According to Christianity, if you don't believe in God because you were never introduced to the religion, you won't go to hell. Wouldn't this mean spreading Christianity just puts more people at risk of being sent there?

So the biblical texts came before catholicism as we know it. Many of the concepts in catholicism do not follow the biblical texts, but instead are continuing to be practiced due to tradition and ritual. Some as simple as calling priests father, despite the bible explicitly saying not to call anyone your spiritual father except God. Some are more involved, like the ideas of limbo, purgatory, etc. As far as baptism goes, it's not meant to literally wash away sin, but as a symbolic public gesture if your new spiritual life. Jesus was baptized as an adult, and many denominations won't baptize anyone who can't verbalize their own understanding or reasoning for it.

That said, the person above probably didn't mean that Catholicism is not Christianity, but that Catholicism is not representative of Christianity as a whole. If they didn't mean that, it's what they should have meant and hopefully they'll gain some clarity.

/r/NoStupidQuestions Thread Parent