RE: Christianity is Dead, Long live the rEvolution!
December 18, 2017 at 9:57 am
(This post was last modified: December 18, 2017 at 9:58 am by SteveII.)
(December 17, 2017 at 7:35 pm)Bow Before Zeus Wrote: Charles Darwin's great work "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" was the nail in the coffin for the Christian religion. In fact, the theory of Evolution was so feared by the church that it resulted in Atheists being jailed for blasphemy.What shocked me when I was studying this is that "In Scotland until the 18th century it was punishable by death, and in England it is both a statutory and a common-law offense." The church had so much power so late in human history that its religious laws resulted in imprisonment of people that did nothing more than tell the truth.
But the fact of Evolution survived the ignorant peasant thinkers of the time to become the accepted scientific explanation of the plethora of species existing on this planet. So why the controversy with the church? The church knew that it would spell its death if this scientific fact was made known. Evolution meant that man was not created by an all-powerful creator around 6,000 years ago but rather evolved from single-cell organisms over a period of billions of years. Whilst there is an obvious and more than slight discrepancy between 6,000 years and billions of years, the challenge was not one of age but one of "ethics".
Christianity states that god created Adam and Even in the garden of Eden some 6,000 years ago with one rule only. Do not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Of course they broke that solitary "ethical" rule (I'm looking at you Eve) and the result was suffering and pain for all the generations to come. The concept of original sin was born. With the concept of original sin can the concept of absolution and forgiveness of sins so the xtian creator-god being sent his only-begotten son to earth as a sacrifice to absolve the sins of those that believe in him.
Wow, stirring stuff. Pity that Darwin proved that there was no Adam and Eve in a garden of Eden, therefore there was no original sin and consequently, no need for a saviour. JC disappears in an intellectual puff of smoke.
So whilst science cannot disprove the existence of a mythical creator-god entity (so all the god-based religions are still safe, eg Islam, Judaism, Hinduism) it can and it has proven that there is no original sin and therefore Christianity is based on a myth.
And whilst scientific proof is not going to be enough to turn the "true believer" away from their xtian mythology, at least atheists can rest easy that the proof is there and there is no fear of being judged after death (by a xtian god anyway).
You do love to use thread titles that are then not supported in any way by your post.
1. Does the evidence suggest Christianity "is dead". An emphatic no. There are more Christians (both as a % and in real numbers) than there ever were in the history of the world. Even funnier is that atheism is declining and expected to continue to decline. These are the facts 150 years (6 generations) AFTER Darwin. Kind of throws your whole premise out the window.
2. Has science disproved Adam and Eve? Again, no. But here's the thing: I don't even have to argue that point because you wrongly assume that Christianity hinges on the Doctrine of Original Sin. Christianity hinges on everyone sinning (a fact that cannot be disputed). In fact, the doctrine of original sin has a wide variety of positions to choose from:
Quote:Original sin, also called ancestral sin,[1] is the Christian doctrine of humanity's state of sin resulting from the fall of man, stemming from Adam and Eve's rebellion in Eden, namely the sin of disobedience in consuming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.[2] This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt.[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin
So, your argument can be more properly rephrases as:
If a prospective Christian decides that he must be a Bible literalist (as to Genesis 1-3) or nothing AND he happens to study the Doctrine of Original Sin and finds John Calvin's position the most convincing AND he thinks that science has disproven any Adam and Eve AND there are no other reasons Christianity appeals to him, THEN he will not become a Christian and THEREFORE Christianity "is dead".
Good argument! No wonder atheism is growing...oh wait...
