(11-06-2013 05:58 PM)grassdragon Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not sure. The point is that most of the US is against abortion. Catholics in particular. The only way it's okay for Catholic to get an abortion is if neither the mother nor the child will survive.
Well , to be fair , you couldn't really pride yourselves in being a "free nation" if you banned it , could you...?
(11-06-2013 05:58 PM)grassdragon Wrote: [ -> ]That all goes back to me being Catholic. I believe in waiting to be married before having children.
Illegitimate babies are babies born out of wedlock.
Eh , still though , that doesn't justify them as being bad. I mean , it doesn't cause problems in any way , does it? people should be free to do what they want. If they're ok with that , i don't see why they shouldn't go ahead. Unless there is an actual reason for it being banned , of course. From what you're saying here though , there doesn't seem to be one...
(11-06-2013 05:58 PM)grassdragon Wrote: [ -> ]Those are a few that I know personally.
There was at least 2 or 3 cases where a 5 year old boy could get a girl pregnant. It seems that exposure to explicit content on television is stimulating puberty earlier and earlier in children. I see children (ages 12 and under) with (almost) fully developed bodies.
5...? I highly doubt this was only because of the tv mate... (or had anything to do with the tv at all , for that matter.) sounds like a lot more than just that. It's not so simple , causing stuff like that to happen , you know? As for 12 year olds with pretty much fully developed bodies , i know. those are extreme cases though , right? also nothing new.
(11-06-2013 05:58 PM)grassdragon Wrote: [ -> ]If they waited until marriage, they wouldn't need contraception. By making it widely available, then it's like it's saying it's okay to have children without being married. Not okay!
I think that's fine. i mean , why not? Any reason?
Anyway , as for Catholics , well , i think
this will be a good read , for any other Christians out there as well. otherwise , pretty much every other problem i have with it that i can think of now is either not directly part of the catholic church , or , has to do with Christianity in general. To be honest , actually , Catholicism does have some things i agree with more than the orthodox church , but there's too much evidence against it (or that
shows that it's been edited quite a lot) that i can't really seriously believe in what it teaches.
Basically , the differences between the two (from
wikipedia)
Quote:The initial differences between the East and West traditions stem from socio-cultural and linguistic divisions in and between the Western Roman and Byzantine Empires. Since the West (that is, Western Europe) spoke Latin as its lingua franca and the East (Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and northern Africa) largely used Koine Greek to transmit writings, theological developments were difficult to translate from one branch to the other. In the course of ecumenical councils (large gatherings of Christian leaders), some church bodies split from the larger family of Christianity. Many earlier heretical groups either died off for lack of followers and/or suppression by the church at large (such as Apollinarians, Montanists, and Ebionites).
The first significant, lasting split in historic Christianity came from the Church of the East, who left following the Christological controversy over Nestorianism in 431 (the Assyrians in 1994 released a common Christological statement with the Roman Catholic Church). Today, the Assyrian and Roman Catholic Church view this schism as largely linguistic, due to problems of translating very delicate and precise terminology from Latin to Aramaic and vice-versa (see Council of Ephesus). Following the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the next large split came with the Syrian and Alexandrian (Egyptian or Coptic) churches dividing themselves, with the dissenting churches becoming today's Oriental Orthodoxy. (A similar Christological statement was made between Pope John Paul II and Syriac patriarch Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, as well as between representatives of both Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy.)
There has been a claim that the Chalcedonian Creed restored Nestorianism, however this is refuted by maintaining the following distinctions associated with the person of Christ: two hypostases, two natures (Nestorian); one hypostasis, one nature (Monophysite); one hypostasis, two natures (Orthodox/Catholic).[4]
Although the church as a whole didn't experience any major divisions for centuries afterward, the Eastern and Western groups drifted until the point where patriarchs from both families excommunicated one another in about 1054 in what is known as the Great Schism. The political and theological reasons for the schism are complex, but one major controversy was the inclusion and acceptance in the West of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed, which the East viewed as erroneous. Another was the definition of papal primacy. Both West and East agreed that the patriarch of Rome was owed a "primacy of honour" by the other patriarchs (those of Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Jerusalem), but the West also contended that this primacy extended to jurisdiction, a position rejected by the Eastern patriarchs. Various attempts at dialogue between the two groups would occur, but it was only in the 1960s, under Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, that significant steps began to be made to mend the relationship between the two.
