Adore the captain and much of the team. It's the cheesy vendors and the cheer squad that get on my nerves.

There's good and bad. I have lots of good Christian friends and there are some Christian groups that truely do help people. Then you have Christians that are trying to make the whole world a Christian theocracy and want to start a new inquisition.

Most major Universities (think Harvard, Oxford and Yale) were founded by Christians for Christian teachings.
AA is a Christian organization, the Abolition movement was spearheaded by Christians. Art, philanthropy, science and medicine have all had distinctivly Christian contributions.

And no, not ALL wars were started by Christians. Atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Jews have all thrown their hats into that ring as well.

I have encountered many non-Christian people who have inquired the following: "If God is so loving, why is there so much trouble in the world? Why do people fight and kill in His name?" For those who have these questions burning in their minds, allow me to make things a little clearer. God gives everyone a free will, and people do with that free will whatever they choose. Under a free will, people will either make good decisions or bad decisions. It is not God's fault that PEOPLE choose to be hateful and mean and do atrocious things, and it is He to whom we will all give account when all is said and done. Then, there's the ever-common "Christians are all hypocrites!" rant. To them I say, do you know all Christians? Why penalize all of them for the way a few professing ones may act? While I'll readily admit that there are some claiming Christianity who try to appear "holy" by playing all the religious games yet their hearts tell a different story, this is not true of all Christians.

I myself am a Christian. No, I do not claim to be perfect; in fact, I am far from it. I do, however, believe in applying the Bible to my life as best as I possibly can, and I only hope and pray that I am being a good example.

When Christians do their best to learn and practice the lessons of Yeshua, The Master Teacher, Christianity can be a great force for good.

Unfortunately, few do.

Take care of each other, do the right thing, forgive others for their mistakes, tell the truth. If you see these things as as a problem, you might not be a Christian! Christianity isn't harmful to society, the absence of it is!

In theory, Christianity like many other religions, serves a beneficial service to communities by providing a common ground for social interaction of like-minded people. The ideal form appears to encourage ethical behavior while providing hope for the future.

The flip side of course is the overzealous application of religious dogma, which has historically led to the destruction of several independant and spirtual cultures. The pity of this is that as each successive culture was either assimilated or destroyed, society at large has lost valuable opportunities to learn from them. The "I'm right and you're wrong"  mentality leaves little room for open dialogue.

What confounds me is that varied religions often have more in common than they do in opposition. If the Christian religion (or any religion for that matter) focused more on spiritual enlightenment and less on dogmatic ritual and/or fear, the world might-just-could be a better place.

So before we drink the Kool-Aid...  we have to ask ourselves...  Does the I AM really care what name(s) mortals may call it, or which form(s) we choose to define it in our all-too-human terms?

For the few checks in the negative column there seem to be more checks in the positive even with a few assholes messing it up for the rest of us. Yes, I said us. (gasp if you must) Now I took a star for the assholes, but lets examine those positives. Christianity is arguably still the greatest moral force moving in the world today, and without a moral sense I think that we may have descended into anarchy by now. The only other plus that I have the attention span to discuss is charity. How many charities are affiliated with a church or a Christian belief system? Think about that before you get too crazy, kids.

Wow, it's like I can feel the hate. As of the time I'm writing this, Christianity is only rated 2.58. So here's my five stars that this deserves.

Helpful in its purest form of practice, hurtful when it embraces the political process as a form of spreading dogma to others (something that the prophet didn't abide by). . .

I am a proud christian person who sees Christianity as teachings of Jesus and a new way of life. My faith is my drive and my strength!

Christianity, like all major religions, is a control structure. Jesus was an altruist, with a few delusions, but Paul was a sadomasochistic control freak, furious at the various early churches for their deviation from his Stocism.

Later, with the unification of the church that occurred when the teachings of Arius were violently destroyed, it became apparent that this type of belief system could be used in itself to control a population, and thus Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. (The fact that Constantine himself was an Arian is ironic.)

