(November 11, 2018 at 4:39 am)Khemikal Wrote: Not only was this not a particularly christian belief, it's not a christian belief (christians believe in forever, and an eternal god with no beginning)...but it was a belief of many of the pagans that christian civilization eradicated. If you google linear time, you will be flooded with names of pre christian philosophers, and even a cursory glance of european mythology will be bursting with beginnings of time and ends of days left right and center.
Christians believe that God has existed forever, but that human history has a beginning and an end and enacts a drama. What other culture should I look at for the origin of this?
As for your claim that Christianity has no Hebrew elements, I think this is a field you could look in to some more. Greek culture, for example, has no notion of a savior figure, or the need for people to receive salvation. Of course Jews think that Christians have misunderstood and deformed the proper view of a savior, but that doesn't change its origin.
There is a great deal of Old Testament teaching and symbolism present in the New Testament. Again, this was deformed from a Jewish perspective, but is nonetheless Jewish in origin.
Quote:When you say that christianity shaped our western culture and ideology, but can only come up with a single example that doesn't actually fit...what are you really saying?
I am saying that you and I live in a post-Christian culture. Christianity was put together out of many various sources, and went on to influence and form the culture we live in. Yes, those sources have roots that pre-date Christianity. But you and I don't. The culture we have now is not a Greek one, it is one that contains Greek ideas via the influence of the church. Unless you feel you have received the ancient teachings in their purity, unaffected by the rest of your culture?
