mrmoderate

I figure that God had attempted to communicate with many cultures if not all cultures without much success, or at least not as much success as He had with the Jews and all others about Jesus.

Every culture has a faith based belief system. There must be a logical reason for this. It makes sense that all cultures have been contacted by God and they just screwed it up a bit more than the Hebrews did and now Christians do.

Asha'man

Well, the alternative to a faith based belief system is an evidence based system. And since there is absolutely no evidence to support such a system, they all died out pretty quickly. Only the systems based on bad reasoning (faith) could survive.

Magus55

absolutely no evidence? What the heck do you define as evidence?

As to the OP, Salvation through grace only.

WinAce

You have a valid point, Magus55. How about, "Data that can't be explained with fewer unverified assumptions under a different hypothesis"?

DaMan121

The thing is that theists (well most of them) use the evidence/logic based system most of the time in their lives. They eat because evidence shows that the body needs nurishment otherwise they die, they drink water for the same reason, they service their cars because if they dont it will eventually stop working and they cant go to work/school, its logical to travel north if thats were your work is located relative to your position, etc no ammount of faith will change this. I just find it interesting when they stop using this system and revert to the faith one. 99% of the time its when its something they dont understand or they hope will happen.

Al Kafirun

As opposed to eating because there was once a middle-eastern tradition that held a first century Jew ate? God! What logic.

spin

I believe that the novelty of xianity lies in its appeal to the lowest levels of society, whereas Mithras for example was popular in the army, so it was not a religion for women, young or non-soldiers. Roman religions were either individual/personal or elitist. Sol Invictus was for the winners. Christ was for the losers. There were always a lot more losers than winners in the world (and, yes, the religion has moved on somewhat since it was a losers' religion, but it has always maintained that aspect, for black America found comfort in a form of xianity when it could find no comfort with white America, and the poor cling to it for lack of alternatives).

Anyone can carry around a god-on-a-stick.


spin

LP675

Amen, brother Spin!

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied! Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh! Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort! Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep! Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets!

Also part of the appeal of Christianity (I suspect), although perhaps it is not novel, is its movement away from a works based justification. All the wicked person need do is repent and believe in Jesus to feel relived of the burden and guilt of their behavior, and experience feeling right with God.

Edit: "Testify!" was too much i think

gregor

How about evangelism? Is that unique to Xianity?

Did other ancient near-eastern religions charge its members that their greatest obligation was to go out and bring in new members. I picture some religions as one of 'exclusion' looking for ways to kick people out of the Temple, rather than going to the unwashed masses and trying to bring unbelievers in.

French Prometheus

It exists in Buddhism too.