Shopping for Religion

[Peter]

This and this.

Ok, if I was looking for a religion someone please tell me why I should put more stock in a 2000 year old story of christianity than the modern stories of scientology and mormonism? Why I should believe a 2000 year old story over a 50 or 150 year old story?

Are gods like wine? Do they get more believable with age?
Were people 2000 years ago much more discriminating when picking a god than people today?
Is the evidence for the christian god so much better than the evidence for Thetans or Elohim?

If I went religion shopping tell me why I shouldn't choose scientology or mormonism. I quite like sex and both promise copious quantities. It seems to me that they both offer a much more interesting and fulfilling afterlife than praising the christian god for eternity. Why shouldn't I choose scientology, mormonism or, heaven forbid, roll my own?

C'mon Christians, sell me.

[Questatement]

To be honest, I knew next to nothing about any religion when I became a Christian. I heard and remembered enough after a 15 min. home bible study to put God to the test with a completely open mind (some might call that faith).

He passed my test on the spot by becoming real, to me, beyond any doubt but to be honest, I haven't given any other G/gods the same opportunity.

[xx_mortekai_xx]

To be honest, I knew next to nothing about any religion when I became a Christian. I heard and remembered enough after a 15 min. home bible study to put God to the test with a completely open mind (some might call that faith).

He passed my test on the spot by becoming real, to me, beyond any doubt but to be honest, I haven't given any other G/gods the same opportunity.

You do realize that your statement does more to make you look bad then it does to make you look good?

You had what you describe as faith, and god became real to you. But then you admit that you have never done this for any other god.

How do we know that you arent simply delusional. How do we know that you wouldnt have had the same reaction to any other god?

[Jack]

Are gods like wine? Do they get more believable with age?
Were people 2000 years ago much more discriminating when picking a god than people today?

If that's the case let's revive Zoroastrianism.

[theophilus]

Christianity is much older than 2,000 years. Jesus came to earth about 2,000 years ago but his coming was foretold long before that. He came to bring forgiveness of sins and the first prophecy about him was made just after sin entered the world. God said to the serpent,

I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
(Genesis 3:14-15 ESV)

Here God speaks of someone who is the offspring of just the woman, not of the man and the woman, and Jesus was born of a virgin.

It was at this time that God introduced animal sacrifice. He made clothes of skin for Adam and Eve and this required killing animals. The Bible tells us that Abel sacrificed his firstborn lambs to God. Animal sacrifices didn't actually take away sins but served as an illustration of how Jesus would take away sins by his sacrifice of himself.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrews 9:11-14

As soon as sin entered the world God began preparing the remedy for it and the final result was the death and resurrection of Christ. This is evidence that Christianity is true.

[truthreality]

Christianity is much older than 2,000 years. Jesus came to earth about 2,000 years ago but his coming was foretold long before that. He came to bring forgiveness of sins and the first prophecy about him was made just after sin entered the world. God said to the serpent,

Here God speaks of someone who is the offspring of just the woman, not of the man and the woman, and Jesus was born of a virgin.

Yes lets use vague and obscure passages to argue that Jesus was prophecisized in the Old Testament. The woman in Genesis 3:14-15 is referring to Eve, the progenitor of mankind, not Mary. The Hebrew words for offpsring, you and he in this passage are zera, atah and hu. The three previous nouns can be both used as singular and plural. The verse is referring to how mankind, the offspring of Eve, will have enmity with the snake. Also the very premise of your argument that the Old Testament alludes to Jesus being born to a virgin is false. Christians get the idea that Jesus born of a virgin is prophecisized in the Bible from Isaiah 7:14. The world used to describe the woman in Isaiah 7:14 is Almah. Almah means young woman. The word does not denote any sort of purity or virginity since Almah can refer to a young woman who has had sex. Christianity did not exist before Christ. All the verses that Christians use from the Old Testament to argue that Jesus was predicted are vague and twisted mistranslations. If anything the storytellers of the New Testament fabricated the stories of Jesus to fit the Old Testament. Clearly they did a poor job and lacked the interpreting skills to create a convincing myth.

