Can someone explain the Holy Trinity to me?

[Teuthida]

I never really got this and even went so far as to take a history of religion course to try to understand it. Still confused. Is Jesus part of God, or is God Jesus, or his son (whatever that means in terms of an omnipotent being having a human offspring) and if God is all powerful why did a human have to die to undo the original sin instead of just doing away with it with a snap of a metaphysical finger, and what exactly is the Holy Ghost/Spirit besides a nice little birdy in all those annunciation paintings? And why do people pray to Jesus if he was a human even if he could do nice tricks/miracles? Isn't that almost like idol worship? And if Jesus is God then why pray to them separately? And again...where does this Holy Spirit go? And since one prays to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Mary, and who knows how many saints, doesn't that make Christianity a polytheistic religion?

Hmm, that's a bit confusing and run-on-ish but yeah...

[Ginkasa]

Now, I'm not an expert or anything, so I can't explain a whole lot..

But I know a lot of the things really depend on the denomination of Christianity. Some people believe the Trinity are three separate beings (making Christianity polytheistic, as you said) while several people believe that they were just different facets of the same being (thus Jesus would just be God on Earth, so people praying to Jesus would be the same as praying to God).

The Saints belong exclusively to Catholicism (I think; I could be wrong, but I don't believe that any Protestant churches believe that Saints are holy or anything).


/me shrugs and walks away

[Bond]

Originally Posted by Teuthida

I never really got this and even went so far as to take a history of religion course to try to understand it. Still confused. Is Jesus part of God, or is God Jesus, or his son (whatever that means in terms of an omnipotent being having a human offspring)

It's not very usual for me to be awake this early so my explanation might not be the best, but if I find another short explanation in one of my books I will post it here.

The holy trinity comprises God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. These three "things" are both equally separate and part of the same being. Now, this idea can not truly be expressed in physical terms. To put it stupidly: God created the world, Jesus came to Earth to save us, and the Holy Spirit influences and guides us.

if God is all powerful why did a human have to die to undo the original sin instead of just doing away with it with a snap of a metaphysical finger

First, Jesus was not simply human. He was divine and human at the sametime. Another somewhat hard concept to understand. Original sin happened because of man's separation from God, and because God gave man free will it was his (man's) choice to do this. Therefore God can not force a change in man's actions.

, and what exactly is the Holy Ghost/Spirit besides a nice little birdy in all those annunciation paintings?

The Holy Spirit is again, part of the trinity, and guides humans. Normally I think of it as a life stream or something to that effect, but that is probably totally against Christian doctrine and may be heretical.

And why do people pray to Jesus if he was a human even if he could do nice tricks/miracles?

Because Jesus is God. Jesus represents the perfect relationship between human and creator. Jesus has existed as long as God has existed - as God has no sense of time as we do.