Italy's favourite Saint
There have been several investigations regarding the miracles at Lourdes, France including a permanent bureau for medical investigation. It has confirmed 67 miracles in connection with the water from the sping there. The details can be found on the o...
Italy's favourite Saint
This particular testimony does not necessarily convince me that Padre Pio inflicted his own wounds. The acid could have other legitmate uses such as the ones listed. As far as I am aware, his stigmata was not one of the miracles that led to his canon...
Religion should be spontaneous?
There are very few people who do not eat at least once a day. Most people try to eat more than once a day, but I think that it is safe to say that all people try to eat at least once a day.
Don't you think that your soul deserves at least one good ...
Catholic Church
Orion, we really don't want to get into this discussion on this thread too, do we?
Is anyone here agnostic?
I am a believer. I don't think that I would categorize agnosticism as the lazy person's religion. It seems that the logic of agnosticism is flawed (as classically defined: one who believes that the truths of God are unknowable). While I agree that t...
Catholic Church(100.00%)
I am a Catholic, so I will try to tell you what the Catholic Church believes instead of what non-Catholics think the Church believes. (And I'm not sure what all this Teresa business is...)
First of all, we do not worship Mary. All official Church ...
What is the difference between Catholicism & Christianity?
Orion, I would be fine with moving this discussion to funmail, (although I will be leaving for the summer shortly).
There are just a few things that I think need to be clarified before we do so.
I apologize for not including the citation for the ...
Do you believe in God?
Toadaly had asked if I could provied verification for the claims that were made at Lourdes, because he could not find anything about them. This is the link for the official website of Lourdes. The list of miracles is under the heading of "cures and m...
How is homosexuality a sin?
This is a follow up to the post I had before.
As Catholics, we do believe that homosexual acts are sinful. We do not need to know the source of the inclination towards homosexual behavior in order to determine that the act is a sinful (along the sa...
Do you believe in God?
I suggest looking into the reports on the miracles at Lourdes before making the claim that they can be explained by psychology. It is immpossible for Psychology to allow a person with severe damage to the cornea to see with 20/20 vision. It is also i...
What is the difference between Catholicism & Christianity?
I am familiar with the bible refering to the dead as "those who have fallen asleep," but I have not seen those portions saying that the dead "know nothing." In any case, we still hold that those who have fallen asleep in Christ are not truly dead, but...
Why dont you believe in Jesus?
In response to paradise:
There are several scriptural scholars who disagree with your analysis that Jesus claimed to be God. To see what I mean, I recommend the book "Between Heaven and Hell" by Peter Kreeft.
Also, while the evidence that Christ...
Do you believe in God?
As regards the miracles at Lords and other places:
The Church's requirement for a miracle is that it MUST be unexplainable by scientific means. The miracles verified at Lourdes that the Church recognizes are the sort where people are literally miss...
Why dont you believe in Jesus?
In response to the quote from Karl Marx: "religion is the opium of the masses"
In the past, I have had the experience of working at a convenience store for minimun wage. While there, I discovered the antithesis of Marx's view:
Without God, opium...
What do you have to study to become God or Jesus?
We are not God. We are seperate from God. However, the scriptures do have an interesting take on this idea of "becoming God." Unfortunately, you can't do it by studying something.
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to lif...
What do you think about hitler
He was very charismatic and very intelligent. Unfortunately, he believed his own press clippings.
I think that he is an extreme example of what can happen when people try to decide subjectively and arbitrarily what is right and wrong. (in his case...
Do you believe in God?
I do believe in God.
One of the major reasons that I believe is because of Scientifically verified miracles, such as the healing power of the Spring in Lourdes France, the miracles involved in the canonization of Padre Pio, the Eucharistic miracle...
How is homosexuality a sin?
This will be a rather long post, so I apologize in advance.
Samurai, You have said that you are a faithful Catholic. I think that it would be good to look at the Church's official teaching on homosexuality. The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" s...
What is god?
That is a loaded question.
God is a Trinity, a family whose life is love (authentic love). He is completely tracsendent.
He contains within his very being all truth (classically understood: existence/being/"that which is"), unity, goodness, and ...
A few religious questions.
I apologize for taking so long. I promised to answer the second question later, so here goes:
The question of God's eternity brings up two foundational principles: the concept of the Holy Trinity and the concept of time as a "created reality"
Al...
What is the difference between Catholicism & Christianity?
The other part of levzeroni's response dealt with Catholic's praying to saints.
This issue was already addressed above, so I will not dwell on it long, but I will address it again briefly.
The New testament asserts that those who have died are al...
What do you believe?
I believe in one God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen.
I believe in one Lord: Jesus Chist, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father; God from God, light from light, true God from true God; ...
A few religious questions.
If God loves everyone and forgives everyone, then why is there a hell?
