So, even within Christianity, the Ten Commandments aren't precisely the same across traditions — the text is translated and even *numbered* differently.
This law appears to mandate the KJV version — a Bible translation entire Christian traditions reject. apnews.com/article/loui...
Except that they don't actually live by their commandments. They'll happily kill, lie, steal, commit adultery, rape, and incest, make graven images, work on Sunday, swear, and covet their neighbour's stuff. They just want to fool people into thinking they believe this garbage in order to get votes.
That's still Christianity. No Christian lives by all the commandments, and it's long been widely accepted doctrine that they will be saved through faith. They are living according to the expectations of their Christian community and traditions.
The fact that another person's religious convictions and practice don't make sense or are repugnant to you doesn't mean it's not real religion. Neither "religious" nor "Christian" is a synonym for "good."
It's not really anything to do with whether or not it makes sense or is repugnant: lots of beliefs (not just religious ones) make no sense (flat-earthism) and may even be repugnant (Nazism). It's that people are credulous enough to encourage these beliefs to flourish despite the damage they do.
Exactly. The gullible we have with us always. But that doesn't excuse the Gadarene rush to willingly accord uncritical credence to the charlatans on the spurious grounds that they need not practice anything at all of what they preach, but merely pretend to practice it with no intent otherwise.
The mistake here is assuming an essentialist standard for proper practice of religion. That's an impulse that comes out of 19th c Protestant study of religion, applying a Weberian model to a vast array of traditions.
There's no "uncritical credence" being afforded--this is fundamentally critical.
