I started this thread due to a remark by a Catholic friend of mine. He claimed that a person is not a Christian if she/he denies that Jesus is god. I merely wondered if this was Catholic dogma or was the dogma of most Christians sects.
It was not my intent to put down Christians, mock them, or otherwise disrespect them. I was merely curious about the mainstream Christian POV on this bit of dogma.
I thank all those who answered the question I asked in a non-controversial manner. Apparently, my Catholic friends' POV is the mainstream Christian dogma with only a small minority POV (Eg: Quakers & Jehovah's Witnesses).
BTW: I do not think there are many Christians who make a point of denying that Quakers & Jehovah's Wintnesses are Christians.
Zav: You seized on my failure to capitalize god as a chance to to put down the atheist POV.
I really do think modern day Atheism is driven by Childish aspirations and not by actual thought when I see such nonsense.
The above is a childish, vindictive, stupid, & insulting remark.
BTW: Is the capitalization of atheism & childish typos or some weird attempt at satire?
It takes a lot more thought to become an atheist than it does to be a Christian. Almost all atheists were raised in a culture with strong theist pressure from relatives, teachers, peers, movies, TV dramas, & literature.
It takes very little thought & to go with the flow & be a theist. Becoming an atheist takes a lot of thought in addition to being willing to take some verbal (& possibly physical) abuse.
In spite of initial anger due to your post, I made a benign remark about viewing god as a generic term like deity. I misrepresented my true POV because I did not want to get involved in a nasty argument, but did not want to totally ignore your fanatic & insulting post.
Your reply to my benign remarks was condescending & pedantic, implying that I was too stupid to know that failure to capitalize god was incorrect usage.
You recognized that my explanation was not my true POV. You could have expressed your opinion in a more friendly manner instead of essentially calling me a liar & implying that I was stupid and/or uneducated. Since you want a nasty argument, I will present my true POV.
I view the majority of Christians as smug & arrogant. Their influence on English & other languages has pre-empted the generic word god as the name of their god & insisted that it be capitalized in deference to their POV. I choose to not capitalize god as a mild & subtle way of indicating that I do not like their influence on language usage.
When Christians lobby to have under god included & capitalized in the pledge of allegiance, they do not consider a phrase like under a deity. I am sure they would object strenuously to Islamic Americans replacing their phrase with under Allah.
When Christians lobby to have nativity scenes on public property in the Christmas season, I am sure they would object to having some Islamic, Buddhist, or Hindu display.
Christians lobby to have biology classes include creationism/ID taught as an alternative to evolution. I doubt that they would want to allow some creation myth other than the Adam & Eve story. What about a Native American or Hindu creation myth as other alternatives?
BTW: Why not require the teaching of evolution in Sunday School as an alternative to the Genesis story? Evolution in a religious context makes every bit as much (perhaps more) sense that teaching creationism/ID in a science class.
Christians want their prayers to be part of public school curriculum, not Islamic, Hindu, or Native American prayers.
It is a shame that America is starting to fall behind other countries in science. If Christians were allowed to force their POV on more people, we would regress even further. They do not seem to realize tht science is more important & helpful than religion.
They do not realize (or ignore) the fact that in circa 5000 years of recorded history, religion had done little to improve the life of the ordinary. Mainstream religion did not object to slavery until some time in the 19th century. The robber barons & scientists did far more than religion to improve the standard of living of the ordinary worker.
The amount of money collected by TV evangelists sickens me. It makes me even sicker to see so many taken in by what is essentially a scam.
BTW: Unlike some fanatic evangelizing atheists, I do not try to convert theists to my POV. I wish certain Christians would likewise refrain from trying to convert me.
I realize it is almost always a waste of time to try to convert a Christian to an atheist POV. In addition to being a time wasting activity, I worry that a successful conversion attempt might be psychologically damaging. I suspect that many Christians have a pathetic need to avoid contemplating their own mortality. Slightly shake their silly belief in a life after death & some of them might lose their sanity. They have already lost their minds.
BTW: It makes me laugh when I listen to theists attempt to use logic. They should stick to unthinking faith in the absence of any evidence. Blind unthinking faith is their strength, not logic or rational thought.
