Is it because your parents were Christian and therefore all you really knew was Jesus Christ and Christianity?
Or did you weigh all of the gods available, and choose Jesus and Christianity to be the One?
Faith. And what your heart tells you.
That’s what makes what some christians arguments so “unreasonable” to many atheists and others arguing against their beliefs, (and possibly what makes so many atheists hate those same beliefs).
And then there are people like me, who aren’t that great at theology. I SHOULD know “my” bible and be able to spout off answers to debate questions. But I don’t. I’m woefully uneducated in the Bible. Therefore I usually stay out of religious debates.
Not because I don’t believe, but because I don’t have the appropriate knowledge base with which to properly attend a debate on the matter.
How do you choose and decide if what you believe is the “real one”?? IMHO, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, are all just different names and slightly different beliefs for the same being.
An analogy is as if God were an umbrella. He is the canvas, the cover, and all his different names, different ways of believing in him, those are the points UNDER the umbrella. (I know, silly).
Faith is accepting that which you cannot reason or prove. If you can prove something it takes no faith. You may look at a chair and have faith it will hold you.
However, after you are seated in that chair it takes no more faith. You have proven it. You have faith there is enough air to sustain your life. You can’t prove it except one second at a time.
Faith and reason are (obviously) not the same. Reason is the act of trying to prove something, while faith merely accepts something to be true based on one’s spiritual feeling. This is why debates on religion weigh in heavily in the atheists favor. The christians have faith, and books that atheists don’t consider a “cite” anyway.
Faith is the ‘essence of things hoped for and the presence of things not seen’."
Christians do believe in Allah. Allah is just Arabic for “God.”
I would imagine that most of them also believe in Buddha, or at least they believe that such a historical figure existed. He was just a person, after all, not a deity.
But isn’t “what your heart tells you” tied into your culture? Don’t you think that, were you born to a Muslim family in Saudi Arabia, “what your heart tells you” would be “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet”?
I can understand the God/Allah belief. It’s completely unsupported, of course, but I can see how Christians would tend to believe it in spite of that, because it’s a feel-good kind of belief. However, Buddha isn’t a god; It’s just a title for a person who has become enlightened. Buddhism doesn’t really have any gods.
I would hazard a guess that CanvasShoes’ answer, while I respect it, probably doesn’t answer the OP’s question.
I think the OP is trying to ask: “Those of you who worship Jesus to the exclusion and derision of other beliefs - why?”
escapol - Hope I got your meaning correctly. Appologies if have misinterperted you!
Noone Special is right, and I realized that after I posted, but figured what the heck! (see why I don’t enter into religious debates? I can’t even get THAT part right).
As to Joe’s question:
Well as to the “there is not God but Allah” that’s pretty much saying the same thing christianity is. Again, as DTC said, Allah is God. I’m not sure about the Muhammad part as I am not very well informed about the muslim religion.
As to your other question…
Your culture may guide you, but what I meant by “what your heart tells you” is just that. I believe that we all do have a “small still voice” that also guides us.
Now, I don’t know much about the Muslim faith. But from what I’ve heard, it’s a somewhat more strict version of that which christians practice.
I’m guessing that you may be asking “but what of the ‘killing the American dog’ part” is that right?
If not, ignore me, but if so, here is where I believe a person’s heart and soul would step up to the plate. If a person feels strongly in their heart, that such actions are wrong, I believe that they could fight and rise above “what they’d been taught and raised with” if it meant killing, torturing or entering into a terrorist plot.
[
What’s unsupported? That God is known by more than one name?
I believe in Christ rather than Allah or Buddha because I consider such belief to be warranted by historical evidence.
It was not because of my parents’ teachings. In fact, I rejected their teachings and sought to evaluate the evidence myself.
Now this could be an interesting discussion. Christ is more historicaly believable then Allah or Buddha?
Actually to answer the OP…
I was born Jewish, but I have looked at the Jewish faith and at others, and I have decided that the historical evidence does not suggest the existence of a Deity at all. So I am a “Strong Atheist” (that is, not only do I not believe in God, I actually claim that God does not exist).
FWIW, the characterization of God by the different religions is so varied, that IF the evidence did suggest a Deity, I would be inclined toward a “Theistic” belief - that is, belief in an un-anthropomorphic Force (rather than “Being”) - which, again, is what I think the OP is aiming at: Why belief in a certain Deity? And why derision of other characterizations of what could well be described as a different “blind man’s view” of the same “Elephant” (in this case - the same Deity)
[I’m not bashing Belief here - others’ belief is as legitimate as my lack of it - but I was afraid the analogy might be missed if I didn’t make it explicit :)]
Your getting your mythology mixed up beleiver... Jesus was a jewish wiseman and/or "son of god", Allah is "god" in arabic and Buddha was a asian wise man.
Just a little cruel remark... I see too many new protestant religions overhere shouting over and over again "Jesus"... but somehow "God" gets less attention. So is its become some sort of personal Cult ? Or its just easier to venerate someone who existed as opposed to a all knowing... all existing diety ?
