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Wait a minute... in all my roman catholic education I have never heard that reincarnation is part of our beliefs :confused: Purgatory is part of the Catholic beliefs, but you have to consider that there are HUGE differences between catholic theology and catholic folklore. Catholic theology...

Honestly, I don't know... I have to say I am not particularly concerned on whether such actual "creature" exists or not. What matters to me is that evil exists in all of us and it is our personal responsibility to resist. Then it doesn't make a difference whether evil has a personified nature or...

Quite like saying that since white isn't green, and black isn't green, then white is black.

There's an abyssal distance between this, and putting yourself under complete obedience to the army, which is not at all guaranteed to always fight on the right side, for the right purposes, and by the right means.

Interesting read. One way to summarize all is to say that being a liberal Christian is all about conceiving religion as liberty and freedom. Christianity as a free choice, freedom of choosing to follow Christ's words with your Heart and Reason and Conscience, freedom from external constraints...

There is nothing un-Christian in using force to protect the innocents or your own life if threatened, as long as your intent is to stop the offense and not to specifically kill the offender, although that might happen accidentally (maybe because a gun is the only weapon you had at hand, or...

Interesting... if he refuses, how far are the parents legally allowed to go to force him? Can they use violence, soft (e.g. dragging, slapping) or hard (e.g. punching, clubbing)? If they do, is he legally allowed to defend himself? If they cannot do this or don't succeed, can they request the...

It's probably best not to try imagining it yet. Any mental image we end up with is full of contradictions, especially when you try to factor in both spirit and body. Personally, I'd settle for a copy of life on earth minus death.

Some interesting food for thoughts, but in my opinion he is taking too big a leap from the idea that God's justice must be comprehensible (and I agree with him) to the conclusion that hell must not exist. However, there have been quite a lot of christian theologians reaching the alternative...

I am not so sure that he is legally bound to go to the church however. Frankly I have no idea, but at 16 years old it sounds strange to me that the law doesn't already recognize his own freedom of faith.

Your position is quite similar to where I was 20 years ago, same age and same feelings except for the fact that I wasn't interested in the Anglican church or any other as an alternative. I was under a double threat: my father and his family being very conservative catholics would have been...

I am not convinced by the logical explanation on humans being fallible hence necessarily unable to write one inerrant piece of text each. It doesn't seem that logically consistent to me... if someone happens to write one inerrant sentence, this doesn't make him infallible because he is still...

The need to put God in the center of everything certainly manifests itself as soon as you are with other people (your "neighbor"), as in fact ViaCrucis highlights with his examples. If you're alone in your kitchen making yourself a sandwich, you don't have to worry about making a Christian...

Yes, I am fully part of the RCC. I don't receive the Communion anymore because I have theological disagreements and also because there is 1-2 sins which I haven't repented for. In my experience also no priest has ever told me to leave the Church because of my disagreements, but countless...

I think that human history and the history of the Catholic Church in particular naturally point towards a more liberal future. The Church was once repressive and violent in the middle ages, but later it abandoned concepts such as the inquisition and the holy wars, and that's already a step in...

Well, some people in the Catholic Church talk about the principle of "theological suspension of ethics", but as a liberal catholic I would be more inclined to believe in the "ethical suspension of theology" so go figure... :P

Some unofficial opinions from another catholic here, just food for thoughts... - Also for catholics to confess to God is the most important thing: after all, in a case where there would be no catholic priest around to confess you, it's not reasonable to think you wouldn't be saved if you "only"...

I think there's quite a lot of misuse of the word "potential". I think that an embryo is clearly not "potential" in the same way a non-fertilized egg is. An embryo in mother's womb will became a human being if no one stops it willingly or not (accident). A non-fertilized egg won't, unless...

I more or less disagree about the concept of "fed". I think that for personal growth and improved understanding of the scriptures, a close dedicated group is much better! But HTH is right in the fact that it is also limiting at the same time, because those groups are in my experience always the...

I don't know about others, but I don't certainly believe it's an actual dialogue. I would rather say that by recalling concepts and quotes from the Gospel for example, it works like God is speaking "to me" (rather than "with me") to remind me what is the right thing to do in some circumstances...