I’ve never met a teacher who says “doing things this way is extremely hard, but there’s another way that seems harder now but is ultimately easier” and meant anything other than “no seriously do it the second way because you’re just going to fail and be confused if you do it the first way”. Now that’s the generous statement.

The reality is that there is no archaeological or historical evidence of this particular gate. There is however immense theological evidence that Jesus of Nazareth, in the explicit canon of post Nicene Christianity, routinely demanded those who followed him to give everything in charity to those in need, to share without concern for the self, and to treat their fellow humans with the level of love and care they give themselves. But when someone actually does all that they wind up socially punished and/or sanctified.

There’s also a theory that the word “camel” in that passage was a mistranslation of a type of rope. IE it’s easier to thread a needle with a full cord of rope than for a rich man to get into heaven. The metaphor still works the same, but now it doesn’t rely on an in joke about one specific gate in Jerusalem.

Despite the fact that im not christian, I love when jesus preaches against hoarding wealth because they are totally reasonable guidelines for equitable living in a community, and most christians just totally ignore it

Can confirm, I remember the pastor explaining that during a sermon one Sunday morning when I was a kid.

Lately doesn’t necessarily mean in the past three hours, it can mean those last few years.

Yeah, I remember all that, I just don’t remember him being part of the “new atheist” group that was popular around that time. Mostly it was the cars and “colonizing” Mars…nothing to do at all with religion or lack thereof, really.

Fired his P.R. team and went from Tony Stark to a somehow worse Justin Hammer.

I definitely remember that, but it was more about saving humanity and being an interplanetary species and stuff. I don’t recall anything specifically referring to his religious/spiritual beliefs or him being an atheist leader, icon, hero, etc, like Dawkins or Harris. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t, I could have missed it, but personally this is the first time I’ve seen him connected to atheism so that’s why I’m a little confused. And sadly I’ve kept a close eye on him over the years because sometimes my job involves interfacing with one of his companies. I don’t love it.