It wasn’t open to interpretation.

And yet, 2000 years later, here we are.

You know how the Romans collected taxes in there less "Roman" providences? They have rich guys a contract to basically raise taxes and the rich guys payed up front what was owed for their division of it. Then they were allowed to collect taxes beyond what they paid the Romans to make a profit. This is mainly why they were hated so much. Many people might imagine some official going around and collecting taxes fairly, but the reality was they were operating much more like a Mafia extorting protection money out of people, and taking more then most people owed, often to peoples ruin or near ruin. You can also imagine how nepotic this becomes. People who have loyalty to the dominant ruling class would often catch a break, while those disfavored by the dominant faction would often be harassed.

It was also a huge plot point of the Bible.

I've never understood things like pervasive distrust of Jews, but blanket approval of all things done by Israel because Jewish people are "God's chosen people." It's so much mental gymnastics to selectively justify hating Muslims and any Jew living in a large city, and completely ignores the point of the NT, which was to not make the religion tied to blood lines.

If they identified as Christian but never read the book or rarely go to church, what connection do they have to the religion and why do you feel they wished to impart it on you?

Dammit. Back in my day, Jesus was just a humble public access TV host.

You can be all of those things and be Christian.

Oh I was raised by bigots. Both full narcissists. Its why democrat and republican mean nothing to me. My democrat dad switched to a republican without changing one racist bigoted opinion. Made sure everyone knew how generous he was. Only he was generous when no one was around to see. Then he was cruel and mean. When I stopped being his victim he disowned me. Of all those christians he was hanging around ninety percent of them were just like him. They were incrediblly mean to people and always justified it using the bible. If their afterlife were a real thing then they wouldn't be that way. The reason why they can be that way is that they know its all a scam. If jesus ever existed that jewish dude wouldn't be someone they cared for.

I long for the day they are taxed for their donations and then we will see how christian they are. Whats left might be worthy of my repsect. But I doubt it.

Yeah so I was raised in a reasonably devout household, and I've never really been able to resolve this.

Its related to the fundamental attribution error - we judge others by their actions but ourselves by intentions. Except its more than that because religion creates this us vs them dynamic, where anyone who is "us" has good intentions, but anyone who is them does not.

Let's suppose a "good" person is one who performs acts of altruism, has integrity, and a high level of emptiness self awareness.

In my experience these "good" people are a small part of any group. Any race, creed, city, social group, whatever.

With that in mind, I don't think religion makes people good - rather its a system of beliefs that allows people to perceive themselves and their friends as good.

Really I think this explains why religion is so prevalent. Ultimately being "good" isn't a very good gig. Imagine doing destitute because you've spent your life performing acts of altruism. OTOH if it merely allows one to form a cohesive group of "good" people, i can see how that would be perpetuated.

I only realised this after I was well past my "Angry Atheist" phase: There are good verses in the Bible and there are also bad verses. Most of the Christians cherry pick. How they cherry pick depends on who they are. In my opinion, there aren't any real or fake christians. There's only good christians and bad christians.

“If Jesus was here, he would join the front lines”, my incredibly Catholic relative that needs to re-read the sermon on the mount.