Ah...Not taught as the 'literal' truth? What does that actually mean John?
What it says, not taught as the literal truth...ie. it never actually happened. I was taught to me, by a C of E vicar in the 1960s at a cathedral grammar school that the stories of the OT were aetiological sagas, myths, to explain things that the people of those days did not understand.
My own experience which of course could well be different from others such a yourself is that every single church I attended over the last 60 years was that the bible is God's inerrant word and cannot be disputed and like many things in the bible stories like creation and the flood and the garden of eden were just read through quick with no questions being asked by adults as WHY.
Hmmm, not my experience at all, what type of churches were they, sounds very fundamentalist to me.
The problem with sermons in Church is that you sit there and have a bible reading and nobody shouts out "hang on, that's sounds a bit suspicious" they all just sit there and nobody challenges anything and even after the services when you may have a cup of tea they talk about families and holidays and health matters and never about the scriptures they have just heard. Now that was all non denominational and the Catholic and Anglican Services we didn't get tea and so who challenged anyone on the way out? What Catholic ever said to the Priest. "Are you sure this is the body and blood of Christ" ? No, its taught to children and its all just accepted when you become adult. How many think about Noah's ark and Kangaroos and why did God create the Dinosaurs if he created every living thing which included cancer by the way?
Transubstatiation is mostly a Catholic thing with most other christians seeing it as a symbolic memorial.
No..much of the population were indoctrinated mainly as kids and obviously that is now on the wane here in the UK but the real problem is Islam where and I'm no expert but that almost every child born to Muslim parents will be indoctrinated into the muslim way of life and their holy text and why schools here in the UK some Islamic Schools have been closed or put into special measures only for them and Muslim teachers to reappear elsewhere and this is in the UK...What chance of mixed faith of no faith in theocratic countries? The real problem is these religions Jews and Muslims, not so much Christians now strictly forbid marrying across the faiths and no faith and so how on earth are they going to integrate with a non religious population or people of other faiths? How much is this discussed by the mainstream? We all read what the punishment is for trying to leave one's faith.
I am against faith schools in principle.
A few years ago Newsnight had a woman Professor on who wanted to leave her Muslim faith and she found it almost impossible to do but she also said she feared going out alone because she was taught never to do that because men would try to rape her...Her words...She said that was drummed into her as a girl and even though she lived in the UK was frightened every time she went out alone. Now is this the thing we want teaching anywhere in the world, never mind the UK? Its still the law in Saudi Arabia that women must have an escort! Its obviously a by product of men owning women culture and not allowing other men to see them and even then have to wear hijabs and full veils and what not...
Yes of course this is wrong
Its all just so pathetic just because some blokes dreamed they had visions of God many centuries ago..and we have billions now who follow them and their so called teachings...
Yes indeed but I'm not sure pathetic is the best way to describe billions of your fellow man though, clearly they get something important from their faith.
You say its not taught in CoE nowadays?
Saying it was not taught to me in the 1960s
Have they now been taught that Adam and Eve was not literally true then? The fall never happened? That God didn't condemn the whole human race from that day on and that Jesus is the only way back to him? That we are ALL sinners and need redemption? Only go into any evangelical church in my area of the UK and that is exactly what is being taught...
I'll have to take your word on that.
The problem then becomes IF that was taught as not literally true, then what role do they have in society?
Not sure I follow, Are you saying that unless the bible is totally and absolutely the truth then religion has no place?
The Pope won't condemn gays which is great and he wants his church to welcome them with open arms and he set up a meeting with all the main Cardinals across the world to try and convince them to do this and they refused and rebuffed his ideas as they did when he suggested allowing divorced people to attend the Mass. That is no surprise but he could have done that by proclamation as the head of the Catholic Church and as yet hasn't done so. Why not? Because of mass resignations? I don't know...
Ha ha, the pope would be condemning a significant proportion of his own priests if he condemned homosexuals! Although I believe the church makes a distinction between "homosexuals" and "homosexual acts".
The Pope is not allowed to change scripture where gays were condemned to death and why indeed they are thrown from tops of buildings by radical muslim groups now today and yet never ever admit that is all because its in their holy text...which is where this thread started..
I think that popes are allowed to change things by Apostolical Constitutions, Papal Bull or Encyclicals. These may not alter the words of the bible but may affect how they are interpreted. Of course the Catholic church is a man made highly political organisation and there is only so much that one man...even a pope can do. Damn it, I watched Spotlight, I know how corrupt the Catholic church was and is ( and no doubt most other organised religions too).
I agree with you on much...surprisingly. I just differ in my approach at dialogue.
John