who created christianity

[Justtristo]

If you were to historically and geographically trace the roots of christianity back to its origins, you would find that in fact there were christians before 1000 BC, way before the time of Paul or Constantine. There is historical evidence of these people and their faith in a divine creator, and accounts of their stories which have been scientifically dated to be from before 1000 BC.
You would also find that when a man named Jesus went around teaching and living with these christians about 1000 years later, they adopted a refined spirituality. It then led to many different writings about this man Jesus and his life. These have been scientifically proven to have been from as early as 60 AD.

So, to say that one person 'created' christianity isnt exactly a fair statement at all. I would believe that God did, not only because I'm a christian, but the intellectual part of my brain also wouldnt let me think that one person 'created' christianity because if you look at the historical evidence, there really isnt any proof that ANYONE created christianity.


Also, the biblical canon was not simply 'cobbled' together at the council of Nicene. Christians in or around 80 AD got together and started to make decisions on which of these writings were to be in the new testament. They used many different pieces of information to try to see what should and shouldn't be in the bible. These included but were not limited to:
-The author had to be either one of Jesus' apostles, or a close associate of an apostle
-The teachings within the writings could not directly contradict Christianity or god's word
-The writings had to be accepted by christians everywhere at that time
Because of the last criteria, 3 writings that were generally accepted as going into the NT were then under dispute. Christians then waited for over 200 years to see just what people thought about these 3 books, and they also prayed to their god to ask him to show them what to do. In 325, at the council of Nicene, it was decided that these 3 books would be accepted into the bible.

Firstly in 80AD according to biblical scholars not even all the books you find today in the New Testament were written yet (that includes at least two gospels). Canonization of the Christian bible was a drawn out process, which the main stage occurred after Constantine declared Christianity legal in the 4th Century. Also Constantine by doing that action, favored one group of Christians (Bart D Erhman calls the Proto-Orthodox) over the other groups (including Gnostics). Hence any books which made it into canon would have to agree with Proto-Orthodox dogma.

Even in the 4th century there was still dispute what books would get included in the New Testament, books such as James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John and Revelation also did not make it into New Testament canon. While books such as the Shepherd of Hermas, Didache and the Letter of Barnabas* narrowly missed out on getting into Canon.

* The consequences for western civilization if the Letter of Barnabas got included into New Testament canon would be interesting, because it says in that letter Hyenas change their sex every year

---

Um.....evidence?

this MIGHT help: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a009.html
and this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1...ament.html
this is, however, assuming that by the fact that the Old Testament has only been verified, and not disproved, by archaeology, history, and geography, that what it says can be taken as fact.

Please do me a favor read The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts and then I can chat with you about biblical archeology.