5 ms·

Though the term has been usurped, tracked through the mud, and left out to be baked out in the sun the word is still very useful. At the end of the day even th

Though the term has been usurped, tracked through the mud, and left out to be baked out in the sun the word is still very useful. At the end of the day even though we might call ourselves different types of Christians based on the traditions and non-essentials that we hold to, there are still Christians from every tribe, tongue, and nation that are united by Christ... and Christian is really only the word I can think of that makes sense.

flukus 10y ago
You can't really say they're united by Christ when they can't agree on the nature of Christ (man, god or both?) and have frequently fought over the particulars. About the only way you can group all Christians together is that they believe a Christ of some form existed. But that definition is loose enough to include atheists, muslims and others.
- learc83 10y ago
  Words have meaning, but that meaning isn't always precise because we communicate using a natural language not Lojban. Humans have the ability to use context and reason to determine what a person means when they say they are a Christian. 99.9% of the time such a person person means that they are a follower of Jesus Christ and that they believe Jesus Christ to be the son of God. Of course there will be disagreements on the exact definition, their are disagreements on the exact definition of the word programmer. That doesn't stop it from being a useful word. Any label has exceptions.
  - flukus 10y ago
    > 99.9% of the time such a person person means that they are a follower of Jesus Christ and that they believe Jesus Christ to be the son of God. But this itself is devoid of meaning. Many people say they follow christ but may have completely different beliefs on what that means. Even believing the son of god is not universal among Christians. These aren't just blurred lines, it's more like saying a car mechanic, an airline pilot and a web developer are all programmers.
    - learc83 10y ago
      > Even believing the son of god is not universal among Christians. It is nearly universal--universal enough to be useful. If someone says they are a Christian, absent any other knowledge, you can be very confident that they mean that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Obviously not 100% confident, but confident enough to proceed with that assumption in most cases. I could say that a car mechanic, a pilot, and a web developer are all skilled trades. That doesn't make the term skilled trade meaningless, it just makes it less specific. "Christian" is a very broad classifier and it is about as useful as any other broad classifier. It lacks specifics, but language is recursive--I can add as many extra identifiers as I like, e.g., Protestant Christian, Roman Catholic Christian, and Orthodox Christian.
redial 10y ago
This is actually very easy to test. Do you believe mormons are christians? What about Jehovah's Witnesses?

flukus 10y ago

You can't really say they're united by Christ when they can't agree on the nature of Christ (man, god or both?) and have frequently fought over the particulars. About the only way you can group all Christians together is that they believe a Christ of some form existed. But that definition is loose enough to include atheists, muslims and others.

learc83 10y ago
Words have meaning, but that meaning isn't always precise because we communicate using a natural language not Lojban. Humans have the ability to use context and reason to determine what a person means when they say they are a Christian. 99.9% of the time such a person person means that they are a follower of Jesus Christ and that they believe Jesus Christ to be the son of God. Of course there will be disagreements on the exact definition, their are disagreements on the exact definition of the word programmer. That doesn't stop it from being a useful word. Any label has exceptions.
- flukus 10y ago
  > 99.9% of the time such a person person means that they are a follower of Jesus Christ and that they believe Jesus Christ to be the son of God. But this itself is devoid of meaning. Many people say they follow christ but may have completely different beliefs on what that means. Even believing the son of god is not universal among Christians. These aren't just blurred lines, it's more like saying a car mechanic, an airline pilot and a web developer are all programmers.
  - learc83 10y ago
    > Even believing the son of god is not universal among Christians. It is nearly universal--universal enough to be useful. If someone says they are a Christian, absent any other knowledge, you can be very confident that they mean that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Obviously not 100% confident, but confident enough to proceed with that assumption in most cases. I could say that a car mechanic, a pilot, and a web developer are all skilled trades. That doesn't make the term skilled trade meaningless, it just makes it less specific. "Christian" is a very broad classifier and it is about as useful as any other broad classifier. It lacks specifics, but language is recursive--I can add as many extra identifiers as I like, e.g., Protestant Christian, Roman Catholic Christian, and Orthodox Christian.

redial 10y ago

This is actually very easy to test. Do you believe mormons are christians? What about Jehovah's Witnesses?