Dear Paul,

You asked a great question - "What is Christianity".

Well, I am afraid there is no solid and agreed answer, just like there is no solid agreed answer about the essence of practically anything that has parts (and what doesn't?).

Take a watch, just for example: is your wrist-band part of the watch, or only an accessory? After all, doesn't it show the time even if you take off, or replace, the band?

Just like clouds that split and join up in the sky - when can you say that it is still the same cloud? At what point exactly can you say that a cloud turned into two clouds, or two clouds into one?

Modern research shows that Islam started off as a Christian sect, so is Islam today still part of Christianity?

The best I can say, and surely one could find fault with my definition attempt too, is that Christianity is an identity-group, going back some 2000 years to identify with the great saint, Jesus of Nazareth.

Actually following Jesus (as some Christians claim they do) is a different matter altogether and much more difficult than paying a lip-service, for we are not saints: a dog can follow his master, but can it drive his car?

«You often try to distance your religion from religion»

From culture, social issues and pretence, including by cultures that pretend to be religious.

«I suspect that is because you don't associate yourself with the nastier aspects of religion, hate, intolerance etc.»

Religion has no nasty aspects, but cultures do, the Christian culture included. How could coming closer to God, in which we are all united, possibly be nasty?

«You feel you share no guilt for the past sins of others, murders in the name of god etc»

No I don't, neither did Jesus - do you?

ttbn,

What is Christianity6, how many versions do you think there are?

Hi Yuyutsu,

A lot of food for thought there, not sure where to begin. The watch analogy, is it still a watch if you remove the wrist-band, yes it is. Can I ask is it still a watch if you take a hammer and smash it so it can no longer tell you the time, yes it is. Christianity is like that, Christ was a humble man with a simple message. In a nut shell, the message is "love thy neighbour as thyself", maybe the early adherents took that message to heart and put it into practice, that was their religion, and as followers of Christ they were Christians. However somewhere along the way that simply message got corrupted with all sorts of exceptions and additions added, until the simple message become unrecognisable as it is today, that to is religion.

"AC, who understands Christianity in the same way my budgie understands time dilation, tells Christians they aren't doing Christianity right."

Yep, that's exactly what I'm saying.

It may be a part of the Jewish religion to kill the Amalekites.
Kill every last man, woman, child, oxen, dog and rat.
But that ain't part of the Christian religion.
Not sure how Moses and the 10 commandments fits in there.
Maybe that came after...

Christianity sets itself apart from all that rot, with Jesus

Thou shalt not kill, Love your enemy.

You dumb schmucks threw Christ's teachings straight into the bin.
Suddenly your willing to turn a blind eye to the killings
Suddenly your filled with hate for Israels enemies

I SAT HERE AND WATCHED IT RIGHT IN THIS FORUM
- And I know it's going on everywhere else as well.

I wonder if on your Judgement Day, God will call you 'Dumb Schucks' himself?

You put 'God's Chosen People' the Jews, not Christians
Higher up on the pecking order than Christ teachings.

Jesus is the light, the truth and the way.
Not supporting some screwed up nation of sinners hell bent on taking the holy land back by hook or by crook.

There was a covenant you know.
God didn't give the land to them unconditionally.
They broke that covenant when they became an oppressive people.

You want to know the real truth.
There really should be a one state solution.
It should be a place where Jews, Christians and Muslims can all live together in peace, not conflict.

But it will probably never happen and will probably always be stained in the blood of innocents.
For that reason it really is the one single place of land on the planet that we should drop a dirty nuclear bomb on, so that no-one lives there, no one fights over it, and the land is no longer forever drenched in the blood of innocents for eternity.

Hell knows, you Christians really do 'need not be lead into temptation'

Next minute, you're supporting genocide.

"What is Christianity".

John 3:16

" For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

The whole of the Gospel is summarised in John 3:16.
Everything else is merely a how-to guide or an examination of the consequences of believing in him, or evidence, such as it is, that Christ was indeed his "one and only Son".

Golden Rule
http://livingpeaceinternational.org/en/the-project/regola-d-oro-2.html

>>A mosaic located at the entrance of the United Nations Secretariat Building in New York depicts people of different nationalities, religions, and cultures with the words: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, the so called Golden Rule, inscribed on its surface.

But what exactly is the Golden Rule? It is a unique law because “it expresses a formidable intuition that is accessible to human knowledge and conscience”, in that is part of all the main religions and schools of thought of the world. As a consequence it can also be described as the core of universal ethical codes. According to recent studies, it was mentioned as early as 3,000 BC in the vedic Indian tradition: “Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you; wish for others what you wish for yourself”.

Among the oldest golden rule quotes we can find those from the philosopher Confucius, who lived in China between the sixth and fifth century BC.

As for Judaism, we can read the Golden Rule for the first time in the Book of Tobias, dated 200 BC, but Jesus Christ has turned it into a positive sentence: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

During the Middle Ages, the rule was included in the Rule of Saint Benedict and in the Regola non bollata of Saint Francis of Assisi.<<

- Looks like Jesus himself wasn't the first to aspire to good morals, ethics and general decency?