who created christianity

[joshgold17]

i dont think it was the god in the sky or jebus.

[Darwinian]

I'm think it was Paul when he had his 'trip' on the road to Damascus.

[Shinylight]

I'm think it was Paul when he had his 'trip' on the road to Damascus.

This ^

Either that or it was aliens.

[Minimalist]

Constantine and his gang of thugs.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Constantine and his gang of thugs.

I think Constantine allowed Christianity to be created for political reasons.He was not even a Christian himself until the end of his life,nor was the empire dominated by Christianity under Constantine.

The Christian canon was cobbled together at the First Nicene Council,convened by Constantine in 325 CE.. It attempted, and failed, to homogenise Christian beliefs and make Rome the centre of Christian power. That kind of worked.

THAT Christianity was invented by Saul of Tarsus more than any other single person. He de-Jewified what was an orthodox Jewish sect, by removing the ritual aspects (especially) of Mosaic law.( EG the bris,dietary law) These changes opened the new faith to gentiles,which was essential to the spread of Christianity..The faith called Christianity has little to do with the poor little first century rabbi blamed for founding it...

Christianity has been reinvented several times not only by the Catholic church,but by people such as Martin Luther and John Calvin.Celibacy of clergy was not introduced for at least three hundred years ,never adopted by Easter rites Christianity and abandoned by protestants. Today some denominations (such as Anglicans) allow female and gay clergy.

[Minimalist]

THAT Christianity was invented by Saul of Tarsus more than any other single person.

Which assumes that "Saul/Paul" was any more real than jesus. The more I have examined that question the bigger the doubts become.

[DeistPaladin]

Which assumes that "Saul/Paul" was any more real than jesus. The more I have examined that question the bigger the doubts become.

The biggest issue I have with Paul is IF he existed, how much have his epistles been tampered with and can we know for sure what exactly he preached?

Scholars suspect that roughly half of his epistles are pseudo-epigraphical. That's a nice way of saying that someone else wrote them and used his name. Such practice was common back then and so already we have cause for doubt.

Next we have who Paul originally was the prophet for: Marcionite Christianity. Paul's epistles, whatever their original form, were originally "discovered" by Marcion. Marcion preached that Jesus was a higher god, separate from and superior to the Jewish god Yahweh. Marcion rejected the entire OT and all things Jewish, preaching instead that Jesus was a god who appeared, fully formed and as an adult, in the temple one day to save us from the austere Jewish god.

So why would Marcion select as his poster boy a prophet who preached a message more compatible with Trinitarian Christianity? Did Marcion not know what Paul wrote? That seems unlikely. Did he hope no one else would know what Paul wrote? This seems unlikely. Were these epistles changed later? Christianity had the means, motive and opportunity to do so.

[Minimalist]

I've probably discussed this with you before, D-P ( at JNE maybe) but there is little in the way of historical "markers" in any of the Saul/Paul crapola. Some of what there is makes no sense, at all.
Corinth being a major city in the middle of the first century comes to mind immediately.

But there is one which indicates that Saul/Paul escaped from Damascus when it was ruled by King Aretas of Nabatea. Xtians twist their scrotums into knots trying to make that be Aretas IV who died in 40 AD. But Damascus was a Roman city at that time and no where in the histories of the time does anyone say otherwise.

HOWEVER, Aretas III did rule Damascus.

From about 84 to 64 BC when he lost it to Pompey's legions during the campaign in the east.
Who knows what Marcion found and played with ( i.e. tampered with) ?

Similar to the discussion on Jerusalem being leveled in another thread, we actually can cite a time when what is recounted did happen. That it causes xtians no end of problems with their godboy stories bothers me not at all.

[Zen Badger]

Christianity was created by Rome in order to continue the Empire.

When you think about it the RC church is way bigger that Imperial Rome ever was, with a much larger income base. And without the need to maintain the infrastructure that a empire normally requires.
The Vactican is classed as a state in its own right afterall.

Just substitute the term "Emperor" with the term "Pope" and you've got it covered.

[16three-john]

Constantine and his gang of thugs.

I think Constantine allowed Christianity to be created for political reasons.He was not even a Christian himself until the end of his life,nor was the empire dominated by Christianity under Constantine.

The Christian canon was cobbled together at the First Nicene Council,convened by Constantine in 325 CE.. It attempted, and failed, to homogenise Christian beliefs and make Rome the centre of Christian power. That kind of worked.

THAT Christianity was invented by Saul of Tarsus more than any other single person. He de-Jewified what was an orthodox Jewish sect, by removing the ritual aspects (especially) of Mosaic law.( EG the bris,dietary law) These changes opened the new faith to gentiles,which was essential to the spread of Christianity..The faith called Christianity has little to do with the poor little first century rabbi blamed for founding it...

Christianity has been reinvented several times not only by the Catholic church,but by people such as Martin Luther and John Calvin.Celibacy of clergy was not introduced for at least three hundred years ,never adopted by Easter rites Christianity and abandoned by protestants. Today some denominations (such as Anglicans) allow female and gay clergy.

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 nicine. 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 shouldnt 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 chritians 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 nicine, it was decided that these 3 books would be accepted into the bible.