I did a Google search for "Catholic versus Christian" just to see what other people argue about when it comes to the differences. A majority of sites I saw in the results are essentially "WTF, that's such a dumb question, of course they're the same." The more I'm reading these results, it really does seem like such a petty and irrelevant debate.

"The three largest groups in the world of Christianity are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the various churches of Protestantism." (Wikipedia)

"The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, claiming more than a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity." (Wikipedia)

It seems pretty clear that all the various denominations that have come from Christianity are inherently Christian in that they originated from that same set of beliefs. Each of them believe in the same God and savior, though their own interpretation of the Bible may be different.

Catholic is derivative of Christan belief. Its like having "vanilla with coke" or "vanilla with vanilla coke". Sure there's a small difference but in essence their the same.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 25 2011, 4:29 pm by Tempz.

Yeah, if vanilla coke came before any other type of coke, that might be a good analogy.

Yeah, I was thinking that myself. Should probably be the comparison of regular Coke to Cherry Coke or Vanilla Coke.

You have the three abrahamic religions: Judiasm, Christianity, Islam.

Christianty took off Judiasm, and Islam took off both.

Then you have different Christian sects, of which Catholicism is the largest and oldest.


What Jack should be doing is instead of saying X religion ISN'T Christian you should simply say X religion isn't [Insert your sect's name here]. Hmmm, but that would be obvious, wouldn't it? Maybe you should just drop the entire 'argument' altogether.

Perhaps we can clear up this whole misunderstanding. The graphs I originally presented do not show "true" Christians, or the levels of people who practice Christianity, but rather the percentage of the population who identify themselves as Christian. I feel that it is within my right to say, then, that I poke fun at those who identify themselves as Christian. It should be a sufficient answer for the question as to why Christianity is poked fun of the most: it is because some 76% of the American population (or something) identify themselves as being Christian. And by and by, most denominations use the same bible, but different interpretations.

My claiming that the story of creation done in six literal days being silly does not apply to those Christians (or who identify as such) who do not believe that this is true. It isn't so much as targeting Christianity as a whole, since that is impossible, but instead targeting those who follow a specific belief. In fact, making the jump into saying that I am attacking Christianity as a whole after I attack the creation story is a strange jump in logic. I am attacking a singular belief among many that identify themselves as Christian beliefs. From this, I do not believe I could possibly attack all of Christianity, or even want to.

I consider myself to be a Christian, and a Chrsitian only. I do not identify with any sect, because I don't do anything that isn't written in the Bible. I personaly view most groups that vary from the actual text of the Bible, especially Catholocism, to be quite ritualistic in some cases, bordering on idolotry. That's not to say it's wrong to do something the Bible doesn't specifically tell you to do, but these outlying groups shouldn't be directly contradicting it either.
ie. Worshiping Mary is a no-no (idol worship) Baptizing babies is ok, but it really has no meaning. Molesting children is an obvious no. (duh)

Just a reminder to everyone that the topic isn't about who is to be considered a Christian, but why it is ok to attack Christianity as a whole.
I'm just going to give you a hint (there is no right answer) It's not ok. The masses should never be judged by the actions of the few. Ever.

You mistake veneration with worship.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with thee; blessed are thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Notice line two. Mary is the Mother of God, not God.

I get the impression you think Catholics just made up a bunch of rituals just for the hell of it. Catholicism is the result of thousands of years of religious ceremony. Everything that we do today is rooted in tradition. The Pope didn't declare one day that the Eucharist was going to be given during mass and everyone just went along with it. Protestants threw off all of the old traditions of the Church, giving the impression to non-Catholics that the Catholics are ritualistic weirdos.

The reason people target Christianity might be because a small sect of Christianity does something ridiculous. Then "regular" people ridicule those of the "strange" sect and paint all Christians with the face of the radicals.

Also, everyone who posted in the last three pages should check their PM box. I summarized Jack's argument, but it's not exactly the most proper thing to post in SD.

Rituals bring enjoyment and fulfillment, which to many people brings happiness. Catholicism made up a bunch of stuff in order to be happy. Most protestant churches also simply redesigned the outer portion of the service. The structure is still the same.

Fine vanilla coke or regular coke...

