I get the impression that christianity arose as an apocalyptic cult with a short time horizon; but when the apocalypse didn't happen in the expected era, later generations of christians refused to admit that they had made a mistake and wasted their lives on a delusion.
So instead they started to find other rationalizations to justify chrisianity's existence, with the result that christianity has become a grab-bag of arbitrary beliefs, rather than a tool kit where every item serves a useful function. For example, some christians elevate Jesus into the greatest philosopher and moral preceptor who ever lived, even though the gospels don't make that claim. Others argue that christianity elevated the status of women, and that something called christian morality protects women (from themselves, apparently); again, the New Testament writings don't make those claims. Still other christians argue that the gospel provides life with meaning and purpose, which makes you wonder why the overwhelming majority of humanity ignorant of christian teachings bothered to live and procreate instead of committing suicide.
On and on it goes: Prosperity gospels, faith healing gospels, converting the pagans gospels, witch-burning gospels, freeing the slaves gospels, gospels to help alcoholics, gospels to make gay people straight, etc. Christianity's history of "mission drift" shows why it makes sense now to write it off as a folly from the childhood of the race. Why can't people admit that the gospels present, at best, a somewhat garbled doomsday prophecy which never came to pass, and move on to more rational thinking about life's problems?
In fact, if augmented reality ever catches on, I'd like to see the app which labels every mention of christianity with "DOOMSDAY CULT," just to remind us of its origins.
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