East Wrote:In the Eastern world, the largest body of believers in modern times is the Eastern Orthodox Church, sometimes imprecisely called "Greek Orthodox" because from the time of Christ through the Byzantine empire, Greek was the common language (Greek Orthodox actually refers to only one portion of the entire Orthodox Church). The Eastern Orthodox Church believes itself to be the continuation of the original Christian church established by Jesus Christ, and the Apostles. They consider themselves to be spiritually one body while administratively they are grouped into several autocephalous councils. They do not recognize any single bishop as universal church leader, but rather each bishop governs only his own diocese. The Patriarch of Constantinople is known as the Ecumenical Patriarch, and holds the title "first among equals" meaning only that if a great council is called, the Patriarch sits as president of the council. He has no more power than any other bishop. Currently, the largest synod with the most members is the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Oriental Orthodox Churches are organized in a similar manner, with six national autocephalous groups and two autonomous bodies. Although the region of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea has had a strong body of believers since the infancy of Christianity, these regions only gained autocephaly in 1963 and 1994 respectively. Since these groups are relatively obscure in the West, literature on them has sometimes included the Assyrian Church of the East as a part of the Oriental Orthodox Communion, but the Assyrians have maintained theological, cultural, and ecclesiastical independence from all other Christian bodies since 431. It is administered in a hierarchical model not entirely unlike the Catholic Church, with the head of the church being the Patriarch Catholicos of the Assyrian Church of the East, since 1976 HH Mar Dinkha IV. Due to oppression, the church's headquarters is in Chicago, Illinois, rather than the Middle East, though some believers remain there. Even within this small group, there was another split to the Ancient Church of the East, and a rival Catholicos (Patriarch) in California.
There are also the Eastern Catholic Churches, which are counterparts of the various Churches listed above, in that they preserve the same theological and liturgical traditions as they do. But they differ from their Orthodox mother Churches in that they recognize the Bishop of Rome as the universal head of the Church. Though adherents of Eastern Catholicism are fully part of the Catholic communion, most do not to use the term "Roman Catholic" to describe themselves, associating that name instead with members of the Latin Church. Rather, they prefer to use the name of whichever Church they belong to—Ukrainian Catholic, Coptic Catholic, Chaldean Catholic, etc.
West Wrote:The Latin portion of the Catholic Church, along with Anglicanism and Protestantism, comprise the three major divisions of Christianity in the Western world. However, Roman Catholics do not describe themselves as a denomination but rather as the original Holy and Universal Church; which all other branches broke off from in schism. The Baptist, Methodist, and Lutheran churches are generally considered to be Protestant denominations, although strictly speaking, of these three, only the Lutherans took part in the official Protest after the decree of the Second Diet of Speyer mandated the burning of Luther's works and the end of the Protestant Reformation. Anglicanism was generally classified as Protestant, but since the "Tractarian" or Oxford Movement of the 19th century, led by John Henry Newman, Anglican writers emphasize a more catholic understanding of the church and characterize it as more properly understood as its own tradition—a via media ("middle way"), both Protestant and Catholic. The American province of the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church USA, describes itself as a modern via media church in this tradition. A case is sometimes also made to regard Lutheranism in a similar way, considering the catholic character of its foundational documents (the Augsburg Confession and other documents contained in the Book of Concord) and its existence prior to the Anglican, Anabaptist, and Reformed churches, from which nearly all other Protestant denominations derive.
One central tenet of Catholicism (whether Roman Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and some other denominations), is its practice of Apostolic Succession. "Apostle" means "one who is sent out". Jesus commissioned the first twelve apostles (see Biblical Figures for the list of the Twelve), and they, in turn laid hands on subsequent church leaders to ordain (commission) them for ministry. In this manner, Roman Catholics and Anglicans trace their ordained ministers all the way back to the original Twelve. Roman Catholics believe that the Pope has authority which can be traced directly to the apostle Peter whom they hold to be the original head of and first Pope of the Church. There are smaller churches, such as the Old Catholic Church which rejected the definition of Papal Infallibility at the First Vatican Council, and Anglo-Catholics, Anglicans who believe that Anglicanism is a continuation of historical Catholicism and who incorporate many Catholic beliefs and practices. The Catholic Church refers to itself simply by the terms Catholic and Catholicism (which mean universal). The Catholic Church has traditionally rejected any notion that those outside its communion can be regarded as part of any true Catholic Christian faith. Catholicism has a hierarchical structure in which supreme authority for matters of faith and practice are the exclusive domain of the Pope, who sits on the Throne of Peter, and the bishops when acting in union with him. Most Catholics are unaware of the existence of Old Catholicism which represents a relatively recent split from the Catholic Church and is particularly vocal in rejecting their use of the term Catholic.
Makes them seem even , right? however , if you look up info on all 12 apostles...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Andrew
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_son_of_Zebedee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Apostle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_the_Apostle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_the_Apostle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Apostle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_son_of_Alphaeus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_the_A...h_Thaddeus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_the_Zealot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Iscariot
and generally the more clear your vision of history is... well , i don't know , read for yourself.
It all comes down to history. and the finer details.
anyway ,
i like Victiny. Genesect. Kyurem is also nice.
Are you done with your exams yet?