/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

>>695526

>How to prove that Christianity is the right religion to people?

Lead by example; sell all your possessions and take up your cross.

t. posting from the library computer

>>695526

If God and the soul exists, then you can show that miracles exist. If miracles exist, then everything Jesus said, and the resurrection, is true (there was another thread recently about books about the Resurrection of you need super solid proof). Of all religions Christianity is the only one with this kind of revelation.

Teach them history first. The rest will follow once they find out that people predicted things 1000 before Christ.

>>695889

*1000 years

>>695526

I can tell you what Romans 10:17 says, which is that 'faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.' Does that mean the same thing will necessarily convince one person as another? No, but it means that somewhere in there, there is the key to getting every person saved. It's in the word of God, they have to hear it and believe.

Teach them the problem of causality and metaphysics.

Judaism/Christianity is the only religion that teaches creation ex nihilo, a creation out of nothing. No other religion teaches that there was nothing before there was something, it's all infinite regress (infinite being) or some parallel universe crap.

The problem with infinite regress is that it is self refuting towards metaphysics, it's pure materialism, yet, something cannot come from nothing.

>>695542

Many miracles are proven to be frauds and many miraculous things happen to non-Christians and even atheists.

>>695897

>Many miracles are proven to be frauds

Ah yes, like several people witnessing a guy rising from the dead with strange new glorified body, after prophesizing about it… oh wait, it wasn't, despite how Pharisees wanted to hide it and bribed people…

>>695893

>it's all infinite regress (infinite being)

Could you give an example of this one, or explain what you mean by this?

>>696399

Infinite being is just that, infinite being. Buddhism believes in infinite being with eternal reincarnation of souls, and the objective of the religion is releasing yourself from this being, while still being.

Taoism is a bit more clear, as the "Dao/Tao" itself is the universe as infinite Being.

Hinduism's creation story is also "turtles all the way down".

C.S. Lewis has some good stuff. Also read a book called The Language of God that was good. He compared apologetics to a map to Florida. You can get to Florida without a map, but you probably won't. And if somebody doesn't want to go to Florida, you can give them a map but can't convince them.

I would focus on how Christianity is different:

1. Jesus said he was God, other spiritual leaders such as Buddha, Muhammad, etc. were trying to find God. But Jesus was God finding man.

2. The testament and deaths of the disciples. They weren't just dying for something they believed in. They died because they claimed to see Jesus rise from the dead. Why would some of the most intelligent men of the time die for a lie? They had literally nothing to gain from it.

3. The universe is random and can't be guessed, much like Christianity. So if someone believes in God, they would have to agree God did not make this universe for us to inherently understand everything.

4. If Jesus lived (99 percent of hisotrians agree he lived) and said he was God (once again 99 percent agree), he was either a crazy, sociopath liar or he was God. He could not have just been a teacher or leader if he said he was God. A good teacher or leader would not say such a thing.

>>696516

to add to that post, if Christ was not the Son of God, He's the luckiest con-man in human history!

Good thing Jesus is Christ, the true Son of God!

>>695526

Read "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis. He makes some pretty good points for a lot of stuff.

>>696515

Okay, thank you. I was mistaken and interpreted that as infinite (on a time scale) being (creator), so I was confused as to how that differed from our God.

>>696543

>Read "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis. He makes some pretty good points for a lot of stuff.

Recommended. It's not just an argument for God, but also a great explanation of Christian living and virtues. His argument for God is basically a moral one. Even a 100% materialist fedora tipper will have to concede at least a Jungian spiritual universe here.

>>696800

Also

the problem is that they don't want to believe it is

>>696801

wrong one sorry this is better

>>696940

I actually just ordered his 'Five Proofs of the Existence of God' book the other day, because a friend is going through some hesitancy with the intellectual side of his recent conversion to Christianity, so I thought it might help him with some of the foundational reasoning behind everything. Have you read it, anon?

>>696977

No, I haven't. I recommend The Last Superstition in particular because of its engagement with the very virulent secularism of our age. Judging only by the description of Five Proofs, I take it to be less general and perhaps more dry of a work. It may still be perfect for the job, however, considering how lucid Feser's writing tends to be, but I can only speak in total ignorance, unfortunately.

>>696940

I also recommend it, its amazing because throughout the only uses reason and not any kind of divine revelation, kind of for the sake of it. I always use his arguments against atheists in conversations and it really corners them.

bumpity

>>696515

>Buddhism believes in infinite being with eternal reincarnation of souls

Akshually, both self/soul and no-self/no-soul are rejected by the Buddha:

https://puredhamma.net/three-levels-of-practice/moral-living-and-fundamentals/what-reincarnates-concept-of-a-lifestream