“The early Christians did contribute some good ideas to the world, ideas that proved important to the cause of future freedom. I must, so to speak, give the angels their due. In particular, the idea that man has a value as an individual -- that the individual soul is precious -- is essentially a Christian legacy to the West; its first appearance was in the form of the idea that every man, despite Original Sin, is made in the image of God (as against the pre-Christian notion that a certain group or nation has a monopoly on human value, while the rest of mankind are properly slaves or mere barbarians).” – Dr. Leonard Peikoff, Religion vs. America
"But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was JESUS OF NAZARETH. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, EASILY DISTINGUISED BY ITS LUSTRE from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the DIAMOND from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the MOST SUBLIME MORALITY which has ever fallen from the lips of man. The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this BENEVOLENT MORALITY, and rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects, is a most desirable object." -- Thomas Jefferson to W. Short, Oct. 31, 1819
My God is just, so I reject original sin, the doctrine that guilts people out in order to crush their self-esteem. My God is just, so I reject that Jesus sacrificed for me. Glorifying sacrifice is ungodly because self-sacrifice is masochism and sanctioning it is sadism.
“Man is made in the image of God”, teaches the MOST SUBLIME MORALITY, that of Jesus Christ. God is all-good and all-loving.
46 comments:
The just and honest do not perpetuate untrue claims. They do not recrucify Jesus for what HE WAS/IS NOT and for WHAT HE DID NOT DO.
Like Jefferson and Peikoff, they give ANGELS their due. They search for the truth.
"The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this BENEVOLENT MORALITY, and rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects, is a most desirable object." -- Thomas Jefferson to W. Short, Oct. 31, 1819
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=180773915303758&id=1346466773
Aside from Dr. Peikoff's "the individual soul is precious" as EVIDENCE of Jesus's INDIVIDUALISM, Ayn Rand also mentioned Jesus's "Love your neighbors as you love yourself."
This is Jesus's version of an individualist credo: respect individual liberty — your own and that of others.
The just and honest do not recrucify Jesus for the evil of of those who use HIM or God as a front.
Jesus's "the individual soul is precious" helped the future cause of INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.
Christopher says,"... mixing religion and politics makes the victory of individual freedom that much harder."
There's that mixing religion and politics that is theocratic. It should be fought.
Discussing religious freedom is defending it. Discussing religion like I do in this article, without any lust to impose, is a search for the truth.
Discussing religious beliefs in the hope that others will think about them, e.g. God is just so I reject original sin, or Thomas Jefferson's "Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven", is advancing one's values in the reason and persuasion zone.
Sacrificing oneself is NOT loving oneself. So self-sacrifice is NOT of Jesus. Sacrificing others is not loving your neighbors as you love yourself - this is NOT of Jesus.
It is very clear that sacrifice is not a teaching of Jesus.
But many DUNGHILL tyrants use Jesus or God as a front to make money or to rule people. They guilt people saying - Jesus sacrificed for you.
No man with self-esteem would accept this injustice. So I say in my article - My God is just, so I reject that Jesus sacrificed for me. This is my way of fighting DUNGHILL tyrants.
Aside from Dr. Peikoff's "the individual soul is precious" as EVIDENCE of Jesus's INDIVIDUALISM, Ayn Rand also mentioned Jesus's "Love your neighbors as you love yourself."
This is Jesus's version of an individualist credo: respect individual liberty — your own & that of others.
This is proof Jesus did not teach sacrifice. Sacrificing oneself is NOT loving oneself. Sacrificing others is not loving your neighbors.
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
From Ayn Rand Answers, pages 62-63:
"We should keep religion out of politics for the same reasons the Founding Fathers gave. Religion is a private matter... With the American separation of church and state, all religions could live together peacefully, because each man is free to hold his own beliefs but cannot force them on others.
Persuasion, reason, argument are not the province of religion. Religion rests on faith - on an acceptance of certain beliefs apart from reason. THIS IS WHY IT MUST BE PRIVATE. WHEN IT'S A PRIVATE MATTER, IT'S FINE - IT CAN EVEN BE A KIND OF INSPIRATION TO PEOPLE. Faith is what each man may choose for himself, if he wishes. I don't."
