To be a Christian you must believe that magic is real, supernatural realms exist and that if you don't believe you'll burn.
Bonus Christian points for believing in ritual magic like baptism.
The only reason you would believe this is because you were trained to believe the bible
19
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Baptism is so ritualistic that I think it might be hard to find information that the point of baptism was just to encourage people to get a bath more often. Particularly when running water, baths and showers were not in common use and installment in every home back then.
Word
Level 8
Feb 20, 2022
1
As my Professor of Philosophy, a very outspoken and direct Atheist I might add, once informed our group of 15 at one lecture stated very clearly and succinctly, " There is NO greater Fool than a Religious Fool, there are NONE so gullible as those who believe in and follow religions, none so guilty of such rank stupidity, egotism, cruelty, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, racism, arrogance, unfounded hatred, bias and unnecessary and needless discrimination as those who are religious."
After him making that, imo, epic comment, our numbers dropped by 6 but increased by 10 in under a Semester.
And his repute only grew further and greater.
Triphid
Level 9
Feb 18, 2022
3
What about Hinduism? It can leave you with no words. It will make Christianity look like a model code of behavior. 
St-Sinner
Level 9
Feb 18, 2022
1
Would you care to expand on that?
A starter
Hinduism has more primitivity, hurtful and oppressive traditions, customs and more superstitions than any other 5 major faiths in the world.
You need to be susceptible to being controlled at all times. Some people actually like this. Not me!
Sookiesue
Level 6
Feb 18, 2022
6
Like you, I am extremely averse to being dictated to.
@SeaGreenEyez In my opinion that’s all it really is.
The Bible is a veritable pick and mix of bullshit, from which you are invited to partake liberally to fit with your out interpretation of the angry abusive father you must love or else!
Seemingly the only universal laws of Christendom are
A) PAY YOU TITHING BECAUSE GOD NEEDS CASH
B) Hate all people of all other religions cos they is going to HELL!
C) Hate all people of no religion cos they is going to HELL!
D) Hate all other Christians who disagree with anything you believe cos they is going to HELL!
E) Hate everyone else because everyone is inherently sinful cos they is going to HELL!
F) Tell all the sinners that GAWD loves them and that is why they is going to HELL!
LenHazell53
Level 9
Feb 18, 2022
3
Isn’t it amazing that no matter where are you happened to be born right at your licationr is the “ one very true religion.” This works anywhere in the entire world! Honest!
@Sookiesue yup odd that is it not?
The modern concept of Hell was invented around 1200 A.D. as a means of control by the Church. Jesus never talked about burning in hell. Hell was just a transition zone. I think I always preferred Plato's Underworld.
@rogerbenham Yup that is why four different words in the Bible, especially the KJV are all translated as Hell, though none of them actually mean that they are
Tartarus ( Greek=prison) Gehenna (Hebrew=place of punishment) Sheol (Aremaic= a mass grave) and Hades ( Greek= land of the dead)
The name Hell comes from the Norse Goddess of Death named Hel or Hela
@LenHazell53 Loved the idea of Styx and Charon. The Christian finds he has to pay to go to hell! That is a lovely concept. Good old Hades. I named two black cats Thanatos and Hypnos.
So good old KJV put down in writing the concept of Hell. I never found either place attractive. I was a chorister much of my life but an eternity of singing praised to god never seemed much fun.
@rogerbenham I love your cat's names the gods of sleep and death, it reminds me of that old quote often attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, though it is actually an alternate translate of a Jules Verne quote
“Sleep, those little slices of death—how I loathe them.”
@LenHazell53 Well I delighted more in their names. They rather lived up to their names. Charon should have not rowed them out!
This is very true but it depends to varying degrees on what denomination you are in. It is also why we have so many Christian denominations. People want their version of make believe to match the group they identify with.
DenoPenno
Level 9
Feb 18, 2022
2
I love that you can change it to fit your own agenda and people respect you for that!
Of course there are Christians who don’t meet those criteria.
skado
Level 9
Feb 18, 2022
4
My grandmother believed in a creator but not an afterlife
"*The Apostles' Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical churches of Western Christian tradition, including the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Rite Orthodoxy. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists. This particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was apparently used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome.[29] Its points include:
- Belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit
- The death, descent into hell, resurrection and ascension of Christ
- The holiness of the Church and the communion of saints
- Christ's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful*"
Those tenets of faith require belief in saints. Saints are those that have performed miracles. Miracles are magic. Check.
"Decent into hell" sure as fuck checks the box for both supernatural realms and the burning in hell.
Seems to me @AmmaRE007 wasn't taking out of her ass at all...
@JeffMurray
The fact that religions have rules is not evidence for every individual following them. People say what they are expected to and privately think what they will. I grew up in the Baptist church in the deep South in the 1950s. Every church member believed differently, and most of them kept it to themselves. It wasn’t about being a fanatical lunatic - it was just about being a good citizen and a good neighbor. Nobody got all worked up about it.
@skado That's irrelevant. Things have definitions (not rules per se) so that people know what others are taking about. Can I define Christianity as believing in Zeus? No, of course not. That would be stupid. Just because you say you're a thing doesn't necessarily make you that thing. It depends if declaration alone is a sufficient condition, and given the previous example, it is clear that it is not.
@JeffMurray
Humans create those definitions - not gods. And not all humans agree. Not even all scholars, or all authorities. Thanks for sharing what it means to you.
@skado Of course humans create those definitions. And of course not all humans agree. There are humans that think "literally" means "figuratively". But using words to mean something different than the generally agreed-upon definition is one way to know who the stupid people are.
@JeffMurray
That’s gotta be handy!
Who, besides yourself, says it’s generally agreed upon, and by what method did they determine this?
@skado How about the entirety of the user base of Wikipedia?? Seems I forgot to cite that quote, which I should have done, but with that much quoted material, anyone with a Google search bar could have taken 3 seconds and found the source material on their own instead of thinking they "got me" in their rebuttal 5 comments later.
@JeffMurray
Got you? I don’t want you. It’s not about you, or me. It’s about reality. Many individual Christians and many Christian denominations don’t follow that creed, as your cited article clearly states:
“While Christians worldwide share basic convictions, there are also differences of interpretations and opinions of the Bible and sacred traditions on which Christianity is based.”
“Many Evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even while agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. For example, most Baptists do not use creeds “in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another.”: 111 Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, and the Churches of Christ.”
All I have claimed here is that the poster’s claims don’t apply to all Christians, and your quote source backs me up explicitly.
The source that you put your faith in, the entirety of the user base of Wikipedia, has spoken.
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