How is the "monothesim" in Chrsitianity obvious? Christians believe the Father is god, the son is god and the holy spirit is god. That adds up to 3. That is not obviously montheistic.
Christianity, or rather Trinitarian Christianity, sees the three persons of the Trinity as one singular god. Bound by a like substance and mind. One deity; it is clearly monotheistic.
Some people do carefully reconcile the confusion and are monotheists, but they are actually pretty rare. But there are very much like what anthropologists and even Christians call the gods of other religions. It is not an idea I came up with. It is an idea that many, many Christians believe in. But perhaps you do not think they are Christians.
As I said, a change in the definition over time. If you believe otherwise, then illustrate to me where any contemporary Christian doctrine expounds these "three" gods.
I don't think he was actually responding to your post, but rather the OP (although who fucking knows?), which incidentally seems to be the source of all this confusion (the elohim matter aside--my Torah seems to open with: barashit bara elohim). The title of the thread: christianity is a polytheism. The OP: "they (christians) worship ..." Hmmm. So are we talking about what "Christianity says..." (doctrine, and rather unique interpretation of the Torah at best), or what (some) Christians believe? Heh. Or as the OP reads: worship. As with most threads in the religion subforum:
I think my doctrinal question rounds it up nicely. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Whose answer though? (do you already know, that is) I've found this thread surprisingly free of the "typical" (or "usual"), and I do believe that the query in the OP was made in earnest.
Oh, scifes'. He of the whiny OP. To be frank, he's reiterating the old, old islamic slander about Christian polytheism, which gets brought up again and again for the purposes of - well, prejudice, oppression and general bigotry. I believe that it allows one to kick Christians out of the old "People of the Book" category and into the category of "heathen", in the most extreme case, which makes their persecution technically legal. I think scifes is heading in this direction, consciously or unconsciously. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_of_the_book
Interesting. I had been reading that "infidels" bit (in the OP) as "humor," but shall revise. I've only been around a month and the agendas are not entirely clear yet.
:facepalm: ugh, what was i thinking, asking a question about christianity in an atheist forum, are there any christians on board to get this show on the road with or should i pack my stuff and leave? HELLO!! ANY CHRISTIANS HERE?
*sigh* i just deleted my hissy fit and am replacing it with: "so what" is it to you? you're an atheist right?
Jews are polytheists, "thou shalt have no other gods before me." They believe in other gods even if the don't worship them. Since xtianity and islame are both judaism rip offs...
Well not really. Buddhism doesn't care about gods, but some buddhist like worshiping them any way, others don't. But as long as you don't let it distract you, its all good.
Again. I am not responding to YOU about the Trinity. you stated that Elohim meant angels. This is clearly false.... Here is the opening to Genesis: Elohim is always translated as God, despite it being a plural term.
Those certainly may be reasons why SOME people wonder if Christianity is a polytheism, but ends up being a useless ad hom when one generalizes. You may think it is obvious why God is in plural form (Elohim), why the Trinity exists, How Jesus could have cried out to himself, and the ways in which Christians relate to the various entities - see my posts on jesus, Mary, God and Lucifer/Satan and the way Christianty if practiced, not simply by latin american and other Christians where polytheism is very hard to deny, but even in Catholic cultures in Europe. There really is quite a bit to work with, even if you are right and it all 'really' makes sense as monotheism.
