Rousseau_CHN

I really don't get it. Liberal Catholics? What is that?

Definition breakdown:

Liberalism from the word Liberation. To be free from alien power.
Religion: The belief in a higher power.

Gaddamit, you couldn't get more ironic that this.

emotional

Liberalism in religion's case means the freedom to pick and choose. The freedom to take a particular scriptural verse or doctrinal tenet and say, "this we don't agree with, this we don't follow". It's an example of freethought.

Liberalism is good, fundamentalism is bad. That's all that matters. As for the "religion" part, I don't care. Let people be religious if they so wish. The total demise of religion isn't a Messiah that's going to bring the end of all wars.

Spaz

I realize what everybody's saying here and I know that liberal christians are a lot more tolerant and nicer, less deadly, etc. To clarify my position at least, what pisses be off about the whole thing is that they vary so much from fundies and they accept so much of the bible as metaphorical and stuff, why the hell can't they just drop the religion? Maybe another thread should be made on thoughts of that, mine being that they're just scared shitless of hell.

emotional

All or nothing, eh? You'd like a simpler world, right? You don't want no transitional fossils to mess things up...

Shake

No, since the liberal xians themselves are not fundies, how could they seduce others to fundamentalism?

Also, I think the liberal xians (LCs), being more open to other ideas, are probably more likely to deconvert, themselves. Although, some will hold on, just out of tradition.

lpetrich

I will have to confess that I'd goofed in my earlier posting -- it was blondegoddess's ladyfriend, and not HelenM's. I still maintain that she was being selective about Jesus Christ's teachings, because she would have had to desert her family, give away her wealth, and stuff like that, if she tried to completely follow JC's teachings.

And as to the argument that some of JC's teachings are hyperbole, how does one tell? Are his teachings hyperbole whenever one does not like them?

emotional

They could leave religion altogether, those liberals. But since it makes them feel good, why should they?

People here are so blinded by the eye of reason that they forget about religion's utility function.

wildernesse

Many liberal Christians do not believe in a literal hell--so why would they cling to religion in fear of something that they don't believe in?

--tibac

Spaz

Those that don't believe in hell usually believe in some kind of "bad place" or something bad happening to them when they can get something really good if they're christian. Those that don't really confuse me as to why they still believe.

Godless Dave

Actually when I read the New Testament it seemed to me that Jesus may not even have been talking about an afterlife. "The Kingdom of God (or Heaven)" and Hell sound like spiritual states one can be in on earth in our real lives.