From page 63:
"In America, religion is relatively nonmystical. Religious teachers here are predominantly good, healthy materialists. They follow common sense....
THERE ARE RATIONAL RELIGIOUS PEOPLE. In fact, I was pleased and astonished to discover that some religious people support Objectivism. If you want to be a full Objectivist, you cannot reconcile that with religion; BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN RELIGIOUS PEOPLE CANNOT BE INDIVIDUALISTS AND FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. THEY CAN, AND THIS COUNTRY IS THE BEST PROOF OF IT....
In America, you would not find it difficult to divorce religion from altruism. After all, Christ said - "Love your neighbor as yourself." So you must love yourself. After that, you can argue about your neighbors."
"The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..." - signed by John Adams
US Treaty with Tripoli, 1796-1797
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html
"Either we accept the basic principle of Jesus—the preeminence of one's own soul—and define a new code of ethics consistent with it (a code of Individualism). Or we accept altruism and the basic principle which it implies—the conception of man as a sacrificial animal, whose purpose is service to others, to the herd (which is what you may see in Europe right now—and which is certainly not what Jesus intended)." - Ayn Rand, Letters of Ayn Rand
http://books.google.com/books?id=TYZaNwrIM8YC&pg=PT290&lpg=PT290&dq=%22Either+we+accept+the+basic+principle+of+Jesus%E2%80%94the+preeminence+of+one's+own+soul%E2%80%94and+define+a+new+code+of+ethics+consistent+with+it+%22&source=bl&ots=1-JgotPh2p&sig=wibI5COhY2XZU8V133zpul3jdmc&hl=en&ei=c6QPTuWML9TOgAexw9GGDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Either%20we%20accept%20the%20basic%20principle%20of%20Jesus%E2%80%94the%20preeminence%20of%20one's%20own%20soul%E2%80%94and%20define%20a%20new%20code%20of%20ethics%20consistent%20with%20it%20%22&f=false
“The early Christians did contribute... ideas that proved impt to the cause of future freedom. I must... give the angels their due. ... that the individual soul is precious is essentially a Christian legacy to the West.” – Peikoff
"Either we accept the basic principle of Jesus—the preeminence of one's own soul — ... a code of Individualism. Or we accept altruism... w/c is certainly not what Jesus intended." - AR
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
"The individual soul is precious" evinces Jesus's INDIVIDUALISM. "Love your neighbors as you love yourself" is His version of an individualist credo: respect individual liberty — your own & that of others.
"But the greatest of all reformers... was JESUS. What is really his... is EASILY DISTINGUISED BY ITS LUSTRE from the dross of his biographers, & as separable from that as the DIAMOND from the dunghill." - TJ
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
Since existence comes before consciousness, since reality exists independent of any perceiver's conciousness: an existent, like God, can exist though no human is aware of such existence.
Faith is belief; it is not knowledge. If one has no knowledge of cancer cure, one can't offer definitions, but one can hope to discover or create a cure, or that scientists do.
Before the creation of the airplane, it was thought of as impossible. Before the discovery of DNA, it already existed...
The greatest advocates of reason, Aristotle and Aquinas, believed in a God. So were polymaths and polyglots Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, & Jose Rizal. So were Darwin and John Locke. These men were not irrational.
if you could get 'religion' that word out of this conversation, and use instead the word FAITH, then we might actually get somewhere. 'Faith' is what Christians have in God, in Christ and is essential and ongoing. Faith can easily be married to our government in that it offers only the Lord, who says to do what is good and righteous for yourself and others. If, then, we, or our representatives in Congress, were to do that, considering others as they would themselves, how much better off would our government be?
"Ayn Rand praises Christianity for advocating individualism and egoism; encourages minister to distance Christianity from altruism."
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AYN-RAND-3-Page-Typed-Letter-SIGNED-1943-w-envelope-/220842770782?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336b41415e#ht_2840wt_1396
“It's not until the nineteenth century that the mania for Christmas gifts takes off. But as early as 1809, Thomas Jefferson's grandson, age eight, is said to be "at this moment running about with his cousins bawling out 'a merry christmas' 'a christmas gift &c.'"”
http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/christmas04/days.cfm
One's personal stand on anything is no one's business. I fight only those that impose, only those that seek the use of coercion on rights-respecters. Government is force. It holds a monopoly on legal coercive power.
