Here is a special three-part Halloween themed question.
a. Why is Satan always depicted as a grotesque creature with horns if the Bible says he looks like an angel of light.
b. Why are “creepy” things like spiders, snakes, black cats, bats, blood, skeletons, nighttime, etc ascribed to Satan if God alone made them?
c. Why is fear & pain ascribed to Satan, if God designed the human nervous system to include pain receptors and a fear response?
Halloween has been rebranded and celebrated by Christians over a thousand years, though certainly many traditions have changed.
“In the 7th century AD, Pope Boniface IV established “All Saints’ Day” … in the following century, perhaps in an effort to supplant the pagan holiday with a Christian observance, it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or *hallowed eve* and thus Halloween.”
This likely happened because Christian missionaries often re-branded ancient pagan holidays to better spread their message.
There is even a letter sent Pope Gregory I in the 6th century, in which he suggested that existing places of non-Christian worship be adopted and consecrated to serve a Christian purpose which is evidence this was a common Christian method, for quite some time now.
(Though I know people who think only this current generation of Christians “compromises” by “taking things from the world” and “trying to make it Christian.”)
See more here: http://www.yuriyandinna.com/the-historic-facts-about-halloween-you-probably-dont-know/
What is more “biblical”? To be kind to family members that belong to a different religion or to beat them with rocks until they bleed to death?
Turns out there is no specific verse about loving such family members, but there is one saying it’s “biblical” to murder your family if they try to convert you to another religion.
“If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods”… Show them no pity or compassion and do not shield them… You must certainly put them to death…you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them… Stone them to death.” (Deut 13:6-10)
Fun religion/science fact
The new pope (aka, the head of the worlds largest and oldest Christian church) who has been known to hold a great deal of conservative ideas about Christianity is urging Christians to accept the theory of evolution.
Pope Francis said “When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything — but that is not so. Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”
Is the pope wrong? Is evolution compatible with Christianity?
http://www.religionnews.com/2014/10/27/pope-francis-evolution-inconsistent-notion-creation/
There is a common meme that the US started as a Christian nation, and the last 70 years it has seen degradation from this. Yet, this is not true, in fact, the America of the 20th century was more “Christian” than that of the 19th and 18th centuries.
One evidence for this is that early generations of American founders and presidents had many Deists/Unitarians who did not accept the Bible or the divinity of Jesus (T. Jefferson, T. Paine, G. Washington, J. Madison, J. Monroe, J. Tyler, B. Franklin, A.Lincoln).
The last president that was not openly a traditional Christian was William Taft, in 1909, who stated that “I do not believe in the divinity of Christ” and was frequently called an atheist, just like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were. Since Taft we have had 17 presidents that openly claimed to be Christians and were members of Protestant/Catholic churches.
Ironically enough claims of “Christian persecution in America” have all developed during the reign of these 17 Christian presidents, not during the reign of Abraham Lincoln who was “suspected of agnosticism or atheism for most of his life” according to the eminent Civil war historian Allen C. Guelzo. (1)
The Christian(ish) denominations that grow the fastest tend to be the most hyper-conservative and some have even been described as somewhat cult-like.
Important theological issues were agreed upon at early ecumenical councils, these essentially defined what it meant to be a Christian. After being voted a council, they became orthodox, and alternatives were formally considered heresy. Things like Trinity, dual nature of Jesus, baptism, etc we’re all agreed upon by early councils
The first ecumenical council that formally gave a list of canonical books of the Bible was the Council of Trent in the 16th century. (There was tradition, and smaller decisions in the ancient cities of Rome and Carthage, but no formal ecumenical council decree)
Incidentally, that council also rejected Protestantism (and Luther for demoting many previously canonical books). Since the council rejected Protestants, they rejected the council, and voila, here we are.
In the Old Testament we see examples where God prevents the sun from moving, fire/hail coming from the sky to kill enemies, and whole attacking armies are instantly blinded to save praying people. For example, when Judea was under threat by the Assyrians, and Hezekiah prayed, the text says an angel flew over the Assyrian army and killed 185,000 soldiers instantly. (2 Kings 19)
Why has God stopped doing that? Why not send an angel to instantly kill all of the Nazi soldiers who were rounding up the Jews or attacking Europe? (Surely millions were praying just as eagerly as Hezekiah) Why not instantly blind all the rapists who are currently attacking children?
These are all the kinds of things that were reported in the past, so why have they stopped now?
There be dragons in these texts! Yes, that’s right, there are scaly fire-breathing-dragons mentioned in the Bible. Isaiah (14:29, 30:6) mentions the “fiery flying serpent” but Job offers many more juicy details.
Wait. so are there really fire-breathing-dragons or was this mythical language? Well, I for one don’t think there are dragons, unicorns, or trolls, but that doesn’t stop plenty of creationist organizations (1, 2) from believing in bonafide fire-breathing-dragons.
Did you know we don’t have the exact words that Jesus spoke? All Bible scholars (even the most conservative Christians) admit we only have the “voice” (ipsissima vox) of Jesus but not the actual, specific words (ipsissima verba) he said.
Dan Wallace, a leading conservative Christian textual scholar, who teaches at one of the most conservative seminaries in America (Dallas Theological Seminary) says it this way:
“Scholars have for a long time recognized that the Gospel writers *shape* their narratives, including the sayings of Jesus. A comparison of the Synoptics reveals this on almost every page.
Matthew quotes Jesus *differently* than Mark does who quotes Jesus *differently* than Luke does. And John’s Jesus speaks significantly *differently* than the Synoptic Jesus does. Just consider the key theme of Jesus’ ministry in the Synoptics: ‘the kingdom of God’ (or, in Matthew’s rendering, often ‘the kingdom of heaven’). Yet this phrase occurs only twice in John, being replaced usually by ‘eternal life.’
The ancient historians were far more concerned to get the *gist* of what a speaker said than they were to record his *exact* words. And if Jesus taught mostly, or even occasionally, in Aramaic, since the Gospels are in Greek the words by definition are not exact.” (1)
Facts about Religion 