A Brief Essay On Christianity

[ArnoldtheRubberDucky]

Jesus Christ's followers have been called many things: beacons of light, hypocrites, prophets of truth, prophets of falsehood, freaks, etc. probably the only one of these names that Christians are definitely not is "Prophets of Falsehood". Christians can be hypocritical at times, there's almost no denying that. Though every Christian admits that they're not perfect, they (we) can be a bit overly self-righteous at times, when we make almost as many mistakes as everyone else. And Christians are definitely "freaks", but in a different way: we are freaks for Jesus.

I believe that many Christians, however, are giving the world a misguided view of Christians: close-minded, self-righteous hypocrites bowing down to a God whose existence they give little evidence to support. I am not here to give evidence to support the existence of God. There are many others more qualified to do so. I am only here to give my thoughts on Christianity and possibly alter someone's view on it.

To start off, Christians should ideally not be close-minded. If we truly want to know if Christianity is right, we should explore other popular religions as well. Obviously, when doing so, we are not betraying God, we are merely educating ourselves on other views of God.

Christians are not blind either. Ideally, we should not simply accept the existence of God based on our parents' beliefs, or the beliefs of our friends and peers. We should find God for ourselves, using a bit of logic and common sense, but a lot more trust in our spirit to help us find God without actually seeing him in an optical sense.

Naturally, this is where faith comes in. Science, reason, and logic cannot explain everything. Despite the fact that we should use a bit of logic when choosing our spiritual calling, we should certainly not use logic every step of the way. A child doesn't know if his father will catch h I'm when he dives, but he jumps anyway. He has trust. We should feel God's presence, know that he is there whether we can see him or not. You have more than likely experienced some form of spiritual connection in your life, whether it was through prayer, grief, joy, or art, so you probably understand what I'm speaking of.

Many people seem to see most of the Bible's greatness when they read it, but they're missing an important part: the literary brilliance of it. They completely overlook the fact that God is the most creative and artistically brilliant being in the universe, and solely worship because of his great gifts. Don't get me wrong, the gift of grace is the greatest ever given, but I think many neglect the fact that God is a genuine genius: a greater genius than anyone else. Unfortunately, many Christian writers and artists either do not possess or do not use the genius that God has, and the genius he has given them, leading many to believe Christians are ignorant in matters of art and philosophy. These people do not use the gifts God has given them intelligently; instead, they use them to create songs and writings that pale in comparison to God's own work.

We must also not be self-righteous: the beliefs of other religions should be respected and studied by us Christians. We must remember that Allah is just as real to the Muslims, the Buddha is just as real to the Buddhists, as Christ is to us. We could even learn a few things from other religions without compromising our own beliefs.

In conclusion, Christianity is nothing that deserves to be scoffed at: it is often misinterpreted, and people get the wrong impression of thinking it's completely false. And that's a shame.

[Pound Foolish]

Well, well, welll... Where did that come from, Mr. Thinker? I imagine you don't even know. Nicely written, you have talent. (I thoroughly enjoyed the new and long-awaited AIC incidentally.)
I recently had a conversation with a best friend who is Buddhist. In the car, he explained he thought God might be real but didn't know for certain. This led to a bit of conversation on the subject, and I couldnt' resist throwing out what I think is one of the best logical proofs of God:
"All things have a beginning. Scientifically, all forces and reactions result from an earlier one. Therefor, there must be an original force. And as it must have begun the succession of events we call time, it must have been outside of time. And since the universe, far beyond chain reaction, is orderly and synchronized, it is logical to assume it's a wise and rational being outside of time."
But yes, we must always look for further evidence, and consider other religions. Knowledge is all about questioning what you already know. A lot of it is wrong. And that's true of all of us.

[Sage]

Wow Creative Thinker...you put a lot of time and creative thinking into this! Very impressive.