The idea that Jesus came to "make us good" and/or that this is the purpose of Christianity, is a pernicious misunderstanding or deliberate distortion - despite that exactly this has been a mainstream belief through most of history since Jesus.
People have been arguing for nearly 2000 years about whether devout and practicing Christians are more, or less, good than the alternatives.
By now it is clear that such arguments are merely circular; depending on definitions (and differential priorities) of what counts as good that are themselves dependent on whether one is a Christian or not (and how Christianity is understood).
One of the great benefits of these most-evil times, is that such matters are clearer and easier to understand Now than ever before.
Now we have - what seem to Christians - to be gross evils and lies propagated officially and by all major social institutions as good, true, necessary. And Christian ideas regarded as evil. And most Christian churches taking the official line - on several or all of the strategies that sustain exactly such evils and lies.
In the past we had other religions opposed to Christianity - and a considerable overlap of values (different religions more a matter of different priorities given to values, than wholly different values).
But Now we have a system of ideology (not religion) that imposes value-inversions opposed to Christianity.
Thus surface differences in understandings and measures of good are rooted in different deep assumptions on each side; such that the very meaning of good is what is at issue.
In such a situation it makes no sense even to argue about whether or not Christianity makes Men good...
What must instead be considered is the much more fundamental issue of whether the Christian understanding of good is superior to rival understandings, and why.
No comments:
Post a Comment