On 12/17/2023 at 4:50 PM, Mike31mt said:

All the morons trying to explain away the utter hypocrisy of acting like 15 year old Christianity haters and then saying "Merry Christmas!!" in the same breath.  But but but!

Not surprising that common courtesy is foreign to you.

There is nothing wrong with Christians with Christ in their hearts. It is the majority of them who think Jesus votes GOP and thinks Trump is godly, that are the problem and give the rest a bad name.

On 12/21/2023 at 10:54 AM, Tnt4philly said:

 

 

 

To Christians and non-Christians alike:

"... and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!"

 

On 12/25/2023 at 5:21 PM, NOTW said:

2023 years since a date that was made up in a fictional book? 

16 minutes ago, Boogyman said:

2023 years since a date that was made up in a fictional book? 

Their heads really explode when you discard BC/AD in favor of CE/BCE. For some reason it bothers some when you point out the world doesn’t revolve around their religion. 

On 12/25/2023 at 5:21 PM, NOTW said:

Since the beginning of the Common Era. 

1 hour ago, Tnt4philly said:

Their heads really explode when you discard BC/AD in favor of CE/BCE. For some reason it bothers some when you point out the world doesn’t revolve around their religion. 

I was taught BCE/CE in Catholic School, FWIW. Never heard of it before that in public/private school through the 8th grade.

4 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

I was taught BCE/CE in Catholic School, FWIW. Never heard of it before that in public/private school through the 8th grade.

My experience is that Catholics are a bit more accepting of science than the type of Christianity I have been exposed to. 

Just now, Tnt4philly said:

My experience is that Catholics are a bit more accepting of science than the type of Christianity I have been exposed to. 

When I went to Catholic high school in 9th grade, I knew nothing about the Bible or Christianity. My first religion class was on the Old Testament, and Catholics believe the first 12 books of Genesis are not to be taken literally. They accept evolution and the earth being millions of years old. The point of Genesis is to understand the lessons about mankind in the stories. 

5 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

When I went to Catholic high school in 9th grade, I knew nothing about the Bible or Christianity. My first religion class was on the Old Testament, and Catholics believe the first 12 books of Genesis are not to be taken literally. They accept evolution and the earth being millions of years old. The point of Genesis is to understand the lessons about mankind in the stories. 

Depends on the teacher. Mine would throw me out of class for asking questions, from what he said was the literal Word of God. I studied hard in that class, and read more of the bible than is probably healthy, just to find things to make him turn red and start sputtering.

In my experience from catechism and church homilies, most Catholics have more of an allegorical take on the Bible overall (written by man, inspired by God) whereas it seems like it's the evangelicals that have a far more literal take (literal word of God.)

4 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

In my experience from catechism and church homilies, most Catholics have more of an allegorical take on the Bible overall (written by man, inspired by God) whereas it seems like it's the evangelicals that have a far more literal take (literal word of God.)

How I experience it as well, except the slavery or Sodom rape part, or basically the Old Testement in general. Those parts don't count. 

32 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

In my experience from catechism and church homilies, most Catholics have more of an allegorical take on the Bible overall (written by man, inspired by God) whereas it seems like it's the evangelicals that have a far more literal take (literal word of God.)

Even when studying the Gospels, it was stressed that they were written by men decades after the events described. The approach was analytical in analyzing the differences among the 4 versions of the story. Since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Catholic Church really embraced the idea you described - the Bible was inspired by God, but written by man.

35 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

In my experience from catechism and church homilies, most Catholics have more of an allegorical take on the Bible overall (written by man, inspired by God) whereas it seems like it's the evangelicals that have a far more literal take (literal word of God.)

This was true for me, with the exception of my religion teacher at Cardinal Doughterty.

Just now, Toastrel said:

This was true for me, with the exception of my religion teacher at Cardinal Doughterty.

When were you in HS? All my teachers were people who studied Theology after Vatican II. I think that made a huge difference.

8 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Even when studying the Gospels, it was stressed that they were written by men decades after the events described. The approach was analytical in analyzing the differences among the 4 versions of the story. Since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Catholic Church really embraced the idea you described - the Bible was inspired by God, but written by man.

The church has no choice but to adapt or be left behind. With every generation, the level of devotion drops in part because of archaic dogmatic rigidness and overly judgemental approaches. My wife and I are less religious than my parents, and my kids most likely will be less religious than us, and some of that is because we got turned away from parishes when looking for a church to get married in because of where we lived at the time and because we weren't active parishioners. In one case, the priest was flat out rude to my wife on the phone which is absolutely insane considering we were about to start a family.