Evolution and the Pope

Quote: FrGamble

It's not that you aren't sacrificing, serving, and loving the few guests that have the honor of dining with you;

It definitely is that I am NOT sacrificing or serving.

Besides, how big an ego do you think I have? ;)

Let me get it all spelled out: I cook on weekends enough food to eat it for lunch during the week. Typically I cook an entrée and either a soup or a side. Sometimes also a dessert. It's a bit monotonous, but I eat things I like and can eat by myself, and more important I eat mostly low-fat.

Sometimes I'm very tired and don't want to cook. I will put it off as long as I can. Instead of cooking Saturday morning or afternoon, I'll cook until early Sunday evening. I'm too comfortable in bed watching TV, or a DVD, or streaming a movie, or surfing the web, and I don't want to do anything. Once I get cooking (and this includes even washing veggies before going at them with a knife), I enjoy it.

I enjoy it the same whether I'm cooking for myself, or for myself and others. I enjoy it the same whether I'm doing a week's worth of lunch or just breakfast. It's like drinking good coffee: it doesn't matter whether it's mocha, espresso or regular, it's always a pleasure to drink good coffee.

Quote:

It is sign of your virtue, not the lack of it, that you can't see the sacrifice involved in cooking or starting a university.

There's no sacrifice involved in cooking, other than the animals we kill for our sustenance.

I do enjoy cooking more when I'm trying something new, especially if I thought it up myself and know what I'm doing. I don't quite enjoy it so much when I find myself out of my depth, as I did when I tried to make my own tortillas (I'll get to that someday, though). That's what makes a difference, not who I'm cooking for.

Quote: Evenbob

This way thinking, the Christian way, creates
a schism in a lot of people, it makes for a
lot of confusion.

As I mentioned in my previous post this is not how mature Christians think. It makes sense that you were just learning about Christ during the time when these important questions came up for you. You should have stuck it out and learned more about the unconditional love of God through the good times and the bad. There are plenty of Scripture quotes that illustrate the foundational point.

Quote:

God didn't seem fair at all, and they were
constantly pounding that square peg into
the round hole by whittling the peg till
it was round. In other words, they were
making excuses for god all the time. These
were not 'found' people, as they claimed,
they were truly lost and clung to each other
for support. I have seen this in Christianity
ever since. I usually treat them with kid
gloves because they are so dependent on
the religion and each other. Like people in
a 12 step program.

Life is not fair, it's imperfect because of sin. Since you don't believe sin exists it is you who are trying to pound a square into a circle. You can't seem to reconcile why the world is not perfect and your only scapegoat is God. It's interesting that you don't think it could be us, our greed, our pride, etc. that creates so much injustice.
The people to treat with kid gloves are those who when suffering rears its ugly head in their lives (and it will) have no means to understand it or deal with it. These are the people to turn to despair. It is so sad. Instead of despair choose prayer.

Quote: Evenbob

Nor do I. 99.9% of Christians never put themselves
in the position of dealing with non believers, so
they never have to defend themselves. I don't
blame them for that. Like all cults, most of the
members are encouraged not to speak about their
beliefs to outsiders.

You are absolutely maddening! Christianity is all about putting themselves in the position of dealing with non-believers. This is our fundamental mission from none other than Jesus Himself, "Go out into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." How do you think the faith spread to every corner of the earth, by hiding in the upper room?!? Come on Evenbob, everything about Christianity is outward focused and spreading the good news to non believers and outsiders.

Also wanted to share this quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Quote:

#2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

Quote: FrGamble

You can't seem to reconcile why the world is not perfect .

You never got that from me, that the world
is imperfect. It's neither imperfect nor
perfect, it just is what it is. I have zero problems
with understanding that. Living is about
acceptance of what is, and finding a way
to live in harmony with that. I you need
to believe in a god for that, great. If you
don't, that's great too. What's the difference.

Quote: FrGamble

spreading the good news to non believers and outsiders.

Very few do that, however. I know all the
Christians in my wife's family, her dad
was a Baptist minister. Outside of church,
I've never heard one of them speak of
religion, ever. I never hear any of the
others I know speak of it. You're in
the priest business, it's your job to talk
about it. And the I've found that the
few catholics I've known, I usually know
more about their religion than they
do.

Your personal over-generalizations are as legendary as your myth based history. No offense but if you meet a Catholic who knows less about their religion than you, they need to see me right away. Finally, evangelization is NOT a priest thing. In fact I am limited often to only preaching to the choir (that is one of the reasons I like DT so much). It is my parishioners who are the ones who need to be living their faith in an obvious way in their workplaces, schools, homes, and communities.

Quote: FrGamble

Christianity is all about putting themselves in the position of dealing with non-believers.

That might be your mission, but most people quite naturally gravitate towards the echo chamber. The place where their beliefs, ideas and even preferences are never questioned or challenged.

Quote: FrGamble

No offense but if you meet a Catholic who knows less about their religion than you, they need to see me right away. .

Most Christians I meet are very disinterested
in their own religion. Most of them were
brought up in it and it bores them to tears.
If you try and engage them in conversation,
their eyes glaze over and they try and exit
ASAP. My wife will talk if I ask pointed questions,
but she never ever brings it up if I don't.

She's been up to her eyeballs in it since she
was a baby, with a preacher for a father. I don't
think she spends 2min a day thinking about
any of it, and I don't she's unusual. She just
accepts she's 'saved' and moves on.

Quote: Mosca

I often say, describing why I'm not a believer, that I'm just not wired that way..

That's a good way to put it. I'm much too
pragmatic to believe in something that
can't be proven. I would be constantly in
doubt, it would be awful. I'm open to it
if actual proof is ever given, but so far
all I've seen is speculation and opinion.

adjective: pragmatic
dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.