Re: The Nature of Belief - part 3 of 3, on meaning and motive

Rohit Khare (khare@mci.net)
Thu, 09 Oct 1997 20:20:53 -0700


Jim writes:
>>Well, there is no doubt that Christianity is a well-constructed religion --
however, the key attributes of Christianity were created by men, not by
God. The Bible was written by men. The institution of the Church was
created by men. All churches were made by men. When I look at
Christianity, I see a stunning confirmation of the primacy of man, not
evidence of divinity.<<

Well, of course I believe that these men were acting under the inspiration
of God. My rationale for my position is two fold:

a) creating such a religion is hard, since as you pointed out lots of other
people created religions and none of them achieved anywhere near the
acceptance. If it was something man was inherently capable of doing, why
don't we have more examples? Do you want to nominate one?

b) Why? What possible motivation could these people have had for creating
something that led to their alienation and execution? Sure, people have
died for some crazy things - but they really believed them! Why die for
something you know to be a lie? Were they also lunatics?

Are you, essentially, arguing that the founders of Christianity were a
bunch of extraordinarily gifted yet sadistic/masochistic human beings who
deliberately distorted the life of a nice guy, only in order to deceive
millions and give themselves a life of persecution and suffering?

If so, OK, I just want to be clear.

-- Ernie P.