How do you fit thousands of priests in a hand? And they weren't phony, the priests that were sexually abusing children were ordained by the Catholic church, real life priests sho nuff.
I have to scratch my head when I see grown adults cling to their religious beliefs in this day and age. Even as a young boy, I could see how completely illogical and contradictory religion is. I knew very little about science, but all I needed was my brain, and simple common sense to figure out that organized religion was just some man-made bullshit that was being crammed down my throat. That's what amazes about religious people ... Their complete refusal to use their own common sense. Can you imagine trying to convince a rational thinking adult to wear long black coats, long black pants and hats in the middle of August in NYC?? Anyone with any sense would think it's insane ... Unless you brainwash them as children and tell them that God wants them to do it. I guess that's how it went down ... God created everything that he could think of, and when he was done, he turned to man and said ... "Ok, now let's talk about the dress code". How can the Jews not see that this is completely man made? Organized religion would never survive if it couldn't be implanted into the brains of innocent, impressionable kids, and that's what I find most distasteful about it. Kids are taught at a young age to believe in something without any evidence, and yet they would believe in something completely different if they happened to be born in a different place or a different time. It's incredible how religious people completely ignore the obvious fact that religion is based on geographic boundaries and historical eras. The evidence is overwhelming, and yet somehow they still ignore it. I wonder how it must be to live your life like that, and yet billions do. Truth4U is obviously a Christian and believes that Jesus is God's revealed truth to man ... But would be believe that if he happened to be born in Iran? Or if he was born in Nepal? Or if he was born in The Congo? Or the Sioux Nation? 99% of religious belief is based on the complete randomness of birth. Here's just one example of how ridiculous religion is ... According to Christians, a vicious rapist and murderer can live a life of evil and still go to heaven if he has an epiphany on death row, repents for his sins and turns his life over to Jesus. Tough luck for his innocent victim however, if she happened to be a Jew or a Hindu or a Muslim. No matter how good she lived her life, she never accepted the word of God through Jesus ... so it's off to hell for her while her murderer heads to paradise. Great. Makes perfect sense. None of this would even matter, except that people are actually willing to kill each other over this idiocy. Humans will be extinct someday in the not so distant future. Not because of famine, or disease, or a meteor strike, or the sun dying ... But because we'll destroy ourselves fighting over childish fairy tales. We live in a world where the technology to wipe ourselves off the planet is at our fingertips. It's time for people to wake up and realize that organized religion needs to become extinct, or we'll become extinct.
This troll schtick couldn't be less intelligently formulated. I mean, if the guy behind the Truth4U2 moniker had chosen to be a Baptist, or better yet, Jehovah's witness, or even a Mormon, this stuff would be somewhat believable... sort of. But CATHOLIC? I've never encountered a group of followers more apathetic to the teachings of the religion they claim to follow, and a religious sect more apathetic to those followers. I've never been witnessed to by a member of the Catholic church, not once in my 41 years, it's the least evangelical of pretty much any religion on the planet. Walking into a catholic church is like walking into the intensive care unit of a hospital, just with more incense stink. Everyone is whispering and sounds scared, and the tension in the air is palpable. The mouse farts echo. Unless the OP is in seminary, is a priest, or is 90 years old and has decided that they don't want to go to hell - all of which I doubt - this thread should have died on page 2.
who's frank Zappa? "he's a nobody"???? you are simply a mere shortcut to thinking pal. I could write a lengthy response, even longer than your ridiculous ones, and that's saying something. Let's just put it this way, to even get into Frank Zappas band you had to be able to sight read and play perfectly at the same time from his infamous and intimidating "black page" test. It was called the black page because there was more notes and black on it to play than white paper itself. making it pretty fuckin' hard to do. only the cream of the crop of musicians could do it, Steve Vai, possibly the sickest guitar player on the planet being one of them who palyed in his band, ill just leave it at that. oh yeah, do you know who steve vai is? probably not,so disregard my post here. its useless. the reason you haven't heard of frank zappa is probably due to you being from a generation who listens to auto-tune corporate cookie cutter music. frank zappa is a man who wrote, played, and conducted as well. hes got plenty of fans. fans who know what good and talented music is.
This we can agree on... "whoa!.....whoa!......whoa!.....whoa!....." Wrong. Ask the London Symphony. Who is Frank Zappa? Listen and learn: religion "explained" live in a robust, easy-to-understand audio package:
What I thought you were about to say was, "what a good person you are, admitting you are wrong and correcting your mistake, thus validating the point of another poster". ....smh, your response is a perfect example of what I'm dealing with in this thread.
