[Nursie]

I'm pretty sure a belief in the major parts of the bible are necessary, are they not? I mean, I thought the resurrection of christ was the whole point of anything describable as Christianity?

Without that, well is that 'church' ?

[orionblastar]

The whole point of Christ dying was to forgive sins.

In the old testament they would sacrifice animals and use the blood of the animals to wash away sin. People would sacrifice animals at the temple with a Priest and collect the blood to wash away their sins.

Christ was God's sacrifice to end that practice Christ's blood was shed to wash away our sins. Christ was dead for three days to build a bypass from hell into heaven. Before that it wasn't possible to reach heaven. Christ rose from the dead and promises on judgement day when he returned to raise the dead and judge them.

Islam differs on Jesus they see him as a Prophet didn't die on the cross, and converted to Islam, and there is no trinity in their religion. Jesus is not the son of God or Messiah but a Prophet instead named Isa.

Some churches are converting to Chrislam where they rewrite the Bible to be compatible with Islam. One that Christ doesn't die and isn't resurrected.

You'll find that there are many different versions of Christianity, even Atheist Christians who follow Christ's teachings but don't believe he is a God.

Many Christians became non-practicing because they got busy with their jobs or they just stopped believing. A lot of atheists used to be Christian at one point, and just didn't believe in God any more.

In modern times people worship science and technology and don't see a need for God anymore.

When you visit a church you see elderly people, and the sick and disabled, the sort of people who need God. You don't see very many of the young adults who are healthy, if there are any young people they come in with their parents.

[socceroos]

> When you visit a (fundamental) church you see elderly people, and the sick and disabled, the sort of people who need God. You don't see very many of the young adults who are healthy, if there are any young people they come in with their parents.

An observation of the fundamental church at large reflects your statement. I would delimit that statement though to say that there are pockets of thriving 'resistance', so to speak. I happen to belong to a fundamental church that bucks the trend of an ageing population.

[orionblastar]

I really cannot visit every single church in the USA.

The ones I do visit they are trying to figure out how to get young people involved with them. The Catholic church for example has a shortage of priests and they need more young priests and young volunteers. They need more young people to attend church and donate money as well.

It may be different in where you live because your church has a connection with young people. But near me in the St. Louis MO area, young people are dropping out of church to become non-practicing or atheists.

[prewett]

Generally churches have a minimum set of beliefs to be accepted as an official member. However, most churches welcome people who don't believe to be part of the community. There are limitations--non-believers usually can't be part of leadership (one of the reasons being the reason you gave)--but it's part of the Church's mission to bring to goodness of God, community included, to non-believers.

[jbarham]

> I thought the resurrection of christ was the whole point of anything describable as Christianity?

Yes: "But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." 1 Corinthians 15:12-14

[spacehome]

I don't think it's very useful to quote the bible as a source of what Christians believe. So far as I can tell, only a tiny sliver of Christians believe the work in its entirety.

[nogridbag]

I've always assumed the reason is because only a tiny sliver of Christians have actually read the whole bible - so they probably have no idea what it says. A quick google search seems to confirm my assumption [1].

[1] http://www.christianity.com/1270946/

[spacehome]

I've always assumed it's because if you read it it's filled with some awesome love/acceptance/transcendence stuff and some really terrible bronze age horrors. It would be too terrible to actually take it at face value.

[angrybits]

There are lots of good sibling comments to this one, but I want to get one more point in before we all move on.

Spending an hour yielding to something larger than yourself is probably good for the soul and definitely good for the ego. You can walk into almost any church, and there you will find a quiet space where you can meditate/pray. You can find a sort of comfort in its 2000 year history, and in the myths/rituals of our past and the people who believe in them. If you are made to feel uncomfortable, then try another one or stop going altogether, there are literally zero negative consequences to it.

The point of this is that you don't have to swear an oath to little baby jesus to get a benefit from a modernized church. You can make of it what you want, they won't mind in the least.

[Nursie]

I don't believe in any larger things so I'm not sure I would find any benefit in that.

I mean, other than the whole universe I suppose, but I find the night sky in a remote location gives me the headspace I need to appreciate that.