Redemption For Free, Limited Time Offer!

By Callum Dunphy

Christianity,

Redemption For Free, Limited Time Offer!

I find the concept of advertising a religion particularly curious, especially so as many religions are vehemently non-proselytizing -most notably Judaism, within which you essentially have to beg to be admitted to-. Christianity and Islam are the two greatest examples of great proliferation in a very limited time, but what Islam did with warfare and expansion (at least for the first generation), Christianity did with pure appeal. Slaves, women, and the rest of the Roman underclasses found great appeal in Christianity, and made up the most significant part of the early converts. Christianity is appealing in two ways, firstly, if you play by the rules, you spend eternity in absolutely bliss. Secondly, and more importantly, if you don't play by the rules, you will burn forever in a pit of torment to which there is no equal -something which Jews and most ancient religions never had to worry about-. Rather than rewards in this world, which is what was directly sought for by almost all of what are now considered 'Pagan' religions, Christianity is far more focused on the after-life, a hardly surprising event, considering the life-expectancy at the time was roughly forty, and eternity is substantially longer than that. So then the question comes of how, in a hypothetical scenario, we would sell Christianity to the masses if it was unknown to them today.

 While we all walk by the occasional soap-box fanatic yelling at us that we will burn in hell unless we bow to their particular branch of their particular religion, there is something quite powerful in what they are invoking, which is in essence just a poorly phrased Pascal's wager. A common argument against Pascal's wager is 'well what if you are praying to the wrong god, there are thousands of them', however, this seems fasile when you consider that the vast majority of gods do not punish you for eternity, and so it is quite easy to prioritize which gods you should and should not ignore. To be fair, Christianity comes right out on top when we categorize in this way, and we can quickly see that the 'god fearing Christians' are exactly that much of the time. What brings Christianity ahead of all of the other 'burning for eternity' religions however, is that avoiding that unfortunate end is so incredibly easy, all you have to do is repent. Free of guilt, full of sin, and an eternity hanging out with your loved ones -plus Jesus, and anybody who can turn water into wine must be pretty fun to party with-, what's not to love? It seems to me that Christianity sells itself, and no further advertising is needed than the fellow handing out pocket-sized bibles when I get off of the bus, or the 8:00 wakeups on a Sunday by a duo asking whether I have embraced Jesus as my lord and savior yet.