Opinion of Jesus Christ

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

FF (Normal)

[fezzyfestoon]

Negative for the same but opposite reason I think highly of Michael Vick. Despite Vick's obvious negatives, I think he's had an overall positive impact on the people who derive value from the things he does and says and the people they impact. The exact opposite could be said of the cult of character surrounding Jesus Christ.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Jesús? There are too many spicks in this great country already.

[DemPGH]

Jesus Christ alone minus the church and all the religious bureaucrats who followed? FF. That's based upon the sermon on the mount and the beatitudes wherein Jesus Christ, a man, a teacher, sought to stop the tribal nonsense and vindictive craziness that was the order of the day. And certainly to overturn the Old Testament focus on legalism, clearly.

Now the HPs are the religious bureaucracies that followed and which crushed the very nature of the human adventure as well as the great human capicity to love and to learn. I haven't words to express my disdain for those people.

[Antonio the Sixth]

A young radical who challenged the established power structure and societal norms of his time and spent his life at the margins of society with a bunch of friends discussing together how to make a better world?

Massive FF of course.

[DC Al Fine]

FF (Normal)

[Dr. Cynic]

I've got no beef with a man who goes into the marketplace and drives out the money-changers.

[Napoleon]

HP, just like anyone else who lead a cult.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

FF (Normal)

________

There is really no good reason to sincerely vote HP except a knee-jerk animus towards anything redolent of religion, which is far more revelatory about the voter than about Jesus.

[afleitch]

I can't vote. I have no idea who he was. I mean, I understand what he later became. I know the 'Christ', but I don't know who Jesus of Nazareth was so I'll pass on this. From what's been bastardized and collected about him he seems okay at times, unhinged at other times but generally unremarkable.

He was generally a bit of an ass to his fretful mother so that takes points off him. Hopefully his other siblings had a little more time for her.

[politicus]

I can't vote. I have no idea who he was. I mean, I understand what he later became. I know the 'Christ', but I don't know who Jesus of Nazareth was so I'll pass on this. From what's been bastardized and collected about him he seems okay at times, unhinged at other times but generally unremarkable.

He was generally a bit of an ass to his fretful mother so that takes points off him. Hopefully his other siblings had a little more time for her.

You can call Jesus many things, but hardly "unremarkable".

[afleitch]

I can't vote. I have no idea who he was. I mean, I understand what he later became. I know the 'Christ', but I don't know who Jesus of Nazareth was so I'll pass on this. From what's been bastardized and collected about him he seems okay at times, unhinged at other times but generally unremarkable.

He was generally a bit of an ass to his fretful mother so that takes points off him. Hopefully his other siblings had a little more time for her.

You can call Jesus many things, but hardly "unremarkable".

As a person? Yes; when you actually compare him to his contemporaries.

[dead0man]

Jesus Christ alone minus the church and all the religious bureaucrats who followed? FF. That's based upon the sermon on the mount and the beatitudes wherein Jesus Christ, a man, a teacher, sought to stop the tribal nonsense and vindictive craziness that was the order of the day. And certainly to overturn the Old Testament focus on legalism, clearly.

Now the HPs are the religious bureaucracies that followed and which crushed the very nature of the human adventure as well as the great human capicity to love and to learn. I haven't words to express my disdain for those people.

A young radical who challenged the established power structure and societal norms of his time and spent his life at the margins of society with a bunch of friends discussing together how to make a better world?

Massive FF of course.

There is really no good reason to sincerely vote HP except a knee-jerk animus towards anything redolent of religion, which is far more revelatory about the voter than about Jesus.

These are the things I would have said if I had gotten here sooner.  I would have tried to have been a bigger dick about it though.  Christ is cool, Christians tend to suck ass.

[Ebowed]

Not a figure of particular importance to me (other than a frequently used profanity), but I realize that some people find fulfillment and/or happiness through their interpretation of the values he may have espoused, so good for them.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

He gave his life up so we could have a chance to live. He was the only perfect person ever to exist, and he gave up that status as a sacrifice for our sins. He, a Deity, brought Himself to the level of a sacrificial goat for our sins. There can be no greater love ever to exist then the love that He has for us all.

[DC Al Fine]

Jesus Christ alone minus the church and all the religious bureaucrats who followed? FF. That's based upon the sermon on the mount and the beatitudes wherein Jesus Christ, a man, a teacher, sought to stop the tribal nonsense and vindictive craziness that was the order of the day. And certainly to overturn the Old Testament focus on legalism, clearly.

