Mindia wrote:Tell you what. You open the Bible and show me where it says to confess your sins to the Lord through another person, an intercessory, to get your sins "absolved." While you're at it, show me in the Bible where it talks anything of a "purgatory." Oh, and by the way... show me where it says in the Bible that kneeling down before statues and praying is permitted. Do some research on "Transubstantiation." Catholics put Jesus back on the cross every "Mass." Jesus already died on the cross for our sins... It never has to be done again, yet the Roman Catholics put Him on the cross again each and every Sunday. Then when you're done researching all that, also find out why the priest thinks he is converting the little wafer into the ACTUAL body of Christ, and the wine into the ACTUAL blood of Christ, and that the recipient has to actually believe they are receiving the actual body and blood of Christ. I'll give you some help with this last one... IT WAS MEANT TO BE SYMBOLIC, NOT ACTUAL. Jesus said, "This is my body, broken for you... do this often in remembrance of me." Then he lifted the cup and said, "This is my blood, shed for you... do this often in remembrance of me." It is all about symbolism.
Run along now little boy. You have some homework to do.
Since I seem to be the only person on this board that has any clue about the Catholic religion, despite plenty of people (including the poster I quoted above) *thinking* they know what the fuck they're talking about, I will respond to this stupidity.
It is not the Catholic belief that you *must* confess your sins to a priest. It is a sacrament - meaning that it is a Holy Rite of the Church... as is Holy Matrimony, Last Rites, Communion, Holy Orders, etc. It is nearly impossible for a person to participate in every sacrament. Simply because you didn't does not imply you're going to hell. Furthermore, you're not being forgiven for your sins by the Priest, he is acting as an intermediary for God - as a Pastor of his church shepherding his flock, so to speak. The entire rite of Confession is not about you visiting the Priest - it is about opening a dialogue with your Pastor to provide you guidance and advice into how you can attempt to remove sin from your life and keep to the course of holiness. Too many people don't understand that and think that the Priest has some special "power" to forgive sin. He does not. God does. It is acceptable and encourage for all Catholics to pray regularly to God and ask forgiveness for their sins... it is NOT mandatory to do so "through" a priest.
Catholics do not practice idolatry. The cross on some Protestant's necklace is no different than the statues of Christ in a Catholic church. They are meant to be focal objects to help remind us of the sacrifices that Christ made and the existence of God. You don't pray to your necklace any more than a Catholic prays to a statue of Christ - they both pray to God who is symbolized by those objects.
Catholics do not "put him on the cross every Sunday" (what a stupid, ignorant fucking comment)... no more than Protestants. Catholic Mass is focused on the sacrifice that Christ made to make it possible for all to have a path to eternal life with God. To lose sight of that sacrifice is to take our very salvation for granted.
Transubstantiation is exactly that: the conversion of the bread and wine into the actual Body and Blood of Christ. The priest doesn't perform some "magic" that makes it happen - God, himself, brings about the change. This is probably the most difficult thing any non-Catholic can understand or accept, yet it is fundamental in the core beliefs of Catholics. If you have issue with this, then I'm not going to argue with you. Either you have the faith to believe it, or you don't. If you don't... more power to you.
As far as the books of the Apocrypha go... who is Martin Luther to decide which books are "right" and which are "wrong". Frankly, I could say that Song of Solomon is borderline porn and has no place in the Bible... as do many others. Does that mean that that book of the Bible is heresy simple because I, a human with my own opinions, believe it to be so? The book of Revelations was (supposedly) written by John the Apostle... that's a pretty darn good source for scripture, frankly. Maybe you remember John... he was called the "beloved of Christ" and "Christ's favorite". Not really a good source of heresy if you were to ask me.
Really Mindia, you claim to be so well aware and educated about these matters - to the point that you feel that you can belittle and ridicule others. However, you know very little more than they do. If you recall, Pride is one of the seven cardinal (deadly) sins. You might take a moment to consider this Bible passage (which, by the way, is from the gospels and therefore doesn't fall into your heresy category, I would suppose):
Mathew 7:5 wrote:Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
If your goal here is to educate and evangelize, you're doing a piss poor job of it. If your goal here is to attack, flame, and contend over topics related to your religion, you're doing a piss poor job of it. If, however, your goal here is to make yourself look like an ass and hide behind a faith that you regularly besmirch by your own words and actions, you're doing super! Keep it up!
