[Prysson]

My God Thinktwice...

I should just tell you to go out and find out for yourself. I after all have read AYn Rand yet where is your knowledge of my perspective. Maybe you should read St Augustine, or St Abelard, St Benedict...the list goes on and on and on. Factually there are different ideas on alot of the details. There is you have to remember 2000 years of philosophers answering just that question. For me to answer it for you in any kind of concise way is next to impossible.

Ultimately you have to read. You can never find out what Christianity is if you arent one, without reading the works of the people who have helped to shape it...But reading the new testament certainly helps...though as history has shown there certainly are people who have read the bible plenty and still not really "gotten" it.

I am almost loath to answer because I can never give any kind of meaningful answer to you in the time we have. But I feel I should at least try and so I will give it to you as consicely as possible.

Christianity is built on the understanding that God is a perfect being. He is perfect in every way. He is the creator. He knows eveything and has all absolute power. His love is all encompassing. He loves every one of us completely. His love is so abounding that he would spend all of eternity with us. Were it within his power he would grant us eternal life in his kingdom. It just so happens that there is a way. He begot his only son. (and here you get into the trinity which is impossible to explain in a short concise version but that is essentially to say that God is both the Father the Son and the Holy spirit. They are all one.) So God begat his only son and this perfect being. Truely perfect and absolutley free of sin gave his life that all of our sins could be washed away. Then he conquered death and ascended into heaven, thorugh his sacrfice we are cleansed of our impurities through the blood of the lamb and through his sacrfice we are purified in spirit. It is a gift that is given freely to all who believe. And belief is the only price.

That is the essential message of Christianity. Philosophically someone who is a chrisitian and truely is filled with the holy spirit will walk in the Lords footsteps and be a good and "christlike" person. We all of us fail in that. Which is incidentaly exactly what cs lewis was saying. We are all of us imperfect beings. There is no such thing as a perfect person on earth. Only God could achieve that. But being perfect is not a requirement. Being free of sin isnt even a requirement though you should if you are a christian try to live as Christ would want you. failing that though you are forgiven your transgessions through the mercy of teh Lord "for whomsosever believeth in him shal not perish but have everlasting life"

That is very basic but that is the essentialls. There is no promise in christianity that as humans we will be perfect creatures of God. We are all of us imperfect. We all fail to attend to the word of the Lord. We Judge when we are warned to judge not. We spend far more time tending the splinter in our neighbors eye rathers than removing the mote from 0ur own...and there are plenty of us who spend a great deal of time and effort trying to detemrine who is gonna get in and who isnt and when the final days will arrive when we have all been told explicitly not to do that. But you see that is human nature and that is human failing. For all that some of my brothers and sisters in Christ drive me batty (and I am sure that I can be a royal pain) I love them. It is my personal wish that every soul be saved for I know that that is Gods wish. I fulfill his vision for me imperfectly because I am imperfect. But I nevertheless am asking for the grace that he has offered to me through his son.

Now in all of that there is no garantee that beliveing that I wont end up somehow twisting the words to mean something else. I dont know...maybe I am really evil and I claim to be a christian and then behave horribly for the purpose of driving people away from it. Maybe I am just a lunatic and I have weird delusions of grandure and decide that God has chosen me to slaughter all of the Jews. If that is the case..wel I would thorugh one of Ayn Rands own tenants out and say theirin lies a contradiction check the premise. Maybe there is something wrong with him. Maybe he isnt really a christian...or maybe he just is wrong about what he thinks a christian is.

I dont know. There are a million possible explanations. The one thing it doesnt mean though is that God is false and his message is false and all those who worship him are false. You judge the world from the actions of a few...yet your own philosophy should demand of you that you judge each person according to his own lights. You dont however. You see the Spanish Inquisition and to you that means all christians are rotten hypocrites. St Francis is a fake because of the Salem Witch trial. Joan of Arc burned at the stake and so Christians are all hypocrites and liars.
And you say you demand logic and rationale.

[thinktwice]

I asked ... Okay, what actually is the philosophy of christianity?

And Prysson's answer came in post 144, beginning with the words ....

Christianity is built on the understanding that God is a perfect being. He is perfect in every way. He is the creator. He knows eveything and has all absolute power. His love is all encompassing.

And later the words ... That is the essential message of Christianity. Philosophically someone who is a chrisitian and truely is filled with the holy spirit will walk in the Lords footsteps and be a good and "christlike" person.

And later the words ... There is no such thing as a perfect person on earth. Only God could achieve that.

Prysson's words describe Christian philosophy well, so I'd congratulate Prysson for presenting them; but ...

How do we know what we know about Christianlity? What is the basis for its epistemology? Answer is Christian religious writings -- C.S. Lewis for instance.

Christian metaphysics is a given: a Christian's first source of knowledge is ... God

The basis for the "goodness" definitions behind Christian ethics is altruism.

Christian esthetics, what's esthetically important to Christians is not to be found in drama, art, literature, etc; but in the afterlife. Best exemplified in my C.S. Lewis quote about man being a nasty, pride filled and dirty creature.

Christian politics -- I'd call it the politics of virtue.

How am I doing, Prysson? And would you like to see a converse review of Rand's Objectivist philosophy?