I was going to start this thread regardless based on some of my experiences on the ChristianForums, having just discovered a thread started by True Christian its great because fellow posters will have an idea of exactly the sort of person I am talking about when I say "New Age Christian".
(Actually for the last couple of days i seem unable to access the ChristianForums webiste... could be an IP ban but then it means they have blocked both home and work addresses.... maybe they have decided to block the whole of Russia... hotbed of atheism that it is).
Anyway, I don't think anyone, even hardcore Christians can deny the christian church(es) have evolved and changed a lot since their inception(s). The original Christianity was quite different from that of today with some different holy books (quite a few NT books were not even written at the time when Paul was doing his rounds... Paul's own books for a start). The only common thread is Jesus, and even his nature changed and was argued over for several centuries... was he a simple prophet? was he partially divine, or fully divine?
And so eventually we come to the present day, and the new species of Christian that seems to be evolving.
Many posters on CF seem to be like True Christian. They are willing to accept many scientific facts although attribute them to god. They are more than happy to discard the OT (except when it suits their purpose to quote scripture), and even parts of the NT, and say they are merely parables or allegories. The main thing they have in common is belief in Jesus and that Jesus was divine, son of god, died for our sins etc. The rest of it is open for interpretation or dismissal.
In other words, they have moved the goalposts.
When arguing for their belief their only real argument as it were is that people just need to open their hearts to Jesus and his spirit will enter you and you will be fulfilled and saved. So, i read this as believe in Jesus and you will believe in Jesus. Want to believe in Jesus, you will believe in Jesus. They really don't have any other position to argue. I saw many posts like this from both old and new age Christians, but in a way the old age Christians are better because they at least point to the bible as the "truth" ™.
I'm wondering, is it that there is a gradual shift within the christian churches, as they recognize that more and more aspects of their religion is open to ridicule, that they have to move away from "facts" to the realm of the pure spiritual, which science and logic have a more difficult time of presenting problems for them.
Are the christian (and possibly later Jewish and Islamic) religions slowly going to evolve to become more like Unitarian Universalism, and simply retain the spiritual side and discard their history of their religions?
Will they slowly even move away from having personified objects of worship (Jesus, Mohammed, Yahweh, Allah) so it simply becomes God the creator?
What do you guys think? And of course, True Christian and other theists are welcome to give some insider views as well.
Poll included.
(Actually for the last couple of days i seem unable to access the ChristianForums webiste... could be an IP ban but then it means they have blocked both home and work addresses.... maybe they have decided to block the whole of Russia... hotbed of atheism that it is).
Anyway, I don't think anyone, even hardcore Christians can deny the christian church(es) have evolved and changed a lot since their inception(s). The original Christianity was quite different from that of today with some different holy books (quite a few NT books were not even written at the time when Paul was doing his rounds... Paul's own books for a start). The only common thread is Jesus, and even his nature changed and was argued over for several centuries... was he a simple prophet? was he partially divine, or fully divine?
And so eventually we come to the present day, and the new species of Christian that seems to be evolving.
Many posters on CF seem to be like True Christian. They are willing to accept many scientific facts although attribute them to god. They are more than happy to discard the OT (except when it suits their purpose to quote scripture), and even parts of the NT, and say they are merely parables or allegories. The main thing they have in common is belief in Jesus and that Jesus was divine, son of god, died for our sins etc. The rest of it is open for interpretation or dismissal.
In other words, they have moved the goalposts.
When arguing for their belief their only real argument as it were is that people just need to open their hearts to Jesus and his spirit will enter you and you will be fulfilled and saved. So, i read this as believe in Jesus and you will believe in Jesus. Want to believe in Jesus, you will believe in Jesus. They really don't have any other position to argue. I saw many posts like this from both old and new age Christians, but in a way the old age Christians are better because they at least point to the bible as the "truth" ™.
I'm wondering, is it that there is a gradual shift within the christian churches, as they recognize that more and more aspects of their religion is open to ridicule, that they have to move away from "facts" to the realm of the pure spiritual, which science and logic have a more difficult time of presenting problems for them.
Are the christian (and possibly later Jewish and Islamic) religions slowly going to evolve to become more like Unitarian Universalism, and simply retain the spiritual side and discard their history of their religions?
Will they slowly even move away from having personified objects of worship (Jesus, Mohammed, Yahweh, Allah) so it simply becomes God the creator?
What do you guys think? And of course, True Christian and other theists are welcome to give some insider views as well.
Poll included.
A finite number of monkeys with a finite number of typewriters and a finite amount of time could eventually reproduce 4chan.
