RE: Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?
December 11, 2016 at 10:32 pm
(December 11, 2016 at 7:01 pm)Balaco Wrote: Most responses I've gotten so far explained that God gave us the Church, only one Church, and other denominations are just considered to be due to human weakness. They say these other denominations have formed because they don't have the Church to interpret Scripture.
How do they know this? What is it that gives them cause to believe that it is the case? Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're saying that the Church is the authority on interpreting scripture and on determining God's will, allowing them to guide the faithful along the proper path towards salvation. That's not a minor thing! How do they justify that view? What do those other denominations think of the Church's claim to such authority, and on what do they base their view?
Because I'm guessing that it's based on rival interpretations of biblical texts. If it is, shouldn't it be possible to come to one single interpretation? If it isn't, then what is it based on if not the Bible? And why doesn't that piece of evidence or proof settle the issue?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
