesn't mean that they're wrong or a socialist or whatever other ridiculous cope you have for someone disagreeing with you is.
He believed it was good for people to sacrifice themselves for others
You keep saying this over and over and over. In a life or death situation, sacrificing yourself for a brother is definitely honorable, but Christians are not commanded to completely sacrifice their lives for others. We are commanded to do service for others, but that's not the same as sacrificing your life.
Christianity is not the dominant philosophy behind the founding of the country
It absolutely is. The moral code embedded in our laws and generally western laws (don't kill/rape/steal/do incest/etc) derives extensively and directly from Christian moral code. The majority of the US population has been Christian since our founding and to this day. We have monuments, mottos, pledges, and anthems which reference the Christian God. Our collective reverence for God is what has led to our success, and our collective eschewing of him will lead to our failure.
You have no argument, just ad hominem, got it.
You are in serious need of humility. You think really highly of yourself, and maybe you've got some great accomplishments, but you're not shit compared to God.
And if you truly understood scripture, you would know that Christianity inherently cannot be a statist philosophy because it contains prophecy that one day the state will persecute Christians, and it would be our duty to disobey the state in that case.
As you'd say, "nice argument." God does exist, not "gods" but the one God, though he is called by many names (Yahweh, Jehovah, El Shaddai, et al).
I'm not sure why seeing others express belief tends to make atheists seethe so much. Ask yourself, why are you so angry? Is it because you harbor sins (maybe watching porn or failing to help your neighbors [meaning the poor]) or something else? Or could it be because God is beyond human logic and understanding, but atheists think that everything in existence must fit within the confines of our limited understand and logic, but since God does not, he must not exist?
I went through an atheist phase and putting aside my pride was hard, but I did it. You may think you know it all, but human knowledge and understanding pales in comparison to the one who made the universe. I hope you'll understand that someday.
Your denial can and eventually will hurt you. Every person who has ever lived or will live will face God's judgement, and you will be punished eternally if you don't make the right choice. You have until you die to make the right choice, but you never know when that moment will come.
See this is how I can tell you're just being edgy and probably not even an adult yet, you equate Western society with the United States.
The moral system Christianity had a big influence and dominance over preceded our modern Western world by several centuries
It absolutely did not. You do realize that both of the societies viewed as the foundation of the West (Greek and Rome) existed and in fact Jesus was alive and died during the Roman Empire? And that the Old Testament makes direct references to both Greece and Rome?
The Dark Ages are a good example of what “the west” looked like when Christian ethics
By "Christian" you mean "Catholic" and there were absolutely plenty of immoral things the Catholic Church did to society. Hence protestantism and the reformation.
I have a right to exist for my own sake. That is true. I have a right to my life, that is also true. I don’t owe strangers my life, that is also true.
You exist because God allows you to exist, but he also gave you free will, and you definitely have rights. Christianity does nothing to make you give your life to strangers and it's kind of funny that you keep insinuating that it does, there must have been some sort of disconnect when whatever r/atheism post or cringe YouTube video taught you this misguided perception of the philosophy. It's kind of like how non-native English speakers from India all tend to use the phrase "do the needful" even though a native English speaker would likely never say that.
You don’t know what “truth” is
"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;" - 1 Corinthians 1:27, see also the book of Job. You are not smarter than God, even though you think you are, and one day you will realize that.
Bernie Sanders??? Is that you???
So helping the needy makes me Bernie? Why are you so selfish? You don't have to give away everything (or even a majority) and we were definitely overtaxed, but you're not willing to help those in need at all? What if you were homeless or hungry, wouldn't you want someone to help you?
I'm gonna pray for you homie (whether you like it or not) that you at least fix your super misguided perception of Jesus.
And just so you know, Trump absolutely made a sacrifice. He sacrificed a lot of money, time, and energy of his golden years to be the President, and didn't even take a paycheck.
Friend, I'm not slow just because you are fruitlessly trying to make a false point. The incorrect explanation you are here presenting about Christ is a non sequitur to the symbolism of the cross itself.
If you'd like to rebut what I said about the cross as a symbol, feel free to do so at any time.
