What would the world have been like without Christians?

You act as if humans won't commit vile acts against other humans for almost any reason. Religion is just a convenient one.

Also, dinosaurs do not exist. They did exist (hundreds of millions of years ago), but they no longer exist. Their fossils are not actually dinosaur parts, but the mineralized version of such.

 

Imo, it is interesting to consider the thought that jesus did not teach Christianity.
The religion and its various dogmas have essentially been invented by others over hundreds of years

When considered in this context, it is unsurprising that a highly successful religion would have developed ways to insinuate itself into society... And especially children. All ideologies do this sort of thing. Be it sunday school, or liberty university, or the red guard, or the hitler youth, or madrassas in the middle east

 

Your fixation with Christian bashing is a bit disturbing, and paints us Atheists in a bad light...kinda makes the whole "Militant Atheist" thingy a reality. Why not just do what the rest of us do....blow them all off as silly and discuss actual reality.

 

Christians, real ones that follow the teachings of Christ, are not responsible for wars and inhumane acts. It's the fake Christians, the hypocrites that Jesus railed against, that are responsible for so much of the suffering in the world.

Evolution has nothing to do with Jesus. He said absolutely nothing about evolution, dinosaurs, or the age of the Earth. Why conflate unrelated issues?

Now, had Constantine lost the battle of Milvian Bridge, then the Romans would never have adopted Christianity and then spread it to so much of the world.

So, since we're speculating, just what religion would have supplanted Christianity? Surely, given an understanding of human history, no one is going to argue that human history would not have been shaped by one religion or another, are they?

 

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It depends on what Christians. If I were to define Christians as "Christ Like", there are very few right now. It's those few that are living the life of Jesus in thought and action, that are salvaging any good the Christian monicker used to exemplify. I believe in some kind of supreme divinity. Now, to the topic; absent Christ, Europe would have started adoring Nordic Gods. It would have been pretty bloody.

 

I think your thought is Bang on. Much of the dogma of Christianity and the real Jesus have little to do with each other.

Jesus never claimed to be "God - God of Abraham" There are multitudes of examples of Jesus referring to God as someone other than himself and one or two really vague places where folks have "interpreted" Jesus as saying that he is God - It is never stated directly. Jesus never says "worship me" but often says worship God who is in heaven and so on.

Not the disciples, not Paul, and almost none of the early Church Fathers thought Jesus was God.. They all thought Jesus was subordinate to the Father.

Then we have the areas of known interpolation in the Bible ... making the book better conform with the dogma of the day.

Somewhere in the Bible we get bits and pieces of what the true Jesus may have been like. This was a man who said that the rule that sums up the Law and the Prophets was "Do unto others as you would have them do to you" Matt 7.

The "Golden Rule". This was following an earlier Jewish Philosopher/Rabbi.

Judge not lest you be Judged, Love Neighbor as thyself (said by James, Brother of Jesus, to be the "Royal Law") and take log out of own eye before picking speck out of brothers are just restatements of the Golden Rule.

The religious right, and much of Christianity in general, seems to have no clue about these teachings ? = If you do not want others forcing their religious beliefs on you, then do not force yours on others.

If you do not want to drink alcohol or engage in Sodomy then don't .. but do not force your religious beliefs on others though Law.

 

One of the main principles of the ministry of Jesus "the rule that sums up the Law and the Prophets" was the Golden rule ... "do unto others as you would have them do to you"

He restated this rule in numerous ways "Judge not lest you be Judged" "Love neighbor as self" "let ye without sin cast first stone" "take log out of own eye before picking speck out of brothers" and so on.

If folks would just follow this rule ... the world would be a better place. live and let live ! Instead the world is full of people who want to control others.

The religious right is bad for this but they are certainly not the only ones.

If you do not want others forcing their religious beliefs on you, then do not force your religious beliefs on others by making law.

 

I can't tell if you're being serious. Even if you are an atheist, that is no excuse for this dreadful misinterpretation of the Gospel. Have you actually read the bible?

 

Seeing as people kill each other for being fans of the wrong football teams I think it's pretty stupid to assume that if it wasn't for "religion" there wouldn't be any killing or war.

More people kill each other do to alcohol related incidents each year than due to religious violence, so why is there no talk from these atheists about bringing back the Prohibition?

 

I personally, don't know of any Christians that have taken part in the murder of millions of babies. Also, perhaps the OP is a racist who hates Christians for being prolife and attempting to block his mass murder of black babies. And, surely all those charities out helping the needy are athiest posing as Christian entities.

