Why is Christianity 'correct?'

[mulimulix]

I have been on these forums before, but not for a couple of months. During those couple of months, I have done a stack of research on Atheism, Christianity and religion in general and my view hasn't changed. I am still a full-blooded atheist and see little reason to change.

Do not see me as someone who has made my mind up and has no chance of changing. I would gladly convert to a religion should I see sufficient evidence and reason to do so.

One huge reason that I do not follow Christianity or any religion it that other religions exist. Let me explain:

• I live in Australia; not the most religious country by any means but still a Christian nation.
• I only have one Christian friend. I am technically Jewish never for one second followed Judaism, and as a result, almost all of my friends are Jewish or atheist.
• The only Christian experience I have had was when I went to a Christening when I was 8 (I am 15 now).
• Almost all of the many, many hours of video I have watched on the internet of religion has been about Christianity and I therefore use that as my main example
• When I hear people who are so confident that Christianity is the real deal, I think for a second about it and then figure that someone in India is just as confident about Hinduism, just like someone in Iran about Islam, just like someone in Israel about Judaism.
• I'm not saying if Christianity was the only religion, I'd definitely believe in it, I'm really asking you if it ever crosses your mind (assuming you are Christian) that there are more people in the world who not only disagree with your religion, but believe in something completely different to you and yet, are just as confident they are doing the right thing.

As an atheist, I think about my religious choices literally every day, if not, every hour and have never strongly considered a religion partly for that reason.

Good quote: "Out of the thousands of religions ever made, either one is right, or none are right"

 

[oi_antz]

It is possible you are Christian but have not yet decided to consider yourself Christian. Of course you can pick any religion that fulfills a need, but I would warn against whatever image you have of God being anything like a religion would make up until you've had one-on-one discussion with a dedicated servant of God and at least gotten to experience it first hand.

Even Christianity appears different depending if you believe it or not, you really need to find your own source of peace through trusting the God you've always known. Jesus is always there waiting for us to knock and we can see all the truth about Christianity from God's point of view instead of some guy who heard this or that about Ned Flanders.

You need to just read The Bible and see for yourself if you think it has a positive influence on the way you think about God.

Mark 5 - Passage Lookup - New King James Version - BibleGateway.com

 

[mulimulix]

It is possible you are Christian but have not yet decided to consider yourself Christian. Of course you can pick any religion that fulfills a need, but I would warn against whatever image you have of God being anything like a religion would make up until you've had one-on-one discussion with a dedicated servant of God and at least gotten to experience it first hand.

Even Christianity appears different depending if you believe it or not, you really need to find your own source of peace through trusting the God you've always known. Jesus is always there waiting for us to knock and we can see all the truth about Christianity from God's point of view instead of some guy who heard this or that about Ned Flanders.

You need to just read The Bible and see for yourself if you think it has a positive influence on the way you think about God.

Mark 5 - Passage Lookup - New King James Version - BibleGateway.com

Christianity may very well be comforting and relieving for the Christian who practises it, however, I see no need or reason to give it a go; I live a very good life.

I do have a lot of experience with 'servants of god' but these servants are associated with Judaism. I go to a Jewish school (despite almost my entire extended family being Jewish atheists) and we do Prayer service every Monday, Tuesday and Friday. While most others in the school are sitting or standing twiddling their thumbs, I read the english translation of what we are (not) saying. Most of the stuff is complete garbage! I can give examples if you want, but I'm afraid I will go on a huge rant.

 

[fm107]

mulimulix,

Satan has successfully deceived many people into believing in dead God's, man-made God's some of which are made from wood, gold and other materials. Satan has sown seeds of confusion into the world and many are lead astray by these.

I have never researched into other religions to any great extent. The reason being is that I have found the correct one, so there isn't much reason to do so.

I'm not going to waste time looking at other religions which I know are false.

If you have researched other religions, you have probably come across contradictions in them. Take muslims for example, they claim Jesus was only a prophet but not the son of God. But if a prophet cannot lie then why do they say he is a prophet? Because Jesus himself said he was the son of God.