And it is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors
Wrong. Wrong! On many levels! Christianity does not ask you to sacrifice yourself to men. I'm not sure where you're getting your information but it certainly is not from the Bible. Christians are to put God first in their lives, so in a way, we "sacrifice" ourselves to God, but not to other men. Jesus already made the ultimate sacrifice for men, we don't need to.
And I'm not sure what you mean by "inferior" because all men are equal before God. It seems you are overly prideful in your position or wealth and you should know that God hates that, and if you don't humble yourself, he will humble you the hard way.
I mean you can keep saying that but it just belies your ignorance about Jesus. Saying that Bernie's politics align more with Jesus' when Bernie does not profess a belief in Jesus, advocates for baby murder (abortion), and countless other policies incompatible with God, is asinine.
I share your disdain for socialism and you should know that Jesus was not a socialist despite the memes it seems you've been indoctrinated with, but repeating this line equating Jesus to Bernie is pure cope. Trump believes in Jesus and so do a plurality, if not an outright majority of Trump supporters.
So now you're going from arguing that Jesus was "a great rabbi and Jew" to "we don't know if he existed because there aren't existing eyewitness accounts of Jesus."
Now it's understandable why people call your kind shapeshifters. Stop being shifty and repent before the Lord.
Because Jews calling Jesus "a great rabbi and Jew" is their deceptive way of saying they despise him for chiefly the reasons you describe, they just don't want to admit it because they enjoy how nice Christians tend to be to them.
So I read what you wrote and you really should learn what you're talking about before you decide to say dumb wrong shit my dude.
The point of the cross symbol isn't the mechanism for execution but rather the sacrifice that happened on it.
Jesus preached self-sacrifice as a moral virtue, which is irrational and immoral
This makes no sense. The western moral system is derived from Christianity. You are making the argument that caring about other people or putting them first (sacrificing you them) is immoral, which is the opposite of what is true.
He literally taught his followers that the rich (the productive, self-interested, capable etc) could not get into heaven
Jesus never said that rich people couldn't get into heaven, he said that it's difficult for rich people to get into heaven because they tend to love their money so much that they forget about God. Which is true.
that they should sacrifice their stuff and themselves to follow him
Again he never said that. If you have a nice house and cars and guns and whatever, God is cool with that, he just doesn't want you to care about that stuff more than him, and he just wants you to help the poor out. No, you don't have to give away your car to a homeless person. But maybe helping a homeless person eat or have clothing would be appropriate, if you can afford it.
He was basically a modern day, garden variety hippie of the kind you would find in a modern day socialist commune. He would have far more in common with people like Bernie Sanders than Donald Trump
Complete nonsense that comes straight from an Occupy Democrats meme. Jesus preached love and kindness, but as the embodiment of God, he also preached justice and punishment. There are certainly things about Trump's personality that do not align with the values Jesus taught, but a lot of them do, and that you say this shows how little you actually know about God and Jesus. Jesus would not "denounce" Trump nor elevate Bernie Sanders. Trump professes a faith in Christ, Sanders does not, that is what matters to God. God loves every person and gives them ample opportunity to accept him.
Ah, S&W has a special place in my heart. I live in Massachusetts which used to have a very strong gun culture and there's a good chance that your S&Ws were manufactured in this state, although ironically most of them can't be sold here. The Shield and its little brother, the Bodyguard, are damn fine arms.
Hey Alexa, how many members of Congress have dual citizenship?
Hey Alexa, what percentage of Congress is Jewish relative to the US population?
He was talking about the moral law (including and especially the 10 Commandments). Jesus invalidated many of the Jewish requirements and practices specific to ancient Israel (like not shaving your beard or shaving your head when mourning), or animal or burnt sacrifices which were required by God to atone for sin before the death of Jesus, and obviously wouldn't make sense now that we have him.
In addition, there are other very specific Jewish laws Jesus invalidated, notably bacon/ham/pork (see Matthew 15:11). In fact, the verse you brought up is followed by the rest of Jesus' sermon in which he gets extremely specific about which laws are to be followed.
The message is effectively that while you are saved by grace through faith, you are expected to follow the moral law -- Jesus does not invalidate that law (as he says), but things involving food/hair/appearance definitely do not apply as of the New Covenant.
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