What is Christianity?

That is an awfully convoluted question.

I have had hundreds of experiences over the course of my life with people that have influenced my views of Christianity. All of those individuals have had their own unique set of circumstances.

If you would like a specific answer, then you need to ask a specific question. Asking broad, open ended questions is like a 5 year-old asking "Why" after every time their parents answer. I think you are just trolling.

Yes I'm obviously trolling, now on to more importatnt things.

I asked you a question, of which you answered

A religion fabricated from the writings of Middle Eastern men who took oral teachings based on cultural myths and real events to communicate a sociopolitical message of the value of the patriarchal family structure in sustaining moral conduct essential to the stability of society.

that my friend was a solid answer, it deftly answered the question in my OP, I asked you why you believed that, from there you doged my question with vague answers wich have had little to do with the quesetion.

so I'll ask you again, why do you believe what you posted?
 
Yes I'm obviously trolling, now on to more importatnt things.

I asked you a question, of which you answered



that my friend was a solid answer, it deftly answered the question in my OP, I asked you why you believed that, from there you doged my question with vague answers wich have had little to do with the quesetion.

so I'll ask you again, why do you believe what you posted?

Oh goody! An interrogation!

In psychology we call "Why" the intention interrogative because it seeks intent. It's a rather useless thing to ask me because I intend absolutely nothing by believing what I believe. I simply seek to understand the world around me, and studying the history of the Bible and Christianity is part of that journey. That is my existential purpose, just as worshiping a supernatural deity is yours. If you can demonstrate what I said is wrong, then I would be happy to change it to simply have a better understanding of the world, because I have no reason to believe it otherwise.

Now if you wish to know why I believe that interpretation over other interpretations, then the answer is simply because that interpretation has the most evidence and rational to support it of all the ones I have examined.
 
Oh goody! An interrogation!

In psychology we call "Why" the intention interrogative because it seeks intent. It's a rather useless thing to ask me because I intend absolutely nothing by believing what I believe. I simply seek to understand the world around me, and studying the history of the Bible and Christianity is part of that journey. That is my existential purpose, just as worshiping a superficial deity is yours. If you can demonstrate what I said is wrong, then I would be happy to change it to simply have a better understanding of the world, because I have no reason to believe it otherwise.

Thanks for the lesson in psycology, you told me that you had experiences that led you believe what you said, I wanted to know what those experiences are.

I'm glad your trying to understand your world, I'm glad that you posted in this thread some of the things that you've found on your journey, I want to know how you came across the things that you posted.

Did you read a book? Did you talk to a professor? Did you have some kind of divine or natural revelation seperate from the usual means of coming about knowledge(particularly the knowledge you posted in this thread)?
 
Did you read a book? Did you talk to a professor? Did you have some kind of divine or natural revelation seperate from the usual means of coming about knowledge(particularly the knowledge you posted in this thread)?

All the above and more. It seems you wish to know what personal experiences have influenced my views on religion. I posted something along those lines on another forum.

As far as religion, when I was young I was a Jesus freak. One of the funnest things I could think to do as a kid was to go to Sunday School, and later, to my youth group. But even at a young age I didn't buy a lot of what my church was saying about the Bible. I simply read it and interpreted it differently than how my church told me I was supposed to interpret it.

By high school I was strongly questioning Christianity, especially when I realized I was gay and I had to listen to my peers going on about how gays were sinful, diseased, etc. I studied a lot of different belief systems. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Satanism, etc. While all of them provided interesting insights, I found it difficult to decipher which of them would be "the one truth path." And then in college I studied philosophy. I read Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, etc. and what it taught me was how to use critical thinking. That is the ability to look past my own biases and prejudices and to be open to any answer as long as it was supported by reasonable evidence.

