There's several interesting verses in the first chapter of James.

[sinkingfeeling]

Last edited Sun Dec 31, 2023, 10:26 AM - Edit history (1)

James 1:10-11

But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. 11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.


James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

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For clarification, I'm an atheist. I just found these two, especially James 1:27, would be useful when arguing with some Christians.

[NoRethugFriends]

1. Ha! The rich aren't fading away. They're not going anywhere.

[SoFlaBro]

6. Eventually, they will. Like a Donnie Stinky Diaper fart in a hurricane.

[czarjak]

2. Easier said than done.

Pure and faultless religion? Good one.

[usonian]

3. They don't get to take the loot with them.

Even the Pharaohs, who locked up their treasure in secret chambers, are robbed centuries later and their remains put on display in museums.

IIRC, it was G.K. Chesterton who said that he'd have no books in the afterlife except the ones he gave away in life.

David Loy argues that beyond a certain amount, wealth, fame, power and such are merely symbolic, and being so, there can never be enough. Someone will always have more! And they are symbolic of greed, hardly a plus with old Saint Peter, as people say.

And outside of the Bible, there are examples of people with great hearts:

Master Fu. He wasn’t a monk, he was a layman. He had a wife and two children. He was a small-time farmer, had his own little farm. But in his middle twenties he retired to the mountains with his family to practice Buddhism. In the day he would work, farming. And in the night, all night, he would meditate, and read deeply of the scriptures. And he was obviously a man of considerable attainment, because at various times in his life he sold all of his possessions, he just sold everything. And with the proceeds he gave to the poor and needy, of which there were many, because these were times of famine. He would even hire himself out as a day laborer to earn money to give away, but still do his practice at nighttime.

Your religion is what you do, not just what you say.

[Eko]

4. Uh, I hate to point it out but there are also a lot of bad things.

Like it's ok to beat slaves if they dont die in a time frame, genocide and quite a bit of other things.

[RockRaven]

5. It's a giant book of choose-your-own-adventure, b/c assholes can take that 2nd

quote and highlight it thusly:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

And then declare the pollution-avoidance-system to be killing or subjugating all of the... gay, transsexual, other religion/sect, other gender, other skin color, other language-speaking, or poorer... people around them. And doing so is The. Best. Religion. Possible.

So the worst people in the world might actually agree that those verses are very interesting indeed, and come to entirely opposite ways of putting their interest into action than you or I might.


Same thing for the 1st verse. Eloon or Bill Gates or TFG could grab onto "But the rich should take pride in their humiliation..." and cut it off there and tell themselves and others "See!? The fact that I'm being criticized or laughed at by all these people means I'm right and righteous and God says so!!!1!!"


Anyone can say this stuff means whatever they want it to mean. If you think it means "be charitable/generous and not greedy/selfish," that says more good about YOU than anything else.

[The Magistrate]

7. It's One Of The Better Epistles

The author attacks the idea of salvation by faith alone, insisting that faith had to be manifested in one's deeds, or it was no faith at all. Luther hated the thing....

[PJMcK]

8. Ah, the Bible

That book of mythologies with quotes to fit any point of view about nearly anything.

That book that so many "Christians" (Catholics as well as Protestants) have never really read or studied.

That book that Trump held upside down.

Nice quotes, though.

[Voltaire2]

9. We would be a better society if people

Stopped believing in ridiculous myths.

While you can find excerpts to justify your beliefs, the same texts are used to justify bigotry and intolerance. It is rather obvious that these texts are not a moral guide, they are used instead to justify your morality.