| @kania is high: I prolly don't have the knowledge to do any justice to a debate over the nitty-gritty details of Christianity. IMHO, magister does a much better job of explaining saints and angels than I ever could. Still, I have to say that it seems that you have been looking for a fight from your very first comment. I mean, it's pretty hypocritical of you to accuse others of being "unable to debate with positive degree of objectivity" when you open your argument with statements like "polytheism at its best" and "so much for no graven images". Speaking of which, saints are NOT idolized as being gods (at least not traditionally) no matter how much they may be revered. Granted, the whole concept of official sainthood seems a little sketchy to me, but what can anyone do about it? As for monotheism vs. polytheism, of course Christianity isn't monotheistic in the strictest sense of the word, but what religion is? When it's all said and done, Christianity is about the closest thing to monotheism that we have. Besides, it is clearly different from more overtly polytheistic faiths that have more than one major deity. With Christianity, we're talking about one ALL-POWERFUL God; in contrast, no one deity in the Greek pantheon ruled directly over everything (Zeus ruled heaven, Poseidon the seas, Hades the underworld, etc.). As such, the best way to differentiate between Christianity and other polytheistic systems is to call it "monotheistic". I see how you could argue that the Holy Trinity consists of three separate deities; after all, "tripartite" means consisting of or made up of three parts. However, "trinity" and "tripartite" are misnomers with regard to the Holy Three-in-One. The fact is, Christianity explicitly states that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one God. The angels were created not as gods in their own regard, but as conduits for God's power. After all, you may recall that the simple act of looking at the face of God is enough to kill a person. In closing, I'll say that you appear to be significantly more agreeable, if not more intelligent, than, say, Dubliner. However, my response remains the same: if you want to argue religion or bash Christianity or whatever have you, then get yourself a blog. |
