Did you know that Christianity is a fraud?

Answer 1

A:

Calling Christianity fraudulent is harshly judgemental, especially as down through the ages there have always been Christians who sincerely, if perhaps wrongly, believed in the truth of their religion. From this perspective, Christianity is not a fraud, even if much of what has been taught and believed is fraudulent.

When the authors of the epistles to Titus and Timothy knowingly used Paul's name in order to ensure ready acceptance of their message, this was fraudulent, but Paul's genuine epistles were not. When fifth-century Christians aded the 'Johannine Comma' (verse 5:7) to 1 John, this was fraudulent, but even if the traditional assumption that 1 John was written by the apostle John is wrong, that assumption is not fraudulent.

By today's standard, perhaps the addition of nativity stories to the gospels was fraudulent, given that most New Testament scholars regard them as fictional, but this is holding the authors of Matthew and Luke to a higher standard than they probably would have been in their own day.

When Pope Pius IX sought and obtained verification of his infallibility when speaking ex cathedra, he was only confirming a common belief that was already some centuries old in the Catholic Church. Fraud would have required him to know for certain that he was not infallible and never would be.

Whether there is a God, and if so whether Jesus is the son of God, can be disputed. However, such discussion can not be advanced by pejoratives such as 'fraud'.