Why are some people so adamant that God does exist?

[tonyrey]

And again I submit - while I’m all for tolerance, charity and understanding of folks I don’t know, explicitly loving your enemies is not a good thing. Your true enemies aren’t wasting their time trying to love you back.

Do you prefer to let yourself to be dragged down to their level?

 

[Charlemagne_II]

ASimon

You can’t simply sit in your room and go about your business - not as long as there are “others” out there with lives that could be made better. Because if you were one of those “others,” you would “not want” somebody to sit in their room and go about their business while you were in need. You would not want your plight to be ignored, so you cannot ignore the plight of others and be in any way keeping with letter or the spirit of the Confucian Golden Rule.

Confucianism is essentially atheistic. There is no specific mandate from God, but merely an advisory from Confucius, negative at that. As you have just pointed out above, the object of the Golden Rule should be affirmative action, not negative. But Confucius’ rule is specifically negative. Nor is there any bite to his bark. What if you choose to ignore him? What if you live your whole life ignoring his rule and getting along just fine (some people might)?

But as OMGJ points out, there will be consequences for following or not following the affirmative Golden Rule of Jesus.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25

Can you provide a comparable quote from Confucius?

 

[ASimon]

Do you prefer to let yourself to be dragged down to their level?

If I thought ignoring my enemies was a good strategy, believe me I would. As it turns out, I don’t think that’s a good strategy, and if they want to martyr themselves, hey, I’m here to help.
Charlemagne II:

Confucianism is essentially atheistic. There is no specific mandate from God, but merely an advisory from Confucius, negative at that. As you have just pointed out above, the object of the Golden Rule should be affirmative action, not negative. But Confucius’ rule is specifically negative. Nor is there any bite to his bark. What if you choose to ignore him? What if you live your whole life ignoring his rule and getting along just fine (some people might)?

But as OMGJ points out, there will be consequences for following or not following the affirmative Golden Rule of Jesus.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25

Can you provide a comparable quote from Confucius?

As I’ve already demonstrated 3 different times, there is no functional difference between the “positive” Jesus-version of the GR, and the “negative” Confucian-version of it.

Moving on - if you think it’s a strength of the Jesus-GR that it comes as an injunction from the Almighty, with the requisite promise of glory and the threat of torment, that’s fine. Needless to say, I don’t see it as any sort of weakness that Confucianism is without a God-character at the head of it. The focus of Confucianism was and is about building the Just City, the benefits of which affect everyone. Neglecting the precepts of Confucian philosophy can alternately lead to negative consequences in this life. Not so much concern is generally spared for the next one.

 

[tonyrey]

If I thought ignoring

 

[ASimon]

ASimon;8616468:

Jesus told us not to ignore our enemies but to love them and pray for them. To ignore is to imply that they are worthless and beyond redemption.
It perpetuates conflict rather than ending it.

They might not be worthless or beyond redemption, but I am reasonably certain they won’t improve their standing in my eyes by my praying for them. And loving them is still a dangerous, foolhardy practice. They are not suffering for a lack of love in their lives. They are suffering for believing in a God who tells them to kill all who don’t believing as they do.