Talk:Non-literal Christianity

Why did Chaos delete this? Let's discuss it. Proxima Centauri 08:16, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

Sure. Firstly, I propose the more suitable and accurate title "Anyone-Who-Isn't-Retarded Christianity". Secondly, almost all of the text is unsalvagable.

Wow. Great discussion. Pink_{(Astronomy Domine)} 08:31, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

Plus, what exactly is the justification for having a whole article dedicated to this? It isn't like not being a braindead fundamentalist is a minority viewpoint. And why Christianity? Are we going to have one of these for every religion? Pink_{(Astronomy Domine)} 08:54, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

I for one eagerly await Non-literal Zoroastrianism. --AKjeldsen^{Cum dissensie} 09:00, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

I'm going to delete it again. And if "Liberal Christianity" doesn't get any better it's gonna get the ax, too. Oh, I see. This was LC. And nothing links here because LC, which PC added to a few articles as I recall, got deleted. The axman cometh soon if no one defends this well. ħuman 20:39, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

I didn't make it in time to read it, but it sounds like a terrible article. Seriously, all it took was looking at the title. So I offer my post-deletion support for this deletion. Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 00:21, 2 October 2008 (EDT)

A reasonable article is possible about Liberal Christianity, below I've copied the article from Atheism Wiki.^{— Unsigned, by: Proxima Centauri / talk / contribs}

What exactly is "reasonable" about it? It's a made up term. I'm not even personally thrilled with cafeteria xianity, cause it doesn't *mean* anything, but at least it's a real term. This is a "not everyone is bad" bit of nonsense that is a full non starter. The Christianity article plus a few articles on actual churches like UUC do the job.--GodotFire! Fire! Fire! (please send spare firefighters) 14:37, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

Proxima, what exactly makes you think that your words carry more weight if they have been written on another wiki?--ZooGuard (talk) 14:49, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

Sigh. Тy^talk 14:56, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

Liberal Christianity

Liberal Christianity is less extreme than Christian fundamentalism and a high proportion of Christians are liberal Christians.

The bible

Liberal Christians believe that some parts of the Bible are symbolic in some way or other and not everything there is literally true. Liberal Christians have less difficulty explaining contradictions in the Bible and bad moral teachings there. They simply say that those parts aren’t literally true. They tend to accept the nice parts of the Bible. Liberal Christians tend to follow similar policies to other political liberals. Many liberal Christians are nice people but they tend to be a bit credulous.

Some Liberal Christians may even accept that parts of the Bible are legends. Liberal Christians are likely to be Old Earth Creationists or Theistic evolutionists and are generally more sensible than Fundamentalists.

Rational thought

Even Liberal Christians are irrational as there is no reason to believe in very much of Christianity, other than the fact that you can. <ref>The better moral teachings in the Bible are consistent with Humanist morality and it's reasonable to accept that part of Christian teaching. </ref> Liberal Christianity is also in some ways harmful because it too supports invalid claims. One of the most basic beliefs of many sections of Christianity is that all non-Christians will be tormented in hell. Christian Universalists do not believe that anyone will be tormented eternally in hell while many other liberal Christians prefer not to think about that question.

Helping fundamentalists indirectly

Moderate theists and moderate Christians indirectly help fundamentalists to exist. When children have been indoctrinated to believe in any type of Christianity they are vulnerable to fundamentalism. Many children are brought up in moderate Christian churches where hell is not discussed and superficially things look acceptable. Inevitably when these children are old enough to go out on their own they will come across Hellfire evangelists that are found at street corners in all English speaking countries and many other countries as well. These street corner evangelists will tell the children that hell exists, they will show the children passages in the Bible referring to hell and a lifetime of care to teach only the pleasant side of Christianity can be undone in five to ten minutes. Alternatively the children may go into a fundamentalist church to worship and the liberal Christianity they‘ve been taught will be undermined there more gradually but more surely.

The only reliable way to keep children safe from Christian superstitious fears is to teach them that the Bible is as unreliable as other Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman Mythology.

Preventing scientific debate

It is claimed that moderate theists prevent proper scientific debate about religion in media that mainstream people access. Christian fundamentalists certainly do that as well where they can. Christians of all types fear that their beliefs will fail Scientific tests and lose in scientific debates so they do what they can to prevent such discussion.

And also moderates create the notion that everyone’s Faith must be respected while all faiths are irrational. <ref>Why atheists care about religion</ref>

This wiki and Liberal Christianity

This wiki concentrates its attacks against Christian fundamentalism because fundamentalists clearly do harm. Moderate Christianity appears less harmful.

References and footnotes