I suppose technically Chrsitisanity has always been around, as long as people have ben kind and good to other people…
What? People don’t need religion to be good and kind to eachother. Morals don’t stem from religion…
A few like to think so. if they have morals taught to them from a religion it just gives them something to live by if they have nothing else. I guess, I’ve met some people who live like this.
As for me I’m kinda agnostic, but if you really want to push it, I’m a Christian. I believe in God and all…well I can’t explain it, it sounds right in my head at least…
But not in writing? I know a few people like that. Most of my friends are agnostic.
Until a few hundred years after the death of Christ, Christianity was considered a (radical) sect of Judaism. I suppose Christianity could have proceeded the birth of Christ, but it obviously wasn’t the same thing.
Also, Jesus never intended to begin a new religion. That came about as a result of his later disciples converting gentiles to Christianity without first completely converting them to Judaism (read: did not circumcise). Also, they were not as strict about following Hebrew rules and such, e.g. keeping Kosher. Keep in mind this is only part of the issue and I don’t know the everything. (Really as a guide you should first disbelieve anything you find on the internet and only accept it at face value after you have evaluated it).
On a side note this is a very calm discussion about religion for a random group of people who know each other almost solely through the internet.
Originally posted by Sorcerer
What? People don’t need religion to be good and kind to eachother. Morals don’t stem from religion…
That’s true, but maybe Pierson points to the second most important law in Christianity: “Love others like you love yourself”
…Or something
Maybe. At this point I honestly forget. Maybe something about even when Christianity didn’t technically exist there were still morlas that were similar to it.
almost all religions share the same basic morals…
.
Agnostic? or aetheist?
Even if you don’t beleive you still have to choose… er… how much you don’t believe. Huh.
.
Buddhist/Hindu?
It’s not bhuddism if he believes in god. Buddhists don’t believe in god, only in self progression.
No idea. Tricky one. The reincarnation bit sounds familiar (hindu or taoism maybe?) but I don’t know any religion which has psychic aspects that don’t directly relate to God.
.
Jesus started Christianity. It didn’t start until he began teaching it.
Originally posted by Jenova’s Witness
Jesus started Christianity. It didn’t start until he began teaching it.
Jesus never intended to create Christianity as a religion in its own right, he merely wished to reform the Jewish faith. I believe I have already mentioned something like this previously in this thread. Originally was a radical sect of Judaism and broke away following large converts from gentile populations.
Since many people seem to be messing this up,
History of Christianity:
Jesus came. He died. With me so far?
During the time after Jesus’ death, there were no denominations. It was just a Cult of Judaism whose members were too busy running for their lives from the persecution to formalize anything. Eventually, Constantine came along, and issued the Edict of Milan, which allowed Christianity. His successor made it the formal religion of the Roman Empire.
Time passes…
Conflict arises. They want to put one person in charge of everything, so they do. But, there is one in Western Rome, and one in Eastern Rome (Constantinople/Byzantium). The two both want to be the sole authority of Christianity (heh) and disagree on certain practices, so the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicate each other at the same time, separating into the Catholic and Orthodox churches, known as the Great Schism.
Time passes…
The Catholic church, the dominating authority in Europe has become corrupt. Martin Luther, a devout Catholic, publishes his 95 Theses, wanting to reform the church. He was opposed to seperating from the church (he declared himself to be a Catholic to the day he died). But, the Pope excommunicated Luther and branded him as a heretic. Easy to do and ignore since no one was really following Luther.
Eventually John Calvin, Henry VIII, and a number of other revolutionaries picked up a copy, and began forming seperate denominations, breaking away from the Catholic church. Because the Protestant Reformation began happening so wide-spread, the Catholic church decided to have a counter-Reformation by holding the Council of Nicea, which reformed the church to what it is now.
Note: Henry VIII’s seperation from the church was not only because of the divorce. He wanted to collect on some of the church taxes, so he founded the Anglican church, which is identical to the Catholic church in every way except it allows divorce and the King is in charge, rather than the Pope.