 

1. There were no Christian and Jewish communities in Mecca, so please explain how the Prophet used anything for "story material."

2.And heaven is discussed more than hell is in the Qur'an, yet you want to focus on hell.

Of course it's going to talk about hell a lot. Something like that needs to be constantly brought up.

 

Perhaps the op should have started out by saying, "What would this world be like without all religions.?"

 

Last time I checked ... Islam claims to have heard of the God of Abraham. Duuuuuuuuuoooooppphhhhh !

 

Exactly, and yet there were neither Jewish nor Christian communities in Mecca. Just pagans.

 

Not only have I read the bible, but I used to be a delusional believer in the fairy tales contained in it.

 

No Jewish or Christian Communities and yet somehow the Muhammad adopted the God of Abraham and associated story material.

Great that you were able to answer your own question.

 

Only you assume he heard it from anywhere. There is no evidence that he did, and his reaction to the initial revelations were just as you'd expect a human to act like.

 

Being a trader, Muhammad had plenty of opportunity to learn about Christianity and Judaism.

This explains why he incorporated elements of both into the new religious that he created.

 

The world would be about the same. The Roman Empire still would have existed, Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes still would have swept through Asia to Europe's front door and kill upwards of 40 million people, 16% of the whole earth's population back then. Mao would rule China and be responsible for close to 80 million deaths, Stalin even without Christ and a Christian god would kill around 25 million of his own people. Tojo would add another 5 million without Jesus, Pasha and Pol Pot would do their thing.

Armies regardless of religion would enslave those whom they conquered to include the Incas, Maya, Aztecs and add human sacrifices. At one time or another people of all races were enslaved by other races, slavery still went on in Africa and the Middle East until the 1970's and Mauritania and Niger didn't make slavery a crime until 2007 and 2003 respectively. The defacto practice akin to slavery continues today in may places throughout the world, all without the Christian god and/or Jesus.

As to your last sentence:
Cliffs notes: God does not exist. Evolution is real. Dinosaurs exist. The earth of not 6000 years old!!

Dinosaurs do not exist, unless you are referring to birds which supposedly are the decedents of the Dinosaur.

 

And yet there is no evidence that he did. But if he did, then why was he terrified when he received the revelations; and why did he see a scholar in Judaism-Christianity to tell him that his revelation is from the Abrahamic God?

http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/muhammad.html

 

Of course there is evidence that Muhammad incorporated the stories of Judaism into Islam. They both believe in the same God ... "God of Abraham".

Muhammad claims that the previous lore was from God but was "corrupted" ... and his is the true story. Which is not much different from the Old story.

This is very similar to what Christianity did.

Your claim that there is "NO evidence" is demonstrably false. I think what you are trying to say is that this evidence does not prove the case.

 

Constantine lost the battle of Milvian Bridge, and so the Romans never adopted Christianity. Therefore, the battles between Christians and Muslims never happened, the Crusades never took place, and so European exploration didn't happen. Columbus had no reason to try to sail westward to India, and so never stumbled on the Americas.

Meanwhile, the Incas discovered the scientific method, developed writing, the wheel, the compass, steel, the telescope, the microscope, and the germ theory of disease. They sailed across the Pacific and conquered Asia. From there, they went on to conquer Europe and the Mid East.

Now, the entire world worships the Pacha Mama. Buildings are made of huge stones carved to exact specifications, and stand unchanged for centuries.

Happy Tupac Aamaru day to all.

 

Dude, I told you there isn't any evidence that the Prophet knew about these stories- in such detail to boot. He was an illiterate man, who had no knowledge of the stories of Judaism and Christianity.

 

One does not have to be literate to know stories ? You are grasping at nonsense. In fact, folks that have not learned writing have a better ability to remember stories.

Traders, as a matter of course are going to be familiar with the common religious groups of the day. Especially such large and well known ones as Christianity and Judaism.

It is simply a joke to suggest that Muhammad did not know about these religions.

Regardless. If nothing else, he knew about the God of Abraham and knew about the story of Issac and Ishmael.

We also know he knew about the first five books of the OT because he makes reference to them.

We know he knows about Jesus because he makes reference to Jesus.

Your argument is absurd.

 

Traders trade. They don't go to temples and memorize the stories of certain religions.

Like I said, the Prophet was terrified and confused when the Qur'an was revealed to him. He had to go to a scholar to learn the nature of his revelation. Are you saying he faked it all?