[Adam]

This is the first weekly thread to cover questions and answers about the different world religions. This week, the topic is on general Christianity, and includes all of the different sects that are found under that category.

Since this is the first one, here are a few notes. This isn't a thread for debate, it is a thread for gaining knowledge of other people's perspectives. Unlike debate, if someone says "I believe such and such because of how I interpret my religious documents," then it is a perfectly valid answer. Similiarly, a person can use their religious leader as a source, or even personal experience. We do not want to challenge the validity of the different beliefs, simply find out what those beliefs are.

The structure that I'll use is I'll start out with a general history, then open the thread for questions. If I don't know the history, then I'll ask someone more knowledgable than me to write it up. If you have an idea for a religion that you want covered, please contact me and we'll start a new one.

For the duration of the week (right now, Wednesday to Wednesday in the Western Hemisphere) the current thread will remain as a sticky. After that week, a new thread will be created, and the old thread will be un-stickied, but anyone is welcome to keep the conversation going long after that.

Without further ado, here is the history of Christianity.

Approximately 3000 years BCE (that's Before Current Era, also abreviated as BC, meaning Before Christ), the people living in the modern-day region around Isreal were a polytheistic group. Their pantheon included noteable figures, such as the Elohim, a group of female gods who created the world and most life on it, including several bands of humans, Jehova, their god of war, much like Aries or Mars in the Mediteranian-European region, and who also created one specific band of humans, and the Devil, the keeper of the underworld. There were other gods and heavenly creatures, such as angels and shai-tan, but they didn't play a very large role in the development of this new religion that was to be born.

Around the time mentioned above, a man, Abraham, left his home for reasons described in texts common to the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions. During his travels, he met up with a group of nomads who worshiped only one deity. Abraham took a clue from them, and began to worship only one of his many deities, Jehova, because he believed that his line descended from those people created by Jehova, rather than the other people who were created by the Elohim. Now, Jehova was a god of war, so naturally he was a very jealous and vengeful god... That plays into a lot of the tradgedies that befell the people who later followed Abraham and became part of his covenant. Because Jehova was so jealous, He insisted that He be recognized as the only god. The Isrealites, as they'd later be known as, traveled to Egypt, and the archeological evidence and accounts from the bible differ at this point.

Moses led the Isrealites out of Egypt, and waged war against several other nations until they could settle in their promised land. All was as peaceful as possible when living under a god of war, until one fateful day.

Jesus of Nazerus was born. Due to the conflicting accounts of his history, the bare minimum that could be said is that he was a very wise man who taught love for your fellow man and forgiveness (which is naturally a foreign concept for people who have been living under a god of war) until he was hung on a tree. Christianity springs from people's interpretations of other people's interpretations of Jesus' words and deeds.

In the 400's, Christianity became the official religion of Rome, following a Caeser's victory in battle after praying to Jehova.

During the Renaisance, Martin Luther formed the first successful protestant church, which led to many other protestant churches springing up as well. The original Christian church became known as the Catholic church, because of their use of the word 'catholic' when gaining converts, which used to mean 'open to all.'

In the 1800's, Joseph Smith formed the first restorationist church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as LDS or Mormon. (Note: calling members of that church "Mormons" was considered a derogatory term, similiar to racial slurs. It has since lost most of its bite, but it is still more correct to call them members of the LDS church.)

The current concept of divinity held by Christians is no longer that of Jehova, being a god of war, but is closer to that of Elohim, of a caring creator. Because of the heavy influence of Jehova in the old testament, many Christians still use that as a model, noteably people such as Fred Phelps (google "Fred Phelps funeral" for some of his more spiteful work) and people who identify themselves as evangelical fundamentalists.

The cornerstone of modern Christianity is that of love and forgiveness. Despite its polytheistic roots, it is very much a monotheistic religion today.

Alright, to start this thread out, here's the first open question. Anyone is free to ask any question, so long as it is not a loaded question.

For those who are Christian, why did you choose that path?