Thank you for the exchange.
Hope things are well ...
In a recent post I've thought about how "moderate" Christians come to their religion besides through the Bible (as to them it's not ALL literally true). If so, then on what do they base their beliefs? Any takers/thoughts?
I probably should not respond to this, as I am apparently not a christian, moderate or otherwise. However, since I do promote Yeshua as the Anointed One spoken of in Original Testament texts, I will indulge.
The truth of the bible is often left to selection. For example, a long enduring tradition suggests that blood revenge techniques were implemented during the service of Moses to appease atonement requirements on Mt. Horeb. However, the Prophet Yirmiyahu declares that such hogwash was never instituted by Moses or the Father and that the tired and senseless gibberish was implemented by malignant priests through later forgeries.
The two traditions are mutually exclusive of one another and, as can be seen, I am settled with Yirmiyahu's disclosure as the honest one.
My main 'religious' belief may be that sins cannot be 'removed' by blood letting. Yeshua is depicted as delivering a humane tradition during the course of His three year ministry that ignored any and all of the popular 'atonement through blood revenge' concepts that have infilitrated even modern consciousness. Empirically, that seems to be the case. Atonement is not accomplished by murdering innocent animals, whether they have opposable thumbs or otherwise.
In the book named after him, Yeshua's brother Yacov is depicted as disclosing to his hearers that undefiled religion before the Father consists of caring for orphans and widows in their misfortune and keeping oneself unstained by the world. I take the last part regarding 'being stained by the world' as a direct reference towards accepting and promoting any and all magical blood ritual's, especially when they are associated with the blood libel of an innocent.
So, in short, I base my religious beliefs on promoting humanity, as opposed to dodging accountability towards it.
Accountability towards humanity is obviously how the continuous living of the world is accomplished.
One Love