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Why are some non-Christians so interested in Christianity?

Brian2

Veteran Member
You know, Brian, that’s a good question!
I did say , “groups professing Christianity,” and we do profess Christianity.
But if I had worded it, “groups of Christendom,” and you had asked me...I’d have said, “no way”!!

Lol.

Isn’t that funny?!

I know....of “groups of Christendom “ there’s 33,000. But of “groups professing Christianity,” there’s 33,001! How about that?

Just adding some levity.
Take care.

I'd say there are 33,000 groups professing Christianity, and I would of course include the JWs in that.
 

Brian2

Veteran Member
My Christian neighbours weren't very neighbourly, and the first 2 pages of the Gideon bible forced upon me in Grade 5 was unreadable. Besides, Dad was an atheist, and I'm sure he had some influence. In my late teens I looked a bit closer, but saw a ton of hypocrisy.

There is a lot of hypocrisy in all religions. I guess that is one reason we need forgiveness. And it could also be a reason that many Christians will be rejected by Jesus.
 

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
Atheists, Muslims, Bahai, etc. What gives? Why are you so interested in this religion? What is the value in studying it, or picking it apart?

Sorry, I don't get it. Help me out.

Personally I have enough time figuring out and becoming skilled at my own religion, let alone another one that doesn't suit me.

I'm a Deist and I have studied the gospels for many years now.
I became interested in the early 90's after reading three translations of the bible in one year, my quest for 1994.... I can't remember why.

When I found the internet I started to study and debate over the gospels more often, and it has grown from there. I was interested to find out more about the Galilee-lake fishermen, their boats, nets and gear; how did they survive the tolls and taxes, how did they get rid of fish that Jews didn't eat..... and it grew from there. What were they like?
 

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
I'd say there are 33,000 groups professing Christianity, and I would of course include the JWs in that.

I read that so often....... 30+ thousand groups, churches, creeds etc.
But you probably could not name many more than 30 groups, creeds,etc.... true?

I don't know where this 30+thousand thing got born. :)

Hey! That's thread! I'll post up the question. :D
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Yes but I’m looking for a digital copy with good introduction as many terms and names I don’t understand.

Even Hindus don't read the Vedas much. There are most likely no digital copies. Besides, they're 100 times the word length of the Bible. But sure.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
There is a lot of hypocrisy in all religions. I guess that is one reason we need forgiveness. And it could also be a reason that many Christians will be rejected by Jesus.

Yes, and that is why I look at individuals, not religions.
 

Marcion

gopa of humanity's controversial Taraka Brahma
As a tantra practitioner I am not very interested in religious practices.
So Christianity also interests me very little..
However the central (much neglected) core of Christianity is the life and teachings of the tantric Jesus.
So reconstructing and getting to know that core does interest me a lot.
Any more tantric path would interest me, in whatever religious or non-religious context it may appear.
A Christian context is no exception.

But I can understand the more or less exaggerated attention that is given to Christianity on this forum by non-christians because after all, we live in a culturally christian-humanistic society and not in a buddhist or hindu one (assuming most forum members live in English speaking or European countries).
 

soulsurvivor

Active Member
Premium Member
These Words uttered by Jesus are not new. They were spoken by Krishna 5,000 years before Him. Did Jesus or Christians copy the Bhagavad-Gita and incorporate parts of it into the New Testament? Some of the words are identical matches.
Of course not. Jesus had not read the Bhagavad Gita.
 

soulsurvivor

Active Member
Premium Member
Baha'is believe that Baha'u'llah received an independent Revelation from God, so that means that whatever He wrote came from God, not from any previous scriptures
Ok, if you say so. Actually Bahaullah claimed to be Jesus reborn, so if his claim was true, it would not be surprising if he repeated what he had said in his previous incarnation.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Atheists, Muslims, Bahai, etc. What gives? Why are you so interested in this religion? What is the value in studying it, or picking it apart?

Sorry, I don't get it. Help me out.

Personally I have enough time figuring out and becoming skilled at my own religion, let alone another one that doesn't suit me.
Since you're also Canadian, one reason for you to care a bit more about Christianity: it gets special privileges under our laws... so its doctrines have effectively become part of our laws.
 

loverofhumanity

We are all the leaves of one tree
Premium Member
It is more likely that the historical Jesus never uttered those quoted words but that they are the creation of the author of the Gospel of John.

The beginning, the middle and the end is the same as Generator, Operator and Destroyer (Brahma-Vishnu-DevoMaheshvara).

God creates the universe in His own cosmic mind, maintains everything within it and withdraws it also.

There seems to be similar utterances by many Prophets from God and I don’t believe they are copied but often truths which need to be restated such as love your enemies. The Prophets of God Whoever they may be are continually beckoning us to higher standards.
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
What gives? Why are you so interested in this religion?
I live in the U.S. - where I am positively surrounded by it. You have no idea how many times a person has spoken to me, and thrown some Christian jargon, turn of phrase, or mini-scripture onto the end of what is otherwise a perfectly normal conversation - simply assuming that I am "on board." Any time this happens, I am very interested to learn what it is I am literally EXPECTED to be "on board" with.

I find Christianity to be extremely lacking in the departments of "sense" and "reality." As such, I find myself extremely interested in understanding why people are so keen on believing something that makes absolutely no sense, and doesn't correlate (in any way that I have been able to detect) with reality. And why they feel entitled to be so pushy with it.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
OK, if you believe that that line explicitly says 'Love your enemies'.

Nobody says 'hate' your enemies - they usually just say love everyone (or your neighbor).

