Yeah, some Christians maintain that nothing matters apart from a few basic tenets centered on Jesus. That’s a nice, concise, and inclusive thought, I suppose, but I don’t see how it can be true. If it were true, wouldn’t there just be one big unified group of Christians with only a few offshoots at most? In this case, actions speak much louder than words. Something does matter in addition to believing that Jesus is God, and it must matter a great deal because wars have been fought, people tortured, and families torn apart over disagreements within Christianity.
So the truth is that Christians can’t even agree on precisely who Jesus is, what he wants us to do, how we are supposed to worship him, and how we get to heaven. Some denominations project live-and-let-live attitudes. Others openly state that they are right and everyone else is wrong (and will pay a severe price on Judgment Day). We can get you into heaven, they say, but that other church is a one-way ticket to hell.
Compare that to science, which is based on evidence and things anyone can prove. It’s the reason there are not 41,000 versions of the theory of evolution or 41,000 different scientific explanations for how the Sun produces energy.
So the truth is that Christians can’t even agree on precisely who Jesus is, what he wants us to do, how we are supposed to worship him, and how we get to heaven. Some denominations project live-and-let-live attitudes. Others openly state that they are right and everyone else is wrong (and will pay a severe price on Judgment Day). We can get you into heaven, they say, but that other church is a one-way ticket to hell.
Compare that to science, which is based on evidence and things anyone can prove. It’s the reason there are not 41,000 versions of the theory of evolution or 41,000 different scientific explanations for how the Sun produces energy.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"