atheist did christians form their religion because they were afraid of death?

Question

I have read the bible 10 times start to finish but its just filled with very contradictory things

are religions more about power and control

are religions more about power and control

Answer 1

I think religion fills a need some people have to find meaning and answer unanswerable questions about life and death.It gives them a framework that they use to cope with the unknown.If you look at history,religions described everything from seasons to weather.As science progressed,the scope of religion shrank to mostly matters of death and beyond.

Answer 2

No, people in general form religions for the comfort it provides in explaining things that they just can't seem to explain. But in the case of christianity, it was formed as a reaction to it's predecessor. Some of them didn't like the previous religion and decided to start their own. All you need is a central figure with some attachment to god (otherwise, they are simply mystics or teachers).

If you really want the true answer to this question, don't ask here, ask a historian, preferably a non-christian historian (someone with no reason to lie either way). Better yet, do the research yourself, staying away from christian sources (they only work to discredit the evidence of the real world. If their stories were true, then there would be no need to discredit scientific discoveries or archeological finds).

Answer 3

Christians are not afraid of death, my friend. We're looking
forward to the time we get to live with our Creator in
a splendor paradise for eternity. The Bible is not at all
contradictory, but only Christians who make a regular study
of the Bible can understand some of the things you think are
contradictory. We have the Spirit and can discern difficult
sentences very quickly. Sorry that you apparently are not that
spiritually advanced at this point in your life.

Answer 4

Before you say that the Bible is "just filled with very contradictory things" you need to start with the definition of a contradiction.

A contradiction would be something claiming to be both A and Not A at the same time in the same relationship. I have yet to have someone give a contradiction without equivocating somewhere in the stating of the question.

Variation is not contradiction.

Mystery is not contradiction.

Answer 5

It is a very simplistic view of religion to think it is all based on any one thing. The *least* persuasive theory is that religion is based on "the fear of death." I've known people who became Christian in the hopes of reuniting with loved ones who had died; I have never known anyone who became Christian out of fear of his/her own death.

I think Pascal Boyer has the most persuasive theory: the major factor in a human being's survival is other human beings; therefore more of our brain is committed to thinking about people and relationships than anything else; therefore we tend to think about *everything* in terms of persons and relationships. Human beings tend to personify *everything*, including cars and toasters. When we think of the Universe, and our relationship to the Universe, many of us tend to personify it.

And all things vary in any population; so we vary in the extent to which we need to personify Life, the Universe, and Everything, and the ways in which we do it.

ALL of us, though, have some metaphor for the Universe and how we relate to it, and it's ALL metaphors. It is impossible for any few ounces of gray matter to comprehend the universe exactly As It Is. All we have is models, and the model is not the thing. If we all had a bit more humility about that, the life expectancy of the human species would go up dramatically.

Answer 6

Why would you ask an atheist how Christianity was formed?
I don't see very contradictory things in the Bible. I do see plenty of very good ideas in the teachings of Jesus.

Answer 7

That is one of the basic reasons for all religions - that, and not understanding how the world worked.

Here's a bunch of contradictions:
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html

Even the core event of christianity - the resurrection - has 4 different contradicting accounts in the bible.

Here's something I sometimes post, maybe it can help.

Nobody can prove any gods, much less a specific god, exist; many people will tell you their god exists but no others, but will never be able to prove it, even if they think so. Some will threaten you with eternal pain or promise eternal joy to get you to believe in their god; these are all stories, created for people who were scared long before we understood the universe. Now we have no more reason for these superstitions.

How terrible the bible in particular is:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/
http://www.evilbible.com/

What's the origin of the Jesus stories?
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html

How silly and horrible religion in general is:
http://godisimaginary.com/
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

The alternative:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/
http://www.infidels.org/
http://www.positiveatheism.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Universalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism

Answer 8

It was created, as were all religions (and science), to explain the unknown (and death, and the fear of death, are certainly major human concerns).

Christianity dates from a time and culture (historically obscure, semi-nomadic, Semitic tribes of illiterate goat herders) when it was believed that the earth was flat with air above and water below, and that the night sky was a dome with little lights provided by God.

There was a lot they did not understand and could not explain, so they created a God and a belief system to ease their uncertainty.

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doc in dallas --

Is this a contradiction? Did man come 'before' or 'after' the beasts?

1.) And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind: and God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"
[Gen 1:25,26]

2.) And the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam ... but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
[Gen 2:18-20]

Answer 9

Makes me wonder if you might be a 'functional illiterate' . -Some folks can't comprehend literature. Or maybe 'reading' to you is only skimming the text looking for something to affirm your already-formed opinions.
It is a harmonious whole to me, but so what? It doesn't affect me to the point of being a nut about it all. Even Mark Twain wrote harmoniously.
I take it all with a grain of salt.

Answer 10

Religions are never formed on such simplistic premises.

I think many individuals bind themselves to particular covenants and ideologies due to their own underlying fear of death and subsequent nothingness, but religions are formed based largely on an urgent, pervasive societal need or desire for large-scale change, such as moral overhaul, political shift, or other movement toward things like enlightenment, belonging or peace.