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This will probably be locked, but hey, whatever.
Christianity incorporates many “control” techniques to both entice new members and to keep them. The first of these I will call “The Belonging Technique”, or TBT. TBT has been used by many modern day cults as well as Christianity. Basically it invokes a special feeling of “brotherhood” between the members of the religion. It helps Christians feel different and somewhat superior to the hedonistic “outside” world. It makes them feel as if they can fit in, as if they “belong”. (Hence the name of the technique.) In order to belong many Christians are willing to overlook the fallacies and the acts of other Christians. In this way Christianity becomes an almost exclusive club. A club where all others are doomed, and only Christians can be saved. Thus adding to the bond between Christians. The ways Christianity accomplishes this are incredibly visible, but often overlooked. First, the aforementioned damnation of all non-Christians, helps Christians feel exclusive. Also, lets not forget the rituals that many Christian churches perform. Even the smallest and seemingly innocent rituals add to TBT. Singing praises for example, that can be compared to ritualized chanting that a lot of other cults use. The singing brings together these Christians, and once again, reinforces exclusivity and brotherhood. Lets not forget communion, all the Christians stand in line and follow each other, once again the sense of brotherhood, then they receive the bread or wine, a sense of exclusivity. Now, somewhat of an ironic metaphor for this is they way they lead sheep to the slaughter. At the entrance of the slaughterhouse is the “Judas” sheep, this sheep is there for one single reason, to keep the other sheep calm and lead them into the slaughterhouse, where they are summarily executed. Now I am not saying that Christians will be lead to some sort of philosophical or literal slaughter. It is a literal, real world example of what TBT can do. These sheep believe that they all belong to the same group, however the Judas sheep is only their to control them. Another way TBT is accomplished is providing a united front against a common enemy. At first it was Satan, the cause of all evil and wrongdoings, the literal boogeyman lurking in the proverbial shadows. But as time passes, less people are prone to believe in Satan. Christian leaders have noticed this and have even gone so far as to imagine up opposition for Christians in order to keep them on their toes. The “War Against Christmas” is a good example of this. If Christians believe that they are under attack, they can gather up their brothers in arms and rise up against the evil outside world and its insidious enemies. But TBT is only the first of these techniques. Christians are taught that God is omnipotent and all seeing, that everything goes according to his plan. This discourages Christians from seriously questioning their faith. Rather than look at some of the impossibilities in scripture they merely dismiss them as works of God’s omnipotence. Here is a real life example: I was talking to a person who believes in the young Earth theory, I pointed out that if they Earth was really as young as he said it to be, the light from many of the stars would not have reached Earth yet. His response? “God put the light there.” By bringing that kind of logic to the table a Christian cannot possibly find fault with Christianity because God can do anything. Multiply fish, rise from the dead, etc. Anything is possible under that belief. And questioning it is useless and sometimes even openly discouraged. Also let us not forget the guilt techniques used in order to make Christians feel indebted to God. Now there is never going to be a preacher that says you should feel guilty because humankind has been nothing but trouble to God. But there are many subliminal messages used. The whole entire Old Testament is basically a guilt trip to for humanity. We got kick out of Eden, Sodom and Gomorrah, humanity fell from God’s graces dozens of times. And lets not forget Jesus dying to save us from our “sins” . All these stir up the emotion that says. “Hey, God went through all this for us, we should give thanks, worship him, etc.” No Christian will actually blatantly realize this however, that is why this is a subliminal technique. The last and most commonly presented technique is good old fashioned fear. Fear of rotting in Hell for not being a Christian. A phenomenon that applies to virtually all religions is that they all have and explanation of what happens after death. Usually, the followers of the religion will end up with some glorious reward, and all others will be doomed. Why do most religions incorporate this? Because it answers some of the most eternal questions in a quick and easy manner. One of these question is the question of life after death, Heaven and Hell wrap that up quite nicely. Another is the meaning of life. Who can know the meaning of life unless one has previously lived? Also, Christians believe that they will transcend their bodies and enter an enlightened state. What better way to figure out the mysteries of the universe? However, if you are not a Christian, you will burn in a pit of fire for eternity. This scares up a very intimidating argument for Christianity. Join us, or burn in Hell. Now, that is probably the most blatant scare tactic to ever grace a pulpit. Now discuss.