So I went out into the world and I forced people to defend their position and I found that the more you questioned people's beliefs in their religion, the more it was revealed how little they actually know outside of their respected holy scriptures. It seems when it comes to morals, everyone I have ever met relies on their feelings and reason to decide what is correct for them to believe. Some people give this very human trait a name like the "Holy Spirit" or "Karma" or whatever, but it's always the same. Sadly, I found the more you push it, the more self righteous and defensive people become, largely because of how aware they are of how intangible their beliefs really are. When I learned psychology I came to understand this was an emotional defense mechanism that people commonly use to avoid anxiety brought upon them when they are forced to contemplate their belief system.

And to further drive the point home...

Socrates was sentenced to death for teaching the young to question the authority. His legacy of critically questioning for the sake of improving our understanding of the way the world works is what makes him the rightful father of philosophy. In my humble opinion, that is the purpose of debate. Not to win, not to sway people to your point of view, but to force them to defend their position against the scrutiny of reason and evidence. Those who flee from such discussion demonstrate a fear of knowing the Truth. And if God is truly the Truth, then they are fleeing from God. That, by definition, is sin.
 
All the above and more. It seems you wish to know what personal experiences have influenced my views on religion. I posted something along those lines on another forum.

O.K. so you believe this

A religion fabricated from the writings of Middle Eastern men who took oral teachings based on cultural myths and real events to communicate a sociopolitical message of the value of the patriarchal family structure in sustaining moral conduct essential to the stability of society.

because of this


As far as religion, when I was young I was a Jesus freak. One of the funnest things I could think to do as a kid was to go to Sunday School, and later, to my youth group. But even at a young age I didn't buy a lot of what my church was saying about the Bible. I simply read it and interpreted it differently than how my church told me I was supposed to interpret it.

By high school I was strongly questioning Christianity, especially when I realized I was gay and I had to listen to my peers going on about how gays were sinful, diseased, etc. I studied a lot of different belief systems. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Satanism, etc. While all of them provided interesting insights, I found it difficult to decipher which of them would be "the one truth path." And then in college I studied philosophy. I read Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, etc. and what it taught me was how to use critical thinking. That is the ability to look past my own biases and prejudices and to be open to any answer as long as it was supported by reasonable evidence.

So I went out into the world and I forced people to defend their position and I found that the more you questioned people's beliefs in their religion, the more it was revealed how little they actually know outside of their respected holy scriptures. It seems when it comes to morals, everyone I have ever met relies on their feelings and reason to decide what is correct for them to believe. Some people give this very human trait a name like the "Holy Spirit" or "Karma" or whatever, but it's always the same. Sadly, I found the more you push it, the more self righteous and defensive people become, largely because of how aware they are of how intangible their beliefs really are. When I learned psychology I came to understand this was an emotional defense mechanism that people commonly use to avoid anxiety brought upon them when they are forced to contemplate their belief system.

am I correct?
 
@Satya: perhaps Barnabas is asking you to defend your opinion - or more properly, your position. To wit, that only defensible truths are true.

What makes your position (philosophical skepticism) viable/true? is the question.

To state that is defensible is a circular answer, because that is a tennet of skepticism.
 
O.K. so you believe this

because of this

am I correct?

Pretty much. I studied the history of Christianity and the Bible and debated people on the topic.

Oh, and I recently listened to the audio book, "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible". It was really good. I recommend it highly.
 
Pretty much. I studied the history of Christianity and the Bible and debated people on the topic.

Oh, and I recently listened to the audio book, "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible". It was really good. I recommend it highly.

About what part of Christian history did you study?

I've not gotten to read the book but I flipped through it a a while back at books-a-million.
 
About what part of Christian history did you study?

Are you serious? You started a thread entitled, "What is Christianity?" I answered your question with my interpretation and my personal experiences, and since then you have continued to grill me. Are you going to have me recite everything from oral Judaic tradition to the modern Catholic Catechism? This has become ridiculous because it is a one sided discussion. You are offering nothing and only interrogating. Until you state a position, I'm having nothing more to do with this thread because it is clear you have no interest in discussing the topic. Feel free to browse what I have stated in the past.

http://forums.infjs.com/search.php?searchid=652586

If you have an issue with my interpretation, or evidence to the contrary then present it.
 
interesting, I think I've read it before, thanks
I'd like to know why you find it worthwhile to remain a Christian after being confronted with how absurd the bible is to the way people live now.
 
