What's Your Religion?

[Chupperson Weird]

Sapphira, what about the stories in other cultures that were written down and/or passed down from previous generations?

[Turtlekid1]

They weren't true or important to the spiritual survival of humanity, so no one bothered to write them down.

[Lizard Dude]

So Greek mythology is true because they wrote them down?

The main reason people who believe in gods are dumb retarded idiots is the act of looking at the hundreds of religions of humanity and thinking one is true and the rest false. Newsflash: yours is just as retarded as all those others. You're just too blind to see it.

[Turtlekid1]

The thing that separates Christianity from the rest is that it was the only one that wasn't founded by a man.

[Chupperson Weird]

Who was it founded by then? God? (Since He isn't physically on Earth I don't think he can "found" religions.) I'm pretty sure other religions believe that theirs was divinely inspired too, just so you know.

The more accurate thing that separates Christianity from the "rest" is that Constantine I converted to Christianity and caused the Roman Empire to become Christian, which was a huge boost for its membership numbers.

I'm not as caustic as Lizard Dude on these matters because I do believe in God, but I think Religion in general takes itself way too seriously.

[Glorb]

They weren't true or important to the spiritual survival of humanity, so no one bothered to write them down.

And who, exactly, decided they weren't important? The Federal Bureau of Spiritual Survival?

[penguinwizard]

Christian, but I don't go to church or follow some Christian virtues (and since I don't go to church, I don't know what rules I'm breaking). So maybe I'm agnostic. I believe there's a God, I just don't believe in living a poodle perfect life and thinking God will solve every single problem for me. But then, I'm saying all that without knowing what Christian churches actually preach.

It's more that I hate evangelists who use religion as a 10-ton hammer. That God says this or that, and anyone who disagrees is going to hell, no matter how nice and generous the person may be. I remember that one crazy guy who said that Oprah was leading people to hell. Oprah, of all people, just because the books she talked about in her book club mentioned some religion other than Christianity.

My usual stance on religion is, there should be no reason to bring it up. Equality and all that. Mention it in casual if you want, I'll just let it pass by. Whether someone's Christian or Catholic or Lutheran or whatever, doesn't matter to me. It's when someone shoves that religion into my face that I take offense, because there's nothing I could say to change their beliefs when religion appears to be one of the most firmly-held beliefs of all. So an argument could be shot down by saying "Well, I know I'm right because my God or gods is right."

I admire the idea of whatever religion it is that says material possessions are unnecessary and that you should ascend to a higher plane of being. Has that romantic idea of purity and hopefully being distant from the corruption of society. I've referred to it as Zen since "Ozy and Millie" constantly mentions something along those lines. It's a great idea, but I personally wouldn't want to live out a life of Zen.

[Nintendoobsessed]

They weren't true or important to the spiritual survival of humanity, so no one bothered to write them down.

I am SURE someone is going to find this incredibly offensive.

The thing that separates Christianity from the rest is that it was the only one that wasn't founded by a man.

???

Um, yeah, it was. A Jewish man that wandered around the middle east, preaching his own special religion.

[Turtlekid1]

Um, that Jewish man also happened to be God incarnate, so...

[CrossEyed7]

I am SURE someone is going to find this incredibly offensive.

Are you more concerned with the truth or with hurting people's feelings?

???

Um, yeah, it was. A Jewish man that wandered around the middle east, preaching his own special religion.

I'm hoping that was just ignorance of Christian doctrine, rather than the blatant circular reasoning it seems to be.

Christians believe that Jesus was God in a human body. If that's true, then the statement in question makes sense. Your confusion seems to be due to that fact that you are presuming that Jesus was not God and trying to make it work. It doesn't. If Jesus wasn't God, then the statement does not make sense.

[Chupperson Weird]

Don't even some branches of the church disagree on that? And like, why was Jesus known to talk to God if he was him? And I'd consider the religion to be founded by his followers rather than by him.

Are you more concerned with the truth or with hurting people's feelings?

Since it isn't true I don't know where this is coming from in the first place. Why are there written records of other religions' mythology if "no one bothered to write them down"?

[Turtlekid1]

The ones that don't acknowledge Jesus aren't Christians according to the Bible, so I guess you would have to define "the church." 
Jesus was God, but he was also man.  What's more, God consists of three people in one (ever heard of the trinity?).
As for his followers founding the religion, I guess they did if you mean that they founded it by being the first members, but Jesus caused it to happen, thus, in my sense of the word, founding it.

[Nintendoobsessed]

Okay....

But Buddhists think that Buddha (I know I spelled it wrong!) was a prophet.

Which means...with your old statement:

The thing that separates Christianity from the rest is that it was the only one that wasn't founded by a man.

Okay, let's say I'm Buddhist:

The thing that seperates Buddhism from the rest is that it was the only one that wasn't founded by a ordinary man.

Now we're equal, in this weird, proofless way.

[Lizard Dude]

There has been talk of circular reasoning. You want circular reasoning? Here's circular reasoning: saying Christianity is true while all other religions are false because only Christianity was founded by a god, which assumes Christianity is true.

"Christianity is true because Christianity is true."

Great argument!

[ShadowBrain]

Everbody thinks their religion is the right one. So someone's got to be wrong.