EDIT: It was the Council of Trent, not Nicea
Anyways,
Now there are five main divisions of Christianity: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Non-Orthodox, and Off-Shoots.
Catholic - single denomination, now world-wide, and predominant in Southern & Western Europe.
Orthodox - several denominations, which you are basically depends on where you are (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Latvian Orthodox, etc.), they are all more like sub-denominations than denominations, predominant in Eastern Europe.
Protestant - ALOT of diverse denominations, predominant in Northern & Central Europe.
Non-Orthodox - mostly those denominations that weren’t involved in these histories, most were some of the early denominations (some even pre-Schism), mostly exist in the Middle-East and northeastern Africa.
Off-Shoots - includes those denominations that do not follow the main doctrines of Christianity (Jehova’s Witnesses, Mormans), and cults.
Every other part of the world’s Christianity (NA, SA, Asia, Africa) are mostly a mixture of all of the above (mostly Catholic and Protestant) with a heavier emphasis on Catholic (the largest denomination of any religion).
As for the poll, I’m a non-denominational Christian. Not to be confused with Anti-denominational (People seem to confuse the two :hmm: )
I’ve never seen non-denominational used before a religion, and I’ve never heard of anti-denominational. If you don’t mind, could you explain those?
Originally posted by Dark Paladin
[b]Since many people seem to be messing this up,
History of Christianity:
Jesus came. He died. With me so far?
During the time after Jesus’ death, there were no denominations. It was just a Cult of Judaism whose members were too busy running for their lives from the persecution to formalize anything. Eventually, Constantine came along, and issued the Edict of Milan, which allowed Christianity. His successor made it the formal religion of the Roman Empire.
Time passes…
Conflict arises. They want to put one person in charge of everything, so they do. But, there is one in Western Rome, and one in Eastern Rome (Constantinople/Byzantium). The two both want to be the sole authority of Christianity (heh) and disagree on certain practices, so the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicate each other at the same time, separating into the Catholic and Orthodox churches, known as the Great Schism.
Time passes…
The Catholic church, the dominating authority in Europe has become corrupt. Martin Luther, a devout Catholic, publishes his 95 Theses, wanting to reform the church. He was opposed to seperating from the church (he declared himself to be a Catholic to the day he died). But, the Pope excommunicated Luther and branded him as a heretic. Easy to do and ignore since no one was really following Luther.
Eventually John Calvin, Henry VIII, and a number of other revolutionaries picked up a copy, and began forming seperate denominations, breaking away from the Catholic church. Because the Protestant Reformation began happening so wide-spread, the Catholic church decided to have a counter-Reformation by holding the Council of Nicea, which reformed the church to what it is now.
Note: Henry VIII’s seperation from the church was not only because of the divorce. He wanted to collect on some of the church taxes, so he founded the Anglican church, which is identical to the Catholic church in every way except it allows divorce and the King is in charge, rather than the Pope.Anyways,
Now there are five main divisions of Christianity: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Non-Orthodox, and Off-Shoots.
Catholic - single denomination, now world-wide, and predominant in Southern & Western Europe.
Orthodox - several denominations, which you are basically depends on where you are (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Latvian Orthodox, etc.), they are all more like sub-denominations than denominations, predominant in Eastern Europe.
Protestant - ALOT of diverse denominations, predominant in Northern & Central Europe.
Non-Orthodox - mostly those denominations that weren’t involved in these histories, most were some of the early denominations (some even pre-Schism), mostly exist in the Middle-East and northeastern Africa.
Off-Shoots - includes those denominations that do not follow the main doctrines of Christianity (Jehova’s Witnesses, Mormans), and cults.
Every other part of the world’s Christianity (NA, SA, Asia, Africa) are mostly a mixture of all of the above (mostly Catholic and Protestant) with a heavier emphasis on Catholic (the largest denomination of any religion).As for the poll, I’m a non-denominational Christian. Not to be confused with Anti-denominational (People seem to confuse the two :hmm: ) [/b]
I can agree with all that, but my point was that, even though it wasn’t called Christianity at the time, the teachings of Jesus started it.