1.) Christianity as it is known today is a failure and does not produce what it promises
If the promise is the path to heaven then I disagree that it is a failure. I believe that I will go to heaven and it is one of the results of my Catholic upbringing.
I think that when a group of people is well defined, they become easy to disguise yourself as. Take a televangelist, for example, it seems pretty easy to act like a christian and make a lot of money off people and not even have to be christian in the first place.
I think the image of a broken christianity comes from the fakes, not from the true christians (whatever that it) actually being failures.
2.) "The Faith," is it was once known, has not always been a failure, and once produced what it promised
It seems that if I disagree with #1 then I need not reply to #2.
3.) If the problems are corrected, "The Faith" is capable of producing a lifestyle that is recognizable by most people as "the way it ought to be.”
I think that "the way it ought to be” is too idealistic, I mean, it is unrealistic.
quote:
The promise of the faith is that it could unite its adherents into one body, with a mutual love, caring for one another above themselves, sharing in all things, and who are giving, kind, and non-vengeful to those around them.
I think that is fine for a small community but for the world as a whole it wouldn’t work.
What about people who don’t want to unite with you?
What about people who want to take advantage of your community? Like the televangelists again, if you try to live by something that is too idealistic, then you opening yourself up. You could just turn the other cheek but then you could possibly be getting your ass kicked all day. Someday, your gonna have to defend yourself.
With your definition of the promise of faith, I think christianity
has failed. Not because of some inherent flaw in the system, but because the promise, as you’ve defined, is the flaw. Its an unreachable goal. Its an ideal that cannot work in reality.
This message has been edited by Catholic Scientist, 11-15-2005 05:35 PM