God does necessarily forgive everyone; he forgives those people who allow themselves to be forgiven. The name "Jesus" (Yeshua in Aramaic) means "God Saves." He wants to save us...
What is the difference between Catholicism & Christianity?
In response to levzeroni:
It is incorrect to say: "Christians know they sin and ask for forgiveness so that through faith and grace and good deeds ALONE they will recieve heaven. Catholics believe that through good deed alone they will get into hea...
Is anyone here Apostolic?
I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
Christ himself is the head, and he said to St. Peter, "you are rock, and upon this rock I will buid my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."
He has only one Church, fou...
Virgin Mary?(0.00%)
Thank you flossheal for your kind and thoughtful comments.
I am familiar with the Gospels, including those verses that point to the possibility that Jesus may have had siblings (thus implying that Mary did not remain a virgin before, during, and aft...
If you have a problem with homosexuality because of the bible...
It is true that there is no specific mention of storing up treasures in heaven in the letter of Philemon. That is why I cited it from the Gospel of Matthew. It is part of the over-arching Gospel message, and fits in perfectly with what the text of th...
Virgin Mary?
Since my last serious post, I have done some serious reading, and have spoken with one of my advisors about the veracity of the claims that have been made regarding the translation and origin of Isaiah’s possible prophesy of the virgin birth from Isaia...
Virgin Mary?
I know that I'm going to catch hell for this, but I have to point out that the Catholic Church officially believes and teaches that Mary was, in fact, a Virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ. As a Catholic, I submit to the authority of ...
If you have a problem with homosexuality because of the bible...
I must have missed something when you "pointed out references that prove the hollistic approach doesn't work." If you could copy and paste them from your arguments above I would appreciate it.
In speaking of the letter of Philemon, you left out the...
What would I require to believe in God?
In my last post, I made a critical error (that was quite attentively pointed out). I said the following: " the evidence of George Washington's leadership in the military and government is nowhere near as compelling as evidence that God created the uni...
If you have a problem with homosexuality because of the bible...
You say that my argument is a "hand waving hollistic argument that amounts to nothing at all." If my logic is faulty, point out its faults. I have not waved my hands once, and I am not convinced that a holistic approach is invalid. As the coucils te...
Virgin Mary?
There are three main concerns to be addressed in this question.
I'm glad that we got the first concern out of the way: that the term immaculate conception refers specifically to Mary's conception rather than Jesus'.
The Second concern, the Virgin b...
What do guys want?
Don't worry about what a guy is looking for in you. Worry about what you are looking for in a guy. I know that in my case, I am looking for someone who I can have a deep connection with.
That said, I don't know of any couples who have been married...
George Bush, is he the worst President ever?
I think that there is a good case to say that James Buchannon, Woodrow Wilson, or Warren G. Harding were each the worst president. I don't know that Bush is as bad as they were.
That being said, I don't think that a Presidents administration can re...
Talking about their own church
The important thing is the Gospel. If a given Church is preaching the truth of the Gospel message in all its fulness, that is the important thing. One thing that you need to be careful of is when people change or leave out key parts of the Gospel mes...
What would I require to believe in God?
When I made the statment, "does not have the power to prove how things HAVE happened," this is what I mean (and it goes directly to the heart of the original question):
Science cannot prove the specifics of history. It does not have the power to pr...
If you have a problem with homosexuality because of the bible...
I believe the entire statement that you were trying to quote reads:
"If you examine the Gospel message, with all its statments and implications, it is not hard to see the implications that the institution of slavery, as it was practiced, has signifi...
What if there is no Lord?
If that is true, then why do the carbon-dated deadsea scrolls include Gosple accounts dated from the late 1st century?
If you have a problem with homosexuality because of the bible...
It is incorrect to say that he didn't imply in any way that there was anything wrong with slavery.
If you examine the Gospel message, with all its statments and implications, it is not hard to see the implications that the institution of slavery, as...
What would I require to believe in God?
arachnid:
That statment about science and mathematics is interesting. When I was in school, they told me that scientific laws refered to specific mathematical relationships that have been proven through experimentation. (Thus the universal law of g...
Question for the men
I can honestly say that I do.
My best friends have always been girls, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.
That being said, when I am interested in a relationship with a girl, that interest stays for a long time. (Even if she isn't interested...
For the christians
"... sanctify Christ as Lord in your heartsalways be ready to give an account to anyone who asks a reason for the hope that is in you, but do it with gentleness and reverence, so that when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ ...
What if there is no Lord?
You say that a person only has to believe that something is true in order to die for it. That is a pretty big only. But let's take that as a starting point. In that case, why did people believe that it was true in ancient days?
St. Paul recount...
Do Christians believe that women are weaker?
I don't think that anyone here has claimed that women are useless. The question at hand is about St. Peter's reference to women the weaker sex (which was not supposed to be a knock on women, but rather an encouragement for men to step up to the plate).
