Ignoring all the dithering about details-
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I believe in unjust acts, but I do not believe such acts leave an indelible mark on your soul which can only be removed by the sacrament of reconciliation, the sacrament of communion (if it’s a venial sin), or any length of time in purgatory.
So you don't believe said unjust acts will keep you out of heaven unless you recognize them as wrong?
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Some people don’t seem to possess the strong desire to pass on their genetic code. Its quite possibly something in their make up. The only problem is, according to the Catholic church, this makes them ineligible for marriage.
At no point have you explained why you consider sex to be a recreational activity when your touted nature points to the contrary.
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and i don't think anyone has actually killed more than ye olde catholic church, so it's all a little academic really.
The Catholic Church has killed how many people? The Inquisition wasn't at the behest of the church, neither were the Crusades. Why don't you take a nice little number check on the Mongols over a much shorter period. That statement is patently incorrect.
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the church also likes to push the saved by works thing, which is a bit of a jesus slap really.
So in spite of Jesus telling people constantly to 'go and sin no more', what you do doesn't matter?
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aside from killing my anscestors and forcing us to move (although i prefer being able to say i'm dutch rather than french
I happen to be a Syrian Christian. You know who got massacred by both the European Christians and the Moslems during the Crusades? Arab Christians. Do you let history dictate everything you do? If so, you'd better start apologizing to the Catholics for the rumors the Dutch spread about them in Japan.
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why have the statuettes or bear a crucafix if not to rely upon it in some manner?
what the hell is hale mary then?
the pope one is in some special catholic book manuel thing, i'll have to make phone call to get the quote.
Devotional items are not worshipped. They are to lend focus to worship. It is harder to get distracted from praying or meditating if you have something physical to focus on.
Praying is the verb for communicating with the dead (saints, usually) and God. You worship God when you pray to Him. When you pray to Mary or the Saints, you're asking for a favor. Or thanking them for one. I'll agree that it seems a bit superstitious, but if you look at miracles in the last century, most of them happen because people pray.
The Pope is not God, the Pope is not a replacement for God, and the Pope isn't even always right. Depending on the Pope, some are almost never right.
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Maybe he said that. Nobody really knows what was said. How do we know Peter was a power hungry egomaniac and paid off the author to say Jesus said that. It cant be proven one way or the other. Maybe thats not even what he meant. Its a matter of interpretation, and a matter of believing something that may never have taken place.
If Jesus didn't say that, I suspect someone else would have taken issue with it. The early church was full of people who played fast and loose with such things, and the bulk of them got run out because you had witnesses for most of it.
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Maybe Jesus had already established a church - in the heart of mankind. If he wanted a "church" so bad, he could have come right out and established one. He had the financing. He had the people around to take notes. I think if Jesus wanted a big ass governing organization he would have come right out and said it, not casually mentioned some cryptic bullshit.
How small can an organization be if it is responsible for ensuring correct doctrine is available to over a billion people in around 190 countries? Catechisms do not translate themselves. Priests do not appear out of nowhere. Jesus wasn't here to set up retirement plans for the apostles and check up on liability insurance.
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Do you even know why you believe the things you do? It sounds like your just repeating something thats been beat into you over a period of years.
I don't know about him, but I believe what I do because I must. For several years, I was a conservative Mennonite. Then I went back to being a Catholic. In the interim, I recieved years of religious education to the effect of 'Catholics are bad and monks shave their heads because they worship the sun'. So I'm hardly brainwashed into liking Catholicism, more like the opposite.
But as a rational and hopefully intelligent person, I have read the Bible (several translations, including the Vulgate), the Catechism, the Summa, over a dozen Bible commentaries by everyone from Mennonites to gnostics, and thousands of pages of similar material. Lives of the Saints, writings of the Saints, and hunted down historical cross-proofs of Saints. I have read up most of the available material on the miracles at Lourdes and Fatima, and cannot see any reason to disbelieve them. And if one believes them, you must admit the existance of God.
Even without those miracles, I have good reasons, not the least of which is Pascal's argument regarding faith. Basically, if I believe in God, and there is God, I am much better off for it. If I believe in God, and there is no God, then all I've lost is some opportunities to tell lies and engage in generic immorality that doesn't seem like so much fun and kills your reputation anyway. (Assuming you don't get an STD to boot.) If I do not believe in God, and there is no God, all I've been is a little more selfish and probably made the world an inferior place for the rest of you. But, if I do not believe in God and there is a God, I get to go to Hell for eternity.
I'll agree that fear of Hell is a lot more motivating that the idea of Heaven. After all, something better than what I've got can be elusive. If I tell you I've got something that tastes better than black liquorice, and you don't like black liquorice, you probably don't want it. People's like are diverse and hard to put into words. On the other hand, being stuck in a furnace doesn't really appeal to anyone.
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You're the one whose being close-minded Darth Paul. Your so convinced the Catholic Church is the ONE AND ONLY TRUE way to worship divinity that you refuse to even try to see where other religions and spiritualities are coming from. Are you afraid to really sit down and think about it, with an open mind?
Again, I don't know about him, but I've seen what other religions are like. The God the Catholics worship is eternal and omnipotent. We believe that a good man is defined by his actions, not his supposed 'faith'.
"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"
Matthew 7:16.
The Catholic Church is almost 2000 years old. It has produced many saints, and many miracles. It has also contained people eager to abuse the power it holds and is constantly tainted by those seeking to expand that power by diverting the focus of the Church. Nothing that is ancient is perfect.