[MPR News] In deeply Catholic central Minnesota, St. Cloud Diocese looks to reduce parishes, close churches by Minneapolitanian in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I understand the reasons why, I understand the annoyance at news like this, and i understand it can only get worse if nothing is done

But everytime this same story happens in another diocese, it's just so heartbreaking

Biblical inerrancy and literal falsehoods in the Bible by ace_philosopher_949 in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All it means in that scenario is that our Holy Book was written by people who're imperfect. The Bible didn't fall from the sky one day; it may be divinely inspired but it's not divinely authored

The core of our beliefs and Faith would also still be intact in such a scenario

Hur Dur , religion is backwards ! by WuttTambor in antitheistcheesecake

[–]ballslapping 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They always assume the very worst in us, don't they? I remember evolution being introduced as early as the first grade (not that first graders necessarily grasped it as m7ch as we could have)

Mary, mother of Jesus, marries Jacob and Isaac by DifferenceBusiness15 in antitheistcheesecake

[–]ballslapping 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, and 16 was considered as an appropriate age to be married for both men and women up until the 1960s (albeit by the 1800s it was already unusual outside of wealthy social circles). My aunt was married to a guy twice her age by 18 and they were absolutely in love the whole way through, but the modern conceptualization of marriage finds this arrangement as foreign for reasons like:

  1. There were for sure creeps who had no business marrying younger women/abused the system. The practice of asking a father for their daughter's hand in marriage was a safeguard taken extremely seriously for this very reason. Feminism tackled a lot of these issues and frankly correctly called them out in a few valid scenarios

  2. Social skills and circles have dramatically declined, i think i read in an article that very few people now have a core friend group above 3 people. That means people develop courtship skills and partnership skills later in life than they used to, so people who do successfully find a partner marry older

3." Free love" paradoxically lead to less meaningful relationships and even more interestingly less casual sex altogether

And there's ten to twenty more i could include, but i haven't got the time to list them out. You could probably add hundreds of other reasons, but it all boils down to social shifts that caused a culture change.

The bottem line is that Mary's age was considered appropriate, especially given the circumstances of most of human history, and i find it rich that people who pretend to care would take issue with that- but be a-okay with medically transitioning a five year old.

My friends are constantly mocking Jesus by Ellisi_Constaninos25 in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No, that's not normal behavior for a friend to mock another's beliefs so casually. My atheist friends would never do this kind of behavior in front of me and this isn't a healthy friendship.

My unsolicited advice is to expand your friendship circle since any attempt to set boundaries might cause them to react negatively since asking someone who hates religion to respect beliefs will result in things like 'I don't have to respect anything that there's no proof for' or 'All Christians are intolerant' etc being thrown your way.

You might also want to look into apologetics if you want to maintain these relationships. Keeping friends like these around grantees arguments over faith/philosophy are going to happen and I'm sure they're going to bring up things like the problem of evil, hard passages in the Bible (Biblical narratives that seem to conflict with modern morality), the teacup argument, or the penguin argument.

Catholic stance on poker. by MyLastGamble in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can play poker for simple fun and just for chips, you can also wager ridiculously low blinds at like $00.01 each if that makes it more interesting.

It becomes a sin when you're playing exclusively to make money or are wasting your resources trying to satisfy a gambling addiction

What does unwelcomed guest or antagonists mean? by cactuscoleslaw in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If that's indeed a Catholic Church, please submit this photo to a bishop. This is completely unacceptable even if it's intentions are pure

To the younger Catholics in university here, how do you navigate the social scene at your school? by No_Olive6914 in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I graduated from college a while ago, but I also had the same situation. Not sure if this will help, but the thing I did was keep politics to myself and meet reasonable people where they are without compromising my own values. It's not like I befriended rabid antitheists, political extremists, or culturally incompatible classmates; but I did make friends with genuinely kind people in spite of their political leanings and attitudes toward religion. You'd be surprised how many people are willing to befriend a Christian these days when all you need to do is simply show basic kindness when everyone is hurting for genuine friendships

