SecretMethod70

Yes, for the most part I agree. It must be said though, for the sake of my own clarity, that I'm not trying to tell anyone they're wrong in their belief but only to point out that perhaps they are wrong in their understanding of another belief.



No problem, I guess I wasn't clear before. I didn't mean that he was condemned by the Catholic Church - how could he have been when nothing he said was heretical but merely a different way looking at things - but he was condemned by Catholics. Ultimately, my point being that Catholic interpretation of theology is constantly being reassessed and just because something is not expressly accepted does not mean it is incorrect. In Catholic theology, the truth changes in order to remain the same. There is a recognition that all things exists not only in space but also time and that there is a historical context to everything. Vatican II was a major force in beginning this change in thought.

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2. While it is true that all Christians hold that God is neither male nor female, and most Christian hold that he is neither masculine or feminine, rather he transcends all of these categories, nevertheless a couple points need to be made. First of all, the merely linguistic one that he/she/it is awfully cumbersome, and merely using 'it' would, according to the conventions of the english language, imply that God was not a person. Secondly, and I'm not sure what the Catholic church teaches, my denomination teaches that it is most right and fitting to refer to God as masculine, since this is how scripture universally refers to scripture -- in the passages where feminine imagery appears, it is always used in a simile, never a metaphor, and whenever he is referred to directly, it is as masculine. One example -- when Christ teaches us how to pray, it is to "Our Father".

*Sigh* This is really being given far more attention than it deserves. I have referred to God in a way beyond "He" only, perhaps, twice on this forum. And the only reason I did so when I did was because I happened to be talking about at that very moment human conceptions as a barrier to understanding God. I don't disagree with anything you have said here and I only merely meant to point out the need to detach oneself from the conventional meanings of words such as He in relation to God, for even though we refer to Him as "He," he is NOT a "He" and CANNOT be a "He" no more than He can be a "She" or an "It." My very point was the inadequacy of ANY of these words to describe God because He is beyond all of them, not to say that we should start referring to Him as "Her" or "It."

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3. While the Catholic church (and any church with any merit, for that matter) holds that there are some truths in other religions, this does not refute the fact that the Catholic church teaches that there is no salvation outside of Christ. That is, the central truth of salvation, that the path to salvation is through Christ, is one only found in the Christian faith. So while we can find wisdom in other faiths, wisdom that may have been disregarded to some extent by the Christian tradition, there is only salvation through Christ.

Salvation is through Christ for the Catholic Church, yes, but that is not to say that the Catholic Church holds to be true that one must be expressly Christian. For the sake of quoting a few quick sources:

http://oldforum.catholic.org/discuss...tml?1077442358

http://www.catholic.com/library/Salv...the_Church.asp

This one is too long to quote, but the general idea is that anyone who realizes that the Catholic Church is the True Church and rejects it commits a grave injustice to themself and cannot be united with God. I think that makes total sense obviously as it's basically like someone who knows 2+2=4 and still says it equals 5. So, the question that must be asked of this is how does one know who is AWARE of the Catholic church's role and who is not. My point being that common sense and sociological knowledge dictates that most people, having been raised some other religion their entire life, do not specifically REJECT Catholicism but are turned off to it by no fault of their own through the circumstances of their upbringing. These people, because of the real truth present in most world religions, are still capable of oneness with God because there is something of the Holy Spirit in all of us guiding us to do what is conscienable. Someone who rejects this inclination is obviously still seperating themself from God, Christian or otherwise. So, perhaps I wasn't clear with things I said earlier, but I never meant to say and have never believed as a Catholic that a non-Christian is "just as well off" as a Christian or Catholic but that, due the the circumstances of one's upbringing many people do not come to realize the truth of the Church and that God does not let this prevent them from unity with Him. That's precisely why there is the Holy Spirit in all of us so that even those who are raised muslim or as theistic Buddhists or as any variety of other religions can still feel in themself a draw towards the Good even if they do not have a full exposure to the truth. That's not to say that one should not work to introduce them to Christianity, but only that their acceptance of Christianity is only a matter of "life or death" in the eternal sense when they are aware of Christianity's supremacy and choose to reject it out of pride. I don't think that describes the majority of people.

Lastly, scroll down to the bottom if you follow the link, http://www.stmonica.cc/papers/cathheav.htm

My point in all this is not to say that I am right and someone else is wrong, but only to point out that, although apparently some people find this hard to believe, Catholics do not believe that non-Catholics or non-Christians for that matter go to Hell by default. Perhaps Thagrastay is right...perhaps they do...I can't know. Believe what you will - that's a right which we all have - but to say that you KNOW one thing to be true and another to be false goes beyond what we are capable as humans. I don't know what happened to Ghandi for instance, but I can infer it based on the clues of Jesus teaching and the guidance of the church in interpretation of that teaching. But, to KNOW, only God is capable of that and, really, it's none of my business anyway.

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