Separation from the primal union with the mother,
the Garden of Eden, causes a lot of suffering, but is inevitable.
However, it is crucial to remember that there was
and there still is, a Garden.
The suffering of Jews/Blacks/Indigenous
has deepened them and elevated them
above the meaninglessness and triviality of the white man.
This is the secret spiritual heritage
of the United States of America and many other countries.
Between 1999 and 2009, the number of people
who identified as ‘religious only’ fell from 54% to 9%
and those who identified as ‘spiritual and religious’
grew from 6% to 48% – a ringing endorsement
of the value of spirituality.
Spiritual transformation normally results
in transformed relational virtues –
more honesty/compassion/forgiveness –
or it may mean you become a prophet.
Like any true reformer/prophet today
Jesus critiqued Judaism from inside Judaism
by Judaism’s own criteria and holy values.
Today, atheists who attack Christianity do so
based on Christian values, but they do not realize this
because western civilization has marinated in Christian values
for so long these values have become subconscious.
However, false prophets, unlike Jesus,
always attack from the outside – therefore
the Four Horsemen of the Atheist Apocalypse –
Dawkins/Dennett/Harris/Hitchens –
are false prophets – they have no real understanding
of the depths of the religion they attack.
In critiquing Judaism’s over-emphasis on Law/morality
Jesus helped us replace our one-sided emphasis on goodness –
we are good, you are evil –
with a healthier ethic of wholeness –
looking at both our own goodness and brokenness
and seeing both the goodness and brokenness in others.
When Christians do this – take the logjam out of their own eye –
they bring peace to the world.
Intelligent Christian Spirituality 
Religion has no depth at all, so obviously the atheist critics you cite have no trouble at all in dissecting its nonsense. They do not call themselves “prophets,” so you can’t put that adjective “false” in front of something they do not claim to be.
Christianity has always tried to take credit for everything under the sun, including its negation for which they have executed people, so to look in the “subsconscious” for allegedly Christian-only dominant influence is just more specious Christian arrogance.
The “bringing of Christian peace to the world” wouldn’t involve the continent-wide massacre and genocide of the native peoples of the Americas, would it?
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good response, Nota.
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quite a false claim: ”
Today, atheists who attack Christianity do so
based on Christian values, but they do not realize this
because western civilization has marinated in Christian values
for so long these values have become subconscious.”
Happily, the values of western civilization were around long before the ignorance of Christianity. It’s a shame when christians have to lie and lie so incompetently. Here in the US, our founders knew that christian values were nothing good, so they ignored them. Rather than simply saying “See the bible” for our constitution, they went out of their way to ignore the hate and ignorance in the bible.
Having been a christian, I have the depths of the religion to attack from, and many atheists have been a theist of one kind or another. I guess, per Bruce’s own claim, there are plenty of atheists who can show that his religion fails from “inside”.
“In critiquing Judaism’s over-emphasis on Law/morality
Jesus helped us replace our one-sided emphasis on goodness –
we are good, you are evil –”
funny how Christians still claim that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is evil. Even other Christians.
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