What % of the Actual Church Going Public Believe in a Virgin Birth, Burning Bushes, etc.?
- Thread starter JRHawk2003
- Start date
Ok, but just don't blame me when you get to page 7 of your upcoming dialogue with Brianole.
Because I want to know what Noah fed the predators on the ark.
Whether you believe in the big bang or that God created the earth, you're taking a giant leap of faith to something that can't be proven.
When you've chosen to believe the bible, you've already accepted that a) there's a spiritual world beyond what you can see, and b) that not everything can be explained by science.
When you've chosen to believe the bible, you've already accepted that a) there's a spiritual world beyond what you can see, and b) that not everything can be explained by science.
If your understanding of a God is based on what science cannot explain than your god is constantly shrinking.
I had this argument with my no pics wife this weekend. One of our son's friends is Jehovah Witness and she thought it was so strange that he had to be strange. I said her religions thinks there was a man who was the son of god and died for our sins and that he came back to life 3 days later, and she thinks Jehovah's are weird? She claims no one actually believes that stuff, but it sure sounds like people believe it when I go to church with them.
Hahah Shirley you can't be serious. God is as provable as the Big Bang? Where the hell do you people come from??
Are we in a situation where 75% of the people going don't really believe there was a virgin birth, or rising from the dead, or burning bushes or giant global floods? They are just going through the motions because its what their parents did?
To be sure, some things are metaphorical, and some things are not really theologically significant at all. But most mainstream Christian theology isn't, in fact, so literalist.
At the end of the day, as to some of the things you mention, your proposition is sort of true, but greatly oversimplifies things. The reality is, consistent with your characterization that it is "unthinking" (admittedly my word) fantasy, some of these things represent 'bedrock' Christian theology which is "so" bedrock, people don't think about it much day to day, just as (I hope) you probably don't think much about re-thinking the whole F=mA thing or testing the limits of PV=nRT. But that's by no means saying those issues haven't been thought about, or that they are "bedrock" simply because someone wrote it down a few millennia ago. To the contrary, they became bedrock precisely because people thought about them deeply, and in the context of other bedrock principles of Christian theology.
Burning bush, Virgin birth, talking snakes, rib bone, what's not to believe?
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Yeah, that's it.
People read it and say it out loud, and almost no one believes it.
You have some Jesuits who are very serious scientists. I really want to know how they reconcile it.
Equally unprovable is how I would phrase it.
Fair. When repeated ritualistically (such as the Apostle's Creed), it can become rote and lacking in meaning.
This represents a profound lack of understanding about science in general, and the big bang theory in particular.
My grandmother was German Catholic, like many in Iowa, and to her it was more an ethnic identity thing. She really didnt think of it in theological terms.
It's the Apostle's Creed. Yes, I believe it.
Seems about as believable as Santa Claus. To each their own I guess.
Here where I'm at.
I believe in Jesus Christ
who was conceived
and born of Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried
Admittingly, it would be harder for me to get people to give me their money based on this religion.
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With all due respect, the Ideal Gas Law and Newton’s Second Law of Motion didn’t become “bedrock” merely because “people thought about them deeply.” Sure, they both originated from deep, physical insight, but they became established as legitimate through years and years and years of gathering evidence supporting their validity (then followed later by the emergence of statistical and quantum mechanics—themselves supported by many years of evidence—which give rise to the theoretical derivations of pV=nRT and F=ma, respectively). That’s pretty much the polar opposite of a teenage virgin giving birth to a human God being a bedrock belief as a result of thinking deeply.
Well yeah probably.
When you're taught that stuff by your parents and the church they take you to from the time you're old enough to understand words, it sticks with you. It takes a lot of years to think about it and finally realize it's probably bullshit. Some folks never get that far. I feel fortunate that I finally did and am now free of that crap.
I think that's what it is for many here in my area of FL. It's more of a social scene and family tradition that's expected, where they believe in the overall message of Jesus and want to bring their children up and associate with others with similar beliefs, yet quietly raise an eyebrow at the burning bush and talking animal stories.
Easter and Christmas Mass with the occasional baptism, first communion, or confirmation thrown in.
"You created the universe out of nothing but to create Eve you had to take my f'n RIB??"
Sit, stand, kneel. Repeat after me, do this, don’t do that. Yeah nothing cultish about that at all!!! I’m so glad I got out of that as soon as I was smart enough to see through the charade, I was 16 and fortunately my parents didn’t force me to be confirmed.
Pretty sad what happened to the German community in Iowa 1917-18. Prior to that there were German newspapers and schools. That became "seditious" and basically everything German was eradicated.
My great grandmother still spoke some german...
The German word for a joker is a bauer "bower"....that's where that comes from if you play euchre.
If not it certainly would have gone out the door 1939-45. Anyway...just sad that we lost a lot of that cultural heritage.
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