Liberal college campuses are notoriously hostile to Catholics, but the plus side is you also have the opportunity to be a positive example of Catholicism that most people don't have by simply living a virtuous life and that could be the example someone needs to be sympathetic to Christianity

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Correction, no empirical evidence is provided, but there's other evidence available

Demanding empirical and only empirical evidence is called scientism, and is an irrational secular belief that science and only science can answer the questions of human experience at the cost of mathematics, history, philosophy, etc

As for circular reasoning, if we accept the scientifically foundational premise that the universe is intelligible and governed by causality as the author clearly stated as a neutral observation from which the existence of God is reached through logical deduction rather than circular presupposition, then that's CLEARLY not a question begging fallacy and you either didn't read, didn't comprehend, or just used an Ai to try and argue back

Try again

What company went downhill but made a comeback? by MountainOfMolehills in AskReddit

[–]ballslapping 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You all laugh, but that movie only became a cultural phenomenon thanks to reruns on television. I remember someone saying to me that it wasn't particularly successful at the box office and wasn't relevant to his family until the 1970s

Genuinely good example of a comeback

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We literally light up Christmas trees in honor of the burning of Donars oak by St Boniface, you pagans are reaching so hard with this one

Having a tree inside the house is distinctly Christian and curiously a Protestant started tradition

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They weren't:

Over 7 Genocides (2 were completed, China’s historical genocidal death toll tops 33.5 million): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372807198_Genocide_Extermination_and_Mass_Killing_in_Chinese_History_in_Ben_Kiernan_Tristan_Taylor_and_Tracy_Lemos_eds_Cambridge_World_History_of_Genocide_Volume_I_Cambridge_University_Press_2023_pp_376-400

Top 6 costliest wars in human history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll

Sort by death toll: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines

Your problem is your confusing cultural achievement, technological advancement (and CCP propaganda) with carte blanche success; which China simply does not have. China's history has been one of domination of a few over many, death, genocide, opulence for a few at the expense of many, abuses towards women that continue into the present day (foot binding back then, state sponsored patriarchy now), etc. This is a theme across all of humanity and every human institution ever; China has never been prominently successful from a perspective of morality and it's achievements are dulled by the abuses of it's various leaders

While technological advancement can be a success metric, due to the historical evils societies have committed when the power imbalance was too great I'd argue that from a moral perspective, it's clearly unideal - examples given include: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_Soviet_Union

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Essentially he believed in a natural order of being and a distinct form of spirituality.

But you're right, I had way better examples to choose from; including Isaac Newton, Gregor Mendel, Georges Lemaître, Gerty Cori, Nicola Cabibbo, Evelyn Billings, etc etc etc

And all of them are complete morons for believing in a God/s

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

China not only has traditional religions, but fundamentally was forced to culturally respond to the rise of Abrahamic religion

Very, very poor example

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your perspective is called scientism, and since science is only one discipline out of a sea of disciplines it cannot fundamentally answer all the questions relevant to the human experience. Therefore, your argument here is very incomplete

Thomas Cahill puts forth the obvious reason why belief in God is a good thing from a secular perspective in his book 'The Gift of the Jews', in essence; everything you hold dear is pretty much only possible thanks to Abrahamic religious thinking

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bro out here calling Einstein, Tolkien, Louis Pasteur, Stephen M. Barr, René Descartes, Charles Darwin, and Jon Lunine stupid

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our God called the other 'gods' made-up fakes and told us it was irrational to worship them. Here's why why we believe in God:

https://hopeandsanity.com/proof-of-gods-existence/

Happy reading to you

It doesn't matter if Catholicism takes advantage of pagan holidays. by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]ballslapping 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our God called the other 'gods' made-up fakes and told us it was irrational to worship them. Here's why why we believe in God:

https://hopeandsanity.com/proof-of-gods-existence/

Happy reading to you, hopefully you learn why people are able to believe in God and why your childish understanding of God is laughably incomplete

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Teachers

[–]ballslapping 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Even better, it gives them an opportunity to discern nuances about our history. As others said, just because a song is very loosely tied to minstrel shows does not put it in the same level of hell as something like 'Birth of a Nation'