A Statement From A Recently Turned Non-Christian

[Michael74]

Tell your young people to get an education in the trades. They can make good money and it won't cost the family their home to pay for it.

This is good advice for some people. It depends on what career they want. In my venue, trades are taught via apprenticeship. Youngsters work in the field under the supervision of an experienced tradesman, supplemented by classroom instruction related to the field.

In other fields, like medicine, additional classroom work is needed. Doctors still train with a de facto apprentice system, where they learn medicine under the supervision of experienced doctors. However, they spend quite a bit more time in the classroom due to the complexity of the field. Ditto for fields like engineering, where lots of math must be mastered.

So the solution is not to send everyone to trades, but to eliminate inflation so that things are more affordable.

 

[john darling]

I knew this was true after reading a couple books on the evidence as well as a few documentaries and interviews combined with I saw how it was used by governments and empires as enslavement and mind control.

I didn't read all the pages so please forgive me if this has already been covered (and I'm not sure if KJ is still around), but I really don't understand how anyone can read about the life and teachings of Jesus and conclude that he was trying to mind-control and enslave people.

Jesus talked about being loyal to God to the point that we should not only be willing to lose our lives for it, but that we should be seeking to lose our lives for his sake (Luke 17:33). He said we should not be afraid of what people can do to the body but of what God can do to the soul (Matthew 10:28). It may sound a bit ominous but, to me, it pretty clearly shows a loyalty to God which should be greater than loyalty to any person, even if it means death. It's so completely opposite to mind-control and enslavement.

 

[evenifigoalone]

I think what he meant was not that Christianity is being mind-controlled by God, but that others--other humans--take Christianity and it's teachings and use it to control people. And they have, and they have used other religions as well. That doesn't make it evil, however, it simply means that humans will use whatever tool they can to manipulate others. Even if it means twisting Jesus's words to fit their own agenda. It's convenient because it gives people direction.

 

[john darling]

Hi QD. Thanks for offering some clarification, but this is the paragraph which led to the mind control stuff.

The only thing that I could not reconcile is information that I discovered that it appears that the Flavian Roman Dynasty created the Gospels which started as a satirical work as well as a pacification psychological operation. This theory is considered by scholars as not accurate, Christian or secular. It is also rejected by many mythicists. Regardless of what "experts" feel, in my heart, I knew this was true after reading a couple books on the evidence as well as a few documentaries and interviews combined with I saw how it was used by governments and empires as enslavement and mind control.

It's still a little confusing in how he wrote it because he also talks about how scholars think this theory (faked Gospels) is not true. He goes on to say, "Regardless of what experts say, I feel in my heart this is true". Is he saying it's true that the gospels were made-up or not made up? The topic is his turning away from Christianity and this is apparently the one thing he could not reconcile. It seems unlikely that he would conclude it was UN-true that the gospels were faked and as a result of this conclusion turn away. His conclusion is that he came to believe the Gospels were faked and as a result he turned away from Christianity.

I may still be misunderstanding what KJ was getting at. He doesn't say the gospels were created for mind-control and enslavement, but does say it was used by governments for that purpose.

I get how some people could be tricked into thinking the Bible says something which it does not, particularly if they don't know how to read but are depending on someone to pass the information to them (though even then God can guide us without being able to read the Bible (1 John 2:27)), but KJ knows how to read. Surely he could read the gospels for himself and conclude that, despite whatever attempts are made to distort what's contained there, the teachings as they are recorded are not about mindcontrol/enslavement.

If he/she were still around it would be interesting to get an example, from the Gospels themselves, about this mind-control thing.

 

[Obadiah]

I think what he meant was not that Christianity is being mind-controlled by God, but that others--other humans--take Christianity and it's teachings and use it to control people. And they have, and they have used other religions as well. That doesn't make it evil, however, it simply means that humans will use whatever tool they can to manipulate others. Even if it means twisting Jesus's words to fit their own agenda. It's convenient because it gives people direction.

Just for some clarification as I remember when this thread was started and this idea was also being discussed by the OP in other threads as well; there is a heresy that the gospels were written as fiction by a Roman Emperor for his use to control the population. This is false teaching and heresy, but the OP of this thread did state in other threads that he believed this. This is certainly not a Christian belief and has no support in the word of God in any rational stretch of the imagination.