If you are a Christian and Christianity was banned, what religion would you choose next?
ADDITION TO POST, Sunday at 7:54 PST! : .IF THERE NEVER WAS CHRISTIANITY, WHAT RELIGION DO YOU THINK YOU'D CHOOSE TO BE?
(some of the first comments will show you why I changed my question...I know that most Christians would never change their faith because the state banned it! I hadn't meant that interpretation at all when I wrote the original question above, but I could see why so many responded that way. So...please take a look again and respond that way..or either way! thanks.)
I know, this is a little weird, but it just came into my head as I was wondering what to write today and I thought "why not? This could get interesting!"
No holds barred...let 'er rip. Judaism? Bahai? Islam? Shinto? Hindusim? Buddhism? And WHY would you pick that one?
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." Psalms 32:8
So much can be talked about on this subject....please dive in!
God bless you..
have a wonderful Sunday.
Z
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39 comments:
"Where religion ends, philosophy begins..." - Christopher Hitchens, atheist
I think I'd go with Zen Buddhism.
Why? Maybe it's the third choice on the question of God's existence. You know: yes, no, and who cares?
That said, I'm fairly certain a ban on Christianity would be very much worth defying.
I would not choose to commit adultery.
I would have to go to prison/executed.
When the early Christians would not go to the festivals, the others would notice that their neighbors were not worshiping the god of the festival and would turn them in.
So it would be inevitable to live under ground only for a short time before being found out.
The end times will be for around 42months (7 yrs. tribulations-but, only 3 and 1/2 would be the worst), that would be a long time to live in a underground cave or something.
As I once told my athestic cousin: You may have your doubts but it would be far worse if we didn't have Christanity!!!
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Romans 8:35,37 NASB
John 6:68(KJV)
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
There is no Plan B.
I'm with Ed, there would be no Plan B, I would simply take my faith and go underground with it. Any attempt at a ban would only encourage the faithful to be more faithful.
If we lived in such an environment, i think my new religion would be resistance and rebellion. But if you want me to pick one i would go with judaisum.
Frogburger
Bad spelling again. Me type on ipad no good.
Frogburger
I wonder what the replies would be if the question was phrased:
What if Christianity did not exist?
Ed, as I just read all the comments, I realized that would have been the question I meant, because we ALL WOULD NEVER GIVE UP OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH no matter if it was banned.
Absolutely right.
I'm going to change the post right now. Although I do think there is SOME interesting conversation which could have come out of the way I asked it......
Thanks...it was funny reading your comments, the last in the first 13 of them because it was just what I thought when I saw that some of the responses weren't quite in the direction I meant!..but perfectly understandable because of how I worded it.
EVERYBODY...I'VE CHANGED THE POST...
MAYBE YOU'LL GIVE IT ANOTHER GO!
And Beamish...yes, VERY much defying. Amen to that!
Now that the question was rephrased, I'd probably too go with Buddhism. Spiritual enlightenment and peace to all living things would serve me very well.
Our religious preferences begin with our parents. If there wasn't such a thing as Christianity, I would probably be whatever my parents raised me as. As to the question of government banning Christianity, I would defy government.
I would be more concerned in resisting a regime that suppressed a religion.
If I were to have to chose for public observance, Buddhism wouldn't be a big stretch.
Z and Ed -- "What if Christianity did not exist?"
I really like the way Sam H just put it.
Back to the way it was first worded -- I would gladly give my life for Jesus Christ, just as He gave His for mine.
As for the second way it was worded (above) -- The question would never be able to be asked. We wouldn't be here. God said it. I believe it. End of story.
It's a question I'm not sure I can answer. I rejected most every choice on my path to Christianity.
I'd probably still be an agnostic.
Z - Buddhism. I like some of the sayings from that religion.
Have a great Sunday - Z.
It would depend if there were Lions in the pit or Muslims.
I'd take the Lions.
I would have picked judaism i think. But i don't think you can easily convert when nobody in your family is Jewish. So i would opt out of a religion. I already have enough internal conflicts with catholicism anyway.
Frogburger
That's a tough question. First, a ban cannot remove what is in our hearts and minds.
My answer, if there was not Christianity, is that I too would probably choose Buddhism.
My, it is difficult to imagine that Christianity didn't exist. That makes it extremely difficult to choose another religion. However, this is an exercise, not a reality.
Don't Buddhists pray in airport terminals?
Cotton, we don't need antisemitic statements. Keep them to yourself.
Christians have done horrible things too in medieval times.
