"Cult of Mary"

Quote: FrGamble

Because Jesus used a common way of expressing important truths like hyperbole and parables this makes the entire NT so confusing that nobody can read it.

Look around, 3000 different interpretations
of what's in the NT. What's written is clear as
chocolate milk, apparently. To somebody
looking in from the outside, your religion
is a mess. I don't mean your specific brand
of Christianity, of course that's a mess. I
mean all of it, all 3000 branches. No sane
person would take any of it seriously. Like
I said, I treat my wife's family with kid gloves,
because they sound like loons when they
discuss their religion.

Quote: nareed

It's only when we quit looking for a special meaning in existents (not in existence) that we began to find the real reasons for all manner of natural phenomena (ie for everything).

FrG does this and it drives me nuts. He
makes everything 'special', when it's
not. Marriage is wonderful and special.
Life is unique and special. Every person
is special and god loves you in a personal
way.

None of this is true. Most marriages are
very mundane and boring. Life is anything
but unique, it's everywhere you look. There
are 7 billion people, and for the majority of
them, life is a hassle, it's not special.

And god doesn't love anybody, there is no
god. It's true that when we look at life for
what it really is, we find solutions and answers.
When we look at thru rose colored glasses,
like religion does, we find nothing useful.

When we look at life through the rose colored glasses of religion we discover that our marriage we thought so mundane and boring is actually one of the most important parts of society and carries supernatural significance. When we look at ourselves through these glasses we find a person with inestimable dignity and value.

Quote: FrGamble

When we look at life through the rose colored glasses of religion we discover that our marriage we thought so mundane and boring is actually one of the most important parts of society and carries supernatural significance. When we look at ourselves through these glasses we find a person with inestimable dignity and value.

And when we take them off, we see the truth.
Which religion isn't selling. The truth doesn't
sell, so they make up fantasies and tell stories.
And myths.

Nice short video on religion.

Some sobering stats in this new study.
Hispanics will take over the majority
of Catholic membership in the US very
soon. On some of the most hot-button
social issues of our time, like marriage
equality and abortion rights, American
Catholics are virtually indistinguishable
from the general public in their views.
That means they’re going against what
the Church wants them to believe.


http://publicreligion.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/PRRI-RNS-2015-Survey.pdf

Quote: Evenbob

The truth doesn't
sell,

This is very true and that is why people want to make up their own more comfortable or personal truths. This is relativism and its fruit is atheism.

FrG, do you know what your biggest problem is?
Most of the other religions, Hinduism, Judaism,
Buddhism, could care less if you believe what
they believe. In fact, they don't even want you
to. It's only Yahweh's followers, Christians,
Mormons, and Muslims, that are so insecure
about their religion that they have to constantly
be converting others.

They are never happy with their religions because
they're like Ponzi schemes, unless they're constantly
trolling for new members, constantly building up
their base of new suckers, er, converts, they think
they'll wither up and die. I saw this first hand when
I was trying to be a Christian 40 years ago. The people
in my church were always amazed when they got
a new convert, amazed the 'power of god' really
did work. It was a like a drug rush for them, the
insecurity they felt deep down that this was all
superstitious bunk was momentarily alleviated
by the new convert. Why, it must be true after all..

Carol Burnett on re-incarnation: https://youtu.be/f7KpqXLxFck

Quote: Evenbob

Most of the other religions, Hinduism, Judaism,
Buddhism, could care less if you believe what
they believe. In fact, they don't even want you
to. It's only Yahweh's followers, Christians,
Mormons, and Muslims, that are so insecure
about their religion that they have to constantly
be converting others.

It is insecurity really? I wonder if it could be that we have discovered something we love very much that has helped us and we want to share it? I think it would be evil if you found something that could really help someone and you buried it or kept it just to yourself.