@whoever started the ritual thing
Its stupid to think that something of the same flavor would be radically different; why would one religion practice ridiculous "rituals". There just praying to god and listening to people talk about god. its the same for most religions: Pray every once in a while then leave. Anyone who says otherwise either belongs to a crazy religion or is plain crazy.

I however reserve the right to respect any culture you are apart of, i am open to my ideals and you are open to yours. I've tried several religions and its just not for me.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 27 2011, 6:08 pm by Tempz.

Religion is supposed to be more than 9:15 mass once a week. You're sort of implying that's all it is. This may be true for some or most people, but that isn't what it is.

Well from my perspective it was boring so that's why i became atheist (Buddhist, Christan (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox))but you are open to your opinion and i am open to mine. I also edited the post to make it less rude, sorry if i offended you in any way.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 27 2011, 8:22 pm by Tempz.

Tempz, I'm really sorry you had a bad experience with whatever church you visited.

One of the reasons so many churches are dieing nowadays, is that they are boring, especially for kids. They don't do anything to relate to the youth. I think it's something like 8/10 kids stop going to church when they go to college. It's quite sad really; they sit in their pews and read some songs out of a book together, and then they sit down and pretend to listen to some old guy talk for an hour. They really don't get anything out of the whole experience.

For me, being at church is the best part of my week. We play games, we're loud, and we learn something along the way. While church is definetly about God, but people tend to forget that it is also about community. You can't imagine how much of a difference it Makes.

Well that and someone dear and near to me was targeted for a cult; we got him out thank god and that just made me more atheist than anything.

As for the community thing, atheists have communal experiences as well. There is nothing beneficial that religions can provide that can't be provided through reasonable means.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 30 2011, 4:48 pm by DevliN. Reason: Took out the part that was not up to par with the SD rules.

As being a person who goes to a catholic schooling institution, I believe I could speak for them, despite not being catholic myself.

They teach us that if you go to a confession without the intention of not only RIGHTING your wrongs but also not doing the sin again, then the confession never amounted to anything.

So therefore, by that logic, it's not a "rinse/repeat" thing.

All coke has vanilla in it. Vanilla coke is just Coke with MORE vanilla.

I love me some vanilla coke.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 30 2011, 8:54 pm by TiKels.

I sorry if this sounds blunt/ignorant, but where are these atheistic communal experiences? Could you provide some examples of said communal experiences? I know you probably will be able to find some examples, but, at least to me, they seem to be far and few in-between. And what's to say that atheist communal experiences are as good as Christian/religious ones?


From personal experience, the private university that i'm currently attending is well-known for the students' great attitude and kindness they show to the people in the surrounding community. When people who are working nearby ask where I am attending, and I say the name of the university, they perk up and just seem to get happier. And we ourselves are a very tight student body too (granted there are less than 2,000 students attending, so it's kind of small).


I heard a story on campus that when one person brought their friend, who was currently attending a different campus, to our school, he said that he wished his campus had the same level of brotherhood. I myself have been enjoying this great comradery and haven't regretted one moment of attending here.
_________________

It's just hard for me to imagine that a public/state college or university could provide such an atmosphere because everyone attending is there for their own ambitions. Sure people will make friends with many others, but overall the community of atheists would still most likely not be as cohesive and brotherly towards each other.





I know this kind of veered from the question regarding the communal experience of a church (in the post previous of Oh_Man's) and that maybe the subject of colleges/universities as an example for the argument isn't the best, but I just thought that since i'm attending a private university, that could work as an ample substitute for the church. I mean, we have service everyday each weekday, so it's pretty much a church communal experience already.

No we don't.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 31 2011, 6:39 am by Sacrieur.

It's due to the familiarity with the religion as most around in north america etc. are Christians when they are religious, the outspokenness of some prominent Christians particularly some of the more reprehensible ones, as well as some of the driven issues that those who mostly speak on the side of eliminating the rights involved being christian.
Also involved is the lack of familiarity with the other religions and the whole aspect of political correctness, for example "dont attack muslims, they're not all terrorists! That's racist!" or "How dare you say that about jews! They had to endure the holocaust!" or "That's intolerant about other religions!"

Personally, anyone that comes up to me and says any crazy shit will recieve a spoonful of hard logic, which when I deliver, is as heavy as said amount of a neutron star. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Scientologist (might get sued from them though lol) or Raelian.