The Passion Of The Christ

"It always worried me that people needed to be threatened with eternal burning in hell in order for them to be good.
Don't get religeon."

There is plenty of good in religion. Remember, religion is what people make it. You don't have to do what someone else tells you to do in order to be a faithful person. That includes being threatened into your faith. Not everyone's faith is based on this kind of practice; but I pity those whose faith is.

"And especially something like religion, where people are moving away from it, drastic marketing campaigns have risen."

Yep, people are becoming too smart to be scared into their faith by priests, so now we have to move to the next level. God bless America.

Iron Eagle: Wonderful attempts at adding sanity to a potential religious debate... but my advice is to stop trying. It's been established that QZ is not the place to have an intellectual discussion involving religion. Most people here are either athiests (which is perfectly acceptable), or are so set in their faith that their mind cannot open up to any alternative (and you know what I'd like to say after that one).

I don't know why I spoke up in this topic, I would rather pretend that religion did not exist. So many of the religious are hypocrits, or they pity you or look at you like you're nuts when they find out you are not a believer

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"Which means loving eachother, and following the teachings of the bible."

As long as you don't take most of the stories literally. There's usually a lesson underneath a story, and that's what should count. Remember, the stories were written in a time when almost everything written was fiction. First and second century people were not literal people like we are now. They took things figuratively - they focused on the person, and not the story itself.

Okay, yes, it WAS a very interesting movie...

But come on, you know they're going a bit overboard when the teenagers who are workingthere are talking about handing out sick bags to the viewers. God, I couldn't believe the reactions, no one was paralyzed to their seats, but there was puke all over the floor and that chick in front of me probably won't sleep for a year.

I probably will never, ever say this again, but...Charles Krauthammer actually wrote a good column today (and yes, he went a bit overboard as well on the whole righteousness thing), and I recommend that you read it. If you can find it...I can't seem to...>:(

I'm hopefully going to see this tonight...should be a good movie judging by a lot of peoples opinions etc...

I saw the movie tonight, it was a great movie, it gave me back my faith, to see what Jesus went thru, what He passed thru for us, I love this movie

Well, I have finally seen this movie! As a matter of fact, I only got home a few hours ago. Great movie if I do say so myself. Now for me to leave this topic for good, and NOT join in on the arguments and the like. ;)

I might rent it when it comes out on video/dvd. I don't really care about it one way or another. I'm pagan.

Wow well it seems that most of the people here liked the film, except for Mandy, heheh she already told me about it anyways.

The film hasn't been released here yet. It will be released here on the 25th. I can't wait to see it.

I've been reading some of the posts here, and I'd like to add my 2 cents.

When it comes to the question of "Who killed Jesus?" I believe that there are three culprits.

1. Caiphas, the Jewish High Priest. Caiphas felt threatened by Jesus, and his message. Also by the threat of destroying the temple, and rising it again after three days. Therefore, he felt that the only way to get rid of Jesus was to plot his death. He egged the public on to condenm Jesus. This proves that the Jewish populace of the time were not the ones that killed Jesus. It was the personal and political purposes of The Sanhedrin of that time.

During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church used to organise plays around the country side in order to teach villagers how to read, and to teach them about their faith. This is when the 'Passion Play' originated. By that time, the Crusades were underway, and Christians were ticked off at Muslims and Jews. Therefore, the Passion Plays started to portray Jews as savages desperatetly wanting Jesus to be crucified, instead of explaining the whole story. This is were the whole concept of anti-Semitism came about. I may be wrong on this, but this is what I think this came about.

2. Pilate, the Roman governor. Oh sheesh. The gospels potrayed Pilate as a meek, and humble individal that felt pity towards the crowds decision to have Jesus killed. This is not true. Historians had discovered Pilate to be a corrupt, blood thirsty and lousy governor. In fact, Pilate hated governing over Cesarea. Although the gospels had indicated that he washed his hands of Christ's blood, he was still doing his job. If he was really a meek individual, he should've not sent Christ to be killed. Pilate wanted to be left in peace over the Jesus problem, so that's why he sent Christ to be killed.

3. Of course, Jesus. His mission was to spread the good news, and to be the sacrificial lamb for the sins of mankind. Jesus knew what he was doing, and what he was going to do to wash the sins of the world with his blood. Therefore, mission completed.

It's good to know different sides of the story eh? :D

About taking The Bible literaly, the Catholic Church had said that it shouldn't be taking each word of The Bible as it is. Again, God didn't write these books. Supposedly it was the inspiration from the Holy Spirit that the authors wrote these scriptures.

BTW, hehehe.

Life of Brian is a great film! :D
The perfect film to criticise the church, and religious zealots. This is real heresy at its finest! :D

Also, has anyone seen Scorcese's "The Last Temptation of Christ"? I saw it this weekend on Bravo. Wow, impressive film. I haven't read the novel of this film though, but it seems to shed a light to a more human Jesus, than the messianic figure. I remember when the film was banned back in the late 80's. Still if only people read the disclaimer at the beginning of the film instead of accusing the author of the book for being blasphemous.

Also, who knew that Judas had a Brooklyn accent and red hair. ;) :P

I have seen news stories of people retching in the cinema and coming out in floods of tears at 'His' sacrifice - I wonder if they reacted the same to the scene of the soldier on the beach, his stomach open & screaming for his momma, in Saving Private Ryan - I doubt it.

Bob the Shrek>> good point...

<<'I have seen news stories of people retching in the cinema and coming out in floods of tears at 'His' sacrifice - I wonder if they reacted the same to the scene of the soldier on the beach, his stomach open & screaming for his momma, in Saving Private Ryan - I doubt it.' Maybe thats because the guy on the beach wasn't the Son of God.>> Bollocks We're all God's children, aren't we...? What's the difference if it's Messiah who is tortured and killed or if it's a fellow man who's suffering...? Are you trying to say that our lives or feelings aren't important or AS important... Do you think God wants us to cry for millions of years because of Jesus' suffering and forget about ourselves, about suffering of fellow men...? Wow, I start to like this religion even more.......