Continue please…
Both Buddha and Mohammed are known to have existed in history. However, I believe that the claims of Christ are historically reliable, whereas the others aren’t – and I’m saying this as someone who was originally prepared to reject those teachings.
I freely admit that one reason I’m a Christian is because I was raised in a Christian environment. Also, I’m also sure one reason I’ve adopted a rather moderate, unshowy form of Christianity is it’s the form which is prevalent in America’s northeast and which suited my British parents. For the record, Catholicism appears to largest denomination in my city, although I’m Episcopalian. I never knew anyone who publicly described themselves as “born again” growing up, although most kids belonged to church youth groups, and various churches had varying degrees of popularity (one of two Presbyterian churches in town was the one the most popular kids went to). I was in my 30’s before I went to a church service where people were called to stand up and spontaneously witness and, when I was called on to do so, the first words out of my mouth were, “You have to understand, I’m English. We don’t do this!”
On the other hand, I have studied other religions, including Buddhism, Islam, and even Wicca. I even underwent a Wiccan initiation ritual years ago in Hawaii.
The reason I have chosen to stay with Christianity rather than change to a different form of religion is this. According to Christian beliefs, Christ became fully human. Right now, I’m sitting at my computer chair, a mass of physical aches thanks to a charity event I volunteered at last night. My feet hurt; my thighs hurt, my back hurts, and I got far too little sleep. The Christ I worship understands that. His feet hurt, His back hurt, and the bed I slept on last night was, I’d be willing to bet, was far more comfortable than any He ever slept on. He got cranky; He got lonely; He mourned the death of a friend. He also knew the pleasure of good food shared with good friends. I’d be willing to bet He knew the pleasure of a warm bed on a cold morning and the temptation to linger in it just a few moments longer. He celebrated! I am certain He laughed as well as wept and, while some of my fellow Christians may disagree with me, I happen to believe he even got horny! (Our beliefs explicitly say He was tempted, even though He didn’t sin.) He even felt despair in the garden of Gethsemane and the Gospels record that He knew what it was to face a hard decision and to do something which He did not want to do, but did because it was the right thing to do. There is a personal aspect of Christianity which I have not found in other religions. God is not just some high king and judge sitting on a throne somewhere distant who has no idea what we’re going through down here. He’s a young man who annoyed his parents; He’s someone being ordered about by His mother then complained at by friends (it’s in the Gospel!); He’s thirsty and tired at midday, and awoken from a sound sleep by foolishly worried friends. He knows what it is to be riding high one day and torn down, humiliated, and killed within one all too brief week. When I stumble, when I fall, when I protest, “I do not have the strength!”, when the need to scratch an itch or go to the bathroom interupts my prayer, this form of God understands because He has been through it in a way that the God of Islam or the God and Goddess of the Wiccans hasn’t.
There is also the matter of Christianity’s focus on the forgiveness of sins, but I suspect this is already another mile long post, and there are others who can comment on that every bit as eloquently as I can.
CJ
Historically reliable ? You sure about that ? At least Mohammed wrote down much of “his stuff” himself. Jesus didn’t. So everything about him is thru other people’s view and writing. Never mind that Mohammed came 650 years later and therefore is closer to us in time.
Thank you!
If I was going to believe in christ I would be believing in the other chaps too. They have authentic hitories also.
<hijack>
Why is he Jesus christ? Were Mary and Joseph Mr and Mrs Christ? Did god dictate the naming?
<hijack over>
<hijack answered>
“Jesus” is the name He was given when he was born, kind of like “Joshua”, “Simon”, etc. From what I know of the times, growing up, he was probably called “Jesus ben Joseph” to distinguish him from other kids on the block unless there was something else that stood out, aka “Jesus the kid who thinks he’s God”. God did tell Mary to name him “Jesus” according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Mark and John don’t say anything about how he got his name or anything else about his childhood.
“Christ” comes from the Greek “christos” which translates to, suprise, surprise, “Messiah”. Technically, I suppose we should be calling him “Jesus the Christ”, thus answering the question, “What was Jesus’ middle name?” It’s one of many titles, but it seems to be the one which has caught on.
Hope this helps. If you need more information, I’m sure Polycarp can explain it even better than I did.
<end of answer to hijack>
CJ
[Nitpick] not kind of like Joshua. That was his name.
Yehoshua (Joshua) -> Yeshua -> Iesus -> Jesus
And he would have been called Yehoshua bar Yoseph - bar being Aramaic (the spoken language of that time and place) for the Hebrew “ben”, both meaning “Son Of”.
And, in Israel today, there actually are people who call themselves <firstname> bar-el (Son of God) :rolleyes:
[/nitpick]
Thanks!
CJ
Actually, given the whole business with Pilate asking the crowd if they wanted to crucify “Jesus Bar-Abbas or Jesus called Messiah” in Matthew 27, I should have remembered it was “bar”, not “ben” in Aramaic. I’ve certainly heard that passage on enough Palm Sundays! :rolleyes: at self
Hey, I wasn’t looking at you when I went :rolleyes:!
It was the thought of the Hubris these guys’ ancestors must have had when they chose their surname!