A Christain Conundrum

[H3LL]

Finding out what is a Christian is as elusive as catching the most athletic Will-o'-the-whisp, no two Christains seem to agree.

However, recent reading on various sites has throw up a conundrum that is, IMHO impossible to solve. More later ....

For a Christian, belief in an actual real, historical Jesus seems to be quite important. The born of a virgin, healing the sick, walking on water, dying and resurrection would appear to be optional requirements that you can either cherry-pick at random or choose to believe as real, allegory or metaphor entirely at will.

Whether Jesus is the son of God, God himself or a fraction of a God, it is generally agreed that he has a Godness about him and so is worthy of worship and much, much higher up the godly hierarchy than the thousands of little gods that Christians can pray to if they fancy (St. Julian - Patron saint of murderers - Anyone?) and definitely more important than angels or cherubim (they're just heaven's lowly workers - No prayers for them - The little bastards).

Christians also seem to believe they have free will to choose whether to believe in Jesus and accept forgiveness and eternity in heaven. Free will to choose between a threat of unimaginable, horrific eternal punishment and damnation or accept loving Jesus into their lives. The forgiveness and place in heaven is apparently guaranteed, except when it isn't.

So the only common area for agreement, for Christians, would be Jesus is real. He's God-like and might be the god, God - who you just must worship as He is definitely the one and only true god, God and probably had a son or not, that was Jesus - Maybe.

So now that it's perfectly clear exactly what a Christian is.

Back to the conundrum.

Jesus/God (not sure which to put there - see above) is the one and only, all powerful ruler and creator of the entire universe (except bad things - That's Satan - Who knows who created him?).

Once you accept Jesus/God into your blood pump heart, despite these things usually being associated with the brain, you can't go wrong and no other silly story will do.

Why is it then that, say, a Hindu family, with no knowledge of Jesus' language, English, no access to any of the hundreds of different versions of the old and new testament (can't say bible as the old testament hardly counts for Jesus worship) and can't read or write but they never, I say never, have a child that is a full-blown Jesus/God worshipper from the moment it can talk and communicate?



Stranger still, they all have new-born atheists - As does everyone else.........


:D

[Holler Hoojer]

Finding out what is a Christian is as elusive as catching the most athletic Will-o'-the-whisp, no two Christains seem to agree.

However, recent reading on various sites has throw up a conundrum that is, IMHO impossible to solve. More later ....

For a Christian, belief in an actual real, historical Jesus seems to be quite important. The born of a virgin, healing the sick, walking on water, dying and resurrection would appear to be optional requirements that you can either cherry-pick at random or choose to believe as real, allegory or metaphor entirely at will.

Whether Jesus is the son of God, God himself or a fraction of a God, it is generally agreed that he has a Godness about him and so is worthy of worship and much, much higher up the godly hierarchy than the thousands of little gods that Christians can pray to if they fancy (St. Julian - Patron saint of murderers - Anyone?) and definitely more important than angels or cherubim (they're just heaven's lowly workers - No prayers for them - The little bastards).

Christians also seem to believe they have free will to choose whether to believe in Jesus and accept forgiveness and eternity in heaven. Free will to choose between a threat of unimaginable, horrific eternal punishment and damnation or accept loving Jesus into their lives. The forgiveness and place in heaven is apparently guaranteed, except when it isn't.

So the only common area for agreement, for Christians, would be Jesus is real. He's God-like and might be the god, God - who you just must worship as He is definitely the one and only true god, God and probably had a son or not, that was Jesus - Maybe.

So now that it's perfectly clear exactly what a Christian is.

Back to the conundrum.

Jesus/God (not sure which to put there - see above) is the one and only, all powerful ruler and creator of the entire universe (except bad things - That's Satan - Who knows who created him?).

Once you accept Jesus/God into your blood pump heart, despite these things usually being associated with the brain, you can't go wrong and no other silly story will do.

Why is it then that, say, a Hindu family, with no knowledge of Jesus' language, English, no access to any of the hundreds of different versions of the old and new testament (can't say bible as the old testament hardly counts for Jesus worship) and can't read or write but they never, I say never, have a child that is a full-blown Jesus/God worshipper from the moment it can talk and communicate?



Stranger still, they all have new-born atheists - As does everyone else.........


:D

Shiva's gonna get you for that.:cool:

[This Guy]

A bit of a nit pick. Not all that call themselves Christians "worship" Jesus. Some consider him a mediator between "man" and God.

For example, they pray to God: "Our Heavenly Father.........." Then finish off with a "In Jesus' name, Amen".

Yea, it doesn't make anymore sense than anything else religious, but it worked for me during my Christian era. ;)

[The Atheist]

So the only common area for agreement, for Christians, would be Jesus is real.

Bingo!

I had a large thread at Ship of Fools, where that was indeed the consensus: a god exists and Jesus is important.

It took a while to tie the sneaky little buggers down, but that's what we ended up with.

Why is it then that, say, a Hindu family, with no knowledge of Jesus' language, English, no access to any of the hundreds of different versions of the old and new testament (can't say bible as the old testament hardly counts for Jesus worship) and can't read or write but they never, I say never, have a child that is a full-blown Jesus/God worshipper from the moment it can talk and communicate?

No conundrum at all - not even close.

You touched on it yourself - the free will argument. Children can't be born christian or there'd be no free will involved in choosing the sky-daddy.

Hindus are a little backward - theistically-speaking - which is proven by their inability to see the sky-daddy in all his glory. Most christians believe that worshipping Vishnu is close enough to godliness to count for a trip to heaven anyway, That dick C S Lewis is to blame.

And what stains of Christ are we concerned with? Is this some play on Ms Magdalene?

[Aepervius]

That's Satan - Who knows who created him?

God actually. Lucifer and other angel rebelled and have "fallen" or something.

Granted I have difficulty to remember and differentiate from the fairy tale in the bible and from the fairy tale that hollywood and the fantasy author have wrote, so I may be wrong on that point.

[Holler Hoojer]

I live near a Temple where five Hindu and Jain gods are located (that beats the heck outta the Baptists - they only have one god and I don't think she actually lives in their church?). Anyway, I think the Hindu children know a lot about Christianity. Just the other day I heard one of the little kids say, "Jesus Christ, that Bobby Jindal is such a schmuck!" I might have the accent a little off...

[H3LL]

Shiva's gonna get you for that.:cool:

Only if it's OK with Brahma and Vishnu ... probably.

;)

[Lanzy]

Christians self identify, I take their word for it.
It doesn't matter to me which parts of their bible they like or how weird their beliefs actually are.

[quarky]

Religion should be weirder than quantum mechanics. It needs to try harder.
The easter bunny is a step in the right direction.