Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Infinite_Loser
So does this mean I could start a new brand of atheism which worships Jesus as the son of God and still have it be branded as a true form of as atheism? I'm just wondering because it appears to me this is what you're saying.
|
No. Regardless of what i'm saying, the definition of atheism still implies a lack of a belief in a diety. The term christianity implies a belief in and following of jesus. That's it, despite what your pastor told you. It doens't mean you have to hate homosexuals, it doesn't mean that interracial marriages are an abomination, it just means that you place a high priority on the worship of the jesus. You can pretend that you're following the only "true" form of christianity, but you'd be full of shit in doing so.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ubertuber
Filtherton: can it really be completely relative?
I ask because I have recently heard claims and rejections of the idea that Mormonism is a flavor of Christianity. To me, that seems to be stretching things a bit - I mean, at some point a group could claim to fall under the umbrella, but a reasonable analysis would disagree.
|
It's completely relative. There are many folks who call themselves christian who would no doubt disagree, but they really have no basis for their disagreement that isn't completely circular. There is no consensus on the "correct" details concerning proper christian belief and there is no objective definition, hence the many different sects that exist. All the baptists and the ucc folk really have in common is that they both believe in christ, but claiming that only one is "truly"
christian isn't really all that compelling because any such claim would necessarily be based on matters of opinion.
Certainly most christians don't think that their christianity isn't the true one, but that should be pretty obvious; why would they? But, if pat robertson can be a good christian, being the greedy, bigoted anti-jesus that he was, well, that doesn't really point of any sort of meaningful definition of christianity, beyond the fact that he professed a belief in and a following of jesus the son of god.