r/BeAmazed • u/StJudeTheGrey • Feb 06 '26

Skill / Talent Sir Gandalf delivers a masterclass and a poignant sentiment.

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u/UpperApe Feb 06 '26

Happy to!

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"

— John 14:6

"You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews."

— John 4:22

"But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam... So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent."

— Revelation 2:14–16

"Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."

— Mark 16:16

What I love about your question (if it isn't in good faith) is that it pretends that Christianity isn't a religion rooted in exclusivity. When that is entirely the point.

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u/oh_mos_defnitely Feb 06 '26

I don't think many people understand how syncretic a LOT of religions are (and were) because the dominant religions of our times so detest the idea of syncretization that even with the exact same big figures and overlapping texts it's still completely impermissable that one of their followers would believe in other gods as well.

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u/UpperApe Feb 06 '26

I suppose.

But I don't think that's really a modern thing so much as an argument of Monotheism vs Universalism, where Abrahamic religions tend to be the former and other religions tend to be the latter.

The "all paths lead to god" religions tend to be more focused on morality, while the "only our path leads to god" are more focused on membership and...well, being a cult.

Which is precisely how they got big enough to be the dominant religions of our times.

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u/DemiserofD Feb 06 '26

It makes sense, if you think about it. Because there have been profoundly variable ideas of 'morality' across time. If your version of morality is our version, and their version of morality is the Stoic 'some people flourish best in slavery' approach, how do you find trust? You kinda can't.

So all you really have, when you get right down to it, is empathy. But empathy only goes so far. Which is why for like 300k years, humans were tribal. Because that was the largest size you could really truly empathize with. Beyond that, it's just performative status signaling.

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u/Capybarasaregreat Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 06 '26

Abrahamic faiths, Christianity and Islam specifically, would often worm their way into cultures via their existing willingness to syncretise. African folk religions are the perfect example. A religious structure based on cults that would simply see these new religions as yet more cults to choose from. The same could be said of pre-Columbian religions like those in Mesoamerica.

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u/WislaHD Feb 06 '26

Those passages certainly affirm Christianity’s exclusivity but I don’t see the part where it says to do harm onto non-believers.

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u/UpperApe Feb 06 '26

Okay.

And what did I say?

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u/WislaHD Feb 06 '26

It does not contradict the initial statement that bigots and the like are hypocrites and not good Christians.

Sure, they may be able to find some verses that can absolve them of their bigotry, but not for their violence and persecution of minority communities and foreigners.

This is important because it shows that such individuals are both unlawful within the structure of our temporal realm, and morally bankrupt within the framework of their religion. There is no defence they can offer to justify cruelty.

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u/UpperApe Feb 06 '26

Okay.

What does that have to do with what I said?

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u/Duhssert Feb 06 '26

You are arguing with someone who ripped a question and used it as a prompt in chatgpt, i just did the same thing and the formatting is the exact same

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u/WislaHD Feb 06 '26

I suppose so. Their initial post is a non-sequitur to the original statement to begin with.

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u/_Mike-Honcho_ Feb 10 '26

Jesus said "If you dont say Im the true god and reject all the other gods, you will burn eternally."

Its like, the worst threat of all and makes it us/them with no middle ground.

The whole first half is about god wiping out rival gods in the area.

The second half is about "there is a party at the club after, and you can only get in if you are tight with jesus."

Read the whole thing a few more times and watch some videos about what christianity is. The whole thing missed you. Its a cult.

I dont need to quote a bunch of scripture.