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He who angers you conquers you. ~Elizabeth Kenny |
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#2 | |||||||
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FFR Player
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Lost in my childhood
Age: 32
Posts: 1,971
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:starting with the end first:
Joshua 24:14-15 (New International Version) New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society 14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, ---->then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve<----, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Christianity isn't a scare tatic trying to get you believe through the thought of hell. It's not join us or burn in hell. It's worship God or worship any one you want, just dont be indecisive about it. :back to the beginning: Christians aren't taught to be better than other people or to see themselves as superior. They are taught to humble themselves because everyone is equal. Quote:
Umm I don't see how singing praises to God reinforces brotherhood. The praises aren't meant for other people. They are meant for God and God only. Quote:
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Last edited by NuclearShadow; 05-31-2006 at 06:44 AM.. |
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#3 |
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Hookers and Blow
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Thank you Nuclear.
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He who angers you conquers you. ~Elizabeth Kenny |
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#5 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 269
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The Bible was frozen even before the Dark Ages. Luckily some sects of Christianity (i.e. Catholicism) seem to have done vast and sweeping reforms in the recent past (i.e. The Second Vatican Council), to make Christianity more, uh, right lol
For example, the officially endorsed Catechism of the Catholic Church contains a lot of stuff that is counter to Grandiagod's points. One I remember learning is "The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in other religions". Another is something like "The Church is not the author of our salvation, but rather its mother" i.e. the whole "community" thing is just basically a support group to help you get in touch with God, you shouldn't let yourself be controlled by it and you should think for yourself. There's tons of other stuff in there, so I suggest that you take a look through that to see something of a more modern Christian mindset. It can be found at http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/ccc_toc.htm . Of course this only applies to Catholics, really. Unfortunately a lot of Christians, Catholic and Protestant alike, are still stuck in the dark ages in terms of theology, and are using religion as a stupid excuse to do stupid things. I wasn't raised in any particular religion, and until I took a class in Catholic Theology I was convinced that religion was a total waste of time. But it seems modern Catholic theology has managed to avoid offending me I still don't believe in it, but it has become MUCH more plausible and MUCH less ridiculous than it was back in the days of the Crusades.-fs |
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#6 |
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Hookers and Blow
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Pssh It's funny how you seem to want to use mind control BS to describe Christianity but neglect how Muslims are taking the Koran to an extreme length in order to justify thier current Jihad. =/
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#7 | |
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FFR Player
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He who angers you conquers you. ~Elizabeth Kenny |
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#8 |
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Retired BOSS
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I am watching this closely... and can already see the lock.
Just a FYI... there really is no way to discuss religion without a "my god beat up your god" mentality, and that isn't acceptable. Turns into 1 person with 1 iron-fisted mindset vs another person with the opposite mindset. Then more join the cause on each side... and we have all out God War.
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RIP |
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#9 | ||
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FFR Player
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If Christians took the attitude of 'We're better than everyone else and nobody else deserves to be with us,' they'd have a totally wrong attitude. Without God's grace, we would end up in hell, and it's our responsibility to tell others so they WON'T end up there! It's a task of compassion, not a reason to gloat in ourselves. Quote:
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#10 |
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嗚呼
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Religion is dumb.
There you go, I just summed up your entire post in three words.
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Plz visit my blog |
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#11 |
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FFR Player
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Yeah, this is dumb, people are responding with Biblical quotes, like they are the truth. Instead of offering up edvidence they go "Well the Bible says" as if that's unrefutable fact.
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He who angers you conquers you. ~Elizabeth Kenny |
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#12 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 269
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Grandiagod, we are arguing about what exactly it is that Christianity asserts - therefore it is perfectly valid to respond with bible quotes. The purpose of the bible quotes is to illustrate what's in the bible. Using bible quotes to assert things about the real world is obviously stupid but it makes a lot of sense to quote the bible when you're trying to point out what the bible is saying.
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#13 | |
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FFR Player
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So what the Bible straight out says is pretty unimportant to my theories.
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He who angers you conquers you. ~Elizabeth Kenny |
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#14 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 269
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Got it. Well in that case, peoples' remarks thus far do seem to disprove your point on a higher level - people don't even agree on what exactly Christianity is!
So what are you defining Christianity as, then? The only common ground between all Christians is the name only, i.e. that they follow Jesus Christ. |
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#15 | |
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FFR Player
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He who angers you conquers you. ~Elizabeth Kenny |
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#16 |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 269
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So do you mean the intent of the individual people? Or of the leaders, as the case may exist? You're not really saying who exactly you're accusing of conspiracy.
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#17 | |
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FFR Player
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He who angers you conquers you. ~Elizabeth Kenny |
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#18 | |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: New York
Posts: 310
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Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lives here on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam. http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/pbd.html |
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#19 | |
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FFR Player
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He who angers you conquers you. ~Elizabeth Kenny |
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#20 | |
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FFR Player
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: New York
Posts: 310
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Quote:
__________________
Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lives here on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam. http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/pbd.html |
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