You certainly seem to have had the Catholic interpretation of Christianity beaten into you. Suffice it that there are others.There was this little thing called the Reformation, which gave rise to myriad other interpretations, some very close to the Catholic, some very different.
Call me out on quoting Shakespeare. He has some difficult passages but the one I quoted ain't one of them. I can be sure whether it was freshman or sophomore year in high school that we read Hamlet in English class. It was one or the other (I had read it several years earlier). That should give you an idea of reading level required.
You may intertwine Christian ethics and Christian theology but it is not necessary and one can argue (as Jefferson did repeatedly in his letters) that it is theology that is the scum to be skimmed off the ethics rather than vice versa as you think. Forgive my obtuseness as you call it and let me throw another quote at you, this time from Benjamin Franklin (I am far more agnostic than he concerning the existence of a Creator and the immortality of the soul but agree almost completely concerning Jesus):
"Here is my creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence.That he ought to beworshipped. That the most acceptable Service we render to him is doing good to his other Children. That the soul of Man is immortal,and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever Sect I meet with them.
"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble."
If you had read what I have written here, you would see that I hardly limit myself to Christianity. I have invoked Buddhism, the philosophy of Schopenhauer and quoted the Hindu Upanishads (tat tvam asi). I see no reason to exclude Christianity.
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Date: 2013-05-22 03:25 pm (UTC)Call me out on quoting Shakespeare. He has some difficult passages but the one I quoted ain't one of them. I can be sure whether it was freshman or sophomore year in high school that we read Hamlet in English class. It was one or the other (I had read it several years earlier). That should give you an idea of reading level required.
You may intertwine Christian ethics and Christian theology but it is not necessary and one can argue (as Jefferson did repeatedly in his letters) that it is theology that is the scum to be skimmed off the ethics rather than vice versa as you think. Forgive my obtuseness as you call it and let me throw another quote at you, this time from Benjamin Franklin (I am far more agnostic than he concerning the existence of a Creator and the immortality of the soul but agree almost completely concerning Jesus):
"Here is my creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence.That he ought to beworshipped. That the most acceptable Service we render to him is doing good to his other Children. That the soul of Man is immortal,and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever Sect I meet with them.
"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble."
If you had read what I have written here, you would see that I hardly limit myself to Christianity. I have invoked Buddhism, the philosophy of Schopenhauer and quoted the Hindu Upanishads (tat tvam asi). I see no reason to exclude Christianity.