Christianity is a religion

I would like to inform the voters that this debate is a result of a discussion Godsands and myself have been having in the forums, where he has expressed his belief that Christianity is not a religion, and I have begged to differ. My opponent has failed to provide definitions, so I will do so: RELIGION: - (n) a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny [1] - (n) an institution to express belief in a divine power [1] - a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth. [2] CHRISTIANITY: - a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. [3] - (n) a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior [4] ------------------------------------ Now that I've provided standard definitions, I will address my opponent's first round arguments. "I believe Christianity is not a religion, I will try and use reason to suggest to you why Christianity is not a religion but a plain relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. " False dichotomy. My opponent is suggesting that because Christianity is a "plain relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ", that it can't be a religion, but this is clearly false. Indeed, as we can see in our definitions above, these are the very components of Christianity which MAKE it a religion in the first place. "Religion is like politics, you have different political parties, likewise you have many religions. They all say one way is right, and this way is right, both religion and politics say that. " I suppose I agree with this. For the rest of this paragraph and the paragraph which follows it, my opponent's argument gets less and less to do with the resolution, which, I'll remind you, is whether or not Christianity is a religion. My opponent claims that only faith in Christ will get someone into heaven, and that's all fine and dandy for my opponent to believe, but once again, this belief (the Christian belief) is the very thing which makes Christianity a religion. I fail to see the point my opponent is making. Next, he says that "if you say Christianity is a religion you say that the court of law on earth inherits religious schemes", but I don't know where he gets this idea from. A religion is "an institution to express belief in a divine power". Christianity is an institution, right? Christians express belief in a divine power, right? The court of law doesn't, and in fact has nothing to do with this debate. My opponent spends the rest of this paragraph explaining the righteousness of God and so forth, which again has nothing to do with the resolution, so I needn't address it. My opponent then provides a story of a thief in the night who kills a couple of people, and is busted for the crime 15 years down the track. The murderer apologizes, and according to my opponent "at this point religion would say "yes ok you may go free, you are charged not guilty. " My opponent's next entire argument rests on this faulty premise. Frankly, at this point, "religion" can't say anything because there are thousands of different religions. What is true for Christianity may not be so for Judaism or Scientology or Buddhism or Islam or Taoism or Universalism or Pastafarianism, and believe me, I could go on. The point is, my opponent has made a sweeping generalization of religion, as though it were a single entity, and then concluded that Christianity isn't a religion because it differs. Voters, clearly this argument doesn't hold water, and I needn't address it further. "Religion is mans way to God, Christianity is God's way to man. And that is not religion. " Clever wordplay aside, this says nothing of the definitions of religion (which are as commonly accepted as a definition can get) I have provided. "This is pointless anyway if you are to argue that Christianity is a religion, you will never admit is isn't. " Of course I won't, because Christianity is a religion. The definition of "Christianity" calls it a religion, you can't get any more clear-cut than that. This is like me attempting to argue that red isn't a colour, and after my opponent provides several definitions of "red" which call it a colour and several definitions of "colour" which include "red", and then me concluding that it's pointless for my opponent to argue that red is a colour. Basically, this isn't an opinion-based thing. .. these words we're using have specific definitions we must abide by in order to use them. That is how language works. "Saying that Christianity is not a religion and not accepting Christ and believe in him is like knowing the winning euro million jack pot of ï¿½98,000,000,000 and willingly deciding to work over time for an extra ï¿½20 and by doing so missing the chance to give in the correct numbers. In the same sense, this is like admitting Christian is not a religion, and because of that, understand Christianity is the truth yet doing doing about it. " Nah, there's nothing here worth responding to, I'm sure you'll agree voters. --------------- Now that I've countered my opponent's arguments, I will provide my single argument: The definition of "Christianity" is "a monotheistic RELIGION based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament". Is there anything else I need to say? I'll leave it there for this round, I do thank my opponent for accepting the debate and putting a lot of effort into it, but I would like to remind him that we are debating the definitions of simple English words and their relationship to eachother, and ask that he please remain on-topic next round. Thanks. REFERENCES: [1] - . http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu... [2] - . http://en.wikipedia.org... [3] - . http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] - . http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu...