Christianity 2.0

Christianity 2.0

If you were to design an update of Christianity, what would it look like?

What would you delete? What would you add on?

You could start by throwing out all the superstitious rubbish

Originally posted by Macallan:

You could start by throwing out all the superstitious rubbish

Well, there goes the bathwater. Was there no baby in there somewhere?

Maybe change the first phrase of the Old Testament to "Once upon a time.."

Savage old fairy tales are the bane of any religion, containing primitive superstitions and meanderings, sometimes with good things in them but also with viscous depravity. They fuel extremism. They should be seen as they are, an early attempt at recording fables by dusty old scribes. Oh - and that applies to Christianity as well.

Originally posted by OnetimePoster:

Originally posted by Macallan:

You could start by throwing out all the superstitious rubbish

Well, there goes the bathwater. Was there no baby in there somewhere?

Nope. People just claim they saw the baby and will tell you that we were always at war with Oceania.

Not user generated content, for sure.

Good evening. Here is the news on Friday, the 27th of Geldof. Archeologists near mount Sinai have discovered what is believed to be a missing page from the Bible. The page is currently being carbon dated in Bonn. If genuine it belongs at the beginning of the Bible and is believed to read "To my darling Candy. All characters portrayed within this book are fictitous and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental." The page has been universally condemned by church leaders.
-- Red Dwarf, Better than Life

Originally posted by Belfrager:

Not user generated content, for sure.

http://www.wikibible.org/

Christianity is fine as is. I'd get rid of the Christians. No violence, mind you.

Originally posted by scottjames39:

What would you delete?

Can one delete Yahweh?
What about the prolific drug abuse in Revelations?

I would leave the OT for optional reading. The NT without the book of Revelation (which only scraped in) would be the basis. Avoid pomp, pride and frippery. Avoid making up stories, inventions like purgatory and transubstantiation. No "big boss" other than God and no intermediary but Christ.
Jumble sales are optional...

Originally posted by Acorn15:

I would leave the OT for optional reading.

Interesting.
I'm inclined to agree, but then you would be effectively destroying the foundation upon which Christianity is built.

Originally posted by Acorn15:

The NT without the book of Revelation (which only scraped in) would be the basis.

That would certainly improve it.

Originally posted by Acorn15:

Avoid pomp, pride and frippery. Avoid making up stories, inventions like purgatory and transubstantiation.

Ok! I would add The book of Enoch into the old testament, along with the talmud. Then delete Leviticus, just to discourage the ritualistic mentality it potrays.

Incoporate the new testament with gnostic gospels. Add some also from the book of Mormon.

But I strongly advise praying and allowing the Holy Ghost to guide us. That's better than reading any scripture. I call it: living the faith.

Have to agree with the comment on Revelation. It is a confusing book at times, but even then, there are some good things in it.

BTW -- Note that Revelation has no "s" on the end...smile.

Originally posted by scottjames39:

What would you delete? What would you add on?

delete everything that has been added on.

Originally posted by Jaybro:

Christianity is fine as is. I'd get rid of the Christians. No violence, mind you.

Perhaps abra cadabra?

Originally posted by Acorn15:

inventions like purgatory and transubstantiation

All current major branches of Christianity have a number of late inventions, like purgatory and original sin. Transubstantiation on the other hand seems to this lay person to be the theological equivalent of painting yourself into a corner. Roman Catholics may disagree.

Originally posted by grysmn:

Perhaps abra cadabra?

That'll work. No violence, though.

Originally posted by jax:

All current major branches of Christianity have a number of late inventions, like purgatory and original sin.

But the biggest invention of all is (fill in the blank)_____________________________________________ .

Yes the point about Revelations is a strange inclusion. And with all the superstition gone I would have no red socks to hit at.

Originally posted by scottjames39:

If you were to design an update of Christianity, what would it look like?

It currently looks like the religious equivalent of Internet Explorer 5.5

No updates required. Skip IE6 entirely. Just a complete change of god. Might I suggest Opera? All hail the Mighty O.