So you can quickly see these fall apart.

.......................................................................................

But how do we know that the God of the bible is the one true God?

It's a matter of faith and faith is God given.

The bible is God's word, if you read it, you'll hopefully see for yourself that it is the case.

If you truly want to find God, pray to him and ask him to show himself to you. God wants everyone to be saved from their sins.

Ask God to give you faith, open up a bible and read the gospel of John, it's a good starting place.

If you are genuinly wanting to get to know God, God is happy to show himself to you through the bible.

.......................................................................................

Also, I don't think any other religion deals with the matter of sin except for the God of the bible.

Sin is lawlessness (breaking God's laws), we know what God's laws are because he has given us a conscience, we all know right from wrong.

A judge does not just let a criminal go free for the sake of it. That would be unjust. The criminal must pay for their crime. In the same way, a sinner must be punished for their sins.

All other religions either don't deal with the sin question or simply "let people off" which is unjust. By definition God must be just.

So God has offered Jesus as a substitute for sins, he has taken our punishment, he is our substitute (if you ask him to).

Because of this, we are allowed to go free and not fall under judgement for our sins.


I hope this helps, if you are genuine about finding God, pray to him and ask him to show himself to you.


God bless!

 

[Wirraway]

I have been on these forums before, but not for a couple of months. During those couple of months, I...

you'll never understand or even come close to understanding Christianity by hanging out on forums like this. if I weren't already Christian, and the only exposure I had to Christianity had been internet christians, I'd be an atheist.

 

[brinny]

Christianity may very well be comforting and relieving for the Christian who practises it, however, I see no need or reason to give it a go; I live a very good life.

I do have a lot of experience with 'servants of god' but these servants are associated with Judaism. I go to a Jewish school (despite almost my entire extended family being Jewish atheists) and we do Prayer service every Monday, Tuesday and Friday. While most others in the school are sitting or standing twiddling their thumbs, I read the english translation of what we are (not) saying. Most of the stuff is complete garbage! I can give examples if you want, but I'm afraid I will go on a huge rant.

good grief, then why did you even start this thread?

 

[Emmy]

Dear mulimulix. You say that you have studied many Religions. Here is how I see, and know, Christianity. You know that Jesus God-Son came to Earth to show us God as He really is: Our Heavenly Father, who loves us and wants us back again. We had moved too far away from God, and needed a guiltless Sacrifice to pay our debt to God`s Holy Law. Jesus paid our debt, Jesus became our Saviour, He died that we might live, and now we are reconciled to God. What do we have to do NOW? Jesus told us to Repent, to exchange our selfish and unloving character for loving God with all our hearts, all our souls, and all our minds. Why? Because God made us in His image, we are the only beings in this Universe who can think and reason, we know what selfless Love, and Forgiveness is. Secondly, we have to learn to love our neighbour, ( all others, friend or foe,) as we love ourselves. We have years to learn to love that, we have Jesus to help and guide us, and we have God who will forgive us every time we stumble or fall. God will forgive us as we forgive others. That is what God wants from us, mulimulix, to love God first, He made us and without God we would not be able to live eternity with Him and with each other. And loving all others as we love ourselves, will prepare us for living in selfless love and unity with each other in God`s House with many mansions. God wants our love, freely given and freely received, Love is the Key to God`s Kingdom. I say this humbly and with assurance. When you really think about it, what is there which selfless Love cannot overcome? We have years to learn and a good start is to treat all we know and all we meet as we would like to be treated. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[beforHim]

When working through all the world-views I've come across logically, the one which coheres the best is theism, and add the trinity and Jesus and it coheres even better. I coudl explain it all, but you simply asked "whyis it correct". I agree, believeing in it with all your heart (like the Hindu from India, or the Christian from the Midevil times) does NOT make it true.

But logical consitency is a good test, and Christianity passes pretty well.

 

[razeontherock]

[*]The only Christian experience I have had was when I went to a Christening when I was 8 (I am 15 now).

This was a ceremony, not a Christian experience.

