What Would Jesus Eat?
Dr. Don Colbert seems to believe that the obesity crisis in America can best be solved by getting back to biblical principles: What Would Jesus Eat? Alexandra Alter wrote:
“The gluttonous spirit is deadly,” he said. “I’ve seen so many diseases related to dietary excess, so why not go back to the owner’s manual, the Bible, to see what Jesus ate?” Jesus essentially ate a Mediterranean diet rich in whole grains, fish, fruit and vegetables and modest amounts of olive oil, meat and wine, Colbert says. Anything the Old Testament blacklists in its dietary prescriptions is out, including shellfish, pork products, horses, camels, birds of prey and other carnivores.
Well, I guess next time I’m eating fast food, I’ll have to skip the Double Camel Burger with the super-sized side of pork rinds.
“Most people say, ‘Hey, it’s important that I live a Christian life, but my body’s not that important,’ “ he said. “They’ll go to heaven, the only problem is, if they neglect their bodies, they’ll go to heaven a lot faster.”
Why would a Christian mind getting to heaven quickly? Isn’t heaven so much better than here?
And Colbert’s not the only Christian diet guru urging people to ask what Jesus would eat. Christian advocates of vegetarianism say if Jesus were alive today, he would maintain a plant-based diet out of compassion for animals. Others say Jesus would probably approve of genetically modified food, given his propensity for transforming and multiplying food.
Jesus is a blank social and theological slate for people — they can ascribe to him just about any position they want. What’s truly amazing, though, is the general perception that such ascription actually serves to strengthen a position. Why would an idea be any better just because Jesus would have supported it? Can’t Christians think for themselves? Can't Christians come to a conclusion about whether something is good or bad irrespective of whether Jesus had anything to say about it?
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The claim Dr. colbert makes about jesus’s diet fails to take into account:
A) the preferences jesus might’ve had for foods within the range of the mediterranean selection. (Were jesus to dislike beets, for example, would that cast out beets as a recommended staple to one’s diet?)
B) the manner in which jesus managed his diet of the foods he consumed. (Did he eat ungodly amounts of meat? Was he really modest about olive oil?)
C) The benefits of “blacklisted” items as they compare to jesus’s diet. (This necessarily includes the items jesus may not have eaten per his own perogatives, which Dr. colbert knows nothing about)
If christians argue that jesus’s choices are what morality should be based upon, then at least knowing what those choices really were should be imperative to their claims.
Whatever Jesus wants to eat is kosher with me.
I asked God what Jesus eats and the voice of God told me Jesus is partial to grilled chicken arugula and radicchio salads with a splash of viniagrette and a glass of dry white wine.
Hello…! I have to ask, the person who wrote this, what do you believe? Why do you feel it is so important to bash christians, for having faith, and Hope? I challenge you to actually read the bible, instead of use it as a reference for articles.
Who wrote this? Which part: the quotes or the commentary?
Christians are always thinking for themselves. There are so many thinking christians out there and thats the reason there are so many denominations and so many views on the Bible, however all christians look to Jesus Christ as an example and thus the name christians ! If you ever get a chance to hear Ravi Zacharias on the radio or read one of his many books you many realize christians are thinkers and highly intellectual. I regard atheists to be blind to the truth or people who disregard the truth thinking that they are intellectually superior and all powerful to know the absolute about everything. The seeimgly simplistic answers like “God created” could sound just that, simple ! For years scintists are studying the human body and the universe and until today there are no definitive answers to any questions. If this week an egg is harmful to your health the next week it is good for you as long as it is organic . We tamper with God’s creations and destroy its value. Look aroud you and you will see God in the way the solar system works and in the way you excrete waste from your body daily, in the way a embryo is formed from an egg and a sperm fertilizing in the fallopian tube and migrating to the uterus and developing into a fetus. I hope you will open your eyes.
Why do you assume I have not read his material? In fact, if you do a search for his name you’ll find many references to his work - and how poor it is.
Unless you can provide empirical support for this claim, it’s little more than bigotry - akin to saying that you regard Jews as little more than greedy or blacks as little more than criminals.
Please support this claim.
I have looked around and I have not seen any gods. Perhaps you would care to point out where you have seen any.
I hope you will support your claims, instead of just posting unsupported assertions and bigoted statements.
In agreement with the above statement, the theist’s argument above is an emotionally charged one.There is an attempt to insert the Intelligent Design Argument here, but the Achille’s heel of Intelligent Design will always be “Who or what ‘designed’this alleged Designer?”
