Jesus - Humanity's Most Monumental Failure

[airportkid]

Jesus, according to the few accounts of his activities, would go around healing the sick, or feeding the malnourished.  These activities are usually celebrated, but as demonstrations of human nobility they are its opposite, they constitute cruel atrocity.  When a doctor or an inventor creates a means to end a particular type of suffering, or make life less miserable, they show others how to carry on, so the good work done stays permanent.  Some do it for money, but they don't hoard the faculty to themselves only, they do what they can to spread it to as great a breadth of humanity as they can - to make more money, or out of plain generosity of spirit.

Jesus never did that.  He never showed anyone HOW he was accomplishing his deeds, he just did them as isolated examples of "helpfulness".  Had he truly cared to advance humanity's state of being he'd've taught others how to do what he could do.  He'd've done all he could to spread the capabilities widely just from sheer practicality - keeping it to himself meant others had to reach him, and only him, which in efficiency was the worst possible thing to do.

Some might argue he did try to pass those talents on, but that ALL of mankind was a poor student.  What a fatuous argument that is.

What is Jesus' legacy?  What did he accomplish 2000 years ago that made ANY difference at all in the human condition?  We still treat each other like sh^t.  We still assassinate each other for the most banal of motives by dozens and by thousands and by millions.  Anything you cam name that makes life better today than it was 2000 years ago, and they are many, came not from Jesus but from straightforward secular decency.

The most prized Christian claim to "betterment" is that Jesus gave us a clear conscience to keep sinning.

As failures go, it can't be topped.

[Cavebear]

Jesus, according to the few accounts of his activities, would go around healing the sick, or feeding the malnourished.  These activities are usually celebrated, but as demonstrations of human nobility they are its opposite, they constitute cruel atrocity.  When a doctor or an inventor creates a means to end a particular type of suffering, or make life less miserable, they show others how to carry on, so the good work done stays permanent.  Some do it for money, but they don't hoard the faculty to themselves only, they do what they can to spread it to as great a breadth of humanity as they can - to make more money, or out of plain generosity of spirit.

Jesus never did that.  He never showed anyone HOW he was accomplishing his deeds, he just did them as isolated examples of "helpfulness".  Had he truly cared to advance humanity's state of being he'd've taught others how to do what he could do.  He'd've done all he could to spread the capabilities widely just from sheer practicality - keeping it to himself meant others had to reach him, and only him, which in efficiency was the worst possible thing to do.

Some might argue he did try to pass those talents on, but that ALL of mankind was a poor student.  What a fatuous argument that is.

What is Jesus' legacy?  What did he accomplish 2000 years ago that made ANY difference at all in the human condition?  We still treat each other like sh^t.  We still assassinate each other for the most banal of motives by dozens and by thousands and by millions.  Anything you cam name that makes life better today than it was 2000 years ago, and they are many, came not from Jesus but from straightforward secular decency.

The most prized Christian claim to "betterment" is that Jesus gave us a clear conscience to keep sinning.

As failures go, it can't be topped.

You are assuming that such an individual existed. I don't.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I always thought JC's mission was a complete failure if He had expected people to act better after he was inconvenienced for three days then went to Heaven to be God's No. 2 man.

[airportkid]

You are assuming that such an individual existed.

No.  I'm referring to a personality many millions DO believe existed AND serves, to them, as an example to aspire to.

[epronovost]

Jesus, according to the few accounts of his activities, would go around healing the sick, or feeding the malnourished.  These activities are usually celebrated, but as demonstrations of human nobility they are its opposite, they constitute cruel atrocity.  When a doctor or an inventor creates a means to end a particular type of suffering, or make life less miserable, they show others how to carry on, so the good work done stays permanent.  Some do it for money, but they don't hoard the faculty to themselves only, they do what they can to spread it to as great a breadth of humanity as they can - to make more money, or out of plain generosity of spirit.

Jesus never did that.  He never showed anyone HOW he was accomplishing his deeds, he just did them as isolated examples of "helpfulness".  Had he truly cared to advance humanity's state of being he'd've taught others how to do what he could do.  He'd've done all he could to spread the capabilities widely just from sheer practicality - keeping it to himself meant others had to reach him, and only him, which in efficiency was the worst possible thing to do.