[*]Almost all of the many, many hours of video I have watched on the internet of religion has been about Christianity

You haven't asked a specific question, but I am curious what purpose you think Christianity serves, and why you think you care about the subject of religion.

[*] When I hear people who are so confident that Christianity is the real deal, I think for a second about it and then figure that someone in India is just as confident about Hinduism ...

I'm really asking you if it ever crosses your mind (assuming you are Christian) that there are more people in the world who not only disagree with your religion, but believe in something completely different to you and yet, are just as confident they are doing the right thing.

Religion doesn't "do" anything! People do. Different people of different Faiths are probably much more similar than you currently think. Once you get past the religious system and begin to understand what it's really about, you'll see more similarities across different Faiths than you will find differences.

So again, I'd like to hear your version of what might make Christianity a "real deal."

As an atheist, I think about my religious choices literally every day, if not, every hour and have never strongly considered a religion partly for that reason. I read the english translation of what we are (not) saying. Most of the stuff is complete garbage!

Good quote: "Out of the thousands of religions ever made, either one is right, or none are right"

I'd be curious to know WHY you think the Jewish stuff is complete garbage.

I think the thinking on display in this last quote I snipped is revealing. I disagree with that quote. I think you would be better served to separate the issue of "is there a God?" from religion. Deal with those one at a time and it'll make a lot more sense.

 

[JasperJackson]

Hi mulimulix,

For me, the key thing to why I became a Christian was when I considered the origins of different religions.
* Muslims believe Mohammed sat in a room for 20+ years and received revelation from God, which he wrote in the Koran.
* Jews believe God gave Moses the law (Torah) and sent prophets with specific messages for the next 1000 years.
* Buddhists believe Buddha achieved enlightenment and he wrote about that.
* Christians believe Jesus lived, died and was resurrected, and he appeared to many witnesses after his resurrection.

My suggestion to you, mate, is to read the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) for yourself and think:
* Could they have just made this up?
* Were they just genuinely mistaken, or duped by Jesus?
* Or, is this the truth?

 

[mulimulix]

Thank you for all the responses, I got mainly what I was looking for. However, I don't think any of you answered the question of whether the fact that there are people who are just as confident about their religion ever crosses your mind.

To answer the question:

I'd like to hear your version of what might make Christianity a "real deal."

I am not quite sure what you are asking here, but what I was trying to say was if Jesus really did all those things that were in the Bible and he was the son of god.

I'd be curious to know WHY you think the Jewish stuff is complete garbage.

Hmmm, where to start...The first thing that comes to mind was quite recently, when in prayer service, I read a prayer that we said. It was praising Adonai (god) for peace in Israel. It wasn't praying for peace, it was thanking him for it. Now when I think of Israel, probably the first thing that comes to mind is quite the opposite of peace...

For some more stupid stuff, read my signature. We have 80 minutes of Jewish Studies a week which is a real class which we get examined on at the end of the year. In the 11 years of having Jewish Studies, not once was this passage mentioned, ONCE! This is definitely the norm in the Jewish community, being bias towards the good verses, and ignoring the horrible, hate-ridden verses and I believe it is the same in the Christian community. Christians need to read the OT as well as the NT

 

[oi_antz]

Hmmm, I wonder what it is that motivates you to discuss Christianity if you're content being atheist.. I think it's that question that lurks in everyone's mind "what happens after death". Well Christians know the answer to that because God has answered their question, however atheists don't have a God to call upon for answers like this, so I'll try to sum it up in a sentence:

God exists. Always did, always will. He made some creatures which He could share His life with, these are called angels and they are spiritual not physical. He created a physical model of life called "the universe" and made little God-like robots who wander around living their life making their own decisions as though they are God on earth. Some of the angels God created decided to turn against their creator because they wanted to rule and dominate the universe, and the most famous angel convinced the human to turn against God by wanting to become God. Ever since that moment in The Garden of Eden, the world is contaminated with sin. This is why there is so much anti-good in the world, because humans have taken side with the enemy of God. But God wanted to live forever with the human instead of sending it out of His sight, so this is why The Holy Bible has been manifested into the world, that Christians can learn these sorts of answers from God instead of spending their lives cursing God for anything they happen not to like. It's all about like and dislike, it is human greed which is exploited to cause sin, and this is why some humans will impact another human unfairly for their own gain, which we call selfishness. The essence of Christianity is selflessness.