If you have a problem with homosexuality because of the bible...
As a matter of fact, he did tell them to repent and sin no more.
Throughout the course of his teachings, as presented in the Gospels, he affirms and exalts the dignity of all people, particulary slaves. In fact, he is reported to have said that the...
What would I require to believe in God?
In response to arachnid:
This is the definition of science as I understand it. It employed controlled, repeatable experiments in order to empirically observe natural phenomena in order to draw conclusions about the causes and working processes of t...
If you have a problem with homosexuality because of the bible...
In response to the comment immediately above:
The instructions given to the Ephesians and Philemon were in perfect keeping with the Gospel message. Paul instructs the Ephesians that own slaves to treat them as equals ("act in the same way towards t...
aarthur001's Advice page 7
There have been several investigations regarding the miracles at Lourdes, France including a permanent bureau for medical investigation. It has confirmed 67 miracles in connection with the water from the sping there. The details can be found on the o...
This particular testimony does not necessarily convince me that Padre Pio inflicted his own wounds. The acid could have other legitmate uses such as the ones listed. As far as I am aware, his stigmata was not one of the miracles that led to his canon...
There are very few people who do not eat at least once a day. Most people try to eat more than once a day, but I think that it is safe to say that all people try to eat at least once a day. Don't you think that your soul deserves at least one good ...
Orion, we really don't want to get into this discussion on this thread too, do we?
I am a believer. I don't think that I would categorize agnosticism as the lazy person's religion. It seems that the logic of agnosticism is flawed (as classically defined: one who believes that the truths of God are unknowable). While I agree that t...
I am a Catholic, so I will try to tell you what the Catholic Church believes instead of what non-Catholics think the Church believes. (And I'm not sure what all this Teresa business is...) First of all, we do not worship Mary. All official Church ...
Orion, I would be fine with moving this discussion to funmail, (although I will be leaving for the summer shortly). There are just a few things that I think need to be clarified before we do so. I apologize for not including the citation for the ...
Toadaly had asked if I could provied verification for the claims that were made at Lourdes, because he could not find anything about them. This is the link for the official website of Lourdes. The list of miracles is under the heading of "cures and m...
This is a follow up to the post I had before. As Catholics, we do believe that homosexual acts are sinful. We do not need to know the source of the inclination towards homosexual behavior in order to determine that the act is a sinful (along the sa...
I suggest looking into the reports on the miracles at Lourdes before making the claim that they can be explained by psychology. It is immpossible for Psychology to allow a person with severe damage to the cornea to see with 20/20 vision. It is also i...
I am familiar with the bible refering to the dead as "those who have fallen asleep," but I have not seen those portions saying that the dead "know nothing." In any case, we still hold that those who have fallen asleep in Christ are not truly dead, but...
In response to paradise: There are several scriptural scholars who disagree with your analysis that Jesus claimed to be God. To see what I mean, I recommend the book "Between Heaven and Hell" by Peter Kreeft. Also, while the evidence that Christ...
As regards the miracles at Lords and other places: The Church's requirement for a miracle is that it MUST be unexplainable by scientific means. The miracles verified at Lourdes that the Church recognizes are the sort where people are literally miss...
In response to the quote from Karl Marx: "religion is the opium of the masses" In the past, I have had the experience of working at a convenience store for minimun wage. While there, I discovered the antithesis of Marx's view: Without God, opium...
We are not God. We are seperate from God. However, the scriptures do have an interesting take on this idea of "becoming God." Unfortunately, you can't do it by studying something. "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to lif...
He was very charismatic and very intelligent. Unfortunately, he believed his own press clippings. I think that he is an extreme example of what can happen when people try to decide subjectively and arbitrarily what is right and wrong. (in his case...
I do believe in God. One of the major reasons that I believe is because of Scientifically verified miracles, such as the healing power of the Spring in Lourdes France, the miracles involved in the canonization of Padre Pio, the Eucharistic miracle...
This will be a rather long post, so I apologize in advance. Samurai, You have said that you are a faithful Catholic. I think that it would be good to look at the Church's official teaching on homosexuality. The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" s...
That is a loaded question. God is a Trinity, a family whose life is love (authentic love). He is completely tracsendent. He contains within his very being all truth (classically understood: existence/being/"that which is"), unity, goodness, and ...
I apologize for taking so long. I promised to answer the second question later, so here goes: The question of God's eternity brings up two foundational principles: the concept of the Holy Trinity and the concept of time as a "created reality" Al...
The other part of levzeroni's response dealt with Catholic's praying to saints. This issue was already addressed above, so I will not dwell on it long, but I will address it again briefly. The New testament asserts that those who have died are al...
I believe in one God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord: Jesus Chist, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father; God from God, light from light, true God from true God; ...