If you want to think that Christianity is the only religion that says that, then it's fine by me. Lots of religions think theirs is the only one doing something. I'm just pointing out, that in my view, others have that concept. You're free to differ.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Since you're also Canadian, one reason for you to care a bit more about Christianity: it gets special privileges under our laws... so its doctrines have effectively become part of our laws.

We Hindus have had to work on that. We used to have to have two weddings, as Hindu priests weren't qualified under any part of the law to legally perform marriages. But we managed to get that changed.

Yes, I'm interested in how government, etc. is influenced by Christianity, but I see that as a separate issue from actually studying the bible, which was what the OP was about.

It's interesting to me that both my premier and our prime minister are Catholic, and yet they are very much at odds politically.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
I live in the U.S. - where I am positively surrounded by it. You have no idea how many times a person has spoken to me, and thrown some Christian jargon, turn of phrase, or mini-scripture onto the end of what is otherwise a perfectly normal conversation - simply assuming that I am "on board." Any time this happens, I am very interested to learn what it is I am literally EXPECTED to be "on board" with.

I find Christianity to be extremely lacking in the departments of "sense" and "reality." As such, I find myself extremely interested in understanding why people are so keen on believing something that makes absolutely no sense, and doesn't correlate (in any way that I have been able to detect) with reality. And why they feel entitled to be so pushy with it.

I get that part, yet I've never studied the bible, and don't intend to. Does the same thing happen there , but in politics. If you're a rancher in Texas, for example, wouldn't folks assume you were a Republican?

I got a political phone call here once, from a member at the temple I go to, asking me to help campaign. He wrongly assumed I'd be of the same political affiliation. So yes, that's annoying, but ut certainly doesn't make me want to study the faith. If anything, it's the opposite. I have no time for a faith that produces rude people.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
We Hindus have had to work on that. We used to have to have two weddings, as Hindu priests weren't qualified under any part of the law to legally perform marriages. But we managed to get that changed.

Yes, I'm interested in how government, etc. is influenced by Christianity, but I see that as a separate issue from actually studying the bible, which was what the OP was about.

It's interesting to me that both my premier and our prime minister are Catholic, and yet they are very much at odds politically.
Sorry - I should have been more clear. An example:

At least in Ontario, there has been a fair bit of debate in the past few years about the rights of LGBTQ students at (government-run, taxpayer-funded) Catholic schools.

The schools are required to follow the Charter and the Ontario Human Rights Code except on matters of the Catholic faith. This has meant that there have been secular court cases over the actions of schools and boards that have hinged on fairly detailed questions of Catholic doctrine... e.g. whether Catholic teaching actually forbids a student taking a same-sex date to the prom, or whether there's anything in the catechism that forbids GSAs. Depending on the religious answers, people's rights under secular law are affected.

And then there's our hate speech laws: speech that's likely to incite violence against an identifiable group is generally illegal, but it's excused "if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text."

Weirdly enough, while that exemption seems to apply to all religions across the board, it only seems to be Christians who ever use it.

So those are some of the examples I was talking about. In some cases, the question of what Christianity says about some particular topic ends up affecting secular rights and actual legal consequences.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Sorry - I should have been more clear. An example:

At least in Ontario, there has been a fair bit of debate in the past few years about the rights of LGBTQ students at (government-run, taxpayer-funded) Catholic schools.

The schools are required to follow the Charter and the Ontario Human Rights Code except on matters of the Catholic faith. This has meant that there have been secular court cases over the actions of schools and boards that have hinged on fairly detailed questions of Catholic doctrine... e.g. whether Catholic teaching actually forbids a student taking a same-sex date to the prom, or whether there's anything in the catechism that forbids GSAs. Depending on the religious answers, people's rights under secular law are affected.

And then there's our hate speech laws: speech that's likely to incite violence against an identifiable group is generally illegal, but it's excused "if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text."

Weirdly enough, while that exemption seems to apply to all religions across the board, it only seems to be Christians who ever use it.

So those are some of the examples I was talking about. In some cases, the question of what Christianity says about some particular topic ends up affecting secular rights and actual legal consequences.

Yes we have similar nutty issues here. Even private Christian schools get some funding, and they push it right to the limits, while still staying within the law. I'm a supporter of public schools, and don't see any need to have a double system, when one would do. If you want religion taught, do it after school. If you want a private school, you pay for it completely, and you still follow the laws of the land. It's often based on some historical precedent, and here that was mostly because of the Protestant/Catholic division in pioneer days. But the make-up of society has changed dramatically.

Still doesn't make me interested in studying the bible though. I know enough to NOT be interested in that aspect. How it affects politics, sure.
 

JustGeorge

Not As Much Fun As I Look
Staff member
Premium Member
Even Hindus don't read the Vedas much. There are most likely no digital copies. Besides, they're 100 times the word length of the Bible. But sure.

I think there is a lot of assumptions within Christianity and Islam towards the Vedas, and believing Hindus must relate to that in the same way they relate to the Bible or Qur'an.

I live in the U.S. - where I am positively surrounded by it. You have no idea how many times a person has spoken to me, and thrown some Christian jargon, turn of phrase, or mini-scripture onto the end of what is otherwise a perfectly normal conversation - simply assuming that I am "on board." Any time this happens, I am very interested to learn what it is I am literally EXPECTED to be "on board" with.

Sometimes its more fun to say "I have no idea what you're talking about." There is an assumption in much of the US that everybody understands the basics of Christianity, and I don't think that's a healthy attitude. One shouldn't assume that everyone sees the world through their glasses.
 
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