Most Christian denominations are Psuedo christian, or Athiestic Christian churches

Pro asked: This indicates to me that it takes more than the simple belief and even practice to be saved even if individuals can cast out spirits/demons and prophesy would you agree on this biblically speaking? Well, now... obviously I don't believe that the bible is divinely inspired since I don't believe in the divine! Furthermore, I don't believe in an afterlife... it strikes me as wishful thinking in the extreme to believe that a mind can exist without a brain (or other physical ground). The bible makes very little clear but it does make it plain that salvation is more complex than being capable of casting out spirits and prophesying. Lets take a look in a little more detail at what different Christian denominations make of what the route to salvation is: Calvinism holds that God Himself chooses (indeed, has chosen) who to save... salvation is, therefore, by the grace of God alone; there is nothing that you can do to affect the ultimate outcome; I don't hold any truck with arguments about "free will" but this seems to me to most terribly unfair and fatalistic! Furthermore, it does not seem to me possible that God is all-loving and chooses some people to suffer in eternity because they didn't believe a fairy story (especially if the only reason that some other people do believe it is because He chooses to inspire that faith in them). You can read more about Calvinism in my first link [1]. You'll notice that the page makes much use of biblical quotations to justify Calvinist interpretation; I'll just cite one here for brevity: But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. [2] (my emphasis) from 2 Ephesians. Now, the Roman Catholic church tends to agree with Calvanism on this point of soteriology [3]... and we can see from Paul's second letter to the Phillipians that there is good reason to think that even if faith and works save us, our faith and our works are actually God's work in us: God is the one, who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Phillipians 2:13 [4] This, to an atheist such as myself, seems to utterly rob any human of any praiseworthiness when they do good; what a disgusting idea! And what about the inverse? Is God at work in a murderer or a rapist? Oh no, of course, that's demons and evil spirits; thank goodness that the holy spirit is around to drive out these evil spirits. Christianity entails that we are not ultimately responsible for ourselves and act only according to holy or evil spirits moving within us... why, then, one cannot help wondering, does God not intervene except through the ceremonial laying on of hands? Does the laying on of hands focus God's attention to an otherwise happily uninterrupted demonic possession? I mean, he is meant to be all-knowing and all-powerful... why doesn't he limit the powers of these evil spirits once and for all? Still, I digress. So, Calvanism and Roman Catholocism hold that one is only ever saved by God and only by His will... there is nothing that you or I could do to change that fact, apparently. Doesn't sound like the basis of a sensible moral system if you ask me! BUT, of course, it's more complicated than that... what faith or works could get you saved, even if all of your goodness is God's doing? Well, here we come across the major split between Catholicism and Protestantism - the Roman Catholic church holds that Faith and Works are the important keys to "justification", salvation and redemption. All protestant faiths hold, in direct contradistinction, that Works are worthless and salvation can be earned by faith alone. "Faith alone" translates into Latin as "Sole Fide" and this is the name given to the position that Faith in Jesus is all that is needed for redemption from sins [5]. Martin Luther said that this was the most important aspect of Protestantism (and he helped father it). So... there is fundamental disagreement about the route to salvation... and about who will be saved... and about whether you can have any influence over your final destination or not; all of these disparate and contradictory positions are held by faiths who all claim a basis in biblical scripture. What gives? My take: the bible is simply confusing and self-contradictory... hardly the work of an almighty super-deity who wants to give us a clear message that we can understand and have faith in! I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here and ask: how much of a real Christian is Pro if they have not got a clear belief about soteriology? How much of a real Christian is Pro if they are not deeply intimate with the bible *? Just saying, because if I believed that the bible was the only earthly example of the only god's message to humanity I would read, re-read, study and know my bible (yes, I was a Christian for half of my life and yes, I have read the bible cover-to-cover more than once - ironically, reading the bible was what converted me to atheism). Anyhow... I'm going to come out and just say this straight: Pro, how DARE you accuse anybody of not being a real Christian because they refuse to fear invisible demons and share their germs by touching you inappropriately when you don't know your bible inside out and have no discernible soteriological position? On what authority can you possibly be defining true Christianity? * - I know that I said that I wouldn't accuse somebody of not being a real Christian... but I am happy to call somebody who calls other Christians pseudo-Christians themselves a pseudo-Christian if they merit it because, well, it just seems fair. Poetic justice; I know how I would have felt about being called a pseudo-Christian when I was a Christian. P.S. I know many, many Christians who have not read the bible through; is their faith hypocritical? It may be that they are telling the World that they are more faithful than, in fact, they are: if you really believed that the bible was the word of the one true god, surely you would study it inside out, through and through, again and again. You'd probably end up, like me, an atheist, though... because it's quite hard to swallow a god who claims to be moral and advocates slavery. [1] http://www.reformed.org... [2] https://www.biblegateway.com... [3] http://www.catholic.com... [4] https://www.biblegateway.com... [5] https://en.wikipedia.org...