Is Christianity something other than a religion?

They are not only unverified at this point, but some are plainly contrary to historical and archaeological evidence, not to mention any number of scientific theories.

 

I hate it when people say "Period" at the end of a post, like theirs is the only word, and the last word on a subject.

Why did you even enter the thread?

 

I suggest Christianity signifies at least two things. It's 1) belief in a way of life that emphasizes love for others, even our enemies, and it's 2) belief that it is a way, indeed the only way, to "live forever."

I think that Jesus meant that we can enjoy this eternal life by changing our hearts and loving our neighbor as ourselves. So the two are connected.

I don't understand it, but I am trying. It's the most coherent and satisfying philosophy that I've come across. There was quite a bit that was extraordinary in the life of Jesus, or even the myth of Jesus.

My own religion involves believing a lot of other things, like the virgin birth, the resurrection, and the Ascension. I say the words but can only accept them as true insofar as metaphors are true.

 

It is a fact. By every useful definition of "religion" Christianity is a religion. It isn't even debateable.

 

No, it is true also for prescriptionists that you can't allow people to use different definitions at the same time. Which definition to use and why, descriptionists and prescriptionists might disagree on, but none of them would argue that it is ok for people to use different definitions in the same conversation.

If I said "John murdered Bob", but I meant that John smiled towards Bob, then other people would be mislead. A prescriptionist and a descriptionist will disagree on why killed is the right word, but neither will say that I was justified in using the word "murdered".

I'm confused here, are you saying that Christianity is held to a higher or lower standard? And compared to what? Islam/Buddhism/similar?

 

yeah, we have a few people here that are Christians but say they do not believe in any religions, I think what they mean is they do not believe in Organized religions, IE the church

Church attendance rates over the years would show that this is becoming more common place among Christians

 

I know that.

But You are never going to persuade anyone who disagrees by putting a triumphant "Period!" at the end of a post. Period. (See?)

 

If they disagree with basic fact, then perhaps their connection to reality is too tenuous for them to be persuaded anyways.

 

one thing that convinces me Jesus was not God is a all powerful God would not get a little girl Pregnant and live inside her for 9 months, there are easier ways for such a God to do this that would not involve living inside a child for 9 months

that and of course the bible says he is the "Son" of God

a stone could be removed the same way it was moved there in the first place.. by man

 

You are indulging in blind faith when you say christianity is an objective truth.

Also, faith is a most important part of christianity. You must have never read the New Testament?

I find your post very odd, and no offense. Odd because you seem not to know the tenets of what you say is objective truth.

I like Thomas too, but only because I happen to like the Gospel of Thomas. No, it isn't in your bible, for it was left out of the NT long ago when a group of men pick and chose what they would include and what they would leave out. But it meshes well with the 4th gospel, the gospel of john. They compliment one another.

 

If you follow the teachings of Yeshua, you would see these people condemned themselves, just as one might say you are doing to yourself.

If one does not understand christ was teaching about the transcendence of the ego, the self, which is the creator of all sin, then you will get your kind of understanding from him. But if you understand the main principle involved, then what you posted is nonsense. LOL

So the death and rebirth of consciousness is salvation. And that is it. The rest of it is superfluous and of no importance. If you understand this, you can also discern what should be in the NT and what should not be. For if it contradicts the rebirth of consciousness, in any way, it was added by someone with a motive. And there were motives involved in fashioning a book for the church which would be the official religion of the roman empire. So I would say, the teachings of christ disqualified his christianity to be the religion of an empire.

The perennial philosophy is all about transcending the self, the self image, the ego, which is a creation of thought/memory. It involved a complete change in human consciousness, which relegates the ego to its rightful and benignly harmless position. For we must all have memory and thought to function in this world. But it is one thing to be deceived deluded by it and quite another to be of a consciousness which transcends it. The ego creates a great division between people and where there is perpetual division conflict is a certainty. Where there is conflict there is hatred, violence, war, and so on.

There is the prophetic tradition in some religion that speaks of a time in the future when humanity as a whole will transcend the ego, which will create an age of peace, prosperity for all, a Golden Age for humanity where all of the problems created by human egos will be no more. Whether this will ever happen, I do not know. Perhaps it is more of a hope, a dream than a reality.

This is the only religion that I have, but I do not see it as religion at all. For since there is nothing to teach, as an experience cannot be taught, there is no need for a proper religion. Unless such enlightened people choose to gather together to help others, not in transcendence, for this cannot be taught, nor can one give it to another. It is the result of a very personal spiritual path that one chooses, or rather, it chooses you. It comes through understanding, by living daily life and paying attention, inner and outer. It can be aided by the suffering of life, but also by its joys. It can be affected by almost guaranteed sudden death, where you know it is over, without a doubt but then you survive and death does not happen.

 

exactly, back then the Jewish religion was the law of the land... if you wanted to convert people to a new religion, the easiest way was to make people believe your new religion was a continuation of the old religion, then you could get your new message to more people and convert them

 

So unlike Thomas, you don't have anything remotely resembling proof; so perhaps you'd like to explain the difference between whatever it is you do have and blind faith.

 

How do you prove that Jesus in reality was resurrected? If you can prove that, I will immediately swear fealty to Jesus and become a Christian on the spot. I am not joking here.

 

The above narrative assumes that the Biblical story of the resurrection is true when objectively there is no proof that it is. You are basing your conclusion upon an unproven premise.

 

Please prove some for us.

 

exactly, the Muslim bible says Jesus was swapped out by a double by God right before the killing, so what story has more proof, they both sound mythical to me

...They said, “We killed the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God.” They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but the likeness of him was put on another man (and they killed that man)... (Quran, 4:157)

http://www.islam-guide.com/ch3-10.htm

but if Jesus was a God, then God's can't be killed and why would Jesus hang out in his dead body for 3 days before rising if he was a God? that would make no sense either.....

 

Most honest preacher I have ever heard said something along the lines of, "I have been studying this book since I was a kid and have been preaching the gospel for over forty years, and some of it doesn't even make sense to me. On any given day, however, there is something in here that speaks to me in that moment, and that is good enough."

 

Have you ever considered that the story about the stone being removed from Yeshua's tomb is an example of removing the plank from your own eye?

As it says in Matthew 7:3-5 (CEB) = "3 Why do you see the splinter that’s in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but don’t notice the log in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when there’s a log in your eye? 5 You deceive yourself! First take the log out of your eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s or sister’s eye."

What was the result of the stone being removed from Yeshua's tomb (the eye)? People saw that he had been resurrected from the dead, which validated their belief in him as the son of God who had died for their sins and been resurrected into eternal life. That gave them the authority to preach their gospel of resurrection and eternal life to the local yokels.

 

Yeshua could have been the "son of God" the same way the Pharisees were the son of hell.

Matthew 23:15 (NKJV) = “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."

In the fairy tale Yeshua was the perfect Jew, who followed the will of Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews and the God of the armies. That made him the son of God, because all of the other people were hypocrites and the son of hell.

 

In which case you have contradicted yourself because your allegation that "Christianity is an objective truth" cannot be verified using your own definition of the term objective.

In essence no one who is a Christian can claim to be unbiased when it comes to Christianity and whatever "truth" it may contain.

 

Then please convince me.

Mere assertions without any proof behind them do not impress me.

 

Except when they come from a pulpit. That's my point.

 

I would imagine that the attenuation of church attendance is due, in large part, to the fact that more younger people are either atheistic or agnostic than was the case in previous generations.

 

This would require a conspiracy; and I simply do not believe in conspiracy theories.