Reply #134: If someone was foolish enough to think that the book was fact [View All]

[YOY]

I've got a whole bunch of real estate in Florida they might be interested in. Anyone who sources a fictional book as an argument has every right to be laughed off the podium in a debate.

If someone is foolish enough to do that, then they have earned my pity and would get exactly the explanation that I gave you: It is sold in the fiction section for a reason.

We do not ban, protest, or burn books in the 21st century no matter how we dislike them. If you consider thought to be dangerous then you were born in the wrong century. End of discussion.

You fail to recognize why the sacrament of confession was implemented and that of silly pennance...which thankfully has mostly fallen to the wayside (last time I went there was none of that 'say 10 Hail Mary tripe...yeah that'll do something: waste my/God's time with repetition instead of resolution.) I consider it to be the nasty source of the major failing/greatest control methods of the Catholic Church: Catholic Guilt. We should be celebrating our faith and not fearing it. I dislike being told that I have sinned when in all reality, I have not. That old sense of guilt, is something that Catholics must learn to do without. While other faiths celebrate their faith we seem to regret ours with some odd sense of palpable fear of transgressions that are barely worth of note. If anything I have done right by most people and that should be commended instead of talking to a priest about my rather human shortcomings. Beyond that it moreover always seemed like lip service of penitence and did not guarantee any real absolution within oneself. Real forgiveness always seems to come from forgiving yourself and striving to not repeat transgressions. I recall having this same argument with a Holy Roller back in Catholic High School.

He tried to shame me for thinking outside of the box with a 'How Dare you!!!"

As I recall he had knocked up his girlfriend and married her shortly after we graduated. He now spends most of his time protesting outside of abortion clinics instead of trying to actually make the world a better place so that the there wouldn't be a reason why people would not want to bring a child into this world. I suppose we all have to justify our actions and existence with our faith....

Opus Dei adheres to a specific interpretation of the faith. I adhere to mine. If that makes me a non-Catholic in their eyes, then shame on them for further splintering the Church. It is meant to be a broad tent and the narrow minded forget that.