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Many Christians and non-Christians remain largely unaware of
the history of Christianity. This website lays out the facts
as clearly as possible. Popular and topical areas are:
- Family Values
- showing that traditional Christian teachings are the exact
opposite of what are now widely taught as traditional Christian
teachings.
- Persecution
- the largely imaginary Persecutions
of Christians contrasted with the extensive persecution
by Christians of "Heathens",
Witches, Heretics,
Schismatics,
Cathars, Jews,
Inquisition
Victims, Philosophers,
Freethinkers,
"Blasphemers",
Apostates,
Humanists,
Pantheists,
Unitarians,
Deists
and Atheists
- Attitudes to Sex -
including some surprises, on topics such as Celibacy,
Sadomasochism
& Necrophilia
- The Christian record of Interference
in Politics
- The origin
of the Priesthood and the
Papacy
- Miracles
- how they have changed and why they have become so rare
- Traditional Battlegrounds
between Christianity and science - with a list of lost
battles
- How Mary, the mother
of Jesus, keeps her Virginity
- Social Issues -
The Church's uncomfortable record on social
issues , including Slavery,
Racism, Capital
Punishment, Penal
Reform, Physical
Abuse, Treatment
of Women, Contraception,
Abortion, Divorce,
Children, Romanies,
The Physically
Ill, The Mentally
Ill, The Poor,
Animals, Ecology
- The question of whether any Christians really follow Biblical
teachings as set out in the Old
Testament and the New
Testament?
For more detail and other topics see below:
An Assessment
of Christian Authorities.
How do we know what Christianity teaches? Thousands of Christian
Churches teach different things, and all Churches over two hundred
years old have changed their teachings during the last two centuries.
One reason for disagreement is that different Churches select
different sources of authority. Among these sources are various
writings, notably the Old
Testament and the New
Testament. Another source of authority is "traditions"
especially "Apostolic
Traditions" supposedly passed down from the earliest
years of Christianity. Other sources include notable early Christian
men - the so-called Church
Fathers.
Over the centuries Christian Churches have also accorded supposedly
infallible authority to various men. For many centuries the
Roman (ie Byzantine) Emperors
were held to be infallible - a fact that is now heavily downplayed.
Churches also taught that Councils of the whole Church, so called
General Church Councils,
were also infallible. More recently the Roman Catholic Church
has claimed that Popes
are also infallible. Each of these authorities is assessed,
and the assessments summarised in Conclusions.
Early Christian
History.
Christians and others often assume that Jesus believed himself
to be divine, one of the three persons of a divine Trinity.
There is in fact no evidence at all for this, so a good follow
up question is that of what
Jesus believed himself to be according to the earliest available
documents and in the light of what is known about Palestine
two thousand years ago. Another is that if Jesus did not found
the Christian religion, then who
did found Christianity? And how
was doctrine created? And where
did Christian ideas and practices come from?
Related to these questions is the
concept of Orthodoxy. Given the contradictory and otherwise
unsatisfactory nature of the various Christian Authorities how
can anyone know what constitutes the "correct" form
of Christianity among the thousand of past and present denominations?
One particularly thorny issue is the idea of a Christian priesthood,
so the origin of
the Priesthood is investigated in some detail.
Case
Studies
Reviewing the development of Christian doctrines, ideas and
practices reveals a number of techniques that have been employed
to enable Christianity to develop in the directions that its
leaders have wanted to follow. These case studies show how these
techniques have been employed to re-brand
an Old Testament Sky-God as a more acceptable Jewish and
Christian God, to present
the many gods identified in the Old Testament as a single God,
to maintain, that Mary,
the mother of Jesus, kept her Virginity before, during and
after the birth of Jesus in the face of every possible sort
of contradictory evidence. Further case studies show how the
familiar Nativity
Story was concocted from a number of unrelated Old Testament
passages and how inconvenient
texts have been managed to make them acceptable.
Christianity
& Science
According to many Christian apologists there cannot be any
conflict between Christianity and science, since they deal with
different types of knowledge. They occupy different domains
which do not overlap and so they cannot ever come into conflict.
This view is open to challenge by reviewing traditional
battlegrounds, including Early
Christian Attitudes to Science, and then specifically Cosmology,
Mathematics
and Physics, Biology,
Earth
Science, Chemistry,
Pharmacy
and Medicine, Philology,
Philosophy.
In these the battles are now fought and have been decided. There
are also a number of modern
battlegrounds including Evolution
and Genetics, Creation
Science, and Origins
of Life, some of which have important consequences
Rational
Explanations
One explanation for Christianity is that it is the One True
religion. But this is not the only possible explanation for
the existence of Christianity. There are a number of non-theological
explanations for the existence
of religion in general and for Christianity
in particular. Of particular significance is a universal
human tendency to assign
divinity to ordinary human beings and a remarkable human
proclivity to believe
in even the most unlikely religions, including unlikely Christian
sects.
Arguments
for and Against Christianity
A number of arguments have been advanced in support of Christianity,
for example purporting to prove the existence of God. These
have been divided into five categories. Popular
Arguments are arguments that are commonly put forward by
believers. Philosophical
Arguments are more sophisticated reasoned arguments that
have engaged philosophers in the past. Moral
Arguments boil down to variations on a theme that Christians
have a demonstrably superior moral code in comparison to non-Christians.
Arguments from Miracles,
Revelation & Faith rely upon evidence of the supernatural
(Miracles such
as Stigmata,
and miracles worked by relics,
saints,
healers
and other miracle workers, and visionary
prophets); Revealed
knowledge is knowledge supposedly provided by supernatural
agency; and Faith,
it is claimed, provides its own proof of the existence of God
and the truth of Christianity. Finally some practical Practical
Arguments are presented, assessing Christian claims against
what would reasonably be expected of a true religion.
The Record of
Christianity
In line with the Moral Argument already mentioned, if Christianity
was the one true religion, or was divinely inspired, then Christians
should be able to demonstrate a superior morality and a superior
moral record. Thus Christians would have a better record on
Social Issues (such
as Slavery, Racism,
Capital Punishment,
Penal Reform, Physical
Abuse, Treatment
of Women, Contraception,
Abortion, Divorce,
Family Values,
Children, Romanies,
The Physically Ill,
The Mentally Ill,
The Poor, Animals,
and the Environment).
Christians would have endured Persecutions
of Christians without carrying out Persecutions
themselves. Again, Christians would have a good influence on
the governance of Christian
States (for example creating a constructive Symbiosis
between Church & State, not Meddling
in National Governments, and exercising a positive influence
in politics). Christians would have exercised a sensitive
and positive influence over all aspects of
Sex, would have promoted research into Science
& Medicine, would have a record of opposing Violence
& Warfare, and no record of Cultural
Vandalism. As Christianity does not always live up to expectations,
some Possible Explanations
are considered and the evidence Summed
up.
Continuing
Influence
Although the power of the Christian Church is much reduced
in the modern world, it still exercises influence. All countries
in the world Discriminate
in favour of at least one religion. Many discriminate
in favour of Christianity. In particular the Churches still
affect modern morality
and exercise considerable residual
power.
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