I am with the First Amendment, and with Thomas Jefferson's explanation of religious freedom: separation of church and state. It is as fundamental as freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It is freedom of conscience.
A Christ perverting THEOCRACY executed Jose Rizal at age 35, the Philippine National Hero, a polymath and polyglot, because he wrote novels exposing a double-faced Goliath: a military government backed by theocratic friars. This Goliath enslaved the Philippines for three centuries.
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
Santorum and his fellow DARK-AGES warriors spurn God's gift of FREE WILL, Christ's "the INDIVIDUAL soul is precious", and that man is made from God's image and hence worthy of happiness.
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
Sacrifice is giving up a higher value over a lesser one or a non-value.
The virtue involved in caring for loved ones and doing the right thing is integrity: you love, so you care; you think it is right, so you do it. Since I love my kids more than I love myself, since I value them above all else, going without something or working hard for them is NOT sacrifice.
When Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty, or give me death," he was not sacrificing himself. He was saying that he valued his liberty over his own life.
New Jersey Declaration of Independence Signer, Abraham Clark, was dragooned to renounce his signature. His two sons, officers in George Washington's army, were captured and TORTURED. The British said they would release them if Mr. Clark renounced the Declaration and his signature. He refused. Since he and his sons valued liberty above all else, it was not sacrifice.
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
In a nation with a wall of separation between church & state, where theists of every kind, atheists, & infidels of every religion have equal rights: is it proper to celebrate JESUS CHRIST on a government-declared holiday, Good Friday? Yes, because He is the proponent of INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY.
An Objectivist, who by definition is an atheist, calls the early Christians: ANGELS, because they taught that THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL IS PRECIOUS. Jesus celebrated INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, and He was crucified for it.
King George III, who obtruded slavery on the American colonies, called himself Christian. For centuries, tyrants have enslaved people in Christ's name. Many use Him as a front in order to conquer minds and nations. Even His biographers lied about Him:
"But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was JESUS OF NAZARETH. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, EASILY DISTINGUISED BY ITS LUSTRE from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the DIAMOND from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the MOST SUBLIME MORALITY which has ever fallen from the lips of man. The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this BENEVOLENT MORALITY, and rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects, is a most desirable object." - Thomas Jefferson
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
Jefferson said that ultra-Christian sects have invented dunghill which is as separable from Christ's MOST SUBLIME MORALITY. Peikoff describes the early Christians as angels for teaching that the individual soul is precious.
DARK-AGES warriors cum socialist-thugs in the GOP go gaga over Rubio, who espouses: "to whom much is given, much is expected." This is no different from the communist slogan: "from each according to his ability; to each according to his need."
"To take from one bec. it is thought that his own industry & that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry & skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association - the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry & the fruits acquired by it." - Thomas Jefferson
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
The province of reason and persuasion is in the private sector. Rubio chose to do the business of legal coercion. He is espousing the Luke quote in a coercive setting. He uses the Luke quote to justify looting.
The province of reason and persuasion is in the private sector. Rubio chose to do the business of legal coercion. He espouses the Luke quote in a coercive setting. He uses the Luke quote to justify looting.
As a wielder of legal coercive power, Barack Obama denigrates Christianity in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi-V_ilJu0w&sns=fb,
and advocates for Islam here: http://itmakessenseblog.com/2012/08/28/here-is-what-fox-news-was-blocked-from-showing/
Jesus taught that man is created in God’s image; thus, every individual soul is precious. Thomas Jefferson said, "But the greatest of all reformers… was JESUS OF NAZARETH. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, EASILY DISTINGUISED BY ITS LUSTRE from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the DIAMOND from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the MOST SUBLIME MORALITY…”
Dark-Ages warriors have perverted the teachings of Jesus. A popular atheist, Dr. Peikoff, describes the early Christians as "angels" because Christ's fundamental is the FOUNDATION of INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.