Some might argue he did try to pass those talents on, but that ALL of mankind was a poor student.  What a fatuous argument that is.

What is Jesus' legacy?  What did he accomplish 2000 years ago that made ANY difference at all in the human condition?  We still treat each other like sh^t.  We still assassinate each other for the most banal of motives by dozens and by thousands and by millions.  Anything you cam name that makes life better today than it was 2000 years ago, and they are many, came not from Jesus but from straightforward secular decency.

The most prized Christian claim to "betterment" is that Jesus gave us a clear conscience to keep sinning.

As failures go, it can't be topped.

How was Jesus supposed to teach people to cure others using miracles exactly? Your premise that he should have taught others how he did it is absurd. Humans cannot do miracles. Only deities can and Jesus was God (at least if we assume the veracity of Christian creed). Helping others using abilities only you can possess isn't cruel or selfish. That's pretty crude ''Jesus bashing''.

[SYZ]

Jesus, according to the few accounts of his activities, would go around healing the sick, or feeding the malnourished...

Firstly, that a man allegedly named "Jesus" actually existed has never been
supported with any empirical evidence. That this purported person fed the
five thousand with bread and fishes is nonsense of course, as is the claim of
healing cripples and restoring sight to the blind. They're just mythical tales.

Bearing this in mind, a person who in all probability never existed, with those
sorts of powers, did not and could not leave any "legacy".

[Dancefortwo]

The real miracle would have been to not only cure one blind man but everyone who was blind.   Here we have a god walking around the planet (that he suppoedly created) and he's curing one perseon here, another person there, a little bit of leprosy here, a little bit of a cripple there but not doing it en masse.  Leprosy continued to plague humans until the 20th century when science finally did the job - thank you very much.    Blindness is slowly being tackled by science.  It's a more complicated thing I guess.  Working prosthetics for people who are without limbs are just now really becoming a reality.

So when a god, who is claimed to have created the universe, pops down here and piddles around with a few people's problems and then dies on a stick and expects to be worshipped, welp....it's a no-go for me.

[no one]

Pretty sure my birth negates your hypothesis.

[GenesisNemesis]

I would give the leader of the Taiping Rebellion that title. Resulted in at least 20 million people dead.

[Minimalist]

He never showed anyone HOW he was accomplishing his deeds,

Hey now, be fair.  Emperor Vespasian never showed anyone how HE cured a blind man and restored a crippled hand to use either and HIS miracles were attested by both Tacitus and Suetonius.  That's a hell of a lot more than we can say for this fucking jesus character.  Keeping the secret must be a god-thing.
And Vespasian was declared to be a god by the senate when he died.

[airportkid]

How was Jesus supposed to teach people to cure others using miracles exactly?

If one is able to accomplish miracles there is likely no limit to the type of miracle performed, after all, a miracle is unbound by any limit of nature.  So it'd be an easy miracle to educate people in how to carry one out.  Keeping an ability to yourself that does more than entertain that helps people in need is ethically monstrous.

The lesson of Jesus, which does not need Jesus to be real to be pertinent, is to steer clear of solo practitioners who keep their methods secret.  If what they're doing isn't supernatural (and it's never going to supernatural) staying solo drastically limits how many you can help, and forces those needing help to seek you out, both inefficiencies so great they constitute a crime against humanity.  It also limits the time such help is available, as old age always eventually cripples you to uselessness, and then you die.  What is always found, of course, is that solo practitioners are frauds, and have nothing to pass on.

But we don't teach that lesson.  Instead we worship a personality and methods that should be properly disdained.

[airportkid]

In what way(s) in particular is the world that has a Jesus in it, imaginary or real, better off?

[Thumpalumpacus]

How was Jesus supposed to teach people to cure others using miracles exactly? Your premise that he should have taught others how he did it is absurd. Humans cannot do miracles. Only deities can and Jesus was God (at least if we assume the veracity of Christian creed). Helping others using abilities only you can possess isn't cruel or selfish. That's pretty crude ''Jesus bashing''.

