Questionnaire for seminary project

[robvalue]

Hello everyone,

First of all, if this is not appropriate for this message board, please let me know or delete this thread. Causing controversy or breaking any rules is not my intention. I am a Roman Catholic seminarian who will be ordained to the priesthood in May. I am working on a project for one of my seminary classes and am in need of two volunteers to answer some questions for me.

If you could begin by telling me about yourself (age, gender, occupation, married/single/divorced, etc.) and then answer the following questions:

1. How would you define God?
2. Can a person know God? (How?)
3. Who was/is Jesus Christ?
4. What is the biggest problem, in your opinion, facing humankind today?
5. What is (how do you define) sin?
6. How do you feel about the church (and/or Christianity) and why do you feel this way?
7. How would you define the concept of salvation?
8. Do you think that there is only one way to reach God? (Elaborate)
9. What happens after we die?
10. How would you define a Christian?
11. Which is more important to you, knowing God or loving God? Can they be separated?
12. How does a person get to heaven?
13. What is your philosophy of life?
14. What do you think is common to world religions? How do they differ?

Thank you for your help in this regard. Have a great day!

40, male, unemployed, married.

1) A being outside a subreality with (near) total control over it
2) If a God decided to communicate directly, I suppose so
3) In my opinion, a mostly fictional character featuring a few aspects of several different people from the time period
4) Superstition
5) A fictional idea created to control people through shame
6) I think it causes more harm than good and we'll be better off when it fizzles out (it already pretty much has here in England). The central themes are vile.
7) As described in Christianity, it's doing what God wants you to do so he doesn't punish/torture you
8) No, a god might notice any number of ways we try to communicate, if it was paying attention
9) Most likely we decompose and our elements are recycled
10) Someone who says they are a Christian. The beliefs are too diverse for me to make any general statement
11) Neither are important to me, and I certainly can't love something if I don't know it, so that would come first if anything
12) They don't, it's a fictional idea. Christians generally say it's by being a Christian and getting forgiveness from Jesus
13) Look after other people and animals, help everyone enjoy their life
14) They all feature unfalsifiable and untestable claims which are pointless speculation, based on no credible evidence. They generally offer some sort of incentive and/or punishment system. The magical stories differ between them, and how they approach "life after death", and have varying levels of bigotry and divisiveness.