Christianity as a way of life instead of a religion?

N

New Life

Registered Senior Member
Is it possible that christianity isn't really a religion? that its really more of a way of life or a belief than a religion?

As 'mohamad has proven with his thread "a comparison between islam & christianity", Islam (being one of the major religions) has set rules and rituals (ie must pray 5 times a day).....christianity doesnt have that (yes there are the 10 commandments but the rest is pretty much just suggestions).......the reason that there are so many denomonations in christianity is that its so open for interpretation and differences in how closely one sticks to the bible.

Religions as a rule have rules and rituals and a list of things you have to do.......christianity doesnt have that....

so is it possible that christianity is not a religion but something else?
 
Religions are Ways of Life

Originally posted by New Life
Is it possible that christianity isn't really a religion? that its really more of a way of life or a belief than a religion?

As 'mohamad has proven with his thread "a comparison between islam & christianity", Islam (being one of the major religions) has set rules and rituals (ie must pray 5 times a day).....christianity doesnt have that (yes there are the 10 commandments but the rest is pretty much just suggestions).......the reason that there are so many denomonations in christianity is that its so open for interpretation and differences in how closely one sticks to the bible.

Religions as a rule have rules and rituals and a list of things you have to do.......christianity doesnt have that....

so is it possible that christianity is not a religion but something else?
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What you say points more towards Christianity being more than one religion rather than not a religion. Try telling a Catholic that they don't have religious rules or rituals. Most sects of Christianity have some sort of ritualistic behavior or general rules.

I do, however, agree that Protestant Christianity has shifted closer to philosophy than previous versions of Christianity with every branch and every reformation. It all comes down to your definition of "religion," of course.

Now, if you don't call Christianity a religion, what can you? Islam, and draw the line there? I don't think that's very useful.

For what it's worth, I think of it as sort of a continuum from pure philosophy to institutionalized religion:

Zen/Taoism . . . Buddhism . . . [Unitarian . . . Methodist . . . Baptist . . . Church of Christ . . . Catholic] . . . Judaism . . . Islam

I don't know exactly where Hinduism fits in, because I haven't studied much of it.

The bottom line, though, is that Christianity requires certain beliefs, is an institution, and often involves certain customs. As such, it is pretty much a religion (more so that Buddhism, which is usually considered a religion).
 
correction:
what i meant by muslims pray five praying a day , this is the less number that u have to pray.
 
There are rules or guidelines for christian based religions. They have to follow these in order to get to heaven.
 
New Life,

We know that the vast majority of people who are classified as Christian really don't take part in Christian activities apart from perhaps weddings and funeral. They say they lead a Christian like life and follow most of the moral code established by Christianity.

The population of the UK is around 60 million. The UK has an official religion of Christianity and every school child by law must attend a daily act of worship every day at school.

The following link shows recent statistics that reveal only about 1.6% of the population attend Church on any type of regular basis, but that attendance by children is declining.

"www.churchnewspaper.com/?go=news&read=on&number_key=5646&title=Children%20miss%20church%20attendance%20rise"

So what does it mean to call the UK a Christian nation? Not really very much but statistics will show that most of the population are considered Christian.

OK so it isn't necessary to attend Church regularly to be a Christian, right? Well perhaps, but when I was an active Christian church attendance was an important and vital part of my life.

So, in the UK, at least, I'd say that Christianity for the most part is just a cultural tradition and that if someone could prove that it was all gibberish then very few would care, or notice very much.

Quote from - http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/00000002D396.htm

In the UK, the Christian churches' combined 'committed membership' fell from 7,550,000 in 1980 to 5,800,000 in the year 2000 - with one study claiming that the UK Anglican and Catholic Churches had 'lost more than a quarter of their memberships in just 20 years' (17).

Meanwhile in the USA, the 2001 American Religious Identification Study found that the percentage of the population who 'consider themselves Christian' (whether practising or not) fell from 86 percent in 1990 to 77 percent in 2001, and that the number of Americans claiming to have 'no religion' rose from 8.2 percent in 1990 (14,330,000 people) to 14 percent in 2001 (29,481,000 people) (18).
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So yes I think that for most people in the western world Christianity has become a way of life, or rather it is so irrelevant that it can be safely ignored until needed, for say a wedding, a funeral, or to grieve after something like 9/11. And then life can return to normal after the event.
 
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