If God loves everyone and forgives everyone, then why is there a hell? God does necessarily forgive everyone; he forgives those people who allow themselves to be forgiven. The name "Jesus" (Yeshua in Aramaic) means "God Saves." He wants to save us...
In response to levzeroni: It is incorrect to say: "Christians know they sin and ask for forgiveness so that through faith and grace and good deeds ALONE they will recieve heaven. Catholics believe that through good deed alone they will get into hea...
I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Christ himself is the head, and he said to St. Peter, "you are rock, and upon this rock I will buid my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." He has only one Church, fou...
Thank you flossheal for your kind and thoughtful comments. I am familiar with the Gospels, including those verses that point to the possibility that Jesus may have had siblings (thus implying that Mary did not remain a virgin before, during, and aft...
It is true that there is no specific mention of storing up treasures in heaven in the letter of Philemon. That is why I cited it from the Gospel of Matthew. It is part of the over-arching Gospel message, and fits in perfectly with what the text of th...
Since my last serious post, I have done some serious reading, and have spoken with one of my advisors about the veracity of the claims that have been made regarding the translation and origin of Isaiah’s possible prophesy of the virgin birth from Isaia...
I know that I'm going to catch hell for this, but I have to point out that the Catholic Church officially believes and teaches that Mary was, in fact, a Virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ. As a Catholic, I submit to the authority of ...
I must have missed something when you "pointed out references that prove the hollistic approach doesn't work." If you could copy and paste them from your arguments above I would appreciate it. In speaking of the letter of Philemon, you left out the...
In my last post, I made a critical error (that was quite attentively pointed out). I said the following: " the evidence of George Washington's leadership in the military and government is nowhere near as compelling as evidence that God created the uni...
You say that my argument is a "hand waving hollistic argument that amounts to nothing at all." If my logic is faulty, point out its faults. I have not waved my hands once, and I am not convinced that a holistic approach is invalid. As the coucils te...
There are three main concerns to be addressed in this question. I'm glad that we got the first concern out of the way: that the term immaculate conception refers specifically to Mary's conception rather than Jesus'. The Second concern, the Virgin b...
Don't worry about what a guy is looking for in you. Worry about what you are looking for in a guy. I know that in my case, I am looking for someone who I can have a deep connection with. That said, I don't know of any couples who have been married...
[Open mouth... insert foot]
I think that there is a good case to say that James Buchannon, Woodrow Wilson, or Warren G. Harding were each the worst president. I don't know that Bush is as bad as they were. That being said, I don't think that a Presidents administration can re...
The important thing is the Gospel. If a given Church is preaching the truth of the Gospel message in all its fulness, that is the important thing. One thing that you need to be careful of is when people change or leave out key parts of the Gospel mes...
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
When I made the statment, "does not have the power to prove how things HAVE happened," this is what I mean (and it goes directly to the heart of the original question): Science cannot prove the specifics of history. It does not have the power to pr...
I believe the entire statement that you were trying to quote reads: "If you examine the Gospel message, with all its statments and implications, it is not hard to see the implications that the institution of slavery, as it was practiced, has signifi...
If that is true, then why do the carbon-dated deadsea scrolls include Gosple accounts dated from the late 1st century?
It is incorrect to say that he didn't imply in any way that there was anything wrong with slavery. If you examine the Gospel message, with all its statments and implications, it is not hard to see the implications that the institution of slavery, as...
arachnid: That statment about science and mathematics is interesting. When I was in school, they told me that scientific laws refered to specific mathematical relationships that have been proven through experimentation. (Thus the universal law of g...
I can honestly say that I do. My best friends have always been girls, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. That being said, when I am interested in a relationship with a girl, that interest stays for a long time. (Even if she isn't interested...
"... sanctify Christ as Lord in your heartsalways be ready to give an account to anyone who asks a reason for the hope that is in you, but do it with gentleness and reverence, so that when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ ...
You say that a person only has to believe that something is true in order to die for it. That is a pretty big only. But let's take that as a starting point. In that case, why did people believe that it was true in ancient days? St. Paul recount...
I don't think that anyone here has claimed that women are useless. The question at hand is about St. Peter's reference to women the weaker sex (which was not supposed to be a knock on women, but rather an encouragement for men to step up to the plate).
As a matter of fact, he did tell them to repent and sin no more. Throughout the course of his teachings, as presented in the Gospels, he affirms and exalts the dignity of all people, particulary slaves. In fact, he is reported to have said that the...
In response to arachnid: This is the definition of science as I understand it. It employed controlled, repeatable experiments in order to empirically observe natural phenomena in order to draw conclusions about the causes and working processes of t...
In response to the comment immediately above: The instructions given to the Ephesians and Philemon were in perfect keeping with the Gospel message. Paul instructs the Ephesians that own slaves to treat them as equals ("act in the same way towards t...