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“Christ is the way; remain firm in Christ and follow the way, and do not let anything move you away from Him.”

~St. Charbel

[newman-the-newmanite]

Why Christianity?

Simply put: Christianity is right.

Slightly More-Complexly put: The ideals presented within the Bible, alongside reasoning of many saints and philosophers are seen to be meet and right to concur with, and to follow religiously(in a literal sense, in this case).

However, it is important to note no matter what, faith will be required to believe. Belief ipso facto requires faith(to different extents).

In the words of the great Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

Our Lord was around 33 when He was crucified and died. Upon the third day, He Rose again in accordance with scriptures (Mark 16:5-7).

Around the Year of Our Lord (Anno Domini)70 and 95 would the Gospel According to St. Mark be written down. This is still within the lifetime of many of those within the land of Judea, whereas to descent could easily be made.

In opposition to this was Richard Carrier, stating "There are still people today who believe that in 1947 an alien craft crashed and was recovered, along with alien bodies, by the United States government, and that this was subsequently covered up and kept secret."(Carrier, as seen within Pulliam 2010).

However, there is multiple problems with this association between the lack of Christ within the Tomb, and the Roswell Incident, as so has it been called. Firstly: There is indeed disagreement within such. The Military has been stout in debunking this belief, within the Roswell Morning Dispatch, an article almost immediately after was made titled “Army Debunks Roswell Flying Disk as World Simmers with Excitement.” Furthermore, there was many less people directly seeing the objects, than there was Jesus. If they knew Jesus Christ was false, they would have stated such.

An Important figure to note upon such is Josephus. His accounts of Our Lord's Crucifixion can be found in many apologetic circles from days far gone until hitherto this era we see ourselves in.

Many would argue that such accounts are false or altered. Yet, even with people within anti-Christian apologetics, the Crucifixion isn't directly denied.

in order to clarify who Jesus really was. I have placed the sections possibly inserted by the scribe in brackets: At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man [if indeed one should call him a man, for] he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and among many of Greek origin. [He was the Messiah.] And when Pilate, be¬ cause of an accusation made by the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him previ¬ ously did not cease to do so. [For he appeared to them on the third day, living again, just as the divine prophets had spoken of these and countless other wondrous things about him.] And up until this very day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out. (Antiquities 18.3.3) 2(Ehrman, 2009, 150).

This shows that the crucifixion isn't something to be denied in the words of Josephus. All the doubt would show is that Josephus did not truly believe in Christian Ideals, which is not something I, or many others, would argue.

This, alongside the prophecies of Isiah 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.(Isiah 53:5) there is much connections to be made, regardless of whether or whether not you believe Christianity is inherently true.

This inherently strikes the Islamic belief of Crucifixion being too humiliatingly for a prophet(especially one of the Highest Prophets) as at the very least, questionable, at most, false.

To these points, atheists might ask: "Why do you believe Christianity? there is multiple religions out there" or state "I am as much of an atheist as you, you just believe one more religion than I"

For the latter: that makes no sense. A married man is as much single as I am; they just have one more spouse than I. ( I hope the ignorance in that statement shone fourth)

For the first: all these reasons put together, plus simplistic reasonings for God (CS Lewis and St. Thomas Aquinas are good ones, alongside St. Augustine of Hippo, and others. )

For those who need 100% proof, let me ask this:

Do you believe in reality? If so, why?

I ask this, because, ultimately, there is no reason to believe your surroundings exist(You can prove you exist in some form through the statement Cogito, Ergo Sum, yet to prove your surroundings exist is impossible).

This is where some form of a leap of faith is required. eventually, all statements and beliefs boil down to a leap of faith(some gaps larger than others, I will grant that).

For myself, there is no separation between the statement "My surroundings are real" to "God is real" in distance of belief. Others, will see it differently, stating seeing their surroundings shows more proof than God; that Video, Ergo Est. However this shows an assumption of the surroundings existing wherein such belief can't be proven, wherein such belief in needing absolutes disavows such. Thus, Saint Thomas Aquinas' belief on faith comes into play, Faith is required to believe anything, as formerly mentioned. To what degree one person restricts faith(Absolute faith, partial faith, reasoning, et cetera) , is a personal choice, one wherein each person must decide for themselves. If you are a Christian struggling with faith, read apologetics, and pray. There is absolutely nothing wrong with questioning faith. There is nothing wrong with wondering if you're wrong. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind on beliefs you held, or will hold. Let this also be kept: I am not claiming I am smarter, better, or more righteous in my stature because I am Christian. Many non-Christians do great deeds. Many of them are better people than I. Most are more schooled than I. That is not the point I'm trying to get across. I am a person with many flaws, and many traits both good and bad. I am human. Yet, if one were to ask: "Why are you Christian?" or "Why Christianity?" these would be the reasons.

Much of this is simplistic answers to a complex situation. Eventually these topics will be discussed in greater depth.

May God Hold You and Bless You.

Go Fourth and Do As God Willeth.