Frogburger
Sorry but I've heard too many times that kind of statement in Europe, where anti-Semitism is rampant, including in my own very Catholic family. So I don't like hearing them. Especially when it translates into a very strong an anti Israel sentiment in the population.
"And still they blame everybody but themselves."
"They'd be nobody special if they didn't have enemies."
FrogBurger
@Pris:
"My, it is difficult to imagine that Christianity didn't exist."
What an alien planet this would be.
There would be no USA.
Frog...you needn't apologize to 'cotton mather'...I'd deleted the comment before I came to yours.
That doesn't stay here..no antisemitism. AND it was uninformed, to boot.
My friend who's a very solid Christian is an actress you'd all know; she left Buddhism about 8 years ago and when it gets brought up, she says how sorry she is that she led people to it for years, and , particularly, how difficult it was putting the onus on herself as Buddhism does..........
She feels so free through the sacrifice of Christ and so forgiven, as Scripture tells us.
She says she had to work too hard to be a practicing Buddhist; got tired of the constant measuring up, the hopes for nirvana "Will I EVER be good enough to make it:?" etc.........
I believe this is what's attracting SO many muslims in the Middle East to Christ, too.........it's so loving and fundamentally freeing.
I love your comments and am so glad this subject came to my mind!
Don't Buddhists pray in airport terminals?
-------
No those are Hare Krisha cult members.
Still an important question:
Do you want religion of a song and dance team?
She says she had to work too hard to be a practicing Buddhist
----
Then she was no Buddhist.
Ducky, then you don't understand the practice of Buddhism.
As you should know, it's all on the member, there is no Christ who takes away sin or comforts. Meditating hours a day and feeling like you can't keep the earth on your shoulders isn't easy..Sorry, She was one of the leaders of the movement here.
I didn't understand that until she told me a lot more than I knew, either.
She is SO grateful for her faith now.
EVERYBODY;
We hear about wars in the name of Christianity and, when you really look into it, it's about people, not the faith. No war was started following Christ's admonition to love one another!
There are a lot of goofy things...like many people say Catholics aren't Christian; it's the Papal influence which seems unScriptural, not the act of loving Jesus or praying, like most Catholics do.
People are very quick to condemn Christianity, to take items out of context (laws and ethos of the times, the diets, etc) and literally just don't know what they're talking about.....
Oh, well.........lots on my mind but I have to go out for the evening.
Have a good one.
Well z, if she wasn't willing to accept that responsibility and chose the far easier route her sincerity was lacking, no?
If there were no Christianity ever...
No Irish monks recording history and great works of literature, thus no seeds of thought leading to the Magna Carta, thus no reform from tribal monarchies, thus no egalitarian societies, thus no Western civilization.
Rampant illiteracy, many nations wouldn't even have alphabets for their languages, no collaborative or cumulative exchanges of knowledge and technological development between peoples. No hospitals nor sanitation.
A world where Christianity and its influence over nations never happened would essentially suck.
If there were no Christianity ever...
No Irish monks recording history and great works of literature, thus no seeds of thought leading to the Magna Carta, thus no reform from tribal monarchies, thus no egalitarian societies, thus no Western civilization.
Rampant illiteracy, many nations wouldn't even have alphabets for their languages, no collaborative or cumulative exchanges of knowledge and technological development between peoples. No hospitals nor sanitation.
A world where Christianity and its influence over nations never happened would essentially suck.
@Beamish
"A world where Christianity and its influence over nations never happened would essentially suck. "
Wow...if that doesn't signify Christianity's redemption in the eyes of it's detractors...nothing will.
And then all one has to do is look at the total piss pot Islam has created. Anyone here want to trade one for the other?
While Christianity has brought us into the modern world...the insanity and
inhumanity caused by islam...clearly wants to destroy the gains and intelligence that Christianity has brought to 1/2 of a civilized world.
Islam is insanity and a scourge...a death sentence for all it's adherents as well as ignorance, poverty and ruin.
Ducky, wow..you truly don't understand. And you're a Catholic.
God be with you.
Beamish...very well said.
Impertinent said, "...look at the total piss pot Islam has created. Anyone here want to trade one for the other?"
I think trading Islam for a piss pot is an outstanding idea. Even though the two are fairly equatable, the piss pot has a useful purpose and I think it'd be a really good trade.
Ooops. I guess what I said about Islam was anti semitic. If it wasn't, it was meant to be.
I can hear it now... "Delete! Delete! Delete!"
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