The Argument From Christian Diversity: There is No Such a Thing as “Mere Christianity”
[Written by John W. Loftus] That Christianity is a diverse phenomena cannot be doubted. But it is diverse not only in the number of denominations but also within each denomination itself (follow the links):
There has never been a unified view of Christianity. All we need to do is read the New Testament itself with eyes wide open. Just read Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. He tried to set them straight in the first letter. Their response was to claim he was not an apostle. Then Paul wrote a second letter to tell them he really was one because of his sufferings, his visions and his so-called miracles. Do you think they all accepted his second letter? There was Paul versus Peter, James versus Paul, along with one failed end time prophecy after another. There was Gnosticism, Proto-orthodoxy (which later became Catholicism), and the “Judaizers,” who all initially vied with each other for dominance.
Christianity was widely diverse in the first two centuries.
There has never been a unified view of which books were considered Scripture.
Christians spilled a great deal of blood over correct doctrine (1).
There has never been a unified view of how to interpret the Bible.
There has never been a unified Christian theology.
There has never been a unified view of Christian ethics.
There has never been a unified view of Biblical authority.
Christianity split in two in the 11th century.
And splintered into various Protestant denominations beginning in 1517.
Christians spilled a great deal of blood over correct doctrine (2).
New faces of Christianity are being born in the Global South.
While my conclusion is not one of logical deduction it seems evident to me that Christianity evolved from the very beginning out of the religions of its day, and has been evolving ever since. It seems evident that it is purely a cultural phenomena with no divine inspiration at all.
It takes a Gestalt Shift to see this. The evolving nature of the many Christianities is indistinguishable from what we would expect if they were purely human, not divine inventions. If there is a divinity behind this phenomena then why did he reveal himself in ways that are indistinguishable from not revealing himself at all?
Any questions? ;-)
There has never been a unified view of Christianity. All we need to do is read the New Testament itself with eyes wide open. Just read Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. He tried to set them straight in the first letter. Their response was to claim he was not an apostle. Then Paul wrote a second letter to tell them he really was one because of his sufferings, his visions and his so-called miracles. Do you think they all accepted his second letter? There was Paul versus Peter, James versus Paul, along with one failed end time prophecy after another. There was Gnosticism, Proto-orthodoxy (which later became Catholicism), and the “Judaizers,” who all initially vied with each other for dominance.
Christianity was widely diverse in the first two centuries.
There has never been a unified view of which books were considered Scripture.
Christians spilled a great deal of blood over correct doctrine (1).
There has never been a unified view of how to interpret the Bible.
There has never been a unified Christian theology.
There has never been a unified view of Christian ethics.
There has never been a unified view of Biblical authority.
Christianity split in two in the 11th century.
And splintered into various Protestant denominations beginning in 1517.
Christians spilled a great deal of blood over correct doctrine (2).
New faces of Christianity are being born in the Global South.
While my conclusion is not one of logical deduction it seems evident to me that Christianity evolved from the very beginning out of the religions of its day, and has been evolving ever since. It seems evident that it is purely a cultural phenomena with no divine inspiration at all.
It takes a Gestalt Shift to see this. The evolving nature of the many Christianities is indistinguishable from what we would expect if they were purely human, not divine inventions. If there is a divinity behind this phenomena then why did he reveal himself in ways that are indistinguishable from not revealing himself at all?
Any questions? ;-)
0 comments:
Post a Comment