Christianity: We’re in a great deal of shit (Part 1)
Greek philosophy’s influence on Christianity and why we are where we are now
Well a prelude on my apologetic thoughts, I’d first like to write-up on some of the critique for Christianity and why It’s getting more and more difficult for an apologist to clean up the amount of garbage we have collected over the course of 2000 years.
Greek Philosophy and Christianity
In the early years of the Church, there is a complex interaction between Hellenic philosophy and Christianity. Christianity originated in Judah and Aramaic culture had it’s own distinct traditional philosophies and modes of thought, different from the dominant Classical Greek thought in the region brought by the Roman Empire through conquest. Judah itself was already Hellenized in the first century, and the “Hebrew Bible” most commonly used was a Greek translation.
The early conflict between the two is recorded in Paul’s encounters with Epicurian and Stoic philosophers in Acts [1], his diatribe against Greek philosophy in 1st Corinthians[2], and his warning against philosophy in Colossians 2:8[3]. Over time, as Christianity began to spread throughout the Hellenic world, an increasing number of church leaders and thinker such as Augustine of Hippo (who ultimately systematized Christian philosophy) were educated in Greek Philosophy, and thereby leading to a fusion of the two.
Hebrew Versus Greek Thought in regards to God - OmniEverything
Hebrews and early Christians had no systematic theology. They understood God to be: “The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6–7) Actually it’s quite similar to the Gods of the Greeks, Norse and many Polytheistic religions, whereby most of the Gods take on human attributes.
It was not until the fusion of Platonic and Aristotelian theology with Christianity that the concepts of strict omnipotence, omniscience, or omnibenevolence became commonplace. The Platonic concept of Forms was influential on Hellenic Christian views of God. Platonic Philosophers often theorize about forms, taking objects in the physical world, then theorizing what their perfect form would be like. The Aristotelian view grew from Platonic roots attributed this perfections to God and adding that they are Infinite. Hellenic Christians then applied this form-based philosophy to the Christian God taking all things considered good or great and posited that God was infinite in all these respects. They then concluded that God was omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent. Further, since God was perfect, any change would make him less than perfect, so they asserted that God was unchanging, or immutable. With the establishment of the formal church, the development of creeds and formal theology, this view of God as Omni-Everything became nearly universal in the Christian World.
Geocentrism - The Flat Earth Fiasco
This belief held that the Earth was the center of the universe. Everything else in orbit revolves around it. What ego eh? It was devised by Ptolemy. Neither Hebrew nor Christian scriptures systematically describe a geocentric model of the universe, although many passages speak in passing of these planetary bodies movements across the sky as would be apparent to any observer at the time, as well as metaphorical descriptions of such planetary bodies. However, with the fusion of Greek with Hebrew thought and the rise of the Catholic Church, the geocentric model was incorporated into Church dogma along with a great deal of Greek scientific thought. It was not until the 16th and 17th century that Copernicus and Gallileo challenged the Ptolomaic system, over vehement Church resistance.
Contemporary Christian Thoughts and Theology
Movements such as Open Theism and Process Theology have argued that the God of the Jews and non-Hellenized Christians was not a God of Infinities, but rather, was the greatest in all those respects. In retrospect we are going back to the God of human attributes. The problem of evil, the problem of prayer, and the problem of sin, are often the problems, which favors their position in which they believe make the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent God logically untenable. There are also many scripture passages in which God appears to change his mind, have emotions, be delayed in carrying out his plan, become furious, and be surprised.
However most Christians, regardless of denomination, as well as adherents to the majority of world religions still holds on to the old thought about God’s omniwhatever and see Open Theism and Process Theology as attempts to belittle the attributes of God.
