zen_tom

Thanks asaris, I have started up another thread (which I've tried to keep as neutral as possible) but will answer your question (less neutrally) in this one, assuming no-one else minds.

How to decide how Christian something is? Do I
a) wait for signs and portents to point me in the correct direction,
b) accept the guidance provided me in my childhood,
c) count the number of people who call themselves Christians, and compare the thing against the majority view,
or
d) think about how I interpret Christianity and compare that thing to my own personal interpretation?

a) Would be pretty good, depending on the signs provided, however, there is the possibility that I would, rather than receiving direct signals from God, be experiencing some form of mental episode.
b) How lucky I was to have been arbitrarily born into an oasis of truth!
c) When majorities, or large groups of people are involved, the truth can often be distorted by interested parties. See evidence provided by; Nixon, The Tobacco Industry, Wartime Propaganda etc
d) how do I know that my interpretation is correct, and not influenced by an unhealthy dose of a), b) or c)?

My point is, since there is no authority that can be trusted, so we are going to have to try and make judgments based on the world around us and decide what appears to be reasonable.

My experience of the world (I think) has been a pretty rounded one. I have in the past used devices a, b, c in order to help me decide on difficult questions, but I try to stick to d now wherever possible.

Magic, ghosts and trickery are provocative words that describe the things I both dislike and disbelieve about Christianity today.

I am happy to accept the wisdom that Christianity affords, but I find it difficult to accept the gradual attachment of supernatural ideas that has occurred over time in order to spice-up what is a genuinely wonderful philosophy, so as to make it more palatable to pagan and barbarian tribes, as well as a predominantly polytheistic Roman populace.

Miracles and other magics are great ways to persuade people that something special is going on, they are also great tools for describing an abstract thought or concept in terms understandable by your average peasant.

The notions of Saints and Angels and the deification of Mary are directly borrowed from the Polytheistic religions popular at the time of Jesus. For the Roman populace, a single, directly accessible God simply would not do.

The ideas of Heaven and Hell are distorted versions of Pagan and other primitive beliefs regarding the afterlife. Jesus' usage of these terms was metaphorical and describes the peace that can be achieved in one's personal, internal world, and He explains, teaches and demonstrates how this peace can be achieved.

So by magic and ghosts I mean the supernatural, the same supernatural sun, moon and spirit worship that is a mixture of ignorance, fear and the natural human tendency to try and explain the unexplainable. Trickery is the taking advantage of these tendencies by providing intricately woven, and mentally acceptable answers that contain 'hooks'. A hook being something that benefits the trickster in some way.

If you allow yourself to accept the truth based on reasoning a), b) or c), you become prone to these hooks. By adopting reasoning method d), maintaining a healthy level of doubt, and continuing to question everything you are presented, you are perhaps less prone, but certainly not immune to these things.