To become a Christian, one need only
1. receive a valid, Trinitarian baptism, and
2. profess the Nicene Creed
which is [in English translation] as follows:
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God of God, light of light,
true God of true God.
Begotten not made
consubstantial to the Father
by whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven.
And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost
and of the Virgin Mary
and was made man;
was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried;
and the third day rose again
according to the Scriptures.
And ascended into heaven,
sits at the right hand of the Father,
and shall come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead
of whose Kingdom there shall be no end.
And (I believe) in the Holy Ghost,
the Lord and Giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son
who together with the Father and the Son
is to be adored and glorified,
who spoke by the Prophets.
And one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
And I look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come.
That's it. If you truly believe what is contained in the Nicene Creed, and are validly baptized, you are a Christian.
You'll notice that Christians are only required to believe that all things, the world included, were and are created by God. Since the exact circumstances of this divine creation are not specified in the Creed, Christians of good faith can legitimately differ on precisely how God accomplished His mighty work.
Posted by B Lewis at December 15, 2012 11:33 PMSee, we're going about this all wrong. To have 100% belief in some form of creationism, we just need to rename the Darwinian evolution to Atheist Creationism.
Problem. Solved.
Posted by Duncan Idaho at December 15, 2012 11:54 PMI have been attending church all my 57 years. I was baptized on profession of faith at age 9. I was ordained in the United Methodist Church in 2002 and had been pastoring a church full time for five years before that.
B Lewis - This is the first time I have ever heard that you have to profess the Nicene Creed to be Christian. Just what would your authority for that be? Certainly not the New Testament.
John Wesley:
Here we see what is real religion: a restoration [of Man] not only to the favor but to the image of God, not bare deliverance from sin, but being filled with the fullness of God. Nothing short of this is Christian religion. ... It runs through the Bible from beginning to end. Beware of taking anything else than this for religion, not anything else: do not imagine an outward form, a round of duties, both in public and private, is religion! Do not suppose that honesty, justice or whatever is called morality is religion. And least of all dream that right opinions [or] faith is religion. Of all religious dreams, this is the vainest.
"we just need to rename the Darwinian evolution to Atheist Creationism"
That was a good turn of phrase, Duncan. Archiving...
Posted by cond0011 at December 16, 2012 7:14 AMVox Day wrote a book,The Irrational Athiest, some time back and it pretty well describes the "science" of the most well known athiests. I'll leave it at that and leave it to each as to whether they choose to read or not.
Posted by indyjonesouthere at December 16, 2012 7:49 AMDennet's point, somewhat humourously made, is that there is precisely the same amount of evidence for the Judeo-Christian God as for the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Or, come to that, for Zeus, Baal, Huitzilopochtli, Brahma, Odin, Yu-Huang or Yog-Sothoth. Which is to say, none.
Yog-Sothoth is on that list quite deliberately. He's fictional. What was the point again?
Posted by Fletcher Christian at December 16, 2012 11:09 PMWell, Fletch, if you scroll back up the page and read the post again - this time actually trying to get what our correspondent was saying - you might react with a little less petty snark and a bit more hunmility. The jist of the post was not about "evidence" for or against any deities, but about the casual and dare I say scientifically sloppy assertion by the interviewer regarding the literal beliefs of >1/3 of Americans.
Why don't you give it a try and read it more closely, monkey boy?
Posted by Dar-lose at December 23, 2012 8:40 AMWell, Fletch, if you scroll back up the page and read the post again - this time actually trying to get what our correspondent was saying - you might react with a little less petty snark and a bit more humulity. The jist of the post was not about "evidence" for or against any deities, but about the casual and dare I say scientifically sloppy assertion by the interviewer regarding the literal beliefs of >1/3 of Americans.
Why don't you give it a try and read it more closely, monkey boy?
Posted by Dar-lose at December 23, 2012 8:41 AMWell, Fletch, if you scroll back up the page and read the post again - this time actually trying to get what our correspondent was saying - you might react with a little less petty snark and a bit more humulity. The jist of the post was not about "evidence" for or against any deities, but about the casual and dare I say scientifically sloppy assertion by the interviewer regarding the literal beliefs of >1/3 of Americans.
Why don't you give it a try and read it more closely, monkey boy?
Posted by Dar-lose at December 23, 2012 8:41 AM