Next, the theist attempts to argue from unsupported assertions about “Being blind to the truth.”If all that’s required to make something “true,”is an emotional argument from “exhortation,”then any claim that’s made will have the same validity.Imagine a world in which, everytime there is a dipute, the one making a given assertion can simply say that the one who denies the assertion is simply “blind to the truth.” If you’re going to assert something, ‘x’ is true, then please back up your assertions.
Thanks.
Whenever I see a Christian claiming that he or she is a thinker, I just see another dog walking on his hind legs. Christians start with the conclusions they want. Then they invent the stories and fabrications to get there.
“Look aroud you and you will see God in the way the solar system works and in the way you excrete waste from your body daily, in the way a embryo is formed from an egg and a sperm fertilizing in the fallopian tube and migrating to the uterus and developing into a fetus”
Well i have looked around me and all i see is injusice in everything. i see innocent babies born blind, deaf and mentally retarded. so tell me, what sort of perfect and omnipotent God would create anything abnormal?
“I hope you will open your eyes”
i think that all you narrow minded theists are the ones that needs to open
your eyes to reasons and critical thinking about this life rather than believing all those fallacies you are being told in the church.
I stumbled over this page, I am a Christian. I guess that makes me a fool here? Nevertheless I live my life with an inner peace that comes from what I believe to be a relationship with my Creator. If I am deceived, I am still better off. If I am deceived that the amazing answers I see regularly to my prayers are just coincidence, then let me enjoy the exhilaration I feel in believing in a good and Great God Who is looking out for me. Let me enjoy my imaginary Friend, whom I am looking forward to meeting one day. Why does it bother the athiest that people believe in God?
I have never understood how athiests can actually KNOW that God doesn’t exist. What if they just missed Him by a few minutes when they went looking in a far corner of the Universe — assumign they have been all over of course. What if He was behind them, hiding, laughing quietly? Wouldn’t it be more honest to be an agnostic, at least they admit they don’t know?
My God is well capable of hiding from people who don’t want to know Him.
I’d rather be a Christian any day than not. The best of both worlds.
And at least I have something to look forward to.
Cheers,
Geoff
“I stumbled over this page, I am a Christian. I guess that makes me a fool here?”
If Austin is speaking, no. But the rest of us might not be so kind. Would you call a 33 year old man who believes that pro-wrestling is real a fool? What about if he believed that he was hit by a car because a black cat crossed his path? If someone believes something ridiculous, they are either a fool or someone has fooled them.
“Nevertheless I live my life with an inner peace that comes from what I believe to be a relationship with my Creator.”
i’m glad you have a good relationship with your mom and dad.
“If I am deceived, I am still better off.”
Pascal’s Wager is rubbish. The inner peace you feel (assuming you’re not lying) is nothing more than self-confidence and being well adjusted. Dr. Phil or a therapist can provide the same if it doesn’t come naturally. Anti-depressants might help too.
“If I am deceived that the amazing answers I see regularly to my prayers are just coincidence, then let me enjoy the exhilaration I feel in believing in a good and Great God Who is looking out for me.”
Who is stopping you? Surely no one on this site. We might poke holes in/fun at your beliefs but we’re not trying to stop you from believing. Stop it with the persecution complex. Questioning and criticizing is not the same as trying to prevent.
Let’s hear about these answered prayers….
“Let me enjoy my imaginary Friend, whom I am looking forward to meeting one day.”
You should try having real friends. Again, no one is stopping you. You’re an American, right? You get to do that here.
“Why does it bother the atheists that people believe in God?”
Again with the persecution complex. It doesn’t bother me. What does bother me/us is that Xians vote for other Xians, and they make policy based on irrational beliefs. It bothers me that in basic training, on Sunday our choice was to go to church or to do chores. That Bush gimped our country by forbidding stem cell research. Go ahead and tell us he’s not a true Xian. i dare ya.
“I have never understood how athiests can actually KNOW that God doesn’t exist.”
Most atheists don’t claim that. Learn what the word means before you use it. Atheism means not believing in gods, that’s IT, nothing more or less. Only the dead know if there is a god or not, the living are all agnostic (some just having the honesty to admit it). Some atheists say they know, i personally think they’re being dishonest. Most atheists just don’t believe. That’s totally different than a claim of knowledge. It’s equally arrogant to claim to know gods exist. By the way, atheists believe in exactly one less god than you do.
