[QUOTE=Formendacil]It's my life, what can I say? If I take it personally, it's because it is personal... though that really doesn't mean that I should GET personal
Okay... I'm really curious how Catholicism being Christianity is only "at least 2/3 historically certain"- and not because I wish to argue the matter, but in light you being the first one (if I recall) to point out to Legolas-I-S that Catholics are Christian... Very curious indeed....
I cannot express my utter dread and horror at the idea of not having an afterlife. What POINT is there to life, if this short span -so easily ended in a car accident or a medical breakdown- is all we get.
Call me whatever you like... the very idea gives me the jibblies.
Well, I'm not a fundamentalist... I subscribe, perhaps, to a more literal interpretation of things than several of you here appear to, but I wouldn't call it a fundamentalist's position. Context, both within the writing and when it was written, has to be taken into account.
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Rightio, first of all please bear in mind that I shoved my ten pennorth in to this thread partly because I felt that a certain person's ludicrous statement was potentially offensive to Catholics ..... not everyone who is not with you is against you.....
but I beginning to wish I had kept my woolly liberal mouth shut.
Second "Jesus Christ was Crucified, Died, and was Buried, and that He Rose Again from the Dead" was the thing I referred to as being 2/3 certain, Catholics being Christians as objective fact and the status of the Bible as being subjective. Actually I should have said 3/4 but I was in a rush and lumped dead and buried together. pretty good historical evidence for the Life and death of Jesus and for all my issues with taking the bible to literally (and I have a whole load more having read some of the Old Testament last night as research!!!) I used to be able to say the creed in good conscience.
This life ain't so bad - and anyone able to surf the net isn't doing badly on the scheme of things. I have had some difficult thing happen as most people do if they live long enough, but I don't want to go in to that now or the reasons for my lapse - if you want to know PM me - but you appreciate it so much more if you think it is all you are going to get. I am so much happier now I no longer beat myself up for my failure to be perfect. I don't behave any less morally now than I did but I certainly seize the day more rather than banking on an afterlife to make up for the bad sides of this life. It would be lovely to believe I would be reunited after death with those I have loved and lost but I can't. Believing this life is all there is doen't have to turn you in to a selfish hedonist it can make you more compassionate and concerned with people's immediate needs rather than their eternal salvation - isn't he Christian Aid slogan "We believe in life before death"....