Ilunga

But don't you see that's the beauty of Catholicism. You f#ck up, say you're sorry and it's all good. Plus you get a matchbox car from your parents after confession. We didn't have many toys. Seriously I while I don't believe in rituals, I acknowledge that we make mistakes. We have to own our mistakes, that is the first step on the path to not making the same mistakes again. Confession is just a religious persons version of this. I do like Alexander Pope as a satirist and Poet. His quote " To err is human, to forgive is divine " When the meaning of the word divine is as an informal adjective, Very pleasing, delightful

First off takes a honest person to apologise, and do it publicly, big time respect. As for the rest, my mother's congregation has divorcees as members. One girl had an abortion according to my mother when she was alive.

This is my Ex's sister https://www.wehi.edu.au/news/missing-key-could-overcome-drug-discovery-barrier/ We used to have some great discussions.

Good article in regards to the JWST being able to help us understand how quickly the Universe is expanding. https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/triple-lens-supernova-jwst/

As I have stated, I have studied comparative religion/s for over forty years and this encompasses spiritual beliefs such as reincarnation and Karma. When I was younger Buddhism kinda appealed to me, especially the idea of Karma. However as I have grown older, the idea of Karma in this particular incarnation is a crock. Bad Sh!t happens to good people, good things happen to bad people. I used to believe that bad Sh!t happened less to those who I define as good. The experiences of the last decade of my life has diasbused me of this belief. As for reincarnation, is there a suitable punishment for a person like Hitler regarding reincarnation ?

Check

Should we apply that line of reasoning to the Authors of the various Gospels ?

Most historians/ scholars state the gospels were not eyewitness accounts, written by eyewitness. Having studied comparative religion for over 40 years, I am willing to accept their conclusion.

Which branch of science do you specialise in, if you don't mind me asking ?

Whether a god exists or not I ask myself these questions about the suffering of children. Just F#cking why

Picture or it doesn't exist ! I hope you realise this is in the " spirit " of the thread......

You are indeed correct in stating that the gospels, the four that were chosen, Mark written sometime between AD 66 - 70 Matthew and Luke AD 85 - 90 John AD 90 - 110, were indeed written in Greek. Koine Greek was the language in a Jewish Christian community in the territory occupied by Roman forces that we now call Syria. Most historians agree they were not written by eyewitness. And these were the gospels that were chosen at the Council of Nicea AD 325, and later confirmed at the council of Carthage AD 397. Many were discarded.

You asked me to directly answer the questions you asked in this post. As has been pointed out to you by several people now, only 121 of the 1,763 wars had religion as their primary cause. So no religion is not the cause of the majority of wars and atrocities against people. God and his disciples completely eliminated indigenous Canadians ? As of 2021 there were 1.8 million indigenous Canadians. The indigenous population actually grew by 9.4 percent between 2016 - 2021. Have you ever read the collection of Allegories that is called the bible. If you have you will realise that the people who do what we define as bad things aren't following the meanings of those allegories. If you have studied comparative religion you would know that the big religions are much the same. They carry the same common themes. So in reality Monotheism is really the belief in the same same god.

@Cerridwen These band has a history with one of your favourite bands

One of my all time favourite record covers

Maybe, however that is not reality. Reality is bad things happen to good people. My oldest, dearest friend is the best person I know, he has done things we all believe we would do, however we have never been put in those situations. For the last four or five years his life has been hell. I have heard him say things, in relation to despair I never thought I would hear coming from him. Why is this happening to him ? There is no answer to this. It drives me nuts. I am going over to his house shortly, the last few Friday nights the Melbourne Storm have been on the telly in the finals of the NRL, and we have been supporting each other. This is where good comes from bad, until recently I have been reluctant to interact with people, one gets tired of only having bad news to relate to them, he has felt the same way.

Like really brother ? You don't believe that what we define as good and bad are concomitants of each other ? Most of my life has been what I describe as very good times punctuated by some really bad times. Do you honestly believe we can live a long life were we don't experience these different emotions ? How about when loved ones die, apart from what I am going through now they have been the worst times of my life. However this is a part of life, we eat, sh!t, breathe and eventually die.

Thanks for posting this.

Totally Brother. So well said. An open mind is a good thing, coupled with the ability to think critically.

I think those questions are pretty provocative, with respect, bordering on the absurd. As for the first one, I used to tell mum that the Catholic allegories were based on the Egyptian allegories. Virgin Birth, Resurrection all the other common themes. All the biggies have them. As for the rest of your questions what do you think the rational, logical answers to them are ? I am guessing the same as me.

I don't know the story in Canada however I am well acquainted with both stolen generations here in Aus, I am a member of one. It was not just the Catholic church in involved, the State, government, holds blame as well. Unless you are a member of a stolen generation, you have no idea how it feels to be told about this. To feel you were unwanted. As I have stated things have changed, I actually did a ski hire for the school that is situated where the orphanage I came from was. The teachers were great people. They were nuns.

He will always be her son. That's the thing about being a parent, you will always love your child no matter what. I never fully realised how much I could love someone until my son was born.

As you know I basically questioned from the get go. And looking back I pushed to hard. I don't like authority figures especially ones that didn't allow me to question their ideas. However there were both good and bad priests and nuns. I certainly didn't deserve to get beaten however I was a smart arse, prodding away at them. I had a couple of great teachers, Sister Cabrini and Father Latucca were wonderful kind people who put up with my " truculence" Father Murray on the other hand was a hard assed Irish priest that had a better backswing than Bradman.

I am one of those stolen children you are talking about. It wasn't just religious people who frowned on young unmarried teenage girls having babies, it was the societal norm. And guess what times have changed, people have evolved. Ever heard of Primae Noctis ? That was nothing to do with religion, that was one nation, the English - king Edward - trying to breed out the Scots, for control/ political reasons. I am not trying to change your mind, I am having a discussion with you. I can see there really is no point as you have a closed mind on this subject.