Thomas Jefferson regarded Christ's code, devoid of what is not really His, the MOST SUBLIME MORALITY.
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
Individualism is the respect of Individual Rights, one's own and those of others. In Collectivism, an individual's life & property belong to the collective.
“The early Christians did contribute some good ideas to the world, ideas that proved important to the cause of future freedom. I must, so to speak, give the angels their due. In particular, the idea that man has a value as an individual -- that the INDIVIDUAL SOUL is precious -- is essentially a Christian legacy to the West; its first appearance was in the form of the idea that every man, despite Original Sin, is made in the image of God (as against the pre-Christian notion that a certain group or nation has a monopoly on human value, while the rest of mankind are properly slaves or mere barbarians).” – Dr. Leonard Peikoff, Religion vs. America
Jesus gets re-crucified by DARK-AGES warriors who use Him to coerce, and by the unjust who re-crucify Him for the evil of DARK-AGES warriors.
The just and honest, like Jefferson and Peikoff, give ANGELS their due. They search for the truth.
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
Ayn Rand considered Kant, the proponent of categorical imperatives, as the most evil man who ever lived. Yet, she established Objectivism with an atheistic imperative.
That is the difference between Jeffersonianism and Objectivism.
Private faith is no one's business. By private, I mean that exercised by private individuals. They are free to exercise faith in public as long as they do not violate the equal rights of others. Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Founders are the proof that faith and reason can coexist, parallel to each other, in the same man.
"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone... I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others." - Thomas Jefferson
Dr. Leonard Peikoff, an atheist, the intellectual heir of Ayn Rand, called the early Christians: ANGELS. Thomas Jefferson said, "But the greatest of all reformers... was JESUS OF NAZARETH. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, EASILY DISTINGUISED BY ITS LUSTRE from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the DIAMOND from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the MOST SUBLIME MORALITY..."
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
I go by God's greatest gift: my OWN reason. God communicates with INDIVIDUAL minds.
The early Christians taught that the INDIVIDUAL soul is precious, that the human specie is made from God's image. Thus, gays are precious, too.
http://ilynross.blogspot.com/2011/04/most-sublime-morality.html
Alan Turing, an outstanding human who broke the Enigma code and saved his country and the world from the Nazis, was persecuted by the country he saved because homosexuality was illegal.
Those who hate gays or homosexuality are satanic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
New Jersey Declaration of Independence Signer, Abraham Clark, was dragooned to renounce his signature. His two sons, officers in George Washington's army, were captured and TORTURED. The British said they would release them if Mr. Clark renounced the Declaration and his signature. He refused. Since he and his sons valued liberty above all else, it was not sacrifice.
Sacrifice is giving up a higher value over a lesser one or a non-value. The virtue involved in caring for loved ones and doing the right thing is integrity: you love, so you care; you think it is right, so you do it.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Declaration-Signer-Abraham-Clark/275323032724
"But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was JESUS OF NAZARETH. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, EASILY DISTINGUISED BY ITS LUSTRE from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the DIAMOND from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the MOST SUBLIME MORALITY which has ever fallen from the lips of man. The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this BENEVOLENT MORALITY, and rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects, is a most desirable object." -- Thomas Jefferson to W. Short, Oct. 31, 1819
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=384850138300800&set=a.142822539170229.27785.142821199170363&type=1&theater
The early Christians taught that the INDIVIDUAL SOUL IS PRECIOUS.
I am made in God's image. I am precious. God is omnipotent, so He does not need me to do anything for Him. God is all-good and all-loving, so He does not want slaves. He wants me to be happy.
FREE WILL is a gift of nature/creation while FORCE is the nature of government. The WALL of SEPARATION divides free humans from wielders of legal coercive power.
The fight for the wall of separation, in all realms [conscience, religion/atheism/deism, science, economics, education, bedroom, uterus], is a fight for freedom. It is not a fight against Jesus. It is a fight on His side, since He fought for FREEDOM - He fought for Individualism - that every individual soul is precious. Thus, He fought for Individual Rights.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=565933796797194&set=a.564011160322791.1073741832.100373710019874&type=1&theater
Christ teaches that EVERY INDIVIDUAL soul is precious. My God is all-good and all-loving.
"Belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man." - Thomas Paine
This is from a man who calls the early Christians, "angels" -
"A specter is haunting America--the specter of religion. This, borrowing Karl Marx's literary style, is my theme tonight.
Where do I see religion? The outstanding political fact of the 1980s is the rise of the New Right, and its penetration of the Republican party under President Reagan....
What we are seeing is the medievalism of the Puritans all over again, but without their excuse of ignorance. We are seeing it on the part of modern Americans, who live not before the Founding Fathers' heroic experiment in liberty, but after it.
The New Right is not the voice of Americanism. It is the voice of thought control attempting to take over in this country and pervert and undo the actual American revolution."
http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5360&news_iv_ctrl=1225
Reagan retreated from Lebanon after the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks. (In one of his fatwas, Osama bin Laden cited the pullout as evidence of American weakness.) Reagan also agreed to sell arms for hostages — and not just to any nation, but to the Iranian regime led by Ayatollah Khomeini.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/03/17/answering-mark-levins-challenge/
Jefferson talked of the dunghill who perverted Christianity. One of them is King George III who called himself Christian.
Jefferson's denunciation of slavery was removed from the Declaration of Independence when SC decided it would scuttle the Resolution of Independence if the slavery clause was not removed. Jefferson's original passage on slavery is here:
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=primary/declaration-independence-and-debate-over-slavery
Ayn Rand was an atheist. So is Dr. Leonard Peikoff.
“The early Christians did contribute some good ideas to the world, ideas that proved important to the cause of future freedom. I must, so to speak, give the angels their due. In particular, the idea that man has a value as an individual -- that the individual soul is precious -- is essentially a Christian legacy to the West; its first appearance was in the form of the idea that every man, despite Original Sin, is made in the image of God (as against the pre-Christian notion that a certain group or nation has a monopoly on human value, while the rest of mankind are properly slaves or mere barbarians).” – Dr. Leonard Peikoff, Religion vs. America
http://books.google.com/books?id=OsCSArJxIRwC&pg=PT73&lpg=PT73&dq=%22The+early+Christians+did+contribute+some+good+ideas+to+the+world,+ideas+that+proved+important+to+the+cause+of+future+freedom.%22&source=bl&ots=n7CNmTXLYP&sig=D5fr4lqhskNL1uQ7R0fBVByxQ7o&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6h0tU_LCAsi3kQf1jYCABQ&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22The%20early%20Christians%20did%20contribute%20some%20good%20ideas%20to%20the%20world%2C%20ideas%20that%20proved%20important%20to%20the%20cause%20of%20future%20freedom.%22&f=false
Dr. Leonard Peikoff, who described the early Christians as angels, started his speech with the following:
A specter is haunting America--the specter of religion. This, borrowing
Karl Marx's literary style, is my theme tonight.
Where do I see religion? The outstanding political fact of the 1980's is
the rise of the New Right, and its penetration of the Republican party
under President Reagan. The bulk of the New Right consists of Protestant
Fundamentalists, typified by the Moral Majority. These men are frequently
allied on basic issues with other religiously oriented groups, including
conservative Catholics of the William F. Buckley ilk and neoconservative
Jewish intellectuals of the "Commentary" magazine variety.
http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist2/america.htm
Dr. Leonard Peikoff, an Objectivist who by definition is an atheist, describes the early Christians as ANGELS. Thomas Jefferson said that Christ's benevolent morality is the MOST SUBLIME morality.
You quoted John and Matthew. Whereas, the following is SIGNED by Ayn Rand: "Christ did say that you must love your neighbor as yourself, but He never said that you must love your neighbor BETTER than yourself... the basic premise of Christianity, the sacredness of one's own soul... the meaning and the greatness of Christianity..."
http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/showimage.aspx?gid=346891&ppid=1122&image=501630723&images=501630711,501630718,501630723&formats=0,0,0&format=0
Whose words are being used to fight DARK-AGES warriors? No, not Ayn Rand's, but these famous Thomas Jefferson words: wall of separation.
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