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[chess]

I think that I might have given some people here some wrong impressions in the past. So, I'd just like to clear a few things up.
1. I am a Christian.
2. This means that I believe in one God, who expresses Himself as a Trinity of people - God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
3. This also means that I believe all other gods/godesses/deities-of-any-description are fakes, invented by humans or by Satan to trap people and keep them away from God.
4. In addition, I believe that everyone who isn't a Christian is going to Hell.
5. Understandably, I would really rather all you people didn't go to Hell. Hence, I'm praying for you. And I'm going to keep praying for you. Even if you ask me not to.

So, there we go.

Comments

Re: Wiccan Rede; "An' it harm none, do what thou wilt"

[jaq.livejournal.com]

Aren't all religions man-made? Perhaps we'd have a bit of a communication problem proving otherwise...

Re: Wiccan Rede; "An' it harm none, do what thou wilt"

[ruhe.livejournal.com]

I suspect that you're right. I think that "religion" as a form is something that is socially constructed to allow people words and actions to explore the Truth. In other words, I _am_ a Christian - but I don't see myself as a "practioner" of religion. Religion and religious practice sometimes gets in the way of the real thing.

I also find the idea that simply because one particular faith says that "other faiths are ok too - but faiths that don't make that claim are bad" is any less absolutist than one that says all other faiths are wrong. The logic the two arguments employ are identical - they simply come to slightly different conclusions.

Incidently, the early Christian theologian St. Augustine believed that all people had access to a piece of the good/word/truth - because by definition God had to be that great - but only true practicers of christianity (and I don't believe that he would extend this definition to all people who call themselves Christian) had the whole truth.

Re: Aren't all religions man-made?

[ravensstar.livejournal.com]

That, it quite true, but who is to say that one religion is the only religion? I find that to be a very ignorant trait in almost all people.

Re: Aren't all religions man-made?

[passage.livejournal.com]

This is a long post, if you want the important bit it's the one in bold, if you're low on time, just read that.

If you mean what you say then you are of course wrong, christianity doesn't believe it is the only religion (that would not be arrogance but utter blindness), it merely believes itself to be the right one.
I'm not quite sure how to clarify 'right one'. Only route to God perhaps?

If what you mean is that you think it arrogant that Christians believe their religion to be the only 'right'[1] one

Axiom 1: Self consistancy is required of a system. (i.e. contraditions are not allowed).
Definition 1.1: Religion: A set of beliefs relating to the existence, or not, of God, God's nature, and the impact of this on morality and ethics.
Definition 1.2: 'Holy book of x': that body of literature which is considered relavent to and canonical by religion x.
Deffintion 1.3 Chrisitanity: the religion that takes "The Bible" to be it's holy book[2]

Theorum 1: Christianity contains the belief that no one can reach God except through Jesus.
Proof of Thm 1: (resulting from deffinition 1.2 and 1.3)
John 14v6: "I am the way the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except by me" - Jesus speaking to his disciples at the last supper.
Acts 4v12: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." - Peter speaking to the Jewish religious leaders about Jesus.

Theorem 2: The belief "Other religions (those that are not Christianity) are valid routes to God and acceptable by him" cannot be an element of Christianity.
Proof of thm 2: This belief contradics thm 1, by Axiom 1 this is not allowed.

Theorem 3: (we state this theorum informally) A christian must believe that Christianity is the only 'right' religion.

Deffinition 1.4: Christian: a person who subscribes to the religion 'Christianity'

Pf of thm 3: direct consequence of thm 2 and thm 3.

Deffinition 1.5: x is true where x is a religion is defined to mean that all the beliefs that are elements of x are true.

Theorem 4: Christianity and another religion cannot simmltaneously be true.

Pf of 4: If another religion were true then that would contradict the belief in Christianity that it wasn't (from thm 3), by axiom 1 this would invalidate Christianity.
If Christianity were true then by thm 3 any other religion must be false.

