Christianity

Symbolism used in Christianity.

Christianity is a religion that began as a sect of Judaism, but slowly evolved such differences, it is now considered a unique religion. Christianity is currently the world's largest religion, although Islam is expected to overtake it in the next few decades. There are thousands of different sects of Christianity around the world, and, while none of them can agree on all aspects of the religion, most agree that Yahweh is their supreme deity, the books in the New Testament are significant, and that Jesus is very important.

I grew up in a secular home, but I attended an Assemblies of God church (a type of Evangelical Protestantism called Pentecostalism) weekly with my aunt and uncle from around age 10 to 19, although I am now an atheist. While I think that Christianity is capable of doing moral works, I find the religion to be internally inconsistent and deeply flawed.

Denominations

Christians refer to their various sects as "denominations." The religion traditionally broken into five major branches: Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism, but each of these has many other divisions resulting in thousands of different Christian denominations. Growing up in America, I only learned Catholicism and Protestantism from school, church, and friends, but I've since tried to expand my understanding of the other branches.

Scriptures

Nearly all sects of Christianity agree that the books canonized into the New Testament are the most important Christian scriptures. However, various sects disagree on which versions of the source material should be considered canon. Most Christians also consider versions of the old testament (essentially the Jewish Torah) to be canon. Beyond that, there are dozens of other books that various denominations consider canon or at least very important to their faith including the Book of Mormon and various apocryphal and pseudographical books.

The following are stories from Christian scripture, and my take on each.

• Binding of Isaac
• Deluge myths
• Exorcism of Legion
• Extreme longevity in Genesis
• Jesus cursing the fig tree
• Sodom and Gomorrah
• Virgin birth of Jesus

Beliefs

Because there are so many different sects of Christianity, each disagreeing with the others, there is no one set of beliefs that all Christians agree upon. Instead, there are a whole bunch of various beliefs that a percentage of Christians believe. I've created a page which illustrates all the conflicting beliefs held by various Christian denominations. Some of the more popular beliefs across the various denominations include:

Belief	Description
Sin	In Christianity, sin is anything that is immoral. Each denomination claims to have a theological foundation for how they determine what is sin, but, since they all disagree, sin is basically whatever each individual church preaches to be evil.
God	The Christian god is co-opted from Judaism, but considerably tamer, generally viewed as a stern but just father figure. Most Christians describe their god as being all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere at once, and all-good. They also believe that only their god is real, and all other gods are either fake, or Satan in disguise. The god is nameless and is addressed by titles such as "Lord" or, simply, "God."
Jesus	Archeologists describe Jesus as a Jewish rabbi from Palestine who preached religious reform 2,000 years ago. Most Christians believe that he was both the son of their god while at the same time an incarnation of their god. Christians believe that he was born of a virgin, effectively began the Christian religion, and was then executed to absolve human sin, resurrected, and ascended into Heaven.
Church	The word "church" is used by most Christians to refer to the building in which they worship as well as the congregation who attends services in the church. Many also refer to their specific denomination as a church.
Trinity	Trinity is the belief that the Christian god exists in three incarnations: the father, son, and holy ghost, and that each is different from each other, but also still entirely god (many Christians admit this violates logic). Most Christians accept this belief, and those who do not are called nontrinitarians.
Worship	Christians typically worship their god and Jesus by singing songs and speaking words of praise. They primarily do this while in church and during rituals.
Prayer	Most Christians believe they can communicate with their god through a process called prayer which they use to make requests of their god, offer him praise, and to feel their god's presence.
Heaven	Most Christians believe in a spiritual paradise outside of the bounds of space and time which they call Heaven. They believe their god and various other beings live there, and that proper followers of Christianity go their after they die.
Hell	Many Christians believe that Hell is the a realm of punishment outside the bounds of space and time where people who aren't good Christians will be sent to be punished for eternity. Scripture doesn't say much about Hell, so most of the popular views of Hell come from art and authors.
Satan	Satan is the adversary of the Christian god. He is typically believed to tempt people away from Christianity to indulge in sin.
Original sin	Most Christians believe that all people are born evil and must justly be sent to hell, and that it is only through salvation that they can avoid eternal damnation.
Salvation	The concept of Christian salvation is the belief that Jesus's execution absolved human's sin so they can go to Heaven when they die, but only if they believe in the absolution.
Baptism	This is a ritual performed by many Christians which is used to demonstrate a person's initiation into the church.
End time	Many Christians believe the entire universe will be destroyed in the very near future in an multi-staged event called the end time(s). Various denominations have wildly different beliefs, but the generally involve the return of Jesus, a battle with the antichrist, and good Christians going to Heaven and everyone else going to Hell.
Witnessing	Most Christians believe that their god wants them to convert every other human on earth to their religion. They do this in a process they call "witnessing" where they talk about their "testimony."
Dominionism	The Christian belief that their god wants them to not only convert everyone else, but to conquer and dominate the world in order to eliminate all other religions, violently, if necessary.

Essays

The following are essays I have written which address various topics related to Christianity.

• Can a god create a rock so heavy he can't lift it?
• False origins used by Christians
• God at the end of the rainbow
• Hell doesn't exist in the bible
• In God we trust
• Is atheism a religion?
• Jesus spoke Aramaic
• List of biblical words with uncertain meanings
• List of misunderstood words in the King James Bible
• Misinformation religious people tell their children
• Pascal's wager
• Post hoc beliefs
• The problem of evil
• Would you murder your child?
• What is a religion?
• Why is there something instead of nothing?
• Yahweh is a volcano

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