Why be good?

[Jenny A]

Yep, spoken like anyone trying to win a doctrinal war.  Don't listen to them, listen to us.  We are the largest group, and we took upon ourselves the winning name.  So?

I've never yet met a cathy-lick who could be convinced that the teachings of the church can be boiled down to the consensus of the winners and that it has nothing to do with the reality of the teachings.

So? So, that's not completely true.

In fact, at one point in church history, Jenny, the Arian heresy threatened to overwhelm the Church, and the number of Arian bishops outnumbered the orthodox bishops. Eventually, however, Arianism was defeated not because it wasn't the largest group but because its doctrine was simply wrong.

Now, if your "largest group" argument was true, then Arianism would have won and taken the name "Catholic Church".

And similarly, at MANY points in history, the four Eastern patriarchs were all in heresy of one flavor or another; time and again, it was the lone Bishop of Rome who led them back to the true faith.

Might has not always made right. Truth, however, has.

It seems to me that there is rather more support for the Arian point of view in the Bible than the trinity.

For example:

When John baptizes Jesus:

"At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:16-17

A rather odd thing to say about your ever existing co-self.

Not to mention "take this cup away."  What did he mean?  I don't want to do this to myself?

"My god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me."  If they are coequal why call him god as if he's higher?

But most of all

"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I."  John 14:28

Trinity support is rather slim on the ground.

The problem is that these "witnesses" you keep claiming were people writing stories told, and retold, and reinvented.  No surprisingly the story is not consistent.

That aside, we don't have much arian lit left and the Catholics tend to burn what they don't like.