So if I am a Christian of course I believe Wiccan (sp?) to be false (were false has the usual meaning of 'not true'), not because I like being arrogant, but because if it wasn't then that would mean Jesus lied, hence wasn't sinless and hence couldn't have made attonement for my sins and the entire of Christianity would collapse messily.

So it is not a trait that is a result of ignorance, rather it is a result of knowning what my religion says!

Neil

P.S.: I know you wouldn't agree with some of what I say in this post, Firinel (most of it infact). I will get around to answering the points you raised (but not in this thread).

P.P.S.: in response to the subject line: I do hope not! (And indeed, believe not).

[1] I'm relying on you interpretting this intuatively, poke me if you want me to try and find a way of explaining it.
[2] As with all things one can define them in a number of ways, for sensible deffintions the equivalence of these deffintions can be demonstrated, this is frequently easiest if you start with the right deffintion, I claim that this is the right deffintion and can derive any sensible deffinition of Christianity. I chose it because it is more complete than any other reasonably lengthed deffintion.

Re: Aren't all religions man-made?

[speccy67.livejournal.com]

People tend to make dieties. There are those who opt out of such things.
At times I think to myself, perhaps they are better off. Outside of the looking glass looking in on Wicca's gods, Christians God, old Greek gods fighting it out.

Those who flee God, do they end up punished? I wonder. Punished on earth? They are layed to waste and corruption indeed. Read a part of Romans starting at chapter 1 if you'd like an example. You may find yourself looking into a very dim mirror.

Whats more appropriate to ask you though, is if you abandon your 'gods' do they get Jealous? My God does to no end.

Some group outside of Judiasm (I want to say Wicca or Zionist) 100 BC fashioned a man into a christ, to fool the jews. Today I know that man, only fufilled 100 items out of 481 items that the Messiah was prophecied to fufill.

The real Jesus Christ fufilled 481 items prophecied of his coming 100 years later. Only 2 more the Jews had that were unspoken. How can man become God? (I can't recall the other at the moment) When in fact it was God become Man.
There is a huge logical thought in all that the bible outlines, all the prophecies. In the way that our God has done things

Back to the point though

Religions, man made?
Religion, I use to think of this in terms, of a mechanical way of doing things for the means at the end.
As I have become a Catholic Christian, I have found it is to be an encompassing life. Not something done on Sundays. Not something thought of once, stated, and forgotten.

What is the one real true religion. When God became Man. When he did what was told of him. When he took on sin as most men have and denied even himself. (God denied Himself? An Athiest?) He pointed to the truth. Not a religion like Judiasm. He pointed to a way to treat all human beings. And whom to love above all else.

Most importantly, he allowed us to put idols away, for when you look on the image of Jesus. You view the face of God, the image of his likeness. No longer is he "I AM", the nameless creator, but Jesus. Yet still "I AM".

No other being has come down to earth like Jesus.

And to those who think God having been inactive for the past 2000 years. He was active 140 years ago, 300 years ago, 20 years ago, even now still today. For all time he will remain active.
There was a time, that I found out that The original religion was not Judiasm. Witch Craft, and other religions spanning further back in time to around 8000BC during the first recorded history (is there more?). Choosing one based on earliest would be an incorrect assumption.

We'd still be killing people to sacrific to our gods.

I even considered Judiasm. By all rights they'd kill me. I am unclean.
Anyway. There is one God. He saw to it that a new religion would survive, spread, and grow. The person Jesus came down to clarify all this for us.
He survived Death, to show us it isn't real.
And he showed us how we are to live our life properly. That there are no others like him.

Who made religion? God created Judiasm, when it wasn't done properly, he created christianity to superceed it.

So who were these first "gods" then?
Theory is great. Perhaps there were beings, and they got bored? Perhaps the care takers of our world, took advantage of our people, demanding sacrifices of humans.
Perhaps those beings never left, or were "swept" away.
In any case, it is not permissive to seek them out any longer.

Why compelled to say so much? Now I have to read those other really long posts.

Re: Aren't all religions man-made?

[passage.livejournal.com]

"So who were these first "gods" then?"

Sorry, I'm lost, WHO(/what)?

Neil