On Catholicism!

[Eilonnwy]

Fr0d0, I completely understand that there is much more to just believing in Jesus when it comes to the various faiths. Christian is a broad term, only meant to describe one thing. When you want to get into the interpretation of what people believe, that's when you get into demoninations of evangelical, baptist, catholic, etc... The same goes for Atheists. Atheists describe 1 thing, disbelief in god. After that you have many various philisophies that people adhere to based on what they think disbelief in god means for them, such as secular humanism, objectivism, philiosphical buddhism, etc...

I'm not trying to say that you're points an the details of what makes up true practicing Christians are irrelevant, there just not relevant to the simple question of what is a Christian. Words are invaluable, however limited, as a means of communication. When we're trying to distinguish who who believes in Jesus (not what they believe about Jesus) Christian is the term for everyday life. The demonations a person belongs to or their own personal interpretations then tells us more about the details.

I haven't read Kyu's posts, so I'm don't have an opinion on them, but if you're only tryign to state that the term Catholic and Christian are interchangeable, you're right. For the longest time I thought All Christian's were Catholic. I assumed as much because of how I was raised and I often had to correct myself. To this day I will mistakenly say Catholic when I mean Christians in general. Essentially, Catholic equals Christian but Christian does always equal Catholic. If that's the simple point you were trying to make, then I'm in full agreement.

Also, I agree you've made "No true Scotsman" fallacies from time to time. If you assert that people aren't Christian because they don't follow your interpretations, that's using that fallacy. The fact is that if someone says they are Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, Muslim...they are that until they claim otherwise. It doesn't matter if they don't believe what you believe.

And also, you say I'm ignorant of Christianity yet have you ever been an atheist? Because I sure have been Christian. I was indoctrinated, I even was the first female Alter Server at my local parish. When I started to disbelieve I was stuck in a Catholic high school and forced to take a religion class every year. If I knew enough to qualify for Confirmation, then I know enough to talk about it. I do fully admit that my scope if understanding is not as good in protestant Christianity as my Catholic understanding, but I am by no means ignorant. I find it laughable that the people who tend to claim atheists are ignorant of their religion make this claim having never been a part of any other religion or non-religion, yet most atheists tend to be first generation.