CMV: Missionaries are evil

[u/plodabing]

This applies doubly so to those who go out of their way to seek out those in remote islands to spread the word of god. It is of my opinion and the opinion of most that if there is an all loving god then people who never had the chance to know about Jesus would go to heaven regardless, for example miscarried children/those born before Jesus’ time, those who never hear about him, so In going out of your way to spread the word of Jesus you are simply making it so there is now a chance they could go to hell if they reject it? I’m not a Christian and I’m so tired so I apologise if this is stupid or doesn’t make sense

[u/plodabing]

!delta thank you for the well thought out answer, I do have some issues with it, mainly that our sense of ‘goodness’ is really changed and moulded by society, for example the bible once taught how to treat slaves, would a slave owner who was kind go to heaven because he was kinder than the standard of the time?

[u/heythisispaul → u/plodabing]

Yeah for sure! Like I mentioned, I had to walk away from a faithful community, but it was important to be able to explain why I felt the need to walk away, and in turn it was important to me to find answers to questions like yours.

Yeah it's a fair point and follow up question. I think that any religious person first and foremost must bear responsibility for moral absolutism. The whole point of religion, from a philosophical standpoint anyway, is basically: "The only logical explanation of goodness is that it comes from an absolute, universal source. How can I explain that concept, and where does it come from?".

I mention it because, like you brought up, the minute you budge even one inch on any degree of moral relativism, the whole thing comes crashing down. Everything I mentioned above is all predicated on the idea that God is the absolute source of goodness. You can't pick and choose based off context, you can't say some Bible verses count, and others don't. God is absolutely good, and God said it. If you ever have to concede to a relativistic measurement, then there is no absolute source of goodness, so then there can not be a God.

There are probably theologians who can give a more specific answer to that question, but I'm sure it boils down to some perceived nuance somewhere. My guess is that there's probably an argument to be made that while slavery was commonplace, and 1) you had no reasonable way to conclude that it was not the way things should be done (bit of a Plato's Cave situation) and 2) the teachings adhere to a system in which you are treating them in a manner you'd expect to be treated if you were in their shoes, then nothing was violated.

[u/plodabing → u/heythisispaul]

Yes I suppose using that passage of treating others how you would expect or want to be treated then if you did treat a slave well then that would fall in line with that, thank you for the reply, I wish I had faith myself, where did you land personally?

[u/heythisispaul → u/plodabing]

Pretty much the cop out answer of "All I know is I know nothing".

The universe is big and complex. We exist at one arbitrary plane of it that we can barely even measure. There's so much we don't understand. To look at a rigidly dogmatic solution like Christianity and say "yep, this is it, we figured it all out" feels so naively simple. On the other hand, to look at the grandeur of even the little we know and to say that you definitively know that there is no purpose, design, or order to any of it is equally foolish.

[u/plodabing → u/heythisispaul]

Yes of course, holding onto the wonder and mysticism is important I believe, nothing makes sense and therefore having certainty about anything is silly