If I could just offer a bit of commentary...
Jesus kind of WAS a hippy, minus the free sex and drugs. I don't mean that to be derogatory but he detested violence, taught people to love each other, and wanted to unite the world in peace and harmony.
Preaching to someone doesn't mean you have to condemn them or pronounce judgement. In fact, if we are talking about context:
If I call Dave a whoremonger, liar, and a hypocrite, I'm insulting him.
If Jesus Christ calls Dave a whoremonger, a liar, and a hypocrite, it's because that's what he is.
This is why we are asked to judge not lest we be judged. When I see people calling faceless masses of people on the destiny forums prideful people, i think Christ would have a problem with that.
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Not trying to be rude, but you really don't know what Jesus taught. He was never trying to unite the world in peace and harmony. We are absolutely supposed to judge, but to judge righteously. And everything i said about atheists, the majority of them have proven to be true time and time again.
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If that's what you think about christ's teachings then I would encourage you to re-read the sermon on the mount, and think carefully over christ's parables. Meekness and humility are just as important as fervent preaching and calling others to repentance. We should also only to the latter as appropriately inspired to do so.
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You can't just look at the sermon on the Mount. And I've not been mean, insulting, or dishonest to anyone.
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Alright, maybe I have been too judgemental myself. I just saw your post and it looked like you were calling all atheists prideful, when that's probably not the case. And yeah, I can't just use the sermon on the mount. We should try and follow ALL of christ's teachings, not just adhere to one principle. If you want to call people to repentance, and really feel that someone is being too prideful, then you should do it in a way that is appropriately humble and tentative. This is why for myself, I'm a big advocate of not even trying to do that on Internet forums, since I don't have a relationship with the people I'm talking to.
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This thread isn't trying to call people to repentance. That's pointless on a forum. This thread was to get the atheists I encounter on these forums to take a second look at their arguments against Christianity and the bible and try to understand the context before making a fallacious claim.
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Ok. But considering that there are already so many interpretations of the bible, I would say that you are still going to end up with the same problem even if they all read it more carefully. It's not as if reading the bible more automatically gives a person a more correct interpretation of what it says.
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The different translations don't affect the context in any significant way.
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I'm not talking about translations. Even if you just stick to the English King James Version of the bible, people are going to interpret it differently. It's not as if the more you read it, the more correct your interpretation is.
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But, there are many things that are not open to interpretation. If it's explicitly stated, then no interpretation is needed.