[xzins]

See #554 & 555

This has been an eye-opening discussion for me; this thread and another. I had no idea that Catholics believed these things.

I used to have a list of "Major reasons why I am not a Catholic" issues:

1. Immaculate Conception
2. Assumption
3. Opulence

I'm about to the point of adding this: "hymen-preserving birth experience" to the the list. I can't really tell, though, if it is actually required Catholic teaching.

There are other things I disagree with, especially the treatment of scripture, but those are the specific issues that are at the top of my list.

[Iscool]

I hear ya...And believing the bible is superstition...Hocus Pocus...

And they justify this mockery by making the absurd claim that their religious organization wrote the scripture and they apparently can change it, corrupt it, or ignore it at will...

[P-Marlowe]

I'm about to the point of adding this: "hymen-preserving birth experience" to the the list.

I suppose it would be in bad taste to refer to it as "The immaculate hymen".

Yeah, I suppose it would.

[blue-duncan]

We can also add:

Jesus was not the seed of Mary so He can't be the seed prophecied to Abraham or to Eve in Gen. 3:15.

Jesus was not conceived so Mary is not the virgin (young girl) prophecied in Isaiah.

The birth was miraculous, not natural, so as to exempt Mary from the impurities caused by the fall.

They worship the same god that Islam does.

Words can mean anything you want them to like, "brother", "brethren", "sister", "grace", "all","any", etc.

Tradition, no matter when started, always interprets scripture when it is necessary to protect dogma.

The Magisterium can trump the plain meaning of scripture when necessary.

[wmfights]

"I'm about to the point of adding this: "hymen-preserving birth experience" to the the list."
_______________________________

It certainly is an odd discussion point.

If it was not a body that was born (fully human, fully GOD) than what was nailed to the cross? In that Hellenistic culture and time there were all kinds of spirits that appeared and disappeared.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Justification should be at the top of your list. It is why the Reformation was waged (and is still being waged.)

SOLA FIDE:
THE REFORMED DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION
Dr. J. I. Packer

"The confession of divine justification touches man's life at its heart, at the point of its relationship to God. It defines the preaching of the Church, the existence and progress of the life of faith, the root of human security, and man's perspective for the future."1 So wrote G. C. Berkouwer of the doctrine of justification by faith set forth by Paul and reapprehended with decisive clarity at the Reformation; and in so writing he showed himself a true heir of the Reformers. For his statement is no more, just as it is no less, than a straightforward spelling out of what Luther had meant when he called justification by faith articulus stands aut cadentis ecclesiae—the point of belief which determines (not politically or financially, but theologically and spiritually) whether the Church stands or falls..."