12-31-2024, 07:56 PM
(12-30-2024, 10:32 PM)Creaky Wrote: Love thy enemy is certainly not human nature
Christs main teaching
In Gods name indeed, even though He taught love
Anyway, that’s a theological argument you can’t explain to a non believer
There's seemingly quite a few references and quotes referring to the "love thy enemies" especially in Buddhism and Hinduism. Nothing directly saying to "love thy enemies as you love yourself" although Buddhism advises plenty with regards to oneness.
There's similar references in the old testament although that part of the bible isn't necessarily Christian, defunct since Jesus right? The same could be said about laws and rules that had exact or near equivalents within other cultures within Judaism history. Things like chopping off limbs and stoning adulterers... Not so nice stuff basically.
I suspect it's human nature to think, it would be dismissive of me to claim humans would never consider universal love without Christianity since we have countless reasons to come to similar conclusions. Animism itself would naturally encourage love and respect for everything encountered, we're also highly social animals ourselves. We'll build morality around our emotions because we are emotional creatures and we're not the only species to have social norms or even a sense of morality. In other words I'd have serious doubts that "love they enemies" was a groundbreaking and totally new concept to humans just like love itself isn't unique to humans themselves.
If I was to speak of my own experiences it certainly wasn't Christianity that taught me to love the ones I've hated. It was more of a spiritual conclusion that we're all one and the same behind those thoughts and memories we hold dear, including the negative ones. Influence wise Christianity probably did play a role within although the concept wouldn't have been lost on me in the absence of Christianity.