I still have to ask you though, what exactly are you trying to achieve with your post here and is there something in particular you need help with?

 

[mulimulix]

My suggestion to you, mate, is to read the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) for yourself and think:
* Could they have just made this up?
* Were they just genuinely mistaken, or duped by Jesus?
* Or, is this the truth?

Sorry, Jasper, only just noticed your post now.

As for the reading the Bible, two things come to mind:

1. If I was to give Christianity a go would I then have to give Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism a go? If I didnt, it would be bias and unfair, even if I then believed in Christianity
2. I do not have a reason to follow Christianity. As I say before, my life is great and nothing is wrong. You then might ask why I am posting on a Christian forum. It is simply because I have a vested interest in the topic. I have dedicated many hours of the past year to research in both theism and atheism, not to be converted, but to learn.

 

[oi_antz]

Thank you for all the responses, I got mainly what I was looking for. However, I don't think any of you answered the question of whether the fact that there are people who are just as confident about their religion ever crosses your mind.

To answer the question:



I am not quite sure what you are asking here, but what I was trying to say was if Jesus really did all those things that were in the Bible and he was the son of god.



Hmmm, where to start...The first thing that comes to mind was quite recently, when in prayer service, I read a prayer that we said. It was praising Adonai (god) for peace in Israel. It wasn't praying for peace, it was thanking him for it. Now when I think of Israel, probably the first thing that comes to mind is quite the opposite of peace...

For some more stupid stuff, read my signature. We have 80 minutes of Jewish Studies a week which is a real class which we get examined on at the end of the year. In the 11 years of having Jewish Studies, not once was this passage mentioned, ONCE! This is definitely the norm in the Jewish community, being bias towards the good verses, and ignoring the horrible, hate-ridden verses and I believe it is the same in the Christian community. Christians need to read the OT as well as the NT

Sorry, I can't comment on matters of Israel, I don't know enough about it. It is my faith though that The Kingdom of God has been given to Jesus and has gone world-wide, and thus the war is a natural result of God's enemy stirring the pot and exploiting that human greed. I'm totally prepared to accept criticism or correction for this pov.

 

[Sir Wilshire]

• I live in Australia; not the most religious country by any means but still a Christian nation.
• I only have one Christian friend. I am technically Jewish never for one second followed Judaism, and as a result, almost all of my friends are Jewish or atheist.
• The only Christian experience I have had was when I went to a Christening when I was 8 (I am 15 now).
• Almost all of the many, many hours of video I have watched on the internet of religion has been about Christianity and I therefore use that as my main example

• 
  Why do these have any bearing on whether Christianity is true or not?
  
  

  When I hear people who are so confident that Christianity is the real deal, I think for a second about it and then figure that someone in India is just as confident about Hinduism, just like someone in Iran about Islam, just like someone in Israel about Judaism.
  [*] I'm not saying if Christianity was the only religion, I'd definitely believe in it, I'm really asking you if it ever crosses your mind (assuming you are Christian) that there are more people in the world who not only disagree with your religion, but believe in something completely different to you and yet, are just as confident they are doing the right thing.

For any serious Christian, it obviously should, because Christianity is an evangelizing religion. We have to think about what others think in order to evangelize them.

Now, if you have done a lot of research as you said, then you should know that the truthfulness of Christianity rises or falls on the resurrection of Jesus. Indeed, Paul himself admits this in 1st Corinthians 15. Why do you find the evidence for Jesus' resurrection insufficient?

Good quote: "Out of the thousands of religions ever made, either one is right, or none are right"

True.

Hmmm, where to start...The first thing that comes to mind was quite recently, when in prayer service, I read a prayer that we said. It was praising Adonai (god) for peace in Israel. It wasn't praying for peace, it was thanking him for it. Now when I think of Israel, probably the first thing that comes to mind is quite the opposite of peace...

