These issues are being discussed in other threads about morals. I thought I’d put this in a separate thread. Even Obama got up in a church and said he couldn’t implement the morality of this famous passage.
@Markus7
I am not convinced by the critic of the sermon. I give an exemple:
3Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
" The speaker (who, for expediency will simply be referred to as Jesus, as orthodoxy attributes these words to him) is essentially saying, ‘Don’t despair, no matter how bad this life is, the next one will be better.’ These statements may provide comfort to believers, but they are, in fact, simply assertions without justification. In addition to comfort for believers who feel oppressed by the outside world, these verses serve to pacify those, like women and slaves, who are oppressed by fellow believers.
These verses set the tone for a common theme that runs through the sermon, and it is a theme that betrays the very mundane nature of the speaker. Instead of offering useful advice on how best to live this life, the one life we’re certain about, the speaker shrugs this life off as meaningless, focusing instead on the life to come. Even if we were to assume that an afterlife exists, there’s no reason not to live this life to the fullest as well.
Any being which possessed the wisdom and compassion that would qualify as divine and benevolent should realize this. Instead of pithy dismissals of this life, we should expect deep insight into the human condition and guidance on how to improve our time here in addition to promises of an afterlife.
What’s worse is that these verses essentially instruct people to accept their plight rather than seek to address the injustice and imbalance present in their given culture. Such a message would have almost certainly worked to the advantage of those currently in power who may have sought to keep the downtrodden docile. If taken seriously by the masses, correcting the issues that lead to one’s position of meekness and hunger would ultimately be deemed unnecessary and potentially harmful to one’s status in Jesus’ future kingdom."
In my mind, the critic is justified for the first verse, not for the others.
I am not a believer, but i think that one must not make wrong critics.
5Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
These 2 verses could be a call to revolution !
Arise, wretched of the earth
Arise, convicts of hunger
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end
Of the past let us wipe the slate clean
Masses, slaves, arise, arise
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be everything
Chorus
This is the final struggle
Let us gather together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race
There are no supreme saviors
Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune.
Producers, let us save ourselves
Decree on the common welfare
That the thief return his plunder,
That the spirit be pulled from its prison
Let us fan the forge ourselves
Strike the iron while it is hot
Chorus
The state represses and the law cheats
The tax bleeds the unfortunate
No duty is imposed on the rich
“Rights of the poor” is a hollow phrase
Enough languishing in custody
Equality wants other laws:
No rights without obligations, it says,
And as well, no obligations without rights
Chorus
Hideous in their self-deification
Kings of the mine and rail
Have they ever done anything other
Than steal work?
Into the coffers of that lot,
What work creates has melted
In demanding that they give it back
The people wants only its due.
Chorus
The kings make us drunk with their fumes,
Peace among ourselves, war to the tyrants!
Let the armies go on strike,
Guns in the air, and break ranks
If these cannibals insist
In making heroes of us,
Soon they will know our bullets
Are for our generals
Chorus
Laborers, peasants, we are
The great party of workers
The earth belongs only to men
The idle will go reside elsewhere
How much of our flesh they feed on,
But if the ravens and vultures
Disappear one of these days
The sun will still shine
Chorus
That is a basic critic of religion, if not of the sermon as a religious text :
Kurt Vonnegut — ‘Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.’
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That is the bottomline of religion in general, especially the Abrahamic religions. Women are supposed to submit to their husbands and children are supposed to obey their parents, especially the father, even if he is abusing them. It doesn’t matter. They are supposed to accept the abuse, even if it kills them.