attofishpi wrote: ↑Mon Dec 09, 2024 8:24 am
...as I said, clearly that form of Christianity (proven to myself) is genuine (Catholicism).
Okay, you're a Catholic. Got it. And for you, Catholicism = Christianity.
But you mock the central Catholic ceremony, the Mass, and you mock its doctrine of transubstantiation, -- and if I can say this factually and without intending any insult, just as a matter of definition, would this not make you, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, a heretic and a blasphemer? Their theology says you would be, since nothing is more sacred, to their thinking, than the Mass.
I'm just asking from a Catholic perspective, not my own. As I say, I don't believe in transubstantiation, and Mass is a Catholic thing. I'm trying to figure out what sort of Catholicism you are advocating as genuine, given your manifest contempt for the central Catholic "sacrament."
Immanuel Can wrote:atto wrote:I'm wondering how you would certify to yourself, or prove to yourself, that a particular form of alleged Christianity was genuine.
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Same quest_ion - directed at you my man..
And I can answer it. But I don't yet have an answer to my own question to you, so I'll answer afterward, if I may.
I know you have many many reservations about Catholicism.
I do. And I'm not shy about that, though I would absolutely respect the basic human right people have to believe what they decide to believe, and live and die accordingly. Still, if I didn't have serious reservations, then I would obviously choose to be a Catholic myself, wouldn't I? So I think that deduction's pretty obvious.
But I still would like that answer, if you have one...how do you satisfy yourself that the form of what you call Christianity is genuine? After all, there are outright cults that have misappropriated that name, from time to time, are there not? Would we not both recognize that fact? Therefore, you and I need some means to evaluate the justification of anybody's claim to represent "Christianity," do we not?
So how do you suggest that should be done?