If I were to design an update for Christianity it would look a little like this. No. 1 There would be no organized church. Baptist, Catholic, Morman, none of that would be there. There would be one Bible and only one Bible and that is the way it would be. The Christians of today are almost an embarrassment. I am a stout believer and because I don't look down my nose at those less fortunate than me or they do not believe the same as I do, I am judged ,by my fellow believers, to be unsaved. Ours is not to judge but to lead with love those who need to know who G-D really is.!! Christianity does not need huge multi million dollar buildings. We all need to live the way Y'shua did with humility, love and patience and never be afraid to tell the truth!!

an update to Christianity? if you mean a do-over then i would have it so that it stayed from whence it came and let it fester there.

Originally posted by jax:

All current major branches of Christianity have a number of late inventions

A good reason for not having them.

Originally posted by Thabotizz:

along with the talmud

The Talmud!!! Have you read any of it. It is hardly Christian friendly!

Originally posted by Thabotizz:

Add some also from the book of Mormon

Now I know that you are just taking the Mickey!

iDrWhat, Welcome.

True Christianity needs no change, except that each Christian needs to continue to change to overcome his shortcomings, with God's help. False Christianity (which is most of what is called "Christianity") cdoesn't need to change, it needs to be replaced.

PTG, I visited your blog -- warmed over fundamentalism. Sorry, but no thanks.

An update of christianity, well first I would get rid of the paganist stuff in the new testament bible then I would take everything out that wasn't in the original bible and then well there wouldnt really be much left of the bible. The remainder of that bible would be truth

More religious holidays. Lots of them, we are working too much.

Originally posted by Belfrager:

More religious holidays. Lots of them, we are working too much.

There's one for each day already, we merely don't celebrate enough.

Thank you, Acorn15, I appreciate the welcome. Does any one know the difference between religion and faith? We may think we work to much, but could we have done all that G-D did in 6 days? I don't observe Christmas and Easter, but I do participate in the Hebrew feasts and holy days and I take them to work with me. I really enjoy the curiosity and the questions and the, sometimes, participation of my fellow co-workers, friends, family and my children. The regular holidays can be a little uncomfortable, at times, but not for me for others. They just don't know what to do or say.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

Yes the point about Revelations is a strange inclusion. And with all the superstition gone I would have no red socks to hit at.

Oh, I think you'll find something.

Originally posted by scottjames39:

an update of Christianity

No trying to be the proverbial smartarse here, but Islam is the most recent Abrahamic religion.
"Update" anyone?

Why not call it something new?
When Microsoft brought out a bug-fix for Vista, they called it Windows 7.
Fix up Christianity and call it, say, Religion7.
Microsoft is smarter, bigger, and more all-pervasive than Christianity, is more indispensable, and can do anything it wants to.
Learn from them.

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

Originally posted by scottjames39:

an update of Christianity

No trying to be the proverbial smartarse here, but Islam is the most recent Abrahamic religion.
"Update" anyone?

There's a much more recent update to islam

According to them that is just one so-called update and not just applying to Islam. Just another stall on the spiritual marketplace.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

According to them that is just one so-called update and not just applying to Islam. Just another stall on the spiritual marketplace.

Well, you guys 'updated' ( or rather hijacked parts of ) judaism, what's the difference other than your personal beliefs?

I think a marriage that has lasted so long is an awesome thing. That is how we are suppose to live. We don't just update our kids why should we update our spouses? That makes no sense at all.

Jings, Jaybro. I didn't know things were that damn elementary in Michigan? If there is a charity appeal I would consider sending a donation. Things are worse over there than I realised. And that poor wifie scrabbling about in the grass. Dear me.

Originally posted by Jaybro:

Not all of us are so afflicted.jabro_bringing_home_the_bacon.jpg

Jaybro I see that fast food for you, menas that it is on four legs, I take it that you are not into fast food restaurants

Originally posted by Acorn 15:

Now I know that you are just! I am Mickey!

Thanks Mickey! You are welcome to qoute me anytime.

Build more Cathedrals. That's the only thing that will ever last.

Cathedrals do well, but other sorts of buildings like pyramids have a longer half-life.

Christianity is more like the JVM: mature and has not received any significant updates in a long time. It supports several different ways of coding up and solving the same problem: escaping hell and being in the loving arms of our creator. Some of the supported languages on this CVM (Christianity Virtual Machine) include Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals and Evangelicals.

