Fellow Church People

[MartyMuppets]

Well I do believe as a Catholic that the days of creation could very well be six literal 24 hour periods, then again they could be figurative for God could well have created everything in very brief instants.

And I certainly do agree that God did not use evolution to create us. He made everything exactly the way it separately is.

 

[Pork]

I'm very gald to hear you don't believe in evolution. Just a question....why Catholic?

 

[MartyMuppets]

Well I used to be Protestant and a member of the Church of England in Australia (now known as the Anglican Church) with my mother.
We were devout Anglicans living with my Grandmother and Aunt on her side who didn't practice religion. Then to put it simply we had some family quarrels after a few years and our priest had just recently left and a lot of the zeal for God had sadly left our parish. And that certainly didn't help the stress and strain of our family conflicts. So then I started going to a nearby Catholic Church originally because it was convenient for some spiritual nurturing. I slowly started to feel at home there so I decided to join. I went through their membership classes and was confirmed. I slowly came to accept the basic church's teaching. I know that some protestants say that we Catholics, I say we for I now class myself as one, believe some very wrong things. But the way they've been explained to me I have no problem with them at all.

For example some say we are guilty of idolatry by worshipping the Saints especially Mary. But officially that's not what our priests teach us at all. We are taught that we can ask Mary and the other Saints to pray to God face to face in Heaven about things that concern us, but we must not sin against God by worshipping them instead of or in addition to Him.

That's all I'll say for now but since I've been living in my own unit and been involved with my church Mum and I have been blessed with reconciliation with God and each other and relations with our other family is also much improved. So I do believe God worked through my Catholic conversion to restore us. Hallelujah.

 

[Pork]

Thanks for you explanation. Have you ever heard of a book called 50 years in the church of Rome?

 

[MartyMuppets]

No I haven't. Is it a good book?

 

[Pork]

It's very informative. It's a biography that a guy named Chinuquy wrote ( I don't think I spelt that name right). I have read almost all of it (it's quite long and I'm a slow reader) and have made up my mind that there are some very wrong things in the Catholic Church. One being transubstantiation (if I spelt that right).

 

[MartyMuppets]

Fair enough Pork. We all have our own ideas about Christianity and what the Bible truly teaches. Can I just nicely request that we drop this course of discussion please? If you would like to have a friendly debate with me then feel free to PM me. It's just as Kevin AKA Fozzie Bear has said earlier in this thread that he doesn't want this to become inflammatory or in other words a place where we get into fights and put each other down.

I certainly wouldn't want this thread I started to be closed. I hope you understand and if I get a PM from you we can talk about this book some more.

 

[Super Scooter]

Well I do believe as a Catholic that the days of creation could very well be six literal 24 hour periods, then again they could be figurative for God could well have created everything in very brief instants.

I'm inclined to believe the days were figurative. It makes alot of what scientists have discovered go along quite nicely with the Bible, and I've always felt science and religion kind of co-exist. After all, who came first, Job or Columbus? Er, by that a mean that fact that the book of Job describes the earth as being round.

Anyway, the reason I choose to believe in figurative days, and not just because I like dinosaurs, is found at Psalms 90:4:

"For a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past"​

There's another verse like this at 2 Peter 3:8. However, there's another reason noted in the Genesis account, at chapter 2 verse 4:

"This is a history of the heavens and the earth in the time of their being created, in the day that God made earth and heaven."​

Even if you believe creation days were literal, the term "day" is being used figuratively in this verse. Therefore, the word "day" in the Bible can refer simply to a period of time.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I'm inclined to believe the days were figurative. It makes alot of what scientists have discovered go along quite nicely with the Bible, and I've always felt science and religion kind of co-exist. After all, who came first, Job or Columbus? Er, by that a mean that fact that the book of Job describes the earth as being round.

I agree, science and religion do go together in many ways. Just like in the play Inherit the Wind; in the end, we need both. Evolution doesn't contradict my religion for me. I do believe God gave us our minds so we could learn and figure out things. If Evolution is correct, then something had to have caused it. And I believe that something (or someone) was God. But Genesis is also important, because it shows God's need and desire to create and provide for his people.

In any case, no matter how long it took, or how it happened, the world was definitely created. And if you're religious, you believe that, somehow, God caused it to happen. We all agree on that much.

That's interesting about Job, do you know where that is mentioned? Of course, in any case, we know Columbus wasn't the first either; the ancient Greeks also seemed to have written that the world was round.

And yes, we should debate in a respectful, friendly way. I don't want the thread to be closed. This is my point of view. Not everyone shares it, that's cool. You don't have to agree, but I ask for respect.

Anyway, that's my two cents, I'm done with this topic, bye! (Not with the world is round topic, since we do know the world is round, hehe.)

 

[Super Scooter]

Whoops! Not Job. Isaiah. Here's where I got the two confused...

First, Job 26:7 (still a thought ahead of it's time):

"He is stretching out the north over the empty place, hanging the earth upon nothing."​

And, Isaiah 40:22 (the verse I was thinking of):

"There is one who is dwelling above the circle of the earth..."​

Incidentally, later in chapter 26 of Job, in verse 10, it reads: "He has described a circle upon the face of the waters..." I suppose this might be talking about the earth being a circle, but I'm not sure. I'd have to do some research on that.