Before I start the main theme of this Topic; I would just like to state that I admire people who properly follow any religion, and especially admire their faith. I would also like to say that, as yet, I am agnostic.

Also, the main objective of this topic is to clear up a few things that have become apparent during my study of Christianity, in particular Roman Catholics. And not, as it may appear to some readers, to criticise the religion.

Firstly, my understanding of the time after Jesus death is that he died, was laid to rest in a tomb given to him by a rich man, and then a stone was rolled across the entrance.

When he 'rose from the dead', the first witnesses to this were the 'Holy Women', Mary Magdelene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. If Christianity can be defined as the belief that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, then surely these women, the first witnesses, were also the first christians?

If this is true, then why does the Roman Catholic faith not permit women priests??

Also, Jesus preached that the only way to get into heaven was poverty, seving others, and humility (see the widows' offering, andthe rich young man, Mark's Gospel). Why, therefore, is the Roman Catholic Church one of, if not the richest organisations in the world??

I will leave it as this for now, and if I get a decent response, then I will post some more topics.

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bYe ByE bAbY...
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I love it when they use logic..

Answer: It would take the partriarchal leadership allowing such a thing as female priests, which meant giving women power, which meant.. well.. that it wasn't about to happen. Plus, they were, and are, as greedy as anyone else; they just use religion to get their money instead of business scams or whatever else.

Actually, in Greece, it was common for priests to be women. In fact, most priests were women, and the reason was because most churchs were set in the home. The temples were used for other worshiping purposes, and since the home generally was the womans domain, the women ran the home churchs. But, that's not Catholism. You're right as far as Catholism goes. I believe it's mostly a reflection on the European patriarcle society, really.

Cheers,
Lost

Right, I suppose that's a half-decent response, so here's a new question... how come the Roman Catholic Church is so outdated? The present pope still refuses to let R.C's use contraception, and because of this, thousands (probably more) of devout R.C's in the third world are dying of Aids. Logical?? I think not. But then again, as Monty Python put it; 'Every Sperm is Sacred...'.
Oh, by the way, Spiffy, are you R.C?

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bYe ByE bAbY...
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[This message has been edited by MoRt (edited 04-24-2001).]

I ran far away from church the instant I got the chance. I'm gonna be a Zen master when I grow up.

My mum put me in a Catholic school (even though I'm Jewish) once when I was a kid and by the end of the first week they were trying to stone me to death at lunch time. So, personally, Catholism frightens me. But, I know a lot of Catholics, in fact I have an uncle who teaches Catholism.

My understanding about Catholism and why it is so backwards, on a whole is Control. It is Control with a capital C. What I figure is that they saw the people of other religions and they took the nice pieces of those religions: Messianic Judaism, mostly and then added a lot of bloody images and scary rules about Heaven and Hell and demons.

The Catholic church has a system down, and a lot of the religion is very beautiful in a very gothic sort of way. I will never understand why they turn they're idol into a car air freshener, but they have a way of controlling people and at the same time being able to reach their own - shall we say - Nirvana, in a way, through rules, Control, and hardship.

Cheers,
Lost

Okay Mort, i'll give you an answer to why there aren't any female preists in the Catholic religion. I think it's a question of survival. A moral judge ,what a reist basically is, should be celibate because if he did "do the beast with the two backs", he might not be compleatly impartial in any moral debates, favoring his sexual partner.

Now if you are a small community aiming at survival, what member of your parish would you choose to become a preist and therefore celibate? A woman who is pregnant for 9 months and can effectively raise a child or a man, who's nothing more than a sperm bag on wheels in the evolutionary game who can be easely replaced?

a question that i have, didn't the roman catholic church adopt hell from pagan religion? then christianity sperated itself from the roman catholic? is this true?

Redrover... Cheerz, good point. Here's a new one. Marriage guidance... how the hell can a celibate priest advise/tell people what to do, on the subject of marriage. Technically, these guidelines have been made up by celibate priests, (like I said, technically), and as such, they will have little or no personal knowledge of marriage, so all they can do is read from a book.

Does this make sense to anyone? I know there are agencies such as Relate, that are connected with the church, and run by married couples, but preists shouldn't give marriage guidance.

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bYe ByE bAbY...
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You guys are giving the church too much credit.

Europe was dominated by patriarchal leadership through the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, all the way up to the 20th century. For most of the time, in most of those places (including America after it was formed), the leadership of the church had a major role in the politics of the area. They had enough problems competing with each other for power; what possible reason could compel them to allow the "weaker sex" opportunity to take power away from them as well?

[This message has been edited by Spiffy McBang (edited 04-25-2001).]

I think that a preist is like anun, married to god type of thing (yeah, I know that the chatholic church is against homosexuality but since when is god a man?) because he has love for god and all human beings. Because marriage is a matter of love, he is a good judge of it.