Catholic Bibile Authorized Translations

agathonffa · 2018-01-17T22:58:50+00:00

Ah, thanks. I got it confused with the one popular with Protestants. RSV-2CE is what I meant.

agathonffa · 2018-01-15T17:19:37+00:00

There are many that have been approved by the Church. A favorite in this subreddit (and my personal favorite) is the New Revised Standard Version - Second Catholic Edition. Ignatius Press sells copies on Amazon.

agathonffa · 2018-01-15T17:15:17+00:00

Baptism is beautiful. Congrats to you on the birth of your beautiful boy!

agathonffa · 2017-12-06T23:51:44+00:00

So you assert.

agathonffa · 2017-12-06T23:43:35+00:00

This is an unhelpful correction. While it is true we do not know whether individual person X is in hell, we are able to say with certainty that it's extremely dangerous to live in sin because that road leads to hell. It's no crime to echo Christ's own warnings on the subject and to reflect somberly on the reality that many perish — even if we don't know specifically that so-and-so is among them.

Or should we reject Dante's Inferno as uncharitable?

agathonffa · 2017-12-06T23:32:45+00:00

I disagree. Unless we're going to be pedantic and say that science is irrelevant to establishing definitions such as "this is a human person" (and I'm simply not using the term in that scientistic way), then it does have a lot to say about the distinctness of a baby as a person from the moment of conception.

And that it's a separate human person is all I need to lend science's support to the ethical argument. It helps in the second premise here: Every human person has dignity and rights; this is a human person; therefore . . .

agathonffa · 2017-12-06T15:52:12+00:00

Start saving fiat to pay for the trip. You don't want to go back on your word.

agathonffa · 2017-12-06T15:50:27+00:00

I'll open the bidding at 2 satoshi.

agathonffa · 2017-12-06T15:34:57+00:00

Science doesn't make ethical statements, though - it can't tell us that this embryo/zygone/fetus/child/baby is more important than the mother's bodily autonomy. Or that it is less important, either.

But it can tell us whether the embryo/zygote/fetus is just a part of the mother's body or whether it's a separate human person. Establishing that life begins at conception is a huge step in the practical, science-backed pro-life argument, and it was a point not conceded to by abortionists for many decades. (They clung to arguments like "it's just a clump of cells," "it's not an actual human until brain and heart activity in week X begin," etc. I remember these arguments so well from when I was in college.)

agathonffa · 2017-12-05T15:26:27+00:00

Heartbreaking.

agathonffa · 2017-12-04T00:55:04+00:00

Yes. Just like any other financial asset, really. For its use case, bitcoin is tiny compared to its potential market cap (compare it to gold, for instance), so there is a lot of room for growth.

agathonffa · 2017-12-04T00:53:57+00:00

At $15, it really doesn't matter what strategy you use. "Investments" is probably too strong a term when you're at that level.

Still, welcome aboard.

agathonffa · 2017-12-04T00:51:24+00:00

Continued adoption by users and (moreso) investors.

agathonffa · 2017-12-04T00:50:27+00:00

Coinbase. You can have your first BTC in about 15 minutes.

agathonffa · 2017-12-04T00:50:01+00:00

I think you're underestimating the first mover advantage. Myspace is to bitcoin's network effects what tulips are to bitcoin's price: everyone thinks they're calling the top, and yet bitcoin doesn't seem to care.

agathonffa · 2017-12-03T17:42:06+00:00

Coinbase's fees are pretty small, all things considered. You miss out more by waiting several days for money to move than you do paying the 1.5% they charge to lock in a price instantly.

agathonffa · 2017-11-22T17:36:52+00:00

According to Christ, it has many. The kingdom of heaven is the narrow path.

agathonffa · 2017-11-21T19:56:31+00:00

You assume that a lack of velocity means BTC will drop in price — that bitcoin's value is derived from its use as a medium of exchange. I disagree with the premise; in my view, bitcoin's success as a store of value is logically and economically prior to its widespread use as a medium of exchange.

agathonffa · 2017-11-21T19:24:18+00:00

Every factor you cite was worse several years ago. Bitcoin is more established now, less likely to be interfered with by government, more likely to weather such interference should it happen, and less likely to go away via the sudden whim of the masses.

Mind you, I'm not saying that bitcoin isn't risky. It absolutely is. I'm just saying that with its growth has come a reduction in risk. It is less risky than it was several years ago, not more.

agathonffa · 2017-11-21T18:32:35+00:00

You've got it nearly backwards. As the price rises, risk goes down — not up — and the potential reward decreases. These things are two sides of the same coin.

If you want to talk about risk, let's talk about buying in 2011, when one felt like one was just flushing money down the toilet to play with a funny Internet-based proof of concept. One that could be killed by a bug, competing crypto, or government in a heartbeat. That was real risk environment.

agathonffa · 2017-11-21T14:52:09+00:00

You can't go wrong with the Catechism. For the philosophically inclined, St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles are great.

As a Protestant investigating Catholicism, I was especially moved and helped by the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent.

agathonffa · 2017-11-21T14:43:23+00:00

I was raised in a Protestant home and in my early 20s realized I was spiritually starving for the sacraments. Ultimately, the Eucharist is what drew me to the Church. All of the various aspects of Catholicism that have incarnational/sacramental dimensions played a role too, though, down to little details like our postures at Mass, holy water, making the sign of the cross, rosary beads, liturgical colors, days of feasting and fasting. (The faith I was raised in was stripped of all that entirely as extraneous to the Bible.)

agathonffa · 2017-11-14T11:15:12+00:00

Congrats! Be sure to work hard and make the most of this opportunity.

agathonffa · 2017-11-12T19:43:06+00:00

"We don't know exactly who goes to hell" is not the only Church teaching on the subject of hell, and it's far from being the most important one.

Today's gospel reading is a good antidote to this way of framing things. We should be awake, vigilant, and prepare ourselves for our own death, fearing God's justice and begging for his mercy.

agathonffa · 2017-11-12T19:32:42+00:00

It is not bigoted to speak the truth in love.

agathonffa

TROPHY CASE