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A quick note to Satya: most religious people are just not qualified to to answer deep questions about religion. They follow it just because of tradition, convenience, psychological traits etc. That does not prove your original answer that it's "A religion fabricated from the writings of Middle Eastern men..."

Likewise most atheists are not qualified to answer questions about science either. They just believe that someone smarter along the line is able to explain things.
 
A quick note to Satya: most religious people are just not qualified to to answer deep questions about religion. They follow it just because of tradition, convenience, psychological traits etc. That does not prove your original answer that it's "A religion fabricated from the writings of Middle Eastern men..."

Likewise most atheists are not qualified to answer questions about science either. They just believe that someone smarter along the line is able to explain things.

How the hell are you suppose to "prove" what Christianity is when it is virtually different for everyone who practices it? Furthermore, there are hundreds, if not thousands of varying denominations of Christianity, a good share of which hold that all the other denominations are not truly Christian. Religions are social constructs, and can't be proven. The parameters by which they are defined can and do vary all the way down to the individual level.
 
This thread makes my head hurt!

Oh, hello large pile of sand! Meet, my head! *stuff*
 
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Are you serious? You started a thread entitled, "What is Christianity?" I answered your question with my interpretation and my personal experiences, and since then you have continued to grill me. Are you going to have me recite everything from oral Judaic tradition to the modern Catholic Catechism? This has become ridiculous because it is a one sided discussion. You are offering nothing and only interrogating. Until you state a position, I'm having nothing more to do with this thread because it is clear you have no interest in discussing the topic. Feel free to browse what I have stated in the past.

http://forums.infjs.com/search.php?searchid=652586

If you have an issue with my interpretation, or evidence to the contrary then present it.


I've not had any intetion of stating my position in this topic in the first place Satya, I'm not here to quesion what you believe or to denounce it. I simply want to know why and better understand why.

This isn't a debate, I'm not trying to prove anything. You said yourself your on a journey to understand, so am I and asking question is one way of understanding.
 
I'd like to know why you find it worthwhile to remain a Christian after being confronted with how absurd the bible is to the way people live now.

In the mind of keeping this thread on topic could you repost this in my ask a Christian thread.
 
I've not had any intetion of stating my position in this topic in the first place Satya, I'm not here to quesion what you believe or to denounce it. I simply want to know why and better understand why.

This isn't a debate, I'm not trying to prove anything. You said yourself your on a journey to understand, so am I and asking question is one way of understanding.

My apologies. If you really wish to open this can of worms, then I offer you the below videos. They strongly influenced my current views of Christianity, perhaps more than anything to date. If you wish to understand how I see the religion then watch them. I warn you though, I don't recommend the videos if you are happy where you are in your life with your faith.

[YOUTUBE]JOmSYHzeoNA[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]12rP8ybp13s[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]hf5q6VFn17o[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]DNWqvEIcJpo[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]hnTbkgcFi7k[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]qgLBLJE3P-c[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]70SYwkoH_yc[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]_Q37NhrCPNo[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]V-q8WZ1Ibso[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]SbXJC6KsYWs[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]iQJrud71gL8[/YOUTUBE]
 
Christianity is a diverse religion, and you know the dogma better than I do.

Are you wondering how Christians are perceived, or maybe even how you are perceived?

To be honest, anyone who puts religion at the forefront of their personality scares me. That goes for any religion though.
 
Christianity is following Christ.
With Jesus Christ as an example of how to live your life, christians live their lives as best they can to act the way he did.

As for how I got to this is a long story, so better don't ask. I have an issue with reason, so I like to rely more on intuition and feelings in certain matters, thus the above.
 
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