Why Christianity?

MartaLina wrote: Your comment is invalid due to lack of argumentation :lol:

The question presupposes that there is a quantifiable "best" religion in the eyes of those asked, whether objective or subjective, and assumes that there is appropriate accompanying reason to defend said choice.

Religion isn't about reason. Therefore, the question is faulty.


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steamboat28 wrote:

MartaLina wrote: Your comment is invalid due to lack of argumentation :lol:

The question presupposes that there is a quantifiable "best" religion in the eyes of those asked, whether objective or subjective, and assumes that there is appropriate accompanying reason to defend said choice.

Religion isn't about reason. Therefore, the question is faulty.


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Thank you Steam that makes sense

steamboat28 wrote: Religion isn't about reason. Therefore, the question is faulty.

I partially agree. The way I've come to see it, religion is more than just reason. Without something to believe in, what's faith?

Your reasoning is inherently faulty, Steam.

In order for someone to claim one religion over any other (or no religion at all), they have to make a decision that it is in fact better than the others- even if they decide not to explore other beliefs to reach their conclusion.

Alethea Thompson wrote: In order for someone to claim one religion over any other (or no religion at all), they have to make a decision that it is in fact better than the others- even if they decide not to explore other beliefs to reach their conclusion.

That is a false statement, Alethea. Do you have any idea how many people don't actively participate in the choosing of their religion? That alone makes your already-biased question less useful.

Adi wrote: I used to think the Old Testament was nothing but ancient myths and brutal, genocidal garbage - useless and utterly irrelevant* to me as a Christian.

me too, until i took an intro to religion course, which is not near as in depth as what youre doing but it was enough to really shake up some of my assumptions

i was already of the opinion that religious thought (generally speaking) is still important in today's world, but i had no idea of the scope to which the values that we hold, even in secular realms, trace back to religious movements. Or how coherent and profound the stories of the OT are, if you study and understand them from the context of scholarly discipline

Adi wrote: But having read the whole thing now and analyzed it book-by-book, I agree with the assessment of a religious scholar who wrote a book on the Old Testament (from a non-Christian, strictly academic perspective), who argued at the very end of his work that the Old Testament was probably the most groundbreaking work of the western ancient world in terms of emphasizing human responsibility and social justice.

i was very much impressed by the Bible's and Christianity's POSITIVE impacts on western culture, just from the limited context of that single semester. so now i am kind of on the lookout for online resources which continue that line of inquiry in a way that is critical and disciplined

i havent found much lol, mostly just proselytizing

but i came across this article recently, and i was wondering what you thought of it?

particularly i was hoping for your thoughts in regards to this:



the reason that i ask, is because youre studying scripture from in a more scholarly context than -- i dunno, watching creflo dollar and jesse duplantis do their little fundraising act on television, for example

which is the christianity that i was introduced to, and walked away from

and because i think it points to a direction that can help to keep Christianity relevant in the modern cultural dialogue

i admit this takes us off topic a little bit, and you may not be interested in the conversation, but if you would like to answer but maybe dont want to do so here, we can start a new topic, or feel free to PM

That is a false statement, Alethea. Do you have any idea how many people don't actively participate in the choosing of their religion? That alone makes your already-biased question less useful.

So you believe that free will is not a thing? Everything we do is a choice. If you choose to live in a religion because you are forced to do so, then you still choose to do so. You choose based on a fear for how your life will be without that religion in your life.

Yes, they do choose to stay in whatever religion they are part of. They can choose to not live in that religion. So for them, it is in their best interests to refrain from living in another religion. Thus- it is the best option for them.

I was raised in a bi-religious house system; me and my Mom are Catholic but I've been influenced by my Step-Dad whom spirituality follows the Chinook belief. My Mom is an accountant for a Cathedral so I sometimes help out.

Basically, what draws me to Catholicism is the history and ethics. The Catholic Church also inspired me to take up Geneology.

Alethea Thompson wrote: This is for those of you that are Christian. The challenge is to come up with a non-Biblical reason that Christianity is a better belief system for you than any other religion. Why does Christ appeal to you, where the Goddess doesn't, or where the Norse Pantheon, etc?

This is an old thread, and I hope I will neither offend nor inconvenience anyone by breathing life into it again. I just found it now.

I am at best quasi-Christian. There's much about what seems to be the sort of Christianity that is most culturally visible that rubs me the wrong way. But I still find inspiration, guidance, and hope in what we know of the teachings of Jesus ... so with that as my foundation, I'll start with citing (in admiration) Adi's observance that the traditional Christian faith is grounded in scripture, tradition and reason. And with due honor to Adi's emphasis on reason from that triad, what I find most unique about Christianity when its scriptural roots are excluded from consideration is its tradition, especially as expressed in its inspired art.

The architecture of classically-designed churches has been developed and refined over many centuries by devoted, committed disciples. There is a markedly different feel in entering a Christian church with carefully-shaped high arches and elaborate, symmetrical iconography that in entering, say, a library, a police department, a bar, a Tibetan Buddhist temple, or a WalMart. The dreams and aspirations of countless worshipers are an almost palpable presence, and there is a felt Presence there that is different from the ambiance of temples of other sacred traditions ... at least to my senses.

Then there is the inspired music of Church tradition. In the old Gregorian chants, there is something angelic, something sacred that is not conveyed in the sounds of either Beyonce or Beethoven. There is a suggestion of a call to something transcendent and marvelous. Even in at least some more contemporary pop Christian music, the product of less contemplation and more commercialism, there can be found upliftment and the promise of a reality that transcends our conventional mundane experience. Other faiths can validly make similar claims about their music, yet each faith's genre conveys to our subconscious a different, felt image of the Divine. The Christian one, in my experience, most powerfully inspires a sense of devotion.

Then, there is the Lord's Prayer. A very liberal minister I once heard speak observed that, even if Jesus actually was a myth and everything in the Bible just so many fairy tales, that prayer - repeated with heartfelt sentiment by millions of people dozens or hundreds of times each - had thereby accumulated a spiritual potency of its own nature. The same could be said of Eastern mantras and Jewish or Muslim prayers, but within the limits of my familiarity there is no ancient prayer still in use that conveys such a powerful message of reverence, devotion, and hope for healing.

Absent the Bible, and absent reason informed by history, I think these things would touch my heart today if I just now was exposed to them for the very first time.