“What if they just missed Him by a few minutes when they went looking in a far corner of the Universe — assuming they have been all over of course.”
Proving a negative is pretty much impossible. The burden of proof is on religion to prove that their gods exist and what these gods want. Atheists don’t have a book of rules dictating how you should live your life or run a country. So there’s nothing for us to prove.
“What if He was behind them, hiding, laughing quietly?”
He’d be a jerk for letting us not know for sure.
“Wouldn’t it be more honest to be an agnostic, at least they admit they don’t know?”
A venn diagram of atheist and agnostic would be a 99.999999% overlap. Agnostic is one who does not claim to have KNOWLEDGE that gods exist. That is different than belief. Look up these words before you use them.
“My God is well capable of hiding from people who don’t want to know Him.”
You’re presuming he’s there to find. Wouldn’t he want to be found? Why the games? Why the capricious cruelty?
“I’d rather be a Christian any day than not. The best of both worlds.”
Unfortunately, the Xians had it all wrong, it was the ancient Greeks who nailed it. You’ve been praying the wrong direction. Zeus hasn’t heard a word you said. So you’re going to be in
the underworld for a long time.
“And at least I have something to look forward to.”
To take a page from what some Xians say to us, why not just kill yourself and get there faster? How sure are you that Santa will bring you that Red Rider BB Gun?
Todd answers Geoff R quite nicely.
I know of very few Atheists who claim to KNOW there is no god. Like most of them (and I know hundreds) I do not KNOW there is no god. Virtually every Christian I meet will claim to KNOW there is a god. I do not believe there is a god. Therefore I am Atheist. Is there a possibility there is/are god(s)? Perhaps. I weigh the possibilities against the probabilities and in the end the probabilities FOR god(s) existence is so minute it hardly merits serious consideration. Therefore I live my life as if there are none. And guess what? I too, live my life with inner peace. A peace that comes from the clarity of thought applying critical thinking to the world before me. Atheists have our holy trinity: evidence, logic and reason.
As far as the persecution of Christians, that I just don’t get. If I merely mention to some believer that I am Atheist, so many will immediately go on the defensive as if my belief is a challenge to theirs. If Geoff and his ilk want to, or feel the need to believe in god to obtain the afore mentioned inner peace, we don’t really care. Have at it. But you are deluding yourself to think you have the best of both worlds. You live subservient to a fictional deity, donate money and precious time that could be spent gaining valuable education. Learning how the universe works instead of scoffing off anything you don’t understand with “god did it” and leaving it at that. In the end I’d say I don’t have the best of both worlds, but I do have the best of either world.
If I merely mention to some believer that I am Atheist, so many will immediately go on the defensive as if my belief is a challenge to theirs. — Comment by phrog — March 18, 2008 @ 2:31 pm
It’s because they know the mental ice they skate on is very thin. One stray thought and it will crack.
GeoffR: I have never understood how athiests can actually KNOW that God doesn’t exist.
But you “KNOW” that Zeus, Thor, Vishnu, Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy don’t exist. Right?
GeoffR: What if He was behind them, hiding, laughing quietly?
So… God is playing a cosmic game of Hide-and-Go-Seek? Rather childish behavior for the Almighty Creator of the Universe, isn’t. Why do theists, particularly Christians, accept behavior from their god that they would never accept from another adult?
As to the question about so many denominations in the Christian way is quite simple really. There were 12 orginal Disciples who made more believers as they taught. Just as there are four Gospels of the thirteen known Gospels about Jesus. If any twelbe or thirteen people see a car wreck all their stories will vary creating as many version of the accident. So it is with the Church, how the bible speaks to one it does so another with the next person, but often the differences are not so great as to divide them. Jesus ate whatever he had created.
If any twelbe or thirteen people see a car wreck all their stories will vary creating as many version of the accident. — Comment by Terri Hunter — March 19, 2008 @ 1:43 am
When eyewitnesses to a car wreck give conflicting or contradictory testimony, we chalk it up to human fallibity.
If every Christian was content to accept the Bible as a fallible, human-authored text, then you and I would be much closer to agreement.
Can’t Christians think for themselves? Can’t Christians come to a conclusion about whether something is good or bad irrespective of whether Jesus had anything to say about it?
The short answer is no. Christians take all things in life and try to find biblical truths in dealing with daily issues. Sorry if this offends you.
On a side note, I don’t exactly agree with allowing the resident About.com atheist to publish as many articles as possible bashing Christianity.