What do Catholics believe?
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- Created on Friday, 22 March 2013 07:12
- Published on Friday, 22 March 2013 07:12
- Written by John Draper
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More to the point, what are they supposed to believe? Catholics are different – they have a set of dogmas much broader and more comprehensive than evangelicals who mostly just feel the love of Jesus. It’s more complicated, they have many theologians studying not just the bible but other writings. In fact, Catholics say that their beliefs come from not just the Bible but also “tradition” or the knowledge passed down through the Pope and Bishops from Peter and the Apostles. Luther’s heresy was not so much that he encouraged everyone to read the bible for themselves but that he implied that by doing that you could know all there was to know about Jesus. Further, the Catholic Church teaches that they are the only people who can correctly interpret what the words in the bible mean. They don’t take the bible literally word for word since they know its history – but they also know that by allowing interpretation, you open up a can of worms.
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Atheist Churches
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- Created on Wednesday, 20 March 2013 06:13
- Published on Wednesday, 20 March 2013 06:15
- Written by John Draper
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Quakers call their churches meeting houses, most churches and mosques are also used for social events of various kinds and pastors talk about "Fellowship". It's common knowledge that religious groups provide a lot a social activities for their members. Even the services are communal - they sing, "break bread", listen to a speaker. In many ways going to a Church is not a whole lot different to going to a social club meeting. So when people stop going to a Church - whether it's because they don't get around to it or because they no longer believe, it is often missed. Humans are social animals - like most other animals. We like the company of other people. So religion could be said to meet a need. Or is it that religions take advantage of this need to structure around gatherings and meetings?
Proof of a creator god does not prove Christianity
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- Created on Monday, 18 March 2013 06:42
- Published on Monday, 18 March 2013 06:42
- Written by John Draper
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The most common argument for the existence of god is that there must be a god to cause the world around us to exist - especially since it is too complex to have happened by accident. Apart from the fact that this argument shows a total lack of understanding of advanced physics (not surprising!), it would only prove that there is a creator god. It would not, by itself, prove any of the things taught and believed in Christianity.
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Worship of Mithra
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- Created on Saturday, 16 March 2013 07:04
- Published on Saturday, 16 March 2013 07:04
- Written by John Draper
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If you stand back and look - the practices and beliefs of the worship of Mithra are almost identical to Christianity. Virtually all of the elements of Christian rituals, from miter, wafer, water baptism, altar and hymns, were adopted from the Mithra and earlier pagan mystery religions. The religion of Mithra preceded Christianity by roughly six hundred years and at one time covered a large portion of the ancient world. It flourished as late as the second century. The Messianic idea originated in ancient Persia and this is where the Jewish and Christian concepts of a Saviour came from. Mithra, as the sun god of ancient Persia, had the following similarities with Jesus:
Can God change his mind?
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- Created on Thursday, 14 March 2013 06:35
- Published on Thursday, 14 March 2013 06:35
- Written by John Draper
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When people pray, they want God to change the future. Otherwise, whatever will be, will be. Every believer would agree that god is all-knowing - and also that to exist before time began, to have created time, he must know everything at all points in time. That means he must know what is going to happen to me in the next minute or next year. He must know that I am writing this and that it will be made available for the world to see. He must know everything I'm going to do - free will or not. Christians will say -"he sees that you have rejected him and will continue to do so and feels sorry for you - but you brought it on yourself."
So in the case of Christians, he must know that they are going to pray to him to cure someone or to work some other kind of magic and he must know that he will be changing some future event that they asked for. That is, praying is just something that God knows people will be doing. So, as far as god is concerned, he does not change anything; he just knows about the prayers that will be said and is able to decide what to do in advance. He does not change his mind. In fact since he knows the future, he cannot change his mind - the concept of change does not apply since it requires the concept of time that does not exist for god!
Christ said that world would end 2000 years ago
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- Created on Sunday, 10 March 2013 06:26
- Published on Sunday, 10 March 2013 06:26
- Written by John Draper
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Jesus told his listeners that the world as people then knew it was coming to an end. What he meant by "end of the world" is described in Matthew ch. 24, Mark ch. 13, Luke ch. 21. All describe earthquakes, famines, wars, false prophets, religious persecutions, turmoil and general total chaos. Since no one would know exactly when this would happen, he warned that people should keep themselves ready at all times. But in Matthew, Mark, and Luke he says "This generation will not pass away till all these things take place." Since the lifespan at the time was about 30-40 years, it would be safe to say that he was saying the world would end in less than 20 years after he was speaking.
Secularism
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- Created on Tuesday, 12 March 2013 06:33
- Published on Tuesday, 12 March 2013 06:33
- Written by John Draper
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Lately, atheists have been pushing secularism and Christians and Muslims have seen this as anti-religion but it's not that simple. "Secular" today means the separation of Church and State. It started in the early Church around the 4th century when Augustine talked about two "cities": one that ordered the things of the earth (civitas terrenae) and one that was ordered by God (civitas dei). This new idea was used by various people for their own ends - for example to reinforce the doctrine of papal primacy, emphasizing the idea that the visible Christian Church was the actual manifestation of the civitas dei and, as a consequence, was owed greater loyalty than civil governments. But others stressed the important role played by the civitas terrenae and that it was autonomous - separate - and this concept eventually prevailed.
Do animals pray?
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- Created on Friday, 08 March 2013 06:20
- Published on Friday, 08 March 2013 06:20
- Written by John Draper
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Before you say "of course not", see the picture below. And ask yourself, "how do we know?" We can't communicate with them; we can't read their minds; we don't know what they think. Maybe they have a soul and feel spiritual things. We know they have emotions (fear for sure, but also contentment and happiness). So why shouldn't they be spiritual/mystical. And if so, why not a soul? Why should humans be special? Maybe animals have also "fallen", like Adam and Eve? Or maybe not.
But this is not to be taken seriously. I could go on and invent a whole set of dogmas about animals and their religions but they would be just as meaningless as the ones invented for humans.
