> >I guess this clashes with my understanding of Christianity. From what
> >i can tell, Christianity hinges on the divinity of Jesus and to a
> >lesser extent, the infallibility of the bible. But maybe i am just
> >biased by life in the south.
>
> I think its as much time as geography. Protestant Christianity in America
> (again, a small part of religion) is in major upheaval right now, has been
> for the past 30 years, (personally I think its Protestantism resituating
> itself in opposition to Catholicism since Vatican II but I imagine your
> average Assembly of God member would disagree with that). In times of
> stress people have a tendency to let their best and worst attributes out.
> There are alot of people out there having a hard time dealing with
> uncertainty and they are grabbing whatever semblence of stability they can
> find. These are good days for false prophets.
>
> Christianity doesn't hinge on the divinity of Jesus, it hinges on the
> divinity of Christ's message, which was "God loves you". In other words,
> that there is a why behind floating rocks, even if we can't discern it, and
> that the answer to that why is ultimately good.
"And if Christ is not raised from the dead, all of my preaching is in
vain."? Good thing your branch isn't tightly linked to the Bible--it'd
suffer major internal contradiction otherwise.
> Those who cling steadfastly to the infallibility of the Bible (or the
> infallibility of anything that is the result of human endeavor) are
> actuality clinging to the desire to have their own interpretation deemed
> infallible. It is their ego they are talking about, not the Bible. The
> Bible is one really good anthology of stories. There are others. I happen
> to believe that it is the fact that we work together trying to examine a
> common source to come to a common understanding is the holy part of it, not
> the book. This is referred to as the communion of saints, its not unlike
> Jung's notion of the collective unconscious.
1st) Unfortunately, true of 99+%. Claiming both infallibility and
all-comprehensiveness directly clashes with Godel's theorem.
2nd) I have no reason to claim a 'collection of stories' is a suitable
foundation for ANYONE's life. Science is a better competitor for the slot
than that.