St. Mark was the one who started the Coptic branch several decades after the Resurrection. He was an Apostle and also a Gospel Author. Are Coptic Christians the REAL Christians because of it?
A Google search has the World Christian Encyclopedia 33,830. World Christian Data Base 9,000 and Hartford Institute for Religious Research 217. Much of the estimate would depend on how a branch or denomination is defined.
Ya gotta be kidding me whistle! Any one of those numbers is overwhelming to me. Honestly I'm not sure how it would be defined. But it seems to me that if one of the Apostles who was also a contributor to the Gospel started up a Christian sect or group or offspring that would have a great deal of weight. Don't you agree? Even 217 of them is mindblowing to me! Thank you for doing that search . I appreciate it. Of course the results aren't that helpful. I was hoping for something more definitive.They makes things way worse! Not your fault!:)
Ah! But that is the difficulty of seeking answers, no? More exploration makes decisions and definitions more difficult. This is what makes learning exciting.
Or frustrating as he** whistle! It's like an onion. You keep peeling away the layers and end up with eyes that water and sting and nothing is there! Not my cuppa tea! But I ask away anyway because it's what I do! Thank you for your reply! :)
I know I said that m'dear. Which does seem to make all of it meaningless, doesn't it? Gadzooks! That was not my intent. But you know what the road to he** is paved with, right? AARRGGHH! :( Thank you for catching that whistle. Now. What are we supposed to do with it? :(
Hah! This is an aside I wish to share with thee. Long ago and far away on Answerbag I had a brilliant friend whose name was Kevin. He emailed me a page from Michael Quinion of whom I had never heard listing tons of words you would swear are made up but in fact were all real and in use once upon a time. I shall give you a few of them. Here goes. Prattling gabblers, lickorous gluttons, mangy rascals, drunken roystesr, slaberdegullion druggels, luberly louts, cozening foxes, drawlatch hoydens. It gets better but maybe you've seen enough. A "slabberdegulllion" was a "filthy, slobbering person". Nice, right? I treasure this page and have kept it for years and refer to it on such auspicious occasions as this whistle. How would you like to be called a "shitten shepherd" or "ninny-hammer flycatcher" or "doddipol-jolthead?" This was apparently the vocabulary used in Scotland during the time of a Sir Thomas Urquhart. It makes you laugh doesn't it? You're welcome! :)
This sounds like my Page-A-Day calendar, "Forgotten English". Each day there is an archaic word and its meaning. Many are too regionally and time specific to use, others like to employ. Zounds! Slidikens! Gadzooks! Good stuff. And HA! I'm keeping shitten shepherd. God's blood it trips nicely off the tongue.
If you like from time to time I can share some more from that list. Of course these were all insults and I guess that's what they enjoyed doing! Insulting one another with colorful words. I mean if someone were to start spouting off like that at me face-to-face I'd probably burst out laughing. I think they're funny as he** and a lot more creative than the few hackneyed insults people use to death these days! Thank you for your reply whistle and Happy Tuesday! :)
Clearly the Christians outnumbered the lions. That was the flaw in that ointment! Bad planning. Thank you for your reply JG and Happy Monday to thee! :)
If you want to move 2 feet in one direction, first you have to move half that distance, and then half of the remaining distance, and then half of the remaining distance---ad infinitum So theoretically, you could never move.
But in real life, moving 2 feet for a physically fit adult is nowhere near as challenging as that theoretical discussion might imply; and in fact it is readily accomplished.
I'm not sure that tallying up the number of branches of Christianity extant helps anybody believe in God and have a personal relationship with Him.
It's not that complicated, and He is always available to guide us in that undertaking.
I like to make lists and catalog reality---but besides pleasing me, I'm not sure my efforts are necessary to keep the world turning.
I find it interesting there is a certain amount of "in fighting" among Christian denominations and name calling like, "They aren't Christians." In my eyes...A christian is a Christian. I don't care about technicalities. They believe in a single god and they believe in Jesus Christ. Muslims...(Shiite, Sunni..blah blah blah) believe in Allah.
And let's not get going on Scientologists, JWs, or the LDS
It's all a bunch of hooey to me. As an atheist, I've never got into a dispute about who believe there is no god less than the other.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at April 22, 2017 12:02 AM MDT
It takes a lot of effort and explaining to be an Atheist sometimes because we can't take the easy way out by saying, "God works in mysterious ways", "It's God's will", or "It's about faith".
More often than not it's a losing battle because once someone drops one of those bombs on you, there is no way out
Benedict Arnold 