Good exists - a Catholic comments

[Barry]

People have, in at least one interesting respect.  It turns out that atheists tend to be far more knowledgeable about the religions they don't believe in than the faithful who do.  Probably a relationship there......

Consider your own intuitions about what the catholic church is and does, now and historically.

Hi GN, yes, some Atheists have deep knowledge about religions. Sometimes because they used to be religious but sometimes because they have studied and thought a lot. I’m very impressed by some of the comments in this forum. But we have to be wary of judging all Atheists by the knowledge of those who post on forums. The same for religious people. 
I was underwhelmed by the quality of the religious education I received at Catholic schools and I agree many Catholics don’t know much about their faith.
I’m on a personal mission to help deal with that in Australia. I can’t report much success or interest. That’s why Catholic mass attendance is at a critical level here. Much worse than USA, but it’s getting worse there too.
1:30am here, bedtime. I’m going to 2 masses tomorrow, assisting my wife who runs the children’s liturgy program in our parish,
Cheers Barry

[no one]

Barry, you know meth is not your friend, right?

It rots your brain, and you ain't got much to begin with.

[Bucky Ball]

 Babies don’t “need to be baptised”. But the CC says OS is forgiven through Baptism.

So babies don't need to be forgiven of original sin, is what you are teaching here.

Hi LG, 

No one needs to actually get baptized by water, according to the RCC. 
In fact no one even needs anything to do with any religious anything. 
Both the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church and its theology (and Aquinas for that matter) teach 
that Baptism of Desire, and "implicit" Baptism of Desire are sufficient for salvation. 
The Catechism also teaches that we alll have the absolute right to Freedom of Conscience, and we are all saved if (whatever we believe) we follow our consciences. 
So while the religionists have to follow all sorts of churchy-shit, we are free (according to THEIR teachings), to follow our consciences and we end up equal to the religionists. 

There is no Biblical notion of "original sin". The Jews had no such idea. It was never the function of a messiah to die for sin. 
We know a lot about when the church cooked up that notion, and you can watch as they invented it, by reading the 
proceedings of the Councils (available on Fordham University's website).

[The Grand Nudger]

People have, in at least one interesting respect.  It turns out that atheists tend to be far more knowledgeable about the religions they don't believe in than the faithful who do.  Probably a relationship there......

Consider your own intuitions about what the catholic church is and does, now and historically.

Hi GN, yes, some Atheists have deep knowledge about religions. Sometimes because they used to be religious but sometimes because they have studied and thought a lot. I’m very impressed by some of the comments in this forum. But we have to be wary of judging all Atheists by the knowledge of those who post on forums. The same for religious people. 
I was underwhelmed by the quality of the religious education I received at Catholic schools and I agree many Catholics don’t know much about their faith.
I’m on a personal mission to help deal with that in Australia. I can’t report much success or interest. That’s why Catholic mass attendance is at a critical level here. Much worse than USA, but it’s getting worse there too.
1:30am here, bedtime. I’m going to 2 masses tomorrow, assisting my wife who runs the children’s liturgy program in our parish,
Cheers Barry

Might be all the tax dodging, kiddie fucking, shit talking, extortion, and welfare scamming....eh? They see it like a product, so lets look at it that way. If you're trying to sell god, you'll have success. If you're trying to sell catholicism, it's a tainted brand. People leaving catholicism is what's keeping protestantism on life support here in the us. Zero sum games in the religious marketplace.

[Barry]

In Australia the CC is not involved in Childcare, but is heavily into primary and secondary schools. It saves the state education a lot of money.m
You do exaggerate I think when you say “having them talk shit about us and molest our children”. I’m not sure who “us” is and there is unlikely to be much molestation happening any more. 
Actually the Catholic schools are doing such a terrible job teaching religion I think they should be closed. They serve no purpose.  They used to. Perhaps Jesus, you and I all agree on that.
Cheers Barry

Bold mine - you mean they are hiding it better now?  The behavior hasn't stopped.

It's amazing to me how much work Catholics will put into downplaying the molestation that has happened for centuries and continues to happen.

One last, zzzz, point. I don’t downplay what happened. 30 years ago I warned my parish about a young guy who took over our youth group. I had no evidence, but he gave me bad vibes. He lost his position. Some years later he was in court for molesting children at two non Catholic schools.
Def bedtime now.

[Barry]

Barry, you know meth is not your friend, right?

It rots your brain, and you ain't got much to begin with.

Hi 
You started with “bullshit” today, and ended with it. Keep up the good work. I’m off to bed now. I’ll say a prayer for you.
God loves you
Barry

[The Grand Nudger]

The difference between love and stalking is reciprocity. Is god the creeper, or is that just you?

[Bucky Ball]

Why do Catholics have to do so many masses ?
They call it The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
What *is* the problem ?
Did the sacrifice of Jesus not *take* the first time ?
Is it some kind of insurance ?
Just askin' LOL

[LinuxGal]

So babies don't need to be forgiven of original sin, is what you are teaching here.

No one needs to actually get baptized by water, according to the RCC. 

I used to help run the RCIA program at Holy Trinity.   Let me show you what the Catechism says about this.

1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude

But by all means come to an atheist forum and teach error.  This is expected of believers.

[The Grand Nudger]

Many believers want a new christianity. One that aligns with their contemporary inclusionist ideologies. That's probably better than the crime against humanity that their old faith was, or it would be, if they could be upfront and honest about it, even with themselves.

This has always been a problem for christianity. It couldn't bring itself to lose the borrowed ladder of judaic mythology - because who would listen to them? So they carried it along, and successively added to the problems of their movement with each syncretic hop across the map into new territories and new indigenous beliefs, which they could never fully eradicate...no matter how hard they tried.

FWIW, I think christianity ran out of juice when it ceased to be a subversive populist movement and became an arm of the state. So...right around the time when early christian founders courted warring roman families in the empire games for fun and profit. AKA, the founding of the catholic church in mere reality. The RCC was a sellout before it was cool. The fights over patronage then had the same purpose and character that the fights over subsidy now do. At least in this, catholicism has never changed.