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Pope Francis Basically Just Admitted There May Not Be a God

So God is divine but none of the miraculous stuff in The Bible really happened?
 
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ChrisL68 said:
So God is divine but none of the miraculous stuff in The Bible really happened?
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I'm sure there are as many ways to answer this as there are Christians, but I would say that the creation is (and continues to be) a miraculous event. The possibility that God carried creation out through the laws of physics and biology (whatever those turn out to be) doesn't make it any less miraculous.

I'm using "miraculous" in the colloquial sense, and not in the traditional sense where the world is operating according to abstract laws and God reaches down and tinkers with the natural world by performing a miracle. I personally don't think that happens. I think that God is behind all of creation and the true "miracle" comes when we see him.
 
That is a fine religious philosophy, but is it Christianity?

How about the died on the cross resurrection thing? Metaphorical too?
 
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Junebug said:
Well, if it's important enough for you to criticize me about it, then maybe it would behoove you to find the full context and try to prove me wrong.

Then again, I guess snark is easier. And the world series is on, after all. Carry on.
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How did I criticize you? I said I stopped reading. I'm not going to waste my time trying to prove your assumptions and hypotheticals wrong.

Even God can't make baseball interesting.
 
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Junebug said:
Well, if it's important enough for you to criticize me about it, then maybe it would behoove you to find the full context and try to prove me wrong.

Then again, I guess snark is easier. And the world series is on, after all. Carry on.
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The irony here is dripping more than the fake blood at Knott's Scary Farm during Halloween week,
 
ChrisL68 said:
So God is divine but none of the miraculous stuff in The Bible really happened?
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Part of this problem you are finding should start with an exploration of who wrote the bible and why. If you are a biblical literalist, the miracles are a much bigger problem. I tend to look at the bible as an account of mankind's relationship with God written by people as people understood it. In that context, the actual parting of the Red Sea is less consequential than the escape from slavery.
 
You can do that to a certain extent (although I don't think it's necessary), but like Chris said, you run into problems when you come to the resurrection, which is central to the narrative that Scripture tells.
 
IamThunderbolt said:
The insistence of a literal 7 day creation wasn't really a thing before Darby popularized dispensational theology - which really took off in the 1830s, right before Voyage of the Beagle was published. The timing of the rise of dispensationalism, which insists of 7 "ages" or expressions of God's relation to humanity corresponding to a strict, literal 7 days of creation, and Darwin's work made the discussion between science and faith more contentious that it had been or needs to be.

edited for clarity: There were those who did hold a view of a 7 day creation, but before Darby, it was never considered a cornerstone or essential belief.
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Do you have a good article to read more about this?
 
"Cognitive Dissonance" tag says it all for what is on display in this thread.
 
occam's razor must be something religious people despise
 
pourdeac said:
IMO belief is the fundamental philosophical basis for the religion so I don't find it inconsistent. Several Popes have recognized evolution so...I'm not sure what the big deal is here anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_evolution
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Call me crazy, but the central tenet of faith in Christianity is that JC, divine son of God, died for your sins and was resurrected on 3rd day.

And you are missing the point on evolution. He isn't saying that God chose evolution as form of creation. He is saying that God isn't magician with magic wand. IOW, God's power has limits. That is a remarkable statement.
 
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ChrisL68 said:
I am not tied to a conservative view of the Bible because I am an agnostic. I just don't understand believing in it as the basis of the meaning of life and then saying it is largely metaphorical. Just seems unbelievably inconsistent to me.

And I find the view that the God who parted The Red Sea isn't a magician who can wave his magic wand a remarkable statement.
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I am with you. Except for the agnostic part :).
 
RJKarl said:
Many Roman Catholics and many Jews believe The Bible is an allegory.
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Few believe the entire Bible is an allegory. It's one bound book made up of many stories, writings, letter, etc from many writers. There are poems, there are allegorical stories, there are narrative and historical texts, there are proverbs, there are letters. I have a hard time believing anyone reads an extended genealogy and thinks it's meant to be an allegory. Then again, I have a hard time believing anyone reads the entire Bible and assumes something like Song of Solomon or Revelation to be literal, but people do.
 
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ChrisL68 said:
Call me crazy, but the central tenet of faith in Christianity is that JC, divine son of God, died for your sins and was resurrected on 3rd day.
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I would broaden it somewhat that the central narrative of Scripture is that God is working toward the restoration of all things, with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus being the inaugurating event of a renewed creation - which has both individual and cosmic (in the sense of all creation) ramifications.


And I would maintain that a historical resurrection is central to the understanding of what God has done through Jesus.
 
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And a note on Pope Francis - he's made many unclear statements that he later clarifies and usually reasserts central Catholic doctrine. I would be hesitant to deconstruct his beliefs by parsing one statement.
 
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