Koumei wrote:
I know that Sober Koumei is going to regret the twitter argument Drunk Koumei got into with some pastaa pastor, but I feel I'm on solid ground here.
Christianity, at it's root, is an appeal to authority. If you've ever had an argument with a sibling and you've responded with 'I'm telling Mom', it boils down to the same thing. Lots of people won't do the right thing unless they believe there are consequences for doing the wrong thing. Most strains of Christianity posit that there is a 'final judgement' in an unverifiable way, and it really does encourage some otherwise terrible people to do good. Remembering that the Christian bible was compiled over a few centuries a couple millenia ago, it's radical in how progressive it is.
The story of the adulteress, for example, is amazing because of how it subverts the message of traditional justice and religious duty. Under the law of Moses the penalty for her adultery was clearly prescribed - death by stoning. Having people set aside what they consider a religious conviction as they reflected on the times where they fell short of an ideal standard is nothing short of astounding.
There are certainly a lot of bad Christians, but there are also a lot of bad everything else. I'm not ready to assume that Christianity offers nothing of value because there are some assholes in the movement.
In any case, while the focus on this life is, in many ways, to 'accumulate treasure in heaven', the focus is still on actions you take now. There is no action that can be taken to promote the end of the world; those who claim it can be determined and predicted are specifically disregarding the biblical text.