Well, most scientists nowadays disagree with you, so..... (but just keep calling it "BS" if that makes you feel better, with absolutely no explanation for how the universe, in all its order and complexity, came about just by accident, from space dust? Not to mention all of the miracles and signs over the years, including numerous medical miracles that doctors and scientists still can't explain. Or how Jesus somehow fed a crowd of thousands from a loaf and 2 fishes (he must have snuck in a catering truck somehow, lol!). Or how he walked on water in a lake the apostles were just fishing in, so they knew how deep it was. Or how he led Lazarus out of his grave alive? Or how he rose from the dead, when his tomb had a gigantic rock covering the entrance and was guarded by roman soldiers who were on guard against a hoax by the apostles. .....or the countless near death experiences, one of which was confirmed by a neurosurgeon as being legit, no scientific way it could have come from his brain in the state he was in.....but you can just keep living in denial, while calling all of that "BS", so you can continue to live like a disobedient child. (ignoring the fact that your sinful behavior is harmful to your human nature, even from a scientific standpoint!) The relativistic, anything goes anarchists (I mean modernists) like to sweep all of this under the rug, and then they wonder why they are making the shrinks rich...but please, if you can come up with a logical reason why any of this is "BS". please do share.....................crickets.................
absolutely no explanation? but yours is so bonded in reason right? a guy who created us in his image made this whole show? yeah right. and this all knowing all wise, all incredible creator had to come down and inscribe his commandments into a rock. ok. yeah that's totally believable. God-"fuck, I've just created the universe but I have nothing to write with, who's got a chisel so I can carve it into these tablets?"
It's called a prayerful reverence for being in the presence of the Lord (in a spiritual way, of course). I will admit, too many of my fellow Catholics pack the pews every Sunday, but don't fully participate in the Mass; they don't sing the songs, or recite the prayers out loud, sometimes....they do the bare minimum, coming to Church every week dutifully, which is good, but they don't get a fraction of the benefits of being an active Catholic. When you put your heart and soul into it, participate fully, and take advantage of the Sacraments, you get an undeniable Spiritual benefit, you get an inner peace and joy that you can't get anywhere else. And the reason is simple: when you study the history of the Catholic Church, you see that it goes back to Jesus Christ Himself and the original 12 apostles (the first Priests), Peter "The Rock on whom I build my Church" being the first Pope, and the Sacraments being initiated by Christ and continued down through the ages by Priests and Bishops. When Christ said "take this bread, take this wine, this IS my body and blood, given up for you; whoever eats my body and drinks my blood will have life eternal", he was not saying it was a mere "symbol" of his body and blood, he was saying that, after consecration, it has become his body and blood in a supernatural way, although still in the "species" (appearances) of bread and wine. It's a mystery we have to take on faith, since it came from Christ who performed numerous unmistakable miracles witnessed firsthand by thousands. God is God, so if He decides to come to us, to nourish us spiritually through bread and wine, who are we to say that he can't do that? Again, Jesus proved His divinity, and He instituted the Sacraments (the Eucharist, Reconciliation (also called Penance, or Confession), Holy Matrimony (those vows mean something!), etc. and anyone who really participates in them with an open mind, and an open heart, and a spirit of belief, will receive tremendous benefits. As Catholics, we don't knock on people's door and disturb them with no warning (as Jehovah's witnesses do....and we all know how effective that is lol!), and traditionally we have been very private about our faith, but we see the results of that, and it's certainly not good! The culture has slipped away from the Truth, falling down a slippery slope little by little, so now we are called to the "New Evangelization" to first re-evangelize ourselves and other Catholics, and then respectfully share the Good News with others (something I'm perhaps not too good at myself; I get sucked into childish pissing matches too often on here, rather than just calmly pointing out the Truth). And some people think these things I post are just "my opinions".....they are certainly not; most of what I post here is from the rich Tradition of the Church, from Christ Himself to the present). The only opinion I've posted is my opinion on the recent priest scandals, an opinion most Catholics probably do not share. I think they have been influenced by a smear campaign in the media, since the Church is the only institutional threat left to the "no rules, hedonistic" individualism and relativism that has infected our society like the plague.
These aren't your opinions, they are talking points handed down by your church elders hoping to keep you in line like sheep. _
Or, more like, teaching proven life lessons that work. And have worked for billions of people for centuries. But you can just keep dismissing them as "talking points" if you'd like, you are free to do that ... it's your loss.
I take from the Catholic Religion exactly what I want to take and I cast the bullshit aside. You know the Miracle Water at Lourdes doesn't really heal anyone, right? Even if you believe it to the bottom of your heart, right? It's all part of something called false hope, sold by snake oil salesman. _
