Do you believe that to be a Christian, you need to believe everything that's in the Bible?

I ask because I have a lovely friend, although we've lost touch, and she's a fairly dedicated Christian. However, she once told me that she didn't believe in the Old Testament, it was a bit off-the-wall.

My question is, if you cast the Old Testament aside, dismissing it, then why would you believe in the New Testament? If there's no Genesis, no Adam and Eve (therefore no sin to make up for), then why believe that Jesus was sent to die to redeem us?

I'd ask her this question, but can't contact her... I know a few people who have said similar about the old testament though, and I just wonder how that can be?

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I don't think so. Ther great thing about christianity is that the only thing you can do wrong is not believing in god and accepting him into your heart yadda yadda. It's quite a clever little scam they've got going.

i think the idea is that jesus established a new relationship between us and god. christians ignore a huge amount of old testament law. jesus said something about the law being written on the heart (rather than in a book, or tablets of stone, whatever), but then he also said do not think i have come to abolish the law or the prophets, so it's all very ambiguous (as usual for jesus).

i know catholics don't place much emphasis on the old testament, while protestants do. is your friend a catholic?

catholicism allows a belief in evolution, the big bang, etc. though with certain add ons: the soul was god's work, the impetus of creation was god's

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No, she's not... although I'm not sure what "branch" of Christianity she's with. I'd love to say I had a Pentecostal friend.

I don't know much about Christianity, or any other religion and that never really bothers me, but lots of it interests me. My boyfriend and I have some pretty nice religious debates, but I always feel massively uneducated - maybe because I am - and like I can't really account for my theories. And the fact that he has a first class degree in Religious Studies sort of helps me feel like a novice. Basically, I have a lot of questions about Christianity, and not an awful lot of knowledge about whether they're stupid questions.

Leviticus, though - I can see why people ignore that part. It's hilarious!

Edit: (In response to your edit) That sort of... flexibility, I guess, of Catholicism sounds fairly like her. I suppose lots of Christians are flexible in their beliefs, though. She's quite a scientific girl, very clever, which always struck me as off. I suppose I'm old-fashioned in not really seeing how religion and science can both be "right".

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is that the bit about how you can sell your sister into slavery, but not until you've washed any mucus off of her?

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