The original source code for Christianity although open, has a license agreement which strictly forbids the inclusion of any new content (see Duet 4:2, 12:32, Prov. 30: 5-6 and several other sections of the license agree and general code of conduct documentation).

Several different organisations have forked the source code to produce their own versions of the original source code including Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics and Mormons. I believe this is a breach of the license agreement, and this will be dealt with at the End of World court later.

As far as upgrading the Christianity to version 2.0, I doubt that would not be possible with the current legal agreements in place. I believe what needs to be improved is the documentation and usability testing. Currently, Christianity's users are SERIOUSLY under utilizing the tools included with the software including the Spiritual Gifts Software Suite (Healing 5.2, Prophecy 2.4.5, Miracles v1.8, etc), and somehow are finding difficulty in producing documents in the software. So far every time I check, the following file formats always seem to be corrupted when ever users produce them: love, goodness, mercy and kindness.

I believe the current software developers and P.R.O.s need to work harder to make Christianity's users feel more at home with the current software before we attempt to make a new version.

Originally posted by Belfrager:

Build more Cathedrals.

Indeed.
Why follow a respectable Catholic's example (Mother Teresa) when you can take from the poor to build cathedrals?

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

Originally posted by Belfrager:

Build more Cathedrals.

Indeed.
Why follow a respectable Catholic's example (Mother Teresa) when you can take from the poor to build cathedrals?

No problem, Mississippi's Robin Hood will give it back to the poor.
So, build even more. And bigger.

Hey. We've cathedrals all over the place and they aren't RC ones! Indeed here in this city we have a Presbyterian (Church of Scotland), Episcopal and of course one for the Red Socks mob. Well at least the Mississippi Robin Hood wouldn't be as hypocritical as "Mother Theresa!

Originally posted by Belfrager:

No problem, Mississippi's Robin Hood will give it back to the poor.

I rather doubt it.
One can hope though!

Originally posted by Belfrager:

So, build even more. And bigger.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

Well at least the Mississippi Robin Hood wouldn't be as hypocritical as "Mother Theresa!

Hmm, not sure about that.
I'm not so sure about Catholicism as a whole, but Mother Teresa was an exemplary woman.
Even with the odd rituals that Catholics practice, she was as honest a person as you would ever meet.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

We've cathedrals all over the place and they aren't RC ones!

A Cathedral it's the home Church of a Bishop.
Therefore, only Catholic and Orthodox Cathedrals exists.
Envy it's such an ugly thing. Besides a capital sin.

Originally posted by jax:

Cathedrals do well, but other sorts of buildings like pyramids have a longer half-life.

Just keep the amount of empty space on the inside to a minimum and you won't have to worry much about collapse.

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

I'm not so sure about Catholicism as a whole, but Mother Teresa was an exemplary woman.

I'm not so sure about her, either.

Originally posted by Belfrager:

A Cathedral it's the home Church of a Bishop.

Therefore, only Catholic and Orthodox Cathedrals exists.

Envy it's such an ugly thing. Besides a capital sin.

Lutheran and Methodist churches have bishops, the Anglican church has bishops, etc. Any particular reason you acknowledge the Orthodox ones as "real" bishops and not the others?

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Lutheran and Methodist churches have bishops, the Anglican church has bishops, etc. Any particular reason you acknowledge the Orthodox ones as "real" bishops and not the others?

They have "Bishops"? Maybe some day they will have "Popes". As they have already "Cathedrals".
The Anglicans are not those who wanted to join the Church? Those I understand.
The others I don't even know who they are nor I'm interested to.

And I recognize the Orthodox Church, pointless to trying mix them with the Protestants. They aren't Calvino and Lutero followers.

How typically arrogant of the Romanist mind there Belfrager! Only the Red Socks mob can have cathedrals? Spiritual bumph. Our national Established Church of Scotland is Reformed and Presbyterian and had cathedrals right from the Reformation when it inherited them from the corrupt lot beforehand. And unlike the Church of England which has a form of State control that cannot happen in Scotland. Up here there is no such situatio at all. Therefor here in the north of the Kingdom apart from a handful of RC and Episcopal ones the vast majority of Cathedrals are Presbyterian and unashamedly Protestant. The nerve of the man!