If it was a verse from the Bible then you really need to work on your critical thinking. Obviously it wasn't written during the situation going on over there now. Otherwise, this would be something followers of Judaism would have to answer for, not Christians.

For some more stupid stuff, read my signature. We have 80 minutes of Jewish Studies a week which is a real class which we get examined on at the end of the year. In the 11 years of having Jewish Studies, not once was this passage mentioned, ONCE! This is definitely the norm in the Jewish community, being bias towards the good verses, and ignoring the horrible, hate-ridden verses and I believe it is the same in the Christian community. Christians need to read the OT as well as the NT

If you really do like to study then I submit these articles to you. They go in depth to these issues, and I would recommend a different thread for a full discussion of them so as to not derail the main topic of this thread.

http://www.tektonics.org/lp/outrage.html
What about God’s cruelty against the Midianites

 

[brinny]

Hmmm, I wonder what it is that motivates you to discuss Christianity if you're content being atheist.. I think it's that question that lurks in everyone's mind "what happens after death". Well Christians know the answer to that because God has answered their question, however atheists don't have a God to call upon for answers like this, so I'll try to sum it up in a sentence:

God exists. Always did, always will. He made some creatures which He could share His life with, these are called angels and they are spiritual not physical. He created a physical model of life called "the universe" and made little God-like robots who wander around living their life making their own decisions as though they are God on earth. Some of the angels God created decided to turn against their creator because they wanted to rule and dominate the universe, and the most famous angel convinced the human to turn against God by wanting to become God. Ever since that moment in The Garden of Eden, the world is contaminated with sin. This is why there is so much anti-good in the world, because humans have taken side with the enemy of God. But God wanted to live forever with the human instead of sending it out of His sight, so this is why The Holy Bible has been manifested into the world, that Christians can learn these sorts of answers from God instead of spending their lives cursing God for anything they happen not to like. It's all about like and dislike, it is human greed which is exploited to cause sin, and this is why some humans will impact another human unfairly for their own gain, which we call selfishness. The essence of Christianity is selflessness.

I still have to ask you though, what exactly are you trying to achieve with your post here and is there something in particular you need help with?

indubitably.

 

[Migdala]

God chooses us-we don't choose Him. When the Holy Spirit called me, there was no way I could say "No", nor did I want to. I fell in love with Jesus and everything about me changed.

You seem to be taking a scientific approach to it, like you are picking your religion like you would pick out a new suit. You don't just get up and say "Ok-I'm going to be a Christian today, but maybe next week I'll try to be a Muslim" It does not work that way-God chooses you and calls you, and then you respond to His invitation with a Yes or a No.

I wish I could just say "Believe, because Jesus is real, and He is the only way to salvation" and you would just believe it. But until the Holy Spirit draws you to Jesus, you will be set in your ways and not believe. No one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn to Him by the Father. (John 6:44).

God wants everyone to be saved.....but this just may not be the time in your life that God wants to save you-it could be next week, or next year, or 5 years from now...but you will know it, I promise you. And if you hear His Voice calling you-please don't reject Him-He truly loves you and wants you to be saved!

Have you ever watched any videos of healings and miracles of Jesus? You can find a lot of them on YouTube. They really increase faith! Here's a cool one I like....and keep in mind that Jesus heals THOUSANDS of people all the time-you just have to believe He is real and He can do it. I've been healed twice myself-and yes, I literally felt Him healing me.

YouTube - Street Healing - IN THE NAME OF JESUS - Works!!! - #1

There are lots more....too many to list! lol

 

[mulimulix]

God chooses us-we don't choose Him. When the Holy Spirit called me, there was no way I could say "No", nor did I want to. I fell in love with Jesus and everything about me changed.

You seem to be taking a scientific approach to it, like you are picking your religion like you would pick out a new suit. You don't just get up and say "Ok-I'm going to be a Christian today, but maybe next week I'll try to be a Muslim" It does not work that way-God chooses you and calls you, and then you respond to His invitation with a Yes or a No.

