Damned if They Do, Damned if They Don't.

Note: This is sort of an unusual post for me, as I'm (in a rather odd way) giving advice to Christendom.


I have been thinking of a solution to the general ignorance of the Christian populace regarding their own religion, and have come to the conclusion that there isn't really a solution, because either path will undoubtedly lead to the eventual destruction of the core of the religion. Here's how I came to this conclusion.

If the Christian church continues the way it has done for virtually its entire history, leaving the general majority of believers in the dark about the intricacies and facts of the development of its scriptures, and the development and history of its foundation (Judaism), then when individuals discover this for themselves as I did, it will likely result in a severe erosion of their faith. In my case, my faith was eroded piece by piece until I had none left, and eventually realised that I no longer even believed in a god.

On the other hand, if the church decides that it is going to tell its members about how their religion really came to be, how unreliable the scriptures are historically, and so on, it will no longer be a 'simple faith', i.e. that people won't be able to bury their head in the sand, or check their brain in at the door and recite verbatim statements like 'Jesus died for your sins and he loves you, all you need to do is accept him!'. Converts will no longer be obtained through emotional deception, Evangelists will not simply be able to tug at the heart strings of potential converts, leaving out all the important details.

Imagine this scenario, someone is 'tricked' into becoming a Christian by an evangelist who assures the person, 'Jesus is God!, and he died for your sins!'. The next week when they go to church for the first time, they hear the Preacher teaching the congregation that we really know NOTHING about who Jesus was!
"How can you know that he is God if you know next to nothing about who he really was?"
"You just need to have faith!"
".... Seriously? That's all you have?"
Perhaps this scenario is more favourable (for the church) to one where the church actively obfuscates and lies, and the convert discovers from other sources about these things.