(November 3, 2016 at 10:25 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(November 3, 2016 at 10:19 am)Alasdair Ham Wrote: I predict his answer is "because God says so".
Clearly, from the question about the hypothetical son, if God said murder was fine then according to him it would be fine.
That would be a rather shallow, overly simplified version of the answer, but it isn't the incorrect answer according to our beliefs.
God created natural law, which is consistent with his nature. His nature is love. Murder goes against natural law. It goes against the way our world was designed to work and against the way we were designed to feel, which is empathy for our fellow humans.
Like Abaris said, a rather shallow, overly simplified understanding of the bible is kind of a fundamentalist's specialty. Unfortunately that is our new member's beginning state. I think he shows some promise for advancement though. Perhaps he can move on up to a more nuanced grasp of what xtianity can be about.
Catholics have been rolling back literal interpretations for years and years. At one time the blasphemy that the earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way might net you imprisonment or death from the catholic church. To its credit that is no longer the case. Your religious tribe has gone on to embrace evolution. I'm pretty sure that there are Catholic priests and higher ups who regard heaven, hell and God as allegorical. Who knows, some day they might decide the hoi polloi are ready to join them.
But it is harder for evangelical literalists. They're dug in like tics on every bible verse and have seeming immunity to all the cognitive dissonance. Our new guy has it much harder than you to hold on to his faith while also make sense of the modern world.