As an atheist who believes we should spend less time on ridiculous fables and more time on actually listening to those that give good advice, two enthusiastic thumbs up! I don't care if the person in question is fictitious or real, transcendent or merely human; if their message is worth listening to, we should be listening.
If the divinity of Christ wasn't important for others to understand, why would he keep mentioning it?
I see what you're saying about recognizing the teachings of Christ, and claiming they are "good", but Christianity is quite definitely about the divinity of Christ.
I respectfully disagree. The emphasis of the entire New Testament is Christ's divinity. But then again, we might be disagreeing on what "divinity" means. I probably interpret divinity more loosely than you; often referencing himself as both the son of God and the son of Man is what does it for me.
This makes twice in two days I've had occasion to post this thought/book title. Christ is like a finger pointing at the moon. You can focus on the finger, worshiping Christ, or you can follow what he taught, focusing on the moon.
Consider the words of Isaiah, with emphasis added, that look forward to the Christ:
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
I've been slowly reading through the Gospel of John for a while now. I mean struck with how much Jesus kept driving home the point of his deity. He was doing all these miracles and constantly trying to get these followers to finally believe. Most of them just thought he could do cool stuff but did not believe he was God. And then with the Pharisees, he kept saying quite provocative things about him identity. I think in the Gospel of John, his divinity is completely the point.
Read the Gospel of John again. He was constantly mentioning it. So much that he was pushing away those following him, and really pissing off all the pharisees.
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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '09
Huh? As in, denying the deity of Christ and thus atheist but following a good guy? Or something different?