Something for discussion

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@ BTA:

Even as a nominal Christian, I have no desire to slavishly attach my values to those of an institution which I feel is not 100% relevant to me. I don't think there needs to be division of religion based on doctrine and observation - I think that these things have polluted the ideals of Christianity. Of course, that's entirely subjective, and since I work off the eleventh Commandment (IIRC, towards the end of the Book of John) as the basic principle of Christian faith, people are welcome to criticise me. Even so, Kerry's point that his faith should not be imposed on everybody is a perfectly valid one - what's right for me isn't necessarily right for you, so what right do I have to force a belief on those who do not share it?

In a nutshell: you can believe in the principles of a faith, but not always agree with it. To expect followers of a religion to unquestioningly accept everything the Church says is to blindly accept the word of human beings and a human institution who acts as the voice of God, but which has no evidence of a link to the divine (and yes, I am familiar with aspects of papal history and selection). If you are comfortable with that, more power to you. I am not.

 

It isn't a social issues as much as it is a product of a free thinking mind. I used my family and my wife's family as an example. However, having been an altar boy and all, I've met dozens upon dozens of Catholics, and know a great many personally. All I'm saying is that far more Catholics are like me - they consider themselves followers of the religion, but don't believe things like birth control are wrong. There is a much smaller subset who are more like Chev. I'm not saying one way is right and one way is wrong. If I were to place a reason on this I would have to say that most people like myself beleive the Catholic Church is way behind on the times, and that we cannot embrace it fully until it brings itself at least into the 20th century, if not the 21st.