Can Christianity survive?

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And, of course, the world will end in 2012.

Zeus has been very tolerant of idiots and his anger is rising.

Ah - but I hear that one of the Weathermen has prayed to the Moon Goddess, so maybe we have a chance?

The Bible was written by and for the people of the ancient Near East. It incorporates their cosmology (the flat earth for example) and their political model (patriarchal king states). Those models no longer apply to most people today. The 20th century philosopher Alan Watts found it amusing that some people who claim to love America apparently think that even though they live in a democracy having a king is the best system of government since they subscibe to that model of interpretation for the Bible.

If one goes beyond the metaphors, it is my opinion there is much spiritual truth in the Bible. If one doesn't get stuck on the details of the story or the storyteller, then Christianity can be applied to all peoples of all times. In that sense, even if Christianity doesn't survive, its core message will survive as long as there are people, and maybe outside of time eternally.

I wonder why things are always speculated as being outside of time but never outside of length or width or depth.

Well since these dimensions are abstractions describing a continuum where all these plus probably more exist, I wonder if one can exist outside of time without existing outside of space too?

I think it has to do with the mystery of time. The one "dimension" [IF a dimension it is clearly very different from the others] where we cannot move freely and explore. Given enough time, we can travel untold lightyears; given infinite space we only get fourscore years and ten in an inner planet.

For me, if no one else, it goes without saying that "outside time" is also outside up and out and over. But time is the key wierdness that makes this maze what it is.

There is little basis for that. Humanity has been around for at least a quarter of a million years. Christianity has been around for about two thousand years. Why do you suppose there will always be some version of Christianity given the history of Christianity and the history of Mankind.

ruveyn

Considering the current eagerness to manufacture, innovate, and distribute weapons of mass destruction he well may be right that Christianity will be around to witness the final demise of humanity. It won't take that long.

Didn't Voltaire answer this exact same question in the negative some time back?

The only way Christianity is going to be able to survive is to change.

The bible was written some 2000+ years ago. People back then did not know much of anything about how the world works. The bible could not see into the future. And Jesus did not know everything (if he did, he should have directly addressed abortion, cloning, and stem cell research).

I don't think we cAn say "if he had known he would have said". Do you say everything you know? He had very limited time, and the recorded data give us a very small proportion of what he said and did.

But you are quite correct - it is very clear if you read the Gospels that Jesus did not know everything. Assuming he was not faking, Cana alone proves that.

As for Christianity needing to change - I have seen .heard that from many sources, there is even a hint of it in Don Camillo. I have never found the arguments convincing - this is not a political campaign, Vote for Jesus, Tippecanoe and thde Buddha too, I <heart> Muhammad. But I will not argue the point.

Some people say that since Jesus was God in the flesh, he must have known everything. No, the writings of Paul to the Philippians make it clear this is not so. In order to unite with man, God had to willingly give up, at least for the time being, omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. As Paul wrote:

5Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Theologians call this "kenosis" which means self emptying.

Exactly.
The question is not "will christianity survive?" its "Can Christianity be rescued from Christians?"
Or from the most visible and vocal christians who are all adamant that you have to check your brain at the door before entering church and believe in idiocy like young earth creationism.

" you have to check your brain at the door before entering church and believe in idiocy like young earth creationism."

I cannot hold still here. Yes - there are militant polarized unthinking Uniformitarians [not all Uniformitarians qualify for all the adjectives all over, including some Christians, and I have met them - ask me about my landlady's church in California which scared me half to death.

But I can tell you - I have worked beside them, I have sat in their courses - there are peer reviewed materialist scientist educators who are exactly the same on check your brain: citing here only my colleague's statement, "teaching Linguistics is basically a matter of indoctrination."

I say again - it is NOT the topic, NOT the believe or the evidence it rests on - it is the mind of the fundamentalist even if the focus is Econ.

That makes some sense. When that mindset is applied to religious beliefs though it can be especially dangerous to society. In linguistics we might have some arguments over how languages are created or function. Nobody is gonna die from that. In Econ, people might die from poor decisions made by leaders following fundie Econ advice. In religion though, fundamentalism results in airplanes flying into skyscrapers. And it isn't any particular religion that is the problem; it is the fundamentalist mindset applied to any religion: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, even Buddhism.

It is my opinion (not just mine) that this style of interpretation is one of limited awareness, and as such is right for some people if that's where they are at. No shame in that. But the problem is these people are so arrogant as to assume that their way must be the only way for everyone else, and they often try to force their views upon others.

I believe that fundamentalist Christianity is as great or perhaps even a greater threat to America than fundamentalist Islam. Even though many US fundie Christians claim to be patriots, some of what they advocate goes against some of the most important principles this country was founded upon. America would become a theocracy like Iran.

Last edited by TheBicyclingGuitarist on 05 Dec 2010, 5:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

Moral equivalence strikes again. 'If' and 'potential' does not equate to the certainty of history.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDe3nUdTRcM[/youtube]