Why do people hate Christianity?

[Muwahid]

Right. The founding generation of American Christians were really tyrannical weren't they? They locked up scientists left and right, right?

That's an absurd point... the first half of American history is replete with chattel slavery, and the idea that blacks were not even considered humans. It might not have been as bad as medieval Europe but to ignore that is crazy. Christians apologists today try to claim slavery is against biblical teachings, however, the earliest Christian nations never outlawed it, the bible does not outlaw it, and there are laws which essentially regulate slavery in the bible, at least admit that point.

 

[VIDEODROME]

Random thought on this, but what's with the church generally being against contraception? In the long run wouldn't that help make "accidents" and any need to consider abortion less likely?

I admit I could be generalizing Christians here. I think the Catholic church has a strong stance on this, but I'm not sure all various denominations hold this same stance.

 

[Libertarian_Renaissance]

That's an absurd point... the first half of American history is replete with chattel slavery, and the idea that blacks were not even considered humans. It might not have been as bad as medieval Europe but to ignore that is crazy. Christians apologists today try to claim slavery is against biblical teachings, however, the earliest Christian nations never outlawed it, the bible does not outlaw it, and there are laws which essentially regulate slavery in the bible, at least admit that point.

The United States and the West in general was the only civilization to voluntarily end slavery. Once the West stopped slavery, other nations began to fall in line. Now we have to sometimes go throughout the world getting other nations to stop slavery.

 

[carclinic]

As this message is described here, I want to interpret it as Universalism. Or rather, we are all saved.


But a lot of Christians in my experience seem to dwell between steps 4 and 5. They have this crazy hangup where they want to talk endlessly about how hopelessly screwed up we are and only through Jesus(or going to their Church) can we be saved.

It's like a never ending guilt trip. Or that we should be ashamed of being human. Yeeesh.

Well, I might be part of that crowd, though. Apart of God's grace, we are under condemnation. This is not some pie in the sky metaphysics, but rather like that music video for the song "The World I know," mankind's imperfections have no place in a divine realm (presuming the divine is good, rather than petty and sadistic. After all, the greeks had no problem with their gods being merely petty "superheros" with immense powers but very human flaws. Christians don't view God that way.)

 

[carclinic]

People hate Christianity because it shines a light on there souls and exposes them for how prideful,vain and corrupt they really are.People love to see the faults in others but can never step back and see the injustices they commit on others,there pride won't allow it.

So instead of acknowledging that they have Sin in there life they need to deal with,they take the cowardly route make excuses.Some will say well since Christians sin aswell, then they are hypocrites,so i can therefor invalidate the light that God shines on my sin and pretend like i have no problems.

What they never look into enough to understand,is while God exposes the Sin you have, you won't be able to overcome it till you humbly come to God for help.His plan to help you is brilliant because as you become more righteous you have no claim on pride for being righteous based on your own strength ,because it was imputed too you as a act of mercy,that thru your faith in Christ that he took the judgement for your transgressions against God , he will redeem you and cure what ails you.

When you become humble enough to where you finally realize that you cannot become a better person without the assistance of God, it is then when he will start to change your heart and show you what it is to be righteous.

People have no clue what it is too be righteous.They are the ones that will pretend that because i work 50+ hours a week im being a good parent because im providing them with material comfort,but then they will ignore there child's mental needs.These are the people that will try to justify in there minds that its ok to lie about how many hours you worked on your timesheet at work ,because my employer owes it too me since im not fairly treated.These are the kind of people who will talk badly about others when there not around but then act appalled when they are judged.I could go on and on.

The fact that you havent murdered or raped someone doesnt make you a good person.Until you acknowledge your short comings and come to God for help to deal with them,your only fooling yourself in your self perceived righteousness

Well said.

 

[PierzStyx]

Because most Christians are hypocrites and love bombing brown people.

No more than most brown people are Islamic terrorists who love blowing up white people.

 

[PierzStyx]

Christian doctrine teaches that God did not create perfection. Adam and Eve were in fact perfect creations. Yet they used their free will to choose imperfection. The theological reasons for this are numerous. But to answer you main contention,people chose imperfection God did not make them so.

