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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   14270 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025

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Agreed. That entire reply was cosmologically incoherent and probably facetious: if Christianity is true, then no other faith’s afterlife even exists, nor do their rules apply.

As for blasphemy, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain”, the actual commandment against blasphemy, is not about hitting your knee and using God’s, Jesus’, or the Holy Spirit’s name as a profanity. (Though doing so is unhealthy to the psyche.) The better way to read it is “don’t claim to be authorized by God,” which is why false prophecy carried a death sentence in BC Israel.

An intriguing and sobering clue to the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Fool (raqa)!’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You moron (morē)!’ will be subject to hellfire.” (Matthew 5:21-22, HCSB)

This detailed scholarly analysis of insults in the cultural mileu in which Jesus taught His disciples summarizes Jesus’ likely intended meaning thus:

This sentence should thus be read: “Whoever says to his brother or sister [a fellow, not a deserving opponent], ‘Raqa,’ [accusing his brother of false and empty interpretations of Scripture] is liable to the council. Whoever says, ‘Fool!’ [insulting his brother as one insults polemical opponents] is liable to the hell of fire.” … Consistent with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turns to a moral proscription rather than a legalistic one: it is not just the misinterpretation of Scripture that is the cause for such punishments, but even the false accusation that another misinterprets it. You say that we should go to the Sanhedrin and gehenna [hell] when we misinterpret the law? I say that the flinging of such insults deserves the same severe punishment. Easy recourse to anger, slurs, and insults deserves just as much punishment as the original crimes you insultingly accuse your brother or sister of having committed. In this context, insults are genuine social weapons and cause real injury, especially where these specific insults are understood as denoting a very specific theological transgression.

In other words, a dismissive or dehumanizing attitude toward someone you’re angry with is what becomes a danger to the soul’s destination. This means social media is a moral hazard and Christians should be extra wary about opining online. And calling someone a retard is a highway to Hell.

Interesting that The Motte itself moderates along these guidelines! Claim that someone’s wrong using detailed rebuttals all you want, but hurling insults and dehumanizing your rhetorical opponents is subject to immediate moderation or bans.

This detailed scholarly analysis of insults in the cultural mileu in which Jesus taught His disciples summarizes Jesus’ likely intended meaning thus

I am very suspicious of a Jew trying to tell Christians what Jesus akshually meant.

This means social media is a moral hazard and Christians should be extra wary about opining online.

Nevertheless, no argument here.

And calling someone a retard is a highway to Hell.

This just adds to my expectation that I’ll have a lot of time to really get to know purgatory on a personal level.

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