Why are there so many branches of christianity; why can't they get along?

Question

Isn't it hilarious how christians try to convert others to their own religion when they can't even settle among themselves. They can't even convice themselves which branch of christianity is the real one. If they are essentially the same, why is there so much conflict among them? Or are the Catholic Church and Protestant church competing for their share of customers, after all their church(wallet) depends on the believers(customers) donations don't they.

Answer 1

I am not christian but I think i want to answer this out of this religion topic:
The cause of people not getting along is greed and anger....and this comes from individual thinking and thought which also come from the mind.

Greed and Anger can lead to many disasters now-a-days.

Unless people can get rid of these 2 poisons, if not this world will not be in peace.....and lots of wars will be created.

Answer 2

The problem is that they are trying to guide their lives by interpreting an interpretation of a fictional book originally written in a different language and loosely based on some historical events (or worse yet, they blindly believe the interpretations of someone else), and because science has taken away so many of their "truths", they have to continually try to explain to themselves why what they believe is still "true" in light of scientific discoveries that contradict what they believe (the example that I love the best is when Galileo Galilei determined that the Earth orbits the Sun, which contradicted the Christian "truth" of the Earth being the center of the universe, causing his discovery to be denounced by the Church and forcing him to accept an admonition enjoining him neither to advocate nor teach Copernican astronomy or face charges of heresy). This leads to different new interpretations, as this isn't done across the board, but within small groups of followers (Usually by the local religious leaders). When enough people take sides on a certain disagreed interpretation. there is a split, and new denominations are formed.

You're right about the competition. The leaders of both denominations enjoy their wealth and power, and the more sheep that tithe to and worship them the more wealth and power they'll get. No wonder they use terror to get converts (ever see a Christian tell a 5 year old that they're going to burn in Hell if they don't believe in Jesus? I have).

Answer 3

Because they have an overwhelming need to be Right, and that means other xtians have to be Wrong! Some of the infighting was over whether the Roman Church had primacy over the Orthodox Church, and the latter said NO! -- Splitsville.

King Henry VIII of England wanted an annulment or a divorce, but the Roman church said NO! so, Henry started his own &^%$ church and made himself and the future kings and queens the head of it. He already had numerous titles the Pope had given him, but it wasn't enough.

The Protestsnt "reform" was initially over certain base practices of the Catholic Church like simony and indulgences, but it quickly became a power grab for the rulers of the countries the Protestants became entrenched in, for no longer would the rulers have to fear excommunication (which often resulted in revolution) from the Pope. Remember that St. Paul said to obey the rulers for they are in authority by God's Will - the emperor he referred to was Nero.

Since Universal Apostolic Authority had broken down the Protestants decided to rely on the Bible's authority, which was compiled and edited by the Catholic Church, The Catholics (taking the recommendations of one bishop) had removed diverse gospels and other religious books they didn't like from consideration, and killed those still possessing them; now the Protestants had their turn. They decided to remove books from the 'Holy Word of God' creating the 'Abridged Holy Work of God'!!

Where the intercene fighting was the worst, Like the states of Germany, witchcraft accusaions reached their height before people started to question that insanity. After the New World was discovered, all pretense of unity was forgotten, as each sect started interpreting the Bible the way they wanted, '...and everyone did what was good in their own eyes..'...

Pope John Paul II made some inroads into reconciliation, but the new guy, Benedict, has furiously backpedaled...

Answer 4

the Churches are not alike not even close. they cannot ever get along because there cannot be two truths.
Either God is a trinity of gods or 3 in one.
Or There is an almighty God and a first cause a son Jesus.
by means of him all other things were made by holy spirit witch is a seperate thing. It is a power given to Jesus by this Almighty God.
Either their is a burning firey hell where humans are tortured forever or he was meaning a complete distruction in which they are just gone. If your suffering that would make a big difference in how you view eternity.
So is hell the grave or a fire pit?
Do we go to heaven as spirit creatures and leave our fleshly bodies behind and live on some other planet where ever heaven is? Where there is no sex, food, sleep or material things?
Or do we live on a paradise earth as Adam and Eve were given? Much the same way we are living now except no war, sickness or death. that makes another big difference.
So the Christian faith is not just one religion who everone believes the same way. Same Christian religions are so much like the pagan religions that they are one and the same.

Answer 5

As to answer the WAy and his the Islamic religion only has two ways to go the liberals and conservatives.
I just read an article written by one of his religious clerics that said the Islamic faith he was afraid had as many branches of believe as the Chrisitians. The Islamic faith as practiced by the people in Lebannon is different than that practiced by those in Turkey or Syria. That Iran and Iraq fought wars because they faiths were so different. They are all dissimilar to the Islamic faith practiced in some countries in Africa.
Even the Islam that is practiced in Africa varies from country to country. Money does greese the wheels of faith in both religions, the Christians who are as different as night and day depending on where the reliigon is practiced is not much different than the Islamic faith who depends on the religious cleric who gives out the information.
End of quote:
If the Islamic faith is the same then why do the ones in the USA say they are different than the radicals. If they are all the same wouldn't they all be radicals?

Answer 6

Well people tease Christians a lot for "not being able to think for themselves" but oddly enough, thats exactly why there's so many different branches. Because we DO think for ourselves and when we hear a preacher preaching something and it isnt sitting well, or its against scripture or that leader is a particularly nasty person, we leave that church and try to do a better job than the last guy. No, none of us have it all right yet, maybe we wont ever have it all right in this life but, at least we try ;)

Answer 7

if their religious texts didn't have as many contradictions as there are empty parking spots in space it would be easier for everyone to agree.

This is why in Islam there are only two denominations, less contradictions=less denominations.

The moral of the story? When one person writes a book, their understanding is cohesive and the book can be readily understood, when four guys write a chapter each without even speaking to each other- the book is going to be hard to follow.

to the guy who said islam was no better, let me clarify. The 2 denominations of Islam differ on this point;

Whether one must understand the Koran as entirely literal and the infallible truth with no room for interpretation (Sunni)
OR
Whether there is some wiggle room. (Shiite)

So it's a liberal/conservative argument. Name anything that doesn't have that!

And yes, i expect to get votes down as i've used my brain to answer this question, and i've found that the brain offends the moron.

Answer 8

I'm a Catholic, but I respect the other forms of Christianity. As long as you live a good life and love God, you have a good chance of going into heaven. I think the different types of Christianity are all how people interprate meanings.

Answer 9

It is a round robin and a numbers game. I love it when they go into nominally Catholic countries on missions. As if they were going to the bush in the 1800s.

Answer 10

Secularism is based on dogmatic practice ....research Sigmund Freud and the "wallet" connected with that as well.

By the way, I'm not an atheist.