Now the HPs are the religious bureaucracies that followed and which crushed the very nature of the human adventure as well as the great human capicity to love and to learn. I haven't words to express my disdain for those people.

A young radical who challenged the established power structure and societal norms of his time and spent his life at the margins of society with a bunch of friends discussing together how to make a better world?

Massive FF of course.

There is really no good reason to sincerely vote HP except a knee-jerk animus towards anything redolent of religion, which is far more revelatory about the voter than about Jesus.

These are the things I would have said if I had gotten here sooner.  I would have tried to have been a bigger dick about it though.  Christ is cool, Christians tend to suck ass.

Man is fallen. Mea culpa mea maxima culpa.

[John Dibble]

If we're going by the Biblical narrative, then HP. Anyone who would narcissistically demand worship and devotion in order to not send someone to an eternal torture chamber of his own making isn't a good person - that's pretty much a tyrannical dictator. Saying some things about being nice to others doesn't make up for that, and if anything is just hypocritical in light of that.

If we're going on the actual person, then I can't say for sure as the Bible isn't necessarily an accurate historical document as the Gospels were written quite a while after his death by unknown authors.

He gave his life up so we could have a chance to live. He was the only perfect person ever to exist, and he gave up that status as a sacrifice for our sins. He, a Deity, brought Himself to the level of a sacrificial goat for our sins. There can be no greater love ever to exist then the love that He has for us all.

Except according to the narrative he didn't give up his life - the resurrection was planned, was it not? It's not really a sacrifice if you plan on getting back what you're "sacrificing" in a mere three days, not to mention that for an eternal being to lose a mere three days in its corporeal form doesn't seem like that much of a loss in the grand scheme of things.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What Al said in another thread about the nature of the missing of the point being significant and communicating quite a lot deserves, I think, to be reiterated here.

[afleitch]

What Al said in another thread about the nature of the missing of the point being significant and communicating quite a lot deserves, I think, to be reiterated here.

Does it? Even if we were to accept the biblical tradition of Jesus' life and works, we can still comment on whether that makes him a moral or perhaps not so moral a person.

[Napoleon]

What Al said in another thread about the nature of the missing of the point being significant and communicating quite a lot deserves, I think, to be reiterated here.

Ftr, if I actually believed that followers of Christ were like you, or dare I say it, even BRTD, I would vote differently but I know him not as a man, but someone whose followers use his name to punish others. If Christ was the first Christian, and one believes that Christianity has had a negative societal impact at the global level, I don't think an HP vote is unreasonable. But I don't have a high opinion of people who aggressively mock and berate people of faith either.

DemPGH I think gave the closest answer to how I feel but "protest vote" and all.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I don't see how he as a person isn't a FF.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

What Al said in another thread about the nature of the missing of the point being significant and communicating quite a lot deserves, I think, to be reiterated here.

Does it? Even if we were to accept the biblical tradition of Jesus' life and works, we can still comment on whether that makes him a moral or perhaps not so moral a person.

Of course we can. I was referring specifically to Dibble's opinion of the doctrine of the Death and Resurrection. His answer to the thread question, and yours, are valid, although I disagree with them.

[Beet]

I consider him to be the Savior. For those that say that Jesus may have been a good man but Christians have been bad, I think there's a lot of truth to that but it also isn't cut and dry. Didn't the monks of the Dark Ages preserve the academic traditions that eventually became scholasticism and the Renaissance? Didn't Christianity play a role in the anti-slavery and civil rights movements? There will always be bad people in the world who will try to twist anything to oppress others, but I don't think we can clearly say we added up all the positives and negatives of Christianity for the past two millenia and come up with a net positive/negative one way or another, from a utilitarian perspective.

[fezzyfestoon]

FF (Normal)

________

There is really no good reason to sincerely vote HP except a knee-jerk animus towards anything redolent of religion, which is far more revelatory about the voter than about Jesus.

No good reason at all? Surely you're being facetious...

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

FF (Normal)

________

There is really no good reason to sincerely vote HP except a knee-jerk animus towards anything redolent of religion, which is far more revelatory about the voter than about Jesus.

No good reason at all? Surely you're being facetious...

Why would you assume that?