From: danoc@earlybird.Eng.Sun.COM (Dan O'Connell [CONTRACTOR])
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Polytheism
Date: 13 Aug 1992 17:54:19 GMT
Organization: 61% to 35% in the polls
NNTP-Posting-Host: earlybird

 Well said, well said. It is interesting to speculate on how Christianity
 became aligned with the conversion Devil. After all, conversion is evil, we
 do agree on that don't we? Assuming a creator of all humans, and assuming

Yes, generally. I hesitate to unequivically agree due to not having 
thought it out completely and being trounced on for missing the exception
to the rule, the lurking netter leaping forth to remind me not so subtly.
Of course I should be one to talk, since I do it all the time. . .

 that only that creator can be the judge, then no human can be in the position
 of judging whether another's beliefs are correct or not, unless that mortal
 judge is aligned with the Christian Devil. Ignoring the dogmatic case of

Interesting point. My first name is "Daniel" which I recently learned
means "God is my judge". It seemed intruiging to me how that sentence
could subtly shift meaning depending on which words were stressed. Now,
I take it to mean: Hey, "God" is my judge, not anyone else. . .

 society judging a psychopathic mass killer, it should be clear that all
 beliefs are valid, after all they were created. There is only one who can
 judge another. Any human being who tries to force a single belief onto persons
 who hold unique beliefs is quite clearly aligned with the Christian Devil.
 
 But, assuming that conversion is evil, how did Christianity get diverted onto
 this path? After all, Judaism is not a conversion religion. Why Christianity?
 If a system of beliefs is so good, so valuable, why is it necessary to
 force it onto non-believers? How did the salesman, the fisher of men, the

Well, I'm no christian, much less a christian apologist, so someone else
will have to take up that unenviable challenge.

 seller of free gifts become part of Christianity? I do have some ideas, as I'm
 sure you've suspected. I think part of it comes from Judaism. In Judaism, there
 is one tribal God for the chosen people or the tribe. This one God says that
 He is the only God for the chosen people, all other Gods are not the Gods of
 the chosen people. Now we see some problems already, but at least it is
 acceptable that other tribes will have other beliefs. In fact, it may actually
 be unacceptable for other tribes to believe in this one tribal God, unless
 they become part of the tribe, at their own initiative. Anyway, from this
 Jewish God of the Jews alone, we go to Christianity which now asserts that this
 one tribal God is the only valid God for all people, no matter what tribe they
 may belong to. And this in itself is not necessarily bad, but we can see how

Indeed. As far as I know, judaism and its sect which became christianity
was really the first religion to assert this: that there was one god above
all the other gods.

 that would justify conversion of all non-believers and it quite conveniently
 explains why the Europeans felt they were better than all other non-Europeans
 and were justified in "discovering" the "New World" and populating it with
 "settlers" to work the "virgin" ground. Any native peoples were sub-human as
 they were pagans and could be viewed as "noble savages". These "savages" 
 could be used as slaves, as justified by the Bible, or they could be converted
 to Christianity on the belief that the more souls one converted to the cause,

Very well put.

 the better one's chances of getting into Heaven. It should be quite clear
 that all this was the work of the Christian Devil. And the conversion work
 that continues today, in Africa and other places where people are too poor to
 afford maintaining their beliefs against the attack of missionaries. The only
 question is how was an entire religion sidetracked into alligence with the 
 Devil?

I'm sure that in the greek testament there is an order to the effect
of exhorting the faithful to "spread the good news". We shouldn't forget
that religion has often been used for political ends and your example of
the Europeans "discovering" the New World is a prime example.

Dano