As for tribalism, EVERY opinion creates tribalism and divides people. You're opinion that you do not like Christianity divides you from those who do. Don't try and foist upon Christianity what is a part of human nature.

 

[PierzStyx]

Random thought on this, but what's with the church generally being against contraception? In the long run wouldn't that help make "accidents" and any need to consider abortion less likely?

I admit I could be generalizing Christians here. I think the Catholic church has a strong stance on this, but I'm not sure all various denominations hold this same stance.

Not all do. Most don't as far as I know. Catholics look at it as anything that even impedes the beginning of life is a sin.

 

[PierzStyx]

That's an absurd point... the first half of American history is replete with chattel slavery, and the idea that blacks were not even considered humans. It might not have been as bad as medieval Europe but to ignore that is crazy. Christians apologists today try to claim slavery is against biblical teachings, however, the earliest Christian nations never outlawed it, the bible does not outlaw it, and there are laws which essentially regulate slavery in the bible, at least admit that point.

There are. The Old Testament seems to accept that slavery was something that couldn't be done away with. And at that time perhaps that was true. But the laws that regulate slavery mitigated the abuse as much as possible. For instance slaves had rights in the Law of Moses. They couldn't be rightfully abused. And their spouses and children were not automatically slaves. In fact I can't remember any case in OT law where you could force someone into slavery. They had to sell themselves into it, usually as a way to pay off debts. And during the Jubilee year (every 50 years or so) all slaves had to be freed with all debts forgiven in celebration of God freeing Israel from its slave bonds in Egypt.

As for Christian nations and slavery, yes. That is true. But was it really Christianity's fault that slavery existed? I don't think so. I think the people who wanted slavery, who wanted to justify their racism, for profit and gain used their religion, twisted it, to justify their desires and ignored what contradicted them. In this way Christianity was more abused than anything. And it could go the other way Witness the fact that almost all American slaves were Christians. Also the most strident, most vocal, most active anti-slavery groups were all Christians and used the Bible as the basis for ending slavery. The abolitionists who fought to end slavery were almost universally Christians driven to that goal because of their faith.

 

[PierzStyx]

I thought about half the Founders were Deists.

Nope. Franklin was the only hardcore Deist. Jefferson was what would be later termed a Restorationist Christian. He thought Christianity as in the Bible was true, but that churches had deviated from the true faith and used showmanship as a way to mystify people and hide the fact that they were teaching corrupted doctrine. The famous Jefferson Bible was not an effort to deny miracles, but rather an effort to get to Christ's "pure doctrine" without being distracted by anything else.

 

[PierzStyx]

A better question is why do Christians (sometimes) hate other people? Solve that problem and the other one will go away.

I disagree. Christ had nothing but love, and yet many turned away to hatred for Him. He warned His followers that the world would hate them because they loved Him, and would persecute them as it had persecuted Him. Now all this is irrelevant to the Christian duty to love. But I do not think love would turn away the hatred of the world and the prince of this world.

 

[jmdrake]

I disagree. Christ had nothing but love, and yet many turned away to hatred for Him. He warned His followers that the world would hate them because they loved Him, and would persecute them as it had persecuted Him. Now all this is irrelevant to the Christian duty to love. But I do not think love would turn away the hatred of the world and the prince of this world.

Some of the people who hate Christ's followers the most call themselves Christians.

 

[moostraks]

I disagree. Christ had nothing but love, and yet many turned away to hatred for Him. He warned His followers that the world would hate them because they loved Him, and would persecute them as it had persecuted Him. Now all this is irrelevant to the Christian duty to love. But I do not think love would turn away the hatred of the world and the prince of this world.

Some of the people who hate Christ's followers the most call themselves Christians.

I think you two are agreeing, just coming at the issue differently It is a problem that won't be resolved by us no matter how much we might want the hate to end. It isn't the Christianity that is the problem but the abuse of a belief system for selfish gains. The church of the flying spaghetti monster could be accused of having the same problem if it was used as a banner to control others.

Imo the whole religion is supposed to be defined by love, no matter what you do it must be seen as serving the purpose of spreading this love. Give this idea to different people with different histories and we can see you get some unusual results. Problem is that the only ones imo that "get it", "it" being spreading the love, are those that do not employ efforts for serving self glorification or personal desires. People let their head get in the way of the heart. (trust me when I say I am guilty as well of this)

 

[robert68]

The United States and the West in general was the only civilization to voluntarily end slavery. Once the West stopped slavery, other nations began to fall in line. Now we have to sometimes go throughout the world getting other nations to stop slavery.

Nonsense; the US was the last country to end slavery, and it did so extremely violently, unlike everywhere else.

 

[pcosmar]

Nonsense; the US was the last country to end slavery, and it did so extremely violently, unlike everywhere else.

Wrong.
Slavery still exists. It is still practiced in places. It was practiced here before "western civilization" came. and it was on it's way out of acceptance before the Civil War.
It is a reality throughout the world and had existed as long as civilization.

The Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. (except debt slavery) It was manipulated by the Bankers.

 

[Sola_Fide]

That's an absurd point... the first half of American history is replete with chattel slavery, and the idea that blacks were not even considered humans. It might not have been as bad as medieval Europe but to ignore that is crazy. Christians apologists today try to claim slavery is against biblical teachings, however, the earliest Christian nations never outlawed it, the bible does not outlaw it, and there are laws which essentially regulate slavery in the bible, at least admit that point.

You make a good point, black chattel slavery was a huge problem...but it wasn't an exclusively Christian problem (it was a problem for the pagan black slave traders in Africa as well).

It wasn't a problem for Calvinist abolitionists like Samuel Adams, though. There were numbers of Christian abolitionists.

Chattel slavery is not the same thing as the slavery in first century Rome. That is the first incorrect assumption you are making.

The Bible doesnt specifically "outlaw" slavery right off the bat, because unlike Islam, Christianity is not a political order. Christianity speaks to all cultures in all situations. Islam is a man-made religion of works, whereas Christianity deals with the inside of a man, at the level of his soul.

But are the principles of manumussion in the Scripture? Yes.

Shouldn't it be strange to you that slavery only exists today in Islamic countries? That is the strangest thing to me.

 

[robert68]

Wrong.
Slavery still exists. It is still practiced in places. It was practiced here before "western civilization" came. and it was on it's way out of acceptance before the Civil War.
It is a reality throughout the world and had existed as long as civilization.

The Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. (except debt slavery) It was manipulated by the Bankers.

The US was a reluctant follower in ending slavery, far from a leader, as the poster claimed. And you’re wrong slavery had nothing to do with the Civil War.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Also some of the stuff in the Bible just doesn't jive with the message Jesus was teaching.

Well, yah, no doubt.

Much of what he preached went against secular law as well.

Which is, of course, why the cops and "authorities" of his day and age nailed him to a cross.

 

[moostraks]

Shouldn't it be strange to you that slavery only exists today in Islamic countries? That is the strangest thing to me.

Really? Don't let your prejudice cloud the facts. Could waste all day googling for sites but this first will do. Don't like that one? Then take your own advice and google for awhile before you make some more of your biased comments...

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/15/slavery-in-europe-how-big-a-problem-is-it/

: I think unquestionably in terms of absolute numbers, we're talking about South Asia being the largest numbers of people in the world.

But if you look at the International Labor Organization analysis of the problem, slavery in Europe and in North America - while it's smaller numbers, it's the high-value slavery. It's the thing that was making millions of dollars for people who are trafficking other human beings.

Don't like the International Labor Organization then google for other sources. I am not going to waste my time playing games with you on this. You can search for your own sources. The stories are out there. Slavery is not confined to Islamic countries. That is just your particular hate coming through trying to lay the dirt on someone eles's doorstep.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Really? Don't let your prejudice cloud the facts. Could waste all day googling for sites but this first will do. Don't like that one? Then take your own advice and google for awhile before you make some more of your biased comments...

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/15/slavery-in-europe-how-big-a-problem-is-it/



Don't like the International Labor Organization then google for other sources. I am not going to waste my time playing games with you on this. You can search for your own sources. The stories are out there. Slavery is not confined to Islamic countries. That is just your particular hate coming through trying to lay the dirt on someone eles's doorstep.

Well, isn't it odd that a Muslim is reacting against a "Christian problem" of slavery that happened hundreds of years ago, but slavery still exists...today...in Muslim countries? To me, its just hypocritical.