Accepting the existence of Jesus for the sake of discussion, I'd think that an omnipotent god need not teach anyone how to heal, but rather simply imbue them with the power to heal and tell them to get to work.

After all, this is exactly what faith-healers claim -- that they are gifted from God with the power to heal. And believers lap it up. You, me, and Peter Popoff know that this is bullshit, but this is a Christian claim. And if their god can select some to empower this healing, he could select everyone ... if he existed.

[adey67]

Jesus, according to the few accounts of his activities, would go around healing the sick, or feeding the malnourished.  These activities are usually celebrated, but as demonstrations of human nobility they are its opposite, they constitute cruel atrocity.  When a doctor or an inventor creates a means to end a particular type of suffering, or make life less miserable, they show others how to carry on, so the good work done stays permanent.  Some do it for money, but they don't hoard the faculty to themselves only, they do what they can to spread it to as great a breadth of humanity as they can - to make more money, or out of plain generosity of spirit.

Jesus never did that.  He never showed anyone HOW he was accomplishing his deeds, he just did them as isolated examples of "helpfulness".  Had he truly cared to advance humanity's state of being he'd've taught others how to do what he could do.  He'd've done all he could to spread the capabilities widely just from sheer practicality - keeping it to himself meant others had to reach him, and only him, which in efficiency was the worst possible thing to do.

Some might argue he did try to pass those talents on, but that ALL of mankind was a poor student.  What a fatuous argument that is.

What is Jesus' legacy?  What did he accomplish 2000 years ago that made ANY difference at all in the human condition?  We still treat each other like sh^t.  We still assassinate each other for the most banal of motives by dozens and by thousands and by millions.  Anything you cam name that makes life better today than it was 2000 years ago, and they are many, came not from Jesus but from straightforward secular decency.

The most prized Christian claim to "betterment" is that Jesus gave us a clear conscience to keep sinning.

As failures go, it can't be topped.

You are assuming that such an individual existed.  I don't.

Not only that but the assumption that the events (which must necessarily involve a degree of supernatural magical happenings) actually occurred, I personally don't think he existed but I can't say for certain he didn't but I can say beyond reasonable doubt that even if Jesus existed as a historical figure his miracles did not.

[Minimalist]

"Jesus" without the magic tricks is just some schlemiel who got his ass nailed to a board.... maybe.

[Free]

If Jesus was ripping off all the religious fanatics back in the day, that's fine by me.

How can that be a bad thing?

(Edit: I'm just here to throw a fuck into everything, so pardon me. )

[Minimalist]

The people who invented and marketed jesus were the Trumps of their day.

The Greatest Story Ever Sold.

[Dom]

The people who invented and marketed jesus were the Trumps of their day.

The Greatest Story Ever Sold.

Well, people didn't exactly computer games to entertain themselves. Good story tellers and a few nice chants filled the void.

[Phaedrus]

Watching the grass grow wasn't entertaining enough?

Hard to believe.

[Minimalist]

The people who invented and marketed jesus were the Trumps of their day.

The Greatest Story Ever Sold.

Well, people didn't exactly computer games to entertain themselves. Good story tellers and a few nice chants filled the void.

Grand Theft Ox Cart?


Doesn't really work.

[Phaedrus]

[Minimalist]

Historical reality check.

There was no hippodrome in Jerusalem.   There was one in Caesarea cuz that's where the Romans hung out.

[Gwaithmir]

In my opinion, Jesus' biggest failure was never condemning the practice of slavery. 

[SYZ]

You are assuming that such an individual existed.

No.  I'm referring to a personality many millions DO believe existed AND serves, to them, as an example to aspire to.

Abraham Lincoln famously said “You can't believe everything you read on the internet.”

[julep]

I'd argue that this legacy also includes a bunch of dudes freeloading. Jesus doesn't pay rent; he comes to town expecting to be fed and housed. Not just Jesus, but the whole disciple gang. Also, from my reading, the townspeople are expected to provide a selection of prostitutes. Sure, Jesus might turn some water into wine, but only after he and the disciples have emptied the host's supply. 

Looking at the church through the years, it's evident that the legacy of believer-funded room and board, plus hookers and blow has been preserved exceptionally well by Christians. One might hold that it's the sole through-line of the faith.