To cut a long story short, Christianity was used as a basis for the divine right of kings, and thus is responsible for the stunted development of political systems in the early 2nd millenium. The teachings of Democritus were seen by the early Church as incompatible with the Bible (which they are, although Christians have improved their sophistry since the Renaissance) and therefore the vast majority of his atomist teachings have been lost, and who knows how many hundreds of years that has set our chemistry and physics back?

Even today, Christianity threatens science, social development and political development. It bans stem cell research and cloning, it censors art, it indoctrinates children and has all sorts of negative effects, though I would argue that at the moment Islam is the more destructive control system.

Anyway, my $0.02.

why is it that the people who rate Christianity with a 1 or 2 don't actually justify their decisions? they just rate it down and go.

anyway, most of my reasoning has really been covered by previous posters. it's impossible to actually measure or even be aware of the benefits Christianity has had on society - there's just no way to tell. however, Christianity preaches a powerful moral message that everyone should be able to appreciate:

love your neighbor
always do right
control your anger
be kind to others
be honest
help those in need
etc etc

This message forms the cornerstone of Western philosophies of ethical behavior. There's just no way around the role that Christianity has played in our beliefs of right and wrong, even if you don't believe in it. And considering the message of right/wrong is a pretty respectable one I think it deserves some credit.

those who believe in Christianity and actually take it seriously can attest that the moral responsibility that accompanies their religion makes them a better person. because God has directly said, "Do good," people are willing to sacrifice their own well-being and go out of their way to help others than they otherwise would be.

Christianity it often maligned for such events as the Spanish Inquisition or the crimes commited in colonizing and "Christianizing" Africa and America. I feel both of these are flawed assertions. The Inquisition was an anomaly of extremists using Christianity to justify very, very nonChristian acts - torturing and killing people who don't convert is definitely not condoned by the Bible. Meanwhile during colonialism the attrocities were being commited by those concerned with getting rich from the colonies, rarely by missionaries.

I think we should remember that Christian communities were often the people advocating social justice. They were the ones criticizing the brutality of colonialism. Christians were also the founders of the Abolitionist movement that got rid of slavery. I'd say that's pretty worthwile.

Christianity is not primarily a teaching or a philosophy, but is based upon an event; the event of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead after he had been crucified three days prior. It is about the justice and love that take place at Calvary. The question now is how do we live and conduct our lives in light of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah and Lord? Yes, he taught us to love one another, but on the Cross he demonstrates how to love one another. The resurrection was the first day of the week of the new creation of God in the World, because the World is different because of this one event. It is sad that we still want to live in the old world, but the new World is life in the Spirit. Those who have committed atrocities in the name of Jesus have not understood the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus, but have elected to live in the Old World. If you mean by Christianity, those that have claimed to be Christians and yet have devoured others through dehumanizing and murderous processes and that is what you mean by Christianity, then you are judgeing it by those were in fact not Christ-like. If that is how you define it then yes it could be a 1 star, but if you define it by the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus then it is the only hope for the world.

People learn to love and respect each other (with exception to wackos who bomb abortion clinics) the way God wants us to. And this is my 1,000th entry! YAY!!!!

Christianity has many redeeming aspects. However, an incredible thing about being human is that a philosophy which promotes peace and understading can end up doing just the opposite. One can only conclude that it is not Christ's message, which is remarkable in many respects, but rather it's the hypocritical agenda of those who commit atrocities in His name. It's a shame that that small minority can give a good religion a bad name.

God's willing to bless everyone. Will you take a step in his direction?

I know a lot of people feel hurt because they feel judged by "Christians" or Christianity. However, Christianity has positively effected many more lives than it has hurt. True Christianity is about the following of Jesus' example, and when this is done it makes a positive impact on people. Unfortunately some people misconstrue what Christianity should be, and use it to judge and isolate others. This is not helpful, but this is not all of Christianity either.