Well christ alone -- the thing is writing we would very quickly see how important a group of people are to society if they was missing carries the implication they are needed. But if that was not what you meant, sorry about the misunderstanding.
How Modern Christianity has failed Christians
by Christ Alone 277 Replies latest watchtower bible
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jgnat
...and to follow up on Caedes' comment, why the mathematics of medieval Islam shot ahead of "Christian" Europe.
http://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_why_is_x_the_unknown.html
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Christ Alone
Interested one, I meant that comment in the sense that high school and college time is a time when we all questioned everything. A that is a good thing. However, there will also be many attacks to their faith. This could be in the form of moral attacks with drugs and alcohol, or spiritual attacks of belief. The bible likens our walk in Christ as a battle in which we must be prepared. I have no problem in acknowledging that an atheists walk can be a battle too. It's terminology that the scriptures use to discuss our walk with Christ.
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jgnat
Fundamentalists appeal to peole that either crave authority in their lives or crave answers and fundamentalisim - PSacramento
I suggest that there is an element of fear in fundamentalist beliefs. Fear of the future and where modernity is taking us.
How can mainline churches adjust without joining the fundamentalist crowd? I'm not so sure it will do them any good by wasting their time battling the fundamentalists. I would rather go to an attractive church than a repulsing one. I think a former pastor had the right idea. He'd been a missionary in a primarily Muslim country for many years. He often said if we spent all our time indoors with our own problems, we would continue to stagnate. The church belongs outdoors. I saw him in action several times, playing basketball with the local teens, attending a school's open house, glad-handing, listening, engaging.
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PSacramento
Yeah, that's why the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were so scientifically illiterate, because of the lack of a christian god.
Hawking's chair, what bloody arrogance.
I think you may be missing the point.
That was from an atheist sinologist and HIS view on why the west shot ahead of the Chinese culture in terms of science and I posted to counter the argument that CHristianity is some how anti-science and anti-progress.
It is not a slight on any other religion or society.
The point is that christian scientists were drive by the notion that there was an order to things in the cosmos.
A historian by the name of Lynn White, better known perhaps for his research incriminating the Christian world-view regarding environmental issues, points out certain aspects of Judeo-Christian cosmology that had a positive effect on the rapid development of technology in the West.
"In 1956 Robert Forbes of Leyden and Samuel Sambursky of Jerusalem simultaneously pointed out that Christianity, by destroying classical animism, brought about a basic change in the attitude towards natural objects and opened up the way for their unabashed use for human ends. Saints, angels and demons were very real to the Christian, but the genius loci, the spirit inherent in a place or object, was no longer present to be placated if disturbed.
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PSacramento
I suggest that there is an element of fear in fundamentalist beliefs. Fear of the future and where modernity is taking us.
Indeed, I don't doubt that.
You were a JW, were you not? that made you a fundamentalist, so how much of a role did fear play?
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InterestedOne
Bohm - Maybe here is a way to test what Christ Alone meant. Question for Christ Alone: If no one believed Christianity anymore, i.e. if Christianity were eliminated, do you believe people would still be good to each other? If so, why did you say that if Christianity were eliminated, people would realize how important it is? What exactly would we realize is so important about Christianity, if it is not required for people to be good to each other - that is, since charitable work would exist secularly anyway?
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jgnat
I was never a JW, PSacramento. I married one instead.
I have been a member of a fundamentalist church, however. There was a mistrust and a withdrawal of the world that was part of that. I was attending an evangelical church in a charming small town when a woman came up to me and described the cesspool of sin and depravity as she saw her town to be. She expressed the hope that the world would end soon. I looked at her goggle-eyed. That town has more churches than bars. The only "evil" I saw was the regular tribe of surly teenagers. Oh, and I probably met the local Wiccan. That day, I repudiated the "Christian" notion of a steadily declining society. It does not make "Christians" any more "Christian", and in my mind distorts their world to the beauty that is here.
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PSacramento
I was never a JW, PSacramento. I married one instead.
UNderstood. Thank you.
I have been a member of a fundamentalist church, however. There was a mistrust and a withdrawal of the world that was part of that. I was attending an evangelical church in a charming small town when a woman came up to me and described the cesspool of sin and depravity as she saw her town to be. She expressed the hope that the world would end soon. I looked at her goggle-eyed. That town has more churches than bars. The only "evil" I saw was the regular tribe of surly teenagers. Oh, and I probably met the local Wiccan. That day, I repudiated the "Christian" notion of a steadily declining society. It does not make "Christians" any more "Christian", and in my mind distorts their world to the beauty that is here.
One of the many dangers of fundamentalisim is the belief that OUR view of Christianity is the ONLY view and when THAT view is shown to be incorrect then Christiuanity is incorrect.
This is,IMO, wrong, what the fundamentalist view is shown to be in error then it is THAT view and NOT Christianity that is in error.
I see much evil in society and much more love and compassion and that reknews my faith.
People tend to see what they want to though, those that want the end to come so SOMEONE ELSE ( God) can fix THEIR problems will only see the bad in the world.
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Christ Alone
My answer to the first question is yes. If Christianity were eliminated (which, in my worldview is impossible) people would still be good to each other. Is Christianity, though, a major proponent and motivation for people to love each other? Yes. Has it been responsible for motivating countless numbers of people to help others in need? Yes. Are there other reasons that have motivated people to help? Yes. But, due to the large amount of help that Christianity currently gives to those in need, would we notice if it was gone? Again, yes. We are taught that absolute morals come from God. He has placed into our hearts what is right and what is wrong. I don't believe it is merely an evolutionary function that evolved to sustain our species. We know that it is wrong to kill, not because of an evolutionary impulse, but because it was how we were made by God.
His love for us therefore makes us even more desirous to show the same sort of love towards those who are less fortunate. His giving up everything for us (including his position and human life) for our benefit. Why would I not,then, give up anything and everything important to me to do the same for someone else?