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Old 06-24-2008, 02:59 AM
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Re: How do Christians possibly rationalize these things?

Quote:
This notion that everyone is God's child and that all men are equal in God's sight is a relatively new idea.
"Our father, who art in Heaven..." - Jesus

He preaches "Our father" but does not limit the audience.

The idea is relatively new as of two thousand years ago.

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The people who wrote the scriptures, and the people who lived in those days, even, believed they were unique, set apart, basically, better than other people. So they had no qualms about killing, raping, pillaging, or any of that other fun stuff.
Believed who was unique? Didn't the Apostles preach throughout the known world, bringing the teachings of Jesus to many nations and many different people?

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Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not advocating this way of thinking. All I'm saying is that it's how these people believed. In fact, if you look at history, and not just Christian history, but pretty much any history where different cultures/religions clashed, a whole lot of people throughout history have held similar views that they were better, or that their way of doings things was superior, and thus granted them the right to mistreat other people.
Sure, cultural interaction usually leads to prejudice among some of the population, but I do not see any evidence for this idea that the earliest Christians promoted the brutalization of other people. It's a hard sell "I'm better than all of you, I don't care if you're brutalized. Now, would you like to join my congregation?"

Not to say that no Christian ever uses the sort of justification you present - unfortunately, I've met some who promote that sort of thinking. Scary stuff. I just don't think we can, given the history, make any such accusation about the authors of the Gospels.

Oh, and if you were focusing more on the Old Testament, I'll leave that alone. I'd have to do some reading before I could really comment.
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