Why are there so many different denominations in Christianity?

Question

Christianity seems to have many Denominations within it - Roman Catholic, Protestant, Presbyterian, Mormons, Baptists, Methodists to name a few. This is (as far as I know) a lot more than in other major religions such as Judasim or Islam.

Why is this ?

Answer 1

Most denominations are formed due to differences in doctrine. These usually come about from different interpretations of the Bible or the formation of new doctrine from councils.

The Wikipedia article with the List of Christian denominations does a good job of showing the timeline with the splits in denominations and the reasons for them.

The Reformation resulted in many of the Protestant denominations. These were mostly denominations which split from the Catholic church.

One of the reasons may be that Christians are open to and encourage interpretation of the Bible. Over time, new insight is developed and understanding of the Bible can change.

From what I understand of other religions is that they tend to only follow interpretations by the intellectual elite and doctrine is controlled by the few at the head of the religion. This would also explain why so many Christian denominations were formed during and after the Reformation and splits from Rome's authority over the churches.

Answer 2

If you are asking the cause it is the Pride and Greed of humans.

Greed and pride are responsible for most of humankind's problems. War? Sometimes pride, sometimes greed.

Jobs going overseas? Mainly greed.

Low quality and dangerous products, illegal drug sales? Mainly greed.

Corrupt politicians? Mainly greed

Corruption and dishonesty in the work place? Mainly greed

Now consider many religious leaders (not all of them of course). Are they Prideful? Have they hoarded vast amounts of wealth? Do they live in palaces? Do they think the are above the laws of men?

I am sorry if I depressed anyone. If you are depressed from reading the above please look at the following picture of a kitten sleeping on a ball of yarn and you should feel better:

Answer 3

What follows is mostly my opinion/reasoning.

First off, I don't have Biblical support for this yet, but Christianity is more of a "modern" religion than either Judaism or Islam. I don't know for sure, but I'll bet that Judaism and Islam have hardly changed in the millennia since they were founded. However, Christianity was and is being adapted to changing times and different cultures. Early Christians are well known for taking whatever beliefs existed in the area that they were ministering to at the time and somehow getting them and Christianity to co-exist so that it would be easier to reach the people. Once you have parsed that, consider this example: Christmas. December 25th probably came from a pagan source (Wikipedia) and probably had little to do with when Christ was actually born. This would be why Christianity has more than 5 (major) denominations as opposed to Judaism's 3 or Islam's 3.

As for why there are so many, I'll bet that all these different denominations represent practically every possible way to form a set of beliefs about a large number of topics. As an example, if I had to choose a denomination, I would say that I am Wesleyan. However, Wesleyans apparently believe that merely drinking alcohol is sin, but I don't. I wouldn't be surprised if there was already a denomination that exactly fits my beliefs, but if not, I'll just make Starmanism. Ta-da! New Christian denomination!