[QUOTE]Originally posted by steve c

Again, what religion she or anyone else is depends on them, not you. Using your guidelines I doubt very well we would find any

 

I'm a Frisbetarian. "When I die, I won't go to heaven. I'll just end up on somebody's roof!"

 

My current girlfriend (soon to be fiance ) is cathloic. I am not. I hvae been non-denominational my whole life. (just believe in the bible)

At first i really felt uncomfortable with the Cathloic church just because it was so different from anything i had ever done.
My view is that i kneel out of respect for their religion ( and in fact mine because most christian religions actually stemmed from the cathloic faith). Once i had been to church for a little bit it became much more comfortable and I actually really enjoy going to the church and I feel God has touched me through the experiance. That doesn't mean that i'm "converting" it just means that i have respect for God ( whome i believe in ). I really hope this helps. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me and we can discuss this further. All i would say to you is to just encourage you to really listen to what the priest says and decide how much of it you believe in and what you don't. And feel free to discuss it with your wife.

-Peter

 

Actually, that's only a tenet of modern christianity.

That's really the problem with the bible, it leaves too much room for error. The book is full of contradictions.

Exodus 20:13 "Thou shalt not kill."
vs.
Exodus 32:27 "Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, . . . and slay every man his brother, . . . companion, . . . neighbor."
Numbers 15:36 "And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses."
Leviticus 24:17 "And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death."

or how about

Exodus 20:15 "Thou shalt not steal."
vs
Exodus 3:22 "And ye shall spoil the Egyptians."

You can't actually sit there and tell me you don't stray from the bible when you are referring to a book that requires massive amounts of interpretation before one sets out to follow anything.

While I think it's great that some folks attempt to follow what I believe was the moral intent of the book, you have to understand that the bible is simply a large group of stories written by numerous men over centuries. It has been added to, and deleted from as well as retranslated many times.

Taking the holier than thou road and calling folks who have a different spin on this collection of stories not christian or catholic is a rather arrogant and simply incorrect thing to do. No one who reads the bible can ever possibly interpret it in exactly the same way -- however those without the ability to think for themselves can often be brainwashed into accepting a very similar perspective.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by steve c

 

Yes I am an atheist, however that does not mean I am ignorant as to what the bible says. I minored in religious history, not because I buy into any of it, but because the history of religions is a fascinating insight into how as Machiavelli said, the ignorant masses were (are) controlled.

[QUOTE]I don't have time to address all of your "contradictions"

 

Religious history is not necessarily the Bible or even Christianity. Again, I didn't say you were ignorant, only that you're not seemingly well versed enough in the Bible to use it as a tool in an argument (based on the fact that you threw out a few scriptures which were taken out of context).

"Fact" that there are hundreds if not thousands? Opinion, yes, but certainly not fact. I believe I can refute everything you might say that is contradictory in scripture... In light of that, I would consider it your opinion.

I know that much of Christianity is not pure. Yes, Jesus wasn't born in December - that's widely known, though the point of Christmas is to celebrate his birth, period, not necessarily celebrate his actual birth day.

The cross may be a pagan symbol to some but it is what Jesus died on - that makes it special to us, and a sacred symbol. The fact that it's used paganly otherwise is really a moot point. My church is white - just because a dance club is also white doesn't mean that my church is a dance club.... See what I'm saying?

Paul wrote his letters to the churches well before the fourth century (as in, the first century). In them, he clearly stated who Jesus was (the Son of God), as did Peter, etc, etc, etc. The idea that people got away from it so quickly in no way negates the fact that the original Christians most certainly believed Jesus to be the Son of God. If you want scriptures, I'll give them to you but suffice to say, they're there in large numbers.

The foundation of Christianity is love? Depends on what kind of love you're talking about. God is love, according to scripture, so that would make God the foundation of Christianity. Recognition of deity is the basis of a religion. That said, Christ gave his life for our sins - that's love, so that wouldn't contradict your statement above either. As such, I wouldn't bother to debate with them. Not only that, but Christ said that there were two main commandments, one of which was dealing with love. In light of that, again, I'm not about to debate with the person. Why they believe that love is a Christian foundation is a more pertinent point - namely, they believe it because Christ spoke of it....and he was the Son of God.

I stand by my argument.

 

How were they out of context?

[QUOTE]The cross may be a pagan symbol to some but it is what Jesus died on

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by steve c

 

Yeah well it's been fun anyway.