It would seem that practically all members of Christian Churches easily accept the confusion

The division and the confusion described in the previous two chapters exist and it is bad that they exist, but the vast majority of Christians do not suffer much because of them. In the course of the centuries hundreds of millions of people have been converted to Christian Churches, and all those men and women just became members of the Church of the missionaries who were working in their region. Thus in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries millions of people in Central America and Latin America were converted to Roman Catholicism by Spanish and Portuguese missionaries. It stands to reason that these Roman Catholic missionaries did not tell the people they wanted to convert any enthusiastic stories about the existence of all kinds of Protestant alternative versions of their Catholic doctrines. In later centuries the people of Central America and Latin America, who had become Roman Catholics, just passed their faith on from generation to generation. With the result that in the course of the centuries millions of people in these regions became Roman Catholics, not through a conscious choice from a lot of options, but through birth. Of course the same holds good for the successes of the Protestant missionaries: Anglican ministers traveled to the British colonies and converted the people to Anglicanism. And the Africans and Asians who had become Anglicans just passed their faith on from one generation to the next. Up to the present day there have been few Christians who made a purely individual choice for a certain Church, after a thorough study of the various options.

---In all of this an important role is played by the fact that people have a natural need for religion and that obviously many different Churches can meet this need. People have a natural tendency to believe in a god, an absolute power that protects them and that they must obey. They also want to believe in a life after death and in things like punishment for bad behavior and rewards for good behavior. And they long for a message which comforts them when they are confronted with suffering, death and injustice. The history of Christianity shows that every Christian Church is capable of meeting these human needs.

---Another human need that obviously all Christian Churches can meet is the desire for an aim in life and for a feeling of connection with other people and with the great themes of human life. People do not like to stand alone. They want to be part of a group which gives them a feeling of safety and the notion that they live the way people ought to live.

--- Mind: the two last paragraphs deal with meeting human needs. These human needs do not necessarily coincide with what God demands of people. It is absolutely thinkable that there exist Christian Churches which excel in the meeting of the human needs mentioned above, but are totally reprehensible in the eyes of God.

--- Another reason why the vast majority of Christian people do not really suffer from the division and the confusion within Christianity is that the various Churches do not emphasize their differences. There exists a high degree of tolerance among the various Christian Churches and a tacit agreement not to attack each other. In addition: in modern societies religious opinions belong to the private domain of individuals and they are not a popular topic of conversation.

--- You can go one step further by stating that in present day societies everything that has to do with economics and money is so absolutely dominant both in society and in the lives of individuals that religious questions get very little attention. Most Christians are not really interested in religious problems and religious doubts. In the rich countries everybody is very busy with earning money and spending money. And in the poor countries everybody is just as busy working hard simply to survive.

--- Another thing: the last few decades the barriers which separate the various Churches have become blurred. Few members of Christian Churches will be able to put into words what the distinguishing teachings of the Church of their choice are and in what aspects these teachings differ from those of other Churches. Even the dividing lines between members and non-members cannot be drawn any more in many Churches. In most Christian Churches the faithful do not really have to do anything to stay members. They do not have to attend anything, they do not have to do any work, and they do not have to pay any money. Neither do they have to know very much about the teachings which their Church advocates or the kind of practices which their Church approves of or disapproves of.

--- Within the individual Christian Churches as such and within the contacts between one Church and another the discussions about doctrines and teachings only take place among professional Church leaders with college degrees. The ordinary people do not take part in them and are hardly aware that such discussions are held. The language that is used in this kind of discussions cannot be understood by laymen. Neither do the topics of discussion appeal to them. As a result practically all members of Christian Churches think that it is not possible for ordinary people to compare the teachings of the various Churches with each other. On the ground of this conclusion they assume that it is probable that all Churches will have their strong points and their weak points and that an impartial comparative study is not possible.

---Within the context of comparative study of Christian Churches it is noteworthy that it is the things which Christianity has adopted from pagan cultures and which do not originate from the Bible which have become a lasting and tremendous success all over the world. Thus the Sunday (day of the sun) has become an obligatory day of rest throughout the globe. Christmas (the substitute for the Roman midwinter festivities) is now celebrated more exuberantly than ever before. Few people know what the great Christian public holidays (Easter, Ascension Day, Whit-Sunday) stand for, but that does not harm their popularity. In short: the meaning of the Christian teachings and the Christian customs has become something vague: not something that people want to think much about.

--- In a direct line with this state of affairs lies the conclusion that when Christians ever think about things like the doctrine of the Trinity, the immortal soul, heaven, hell and purgatory they usually do not make a big issue of the origin of these notions or the validity of Christian doctrines regarding them. People have very vague ideas about such things or no ideas at all and presume that the “professionals” will have made a thorough study of them and that laymen had better leave the thinking to the “scholars”