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Christianity is one of three monotheistic Abrahamic religion, which originally developed from an offshoot of 1st century Judaism. [1] It differs from its parent religion in that its believers claim that Jesus Christ was (or is) the Son of God, who came to the earth to "save" mankind. Despite this supposed "Sacrifice" most of mankind according to Christian fundamentalists will go to Hell. And despite the vast majority of mankind facing eternal torment somehow the Christian god is also a god of love.

Liberal Christians and Christian Universalists are more reasonable.

  • Liberal christians tend to disregard the parts of the bible that are immoral or incorrect.
  • Universalists don't believe anyone will go to hell.

Christian Doctrine[]

Although Christians are a remarkably divided group they will usually at least agree on the following elements of their myth:

  • That Jesus preached a message of reforming 1st century Judaism and a coming judgment.
  • That he was persecuted for his ministry, was killed by Roman civil authorities with the blessing and encouragement of the Jewish Sanhedrin.
  • That he subsequently rose from the dead three days after his Passover Eve crucifixion.

All this is believed to be (at least in part) as atonement for original sin.

After that, it all gets a bit unclear as different denominations take it in different directions from there. That is really a bit strange as they all have (more or less) the same holy book - the bible - which many claim to be infallible. Historically Christians, like Muslims, have been quite happy to kill each other over their particular interpretations of the holy word.

Fundamentalist & Liberal Christianity & the Bible[]

  1. Christian fundamentalists believe that every word of the Bible is literally true (Except obvious parables) and are usually/almost certainly Young Earth Creationists. Either they do not know that the Bible is in some parts implausible and contradictory or they have enough faith to believe in spite of contradictions and other problems.
  2. Liberal Christians believe that some parts of the Bible are symbolic in some way and are not literally true.
  3. There are intermediates between fundamentalism and completely Liberal Christianity. For example a Christian may insist that the world was created in 6 days but all that was a “Creative day” not a 24 hour day whatever that means. That can be consistent with belief in Deep time and Old Earth Creationism.

Many Christians are encouraged to read sections of the Bible that their leader has suggested to them. Christians may go through life without ever getting to those parts of the Bible which are implausible or difficult to see as morally acceptable. This applies to Liberal Christians or Fundamentalists.

The Church or the Bible[]

Some Christians, especially Protestants believe that the Bible is authoritative. Others believe that their Church is in some way authoritative. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Papal pronouncements are in some cases statements from God and believers are required to accept them as true. Mormons believe that the Book of Mormon is divine and authoritative as are statements by recent Prophets. Jehovah's Witnesses treat the Bible as authoritative but their Bible is different from the standard Bible.

Christianity and pornography[]

Those Americans who can't or won't take the Christian values where they live secretly subscribe to porn.

The level of agreement in a state with the statement that “Even today miracles are performed by the power of God” predicted higher pornography consumption. States claiming to have old-fashioned values about family and marriage purchased substantially more adult-content subscriptions. [1]

Well???


There is a good and a a bad side to Christianity, see the category page

See Also[]

External links[]

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Videos[]

References and Notes[]

  1. Jews and Muslims see Christianity as Polytheistic because of belief in the three parts of the Trinity.
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