Originally posted by rjhowie:

Red Socks mob can have cathedrals

If we didn't build cathedrals....what would ignorant, phony democratic, states confiscate.

Originally posted by Denny77:

If we didn't build cathedrals....what would ignorant, phony democratic, states confiscate.

Phony democratic states meaning what? If you're referring to all the people's republics and democratic republics, they confiscated plenty of things.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

confiscated plenty of things

Its nice to know that we were just a member of the confiscated.

Afterthought : misdirected Mobs they were

Originally posted by Denny77:

If we didn't build cathedrals....what would ignorant, phony democratic, states confiscate.

If cathedrals weren't confiscated, what would ignorant, phony christians have to whine about?

Originally posted by garydenness:

If cathedrals weren't confiscated, what would ignorant, phony christians have to whine about?

I think you know what they would whine about.....
It's a pseudo-science that is two letters long.

Some build and some confiscate.

Ignorant phony Christians build multi million dollar churches with a life expectancy of perhaps 15 years. tsk tsk. Something like the younger set who build 4400 sq ft., $350,000 plastic houses. hahahah
The churches will last about as long as the denomination that build them.
No doubt, I would build Cathedrals if I had my druthers.

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

Originally posted by garydenness:

If cathedrals weren't confiscated, what would ignorant, phony christians have to whine about?

I think you know what they would whine about.....
It's a pseudo-science that is two letters long.

Nah, they would whine about being persecuted until every country on earth is a vatican-style theocracy.
Or, if the whiners happen to be baptists, a bible belt style theocracy.

Originally posted by garydenness:

If cathedrals weren't confiscated,

How would all the ignorant bastards get their rocks off.

Originally posted by Denny77:

How would all the ignorant bastards get their rocks off.

So we're agreed. Ignorance is the key requisite to Christianity, all the versions. Alpha, Beta, 1.0, 2.0. On all sides of the debate.

I'm glad that's solved!

I think you have misjudged my position ...or not.

I have been called a bastard on occasion though.

Originally posted by Denny77:

I think you have misjudged my position ...or not.

Maybe I did, having read it again! My apologies, in that case. It's funnier now....

Ever see the Catholic Boys? Old movie now.....there's a scene that fits the topic nicely though!

Ohhh a new gunman arrived to town..
Dedicated to his little biological hacienda, where people and animals live together in perfect harmony, an absolute heaven in earth.
He decided to become a Mariachi...

Originally posted by Belfrager:

He decided to become a Mariachi...

Better a song and a cerveza than whistling in the wind

I was imagining D&D as the Wild West, and each one of us being one character. The mariachi, the outlaw, the judge, the sheriff, the gunman, the indian chief, and so on.
Of course whistling (and pissing) in the wind was a common thing back into the West.

Originally posted by Belfrager:

Of course whistling (and pissing) in the wind was a common thing back into the West. " height="22" width="17">

especially in South West.

Originally posted by Belfrager:

I was imagining D&D as the Wild West, and each one of us being one character. The mariachi, the outlaw, the judge, the sheriff, the gunman, the indian chief, and so on.
Of course whistling (and pissing) in the wind was a common thing back into the West.

Nice choice of English there.

But yes, assigning characters to participants could be fun, if slanderous.

I claim the Desperate Dan character (*)

Who's up for Geronimo?

edit: (*) mainly because I like steak pies.

Originally posted by Belfrager:

The mariachi, the outlaw, the judge, the sheriff, the gunman, the indian chief, and so on.

I suppose Denny77 and myself can fight over who will be the gunman?
(Seeing as how he and I are the only ones on here who are strong proponents of gun rights.)

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

I suppose Denny77 and myself can fight over who will be the gunman?

(Seeing as how he and I are the only ones on here who are strong proponents of gun rights.)

+1

Originally posted by string:

Who's up for Geronimo?



edit: (*) mainly because I like steak pies.

Actually on second thoughts, I'd like to be the mariachi. But I may also whistle and piss in the wind.

Originally posted by garydenness:

Actually on second thoughts, I'd like to be the mariachi.

This one:

?

Originally posted by Macallan:

Originally posted by garydenness:

Actually on second thoughts, I'd like to be the mariachi.

This one:

?

I love that one.