Christians believe the ultimate source of morality and truth and the authority of their religion is god. Yet they
have fairly simple evidence that many aspects of their religion were defined by men, not god.
Yes, but for that evidence to be relevant they would have to:
1) Be aware of it
2) Believe it
In my experience, generally neither is the case. Yes, a good case could be made for what you're saying, but...as a third party observer who is not a Christian, my observation of Christians has been that generally, the "Christian Perspective" is:
"The Bible is the word of God. Jesus Christ is my savior. I attend church regularly, and read the Bible occasionally, but only the New Testament because that's the part that talks about Jesus and it's a really big book with lots of words and since my salvation is through Jesus, that's the relevant part."If "the Bible" is the penultimate source, and if "the Bible" is defined as "the New Testament, as written in English" then immediately the vast majority of everything you're talking about becomes irrelevant. Trying to convince the "average Christian" that their version of the Bible is materially altered from its original form is much like someone trying to convince you that dinosaurs never existed, that science just made it up. You would immediately object to that and make all sorts of claims that there's "evidence" that dinosaurs were real. Even though you've probably never actually seen any of that evidence. You've just been told about it in school and grew up believing it. And even if I were to give you specific examples, for example, of fossil evidence having been faked...you would immediately dismiss them as isolated cases, and go right on believing in dinosaurs.
Christians are the same. They grew up being told about something and believing it. The Bible, as they know it, is just as real to them as dinosaurs are to you. Consequently it's trivial for them to dismiss all the evidence you're talking about, just like you'd dismiss an example of faked fossils.
the reformation
Ok, but so far as I can tell the "average Christian" perceives the Reformation roughly like this: "Catholics priests were getting caught up in earthly rather than spiritual pursuits. They were charging money for salvation, and this is both bad and incorrect. It's basically the same thing the Jews in the Temple were doing in the days of Jesus. So Luther brought us back to what Jesus intended."
Or the transition from Judaism to Christianity. As others have pointed
out, there was no hell in the Jewish religion.
...ok, but again...for this to matter, Christians would have to, again:
1) Be aware of this
2) Believe it
Go ahead and ask any Christian you'd like if Jews believe in an eternity in Hell for the damned. I'm guessing that most will will say yes. While you're at it ask them if there are any significant differences in the Jewish vs Christian perspective of Satan. That's a far more interesting distinction.
Now...to be fair, this probably isn't universal. I'm making broad, sweeping claims. For example, I have actually had a conversation with one Christian friend in particular who explained that he wasn't totally convinced that there was any validity to the fire and brimstone routine, and that he thought a good case could be made for the idea that "hell" was simply a way of describing an eternity in the state of lack of union with God.
So yes, individual views might tend to vary. But my impression is that the "average Christian" simply is not aware of the distinctions between Judaism and Protestantism that you're describing. And if you ever get the chance, ask a Jew about it. It can be a lot of fun watching them shake their heads and say things like "yeah, I really have no idea where they came up with some of this stuff. That's really not what the Torah says at all."
I think we can save a lot of time, by doing the following: next time you talk to the "average Christian" in real life without the benefit of consulting google, ask him the following questions:
* What language was the Bible originally written in?
* Have you ever read the Bible?
* To clarify...when you said just now that yes you've read the Bible...by that do you mean you've read the whole thing, or have you only read John and Matthews?
* What's the difference between the Old and New Testament?
* Who is John Calvin?
* What's the significance of the council of Nicea?
* Who wrote the Bible?
* When was the Bible written?
Yes, there are a couple trick questions in there. But go ahead and ask those questions and see what answers you get.
it seems clear to me that a lot of modern Christianity was created by humans.
Only because you don't see things through the eyes of the "Christian Perspective."