I wish I could just say "Believe, because Jesus is real, and He is the only way to salvation" and you would just believe it. But until the Holy Spirit draws you to Jesus, you will be set in your ways and not believe. No one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn to Him by the Father. (John 6:44).

God wants everyone to be saved.....but this just may not be the time in your life that God wants to save you-it could be next week, or next year, or 5 years from now...but you will know it, I promise you. And if you hear His Voice calling you-please don't reject Him-He truly loves you and wants you to be saved!

Have you ever watched any videos of healings and miracles of Jesus? You can find a lot of them on YouTube. They really increase faith! Here's a cool one I like....and keep in mind that Jesus heals THOUSANDS of people all the time-you just have to believe He is real and He can do it. I've been healed twice myself-and yes, I literally felt Him healing me.

YouTube - Street Healing - IN THE NAME OF JESUS - Works!!! - #1

There are lots more....too many to list! lol

But two problems arise from your point about god choosing me:

• Firtly, my parents, in their 40's, haven't been 'saved.' My dad, who is completely agnostic, would become Christian if he had been in contact with the Holy Spirit. If he saw proof of god, he'd gladly believe. If god never reveals himself to me or my family, how can he send us to hell? Sure, you can say that he will reveal himself and we choose to ignore it, but there are more people in the world who 'choose to ignore it' than accept it. Excuse my bluntness, but god must not be doing a good job of revealing himself to individuals
• Lastly, referring back to my original question, qhat about the people who have seen Mohammed or Allah or Buddha etc? Are you saying their visions/experiences were false? They probably feel that way about you.

And as for the the video you linked, you have got to be kidding! I'm sorry, but when I was watching that, I couldn't help but laugh. You cannot seriously believe those people really were healed. If it were that simple, that guy should be making millions from curing cancer! How about grow an amputees leg or arm back and then I'll be impressed. If he can cure things which can't be proven to the viewer, curing something which can be seen shouldn't be too hard, right?

 

[Sir Wilshire]

Firtly, my parents, in their 40's, haven't been 'saved.' My dad, who is completely agnostic, would become Christian if he had been in contact with the Holy Spirit. If he saw proof of god, he'd gladly believe. If god never reveals himself to me or my family, how can he send us to hell? Sure, you can say that he will reveal himself and we choose to ignore it, but there are more people in the world who 'choose to ignore it' than accept it. Excuse my bluntness, but god must not be doing a good job of revealing himself to individuals

First off it's only the last century or two that the population has been over a billion. Second off, for this to be any serious argument you would have to show from historical data (and future data as well) that there are less Christians and people God accepted than those who don't get eternal life.

 

[Migdala]

Age doesn't mean a thing to God....He can choose to save someone when they are 99 years old, or on their deathbed, if He wants to.

I have no clue why your parents are not saved-only God knows. I can't answer that question myself.

That video is only one of many out there. But the fact of the matter is that I myself have been healed twice, by Jesus Christ. I have no doubt at all that He healed me. I FELT Him healing me-and it was just like the people in the video-like a warm, tingling feeling....and I was healed.

I have talked to a LOT of people who have also been healed in the name of Jesus.

As for the people who have "seen" Allah, Buddha, or whoever.....Satan can and does come as an "angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14)....he does it to DECIEVE people. He's the Father of Lies, and his only mission is to kill, steal, and destroy us and our relationship with God and His Son Jesus Christ.

Did Muhamed, Buddha, etc. die for our sins, and were there tons of witnesses who saw them AFTER they rose? Nope, but there sure were a lot of witnesses of people who saw Jesus after He had been crucified. There have been hundreds of thousands of people who believe enough to die for their beliefs! Because yes, they really SAW Him....they saw His miracles and healings before he was crucified, and they were still happening in His Name after He was resurrected...and they are STILL happening today.

Yes, there are false prophets, teachers, and healers, etc. out there who stage fake healings. But I am here to tell you that I was healed by Jesus Christ twice myself, and also have talked to many other people who were healed by Him as well.