It was at this time that God introduced animal sacrifice. He made clothes of skin for Adam and Eve and this required killing animals. The Bible tells us that Abel sacrificed his firstborn lambs to God. Animal sacrifices didn't actually take away sins but served as an illustration of how Jesus would take away sins by his sacrifice of himself.

So you say animal sacrifice did not take away sin. Are you saying then that those who lived before Jesus and engaged in animal sacrifice are eternally damned because they were not forgiven for their sins because they lived before Jesus existed and therefore could not accept him as their lord and savior? Seems a just tad bit unreasonable and unfair to me on the part of God. Not to mention unjust. Animal sacrifice did not serve as an illustration of Jesus, the final lamb. Jesus, the final lamb, served as an illustration of animal sacrifice as created by the myths of the storytellers of the New Testament.

As soon as sin entered the world God began preparing the remedy for it and the final result was the death and resurrection of Christ. This is evidence that Christianity is true.

How come it took God only 7 days to created the entire world but thousands of years to create a remedy for sin? Even humans in the medical and science fields take less time to create medications and treatment options. The final result of God's great remedy was the death and resurrection of Jesus, not salvation? I am confused. The death of Jesus was inevitable because he was human. The resurrection of Jesus is a mythological legend. It is not a real event. Please don't equate Christianity with truth. Such a comparison is an insult to truth.

[Peter]

I'm tending towards Mormonism. It's sort of a new age christianity. Hell, the next president might be Mormon. What's wrong with mormonism? I quite like the link to extraterrestrials that Scientology offers but I'm not sure I have the coin to get all my Thetans removed. Mormonism seems like a good compromise between Christianity and Scientology. Christians, what say you?

[Jack]

I'm tending towards Mormonism.

I'm not into the whole white-shirt-and-tie, 1960s IBM look. Now if they switch to Hawaiian shirts and cutoffs I might consider it.

[Peter]

I'm not into the whole white-shirt-and-tie, 1960s IBM look. Now if they switch to Hawaiian shirts and cutoffs I might consider it.

Do they have a suggestion box?

[theophilus]

So you say animal sacrifice did not take away sin. Are you saying then that those who lived before Jesus and engaged in animal sacrifice are eternally damned because they were not forgiven for their sins because they lived before Jesus existed and therefore could not accept him as their lord and savior?

No one could live before Jesus existed because he was God as well as man and has always existed. His birth wasn't the beginning of his existence but merely his acquisition of a human nature so he would be qualified to be a sacrifice for human sins.

Salvation is always by faith. Today it comes by believing that Jesus died for our sins. Before this took place salvation came by faith that God would send the Messiah he promised.

Abraham believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
(Genesis 15:6 ESV)

How come it took God only 7 days to created the entire world but thousands of years to create a remedy for sin? Even humans in the medical and science fields take less time to create medications and treatment options.

God could create the world merely by speaking it into existence. The sacrifice of his Son was necessary to atone for sin.

Human doctors merely treat physical illnesses. This is much easier than atoning for sins.

The death of Jesus was inevitable because he was human.

Jesus was without sin; therefore he wasn't subject to death. He died only because he chose to do so.

[crimethinker]

If I had to choose a religion, I'd go for Buddhism or Hellenism. Hellenism has mostly died out by now, but I've met at least one of its adherents. It's ancient Greece's religion consisting of the gods Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, etc.

I just wish the movie Clash of the Titans hadn't been so terrible.

[truthreality]

No one could live before Jesus existed because he was God as well as man and has always existed. His birth wasn't the beginning of his existence but merely his acquisition of a human nature so he would be qualified to be a sacrifice for human sins.

Did you copy your ideas about Jesus from the Hindu ideas about Krishna? This description has been given to Krishna well before Jesus's birth.

Bhagavad Gita 2.12: "Never was there a time when I did not exist..."

Bhagavad Gita 4.6-7 "Although I am unborn...whenever there is a decline in righteousness and a predominant rise in sin I descend myself."

Bhagavad Gita 7.24 "Unintelligent men, who do not know me perfectly, think that I, the supreme personality of Godhead, KRSNA, was impersonal before and have now assumed this personality. Due to their small knowledge, they do no know my higher nature, which is supreme and imperishable.%