It seems to me, with the advent of USA and Britain and now most all nations of Europe becoming by far more secular, the Catholic Church is all but a
vast religion.
It USED to be a gigantic bloated dictatorship, ruling not just everyone's life, but their souls. Now that people stopped listening to them when it
comes to making laws, they find themselves less important. Like a child who once was popular, now everyone else turns their back on that child,
finding themselves entertained by other things.
I suppose, in my opinion anyways, Vatican II is an attempt to regain some of the Catholic Church's former glory. Since people obviously stopped
listening to the "old church."
And now-a-days if the Catholic Church tried to excersise the power it had, there'd be muslims, protestants, Americans (we're our own breed lol),
English, crazy French Communists, and a myriad of other peoples flocking to beat off the cruel, nazi-like dictatorship.
Sorry Truth but you have to admit the truth man, that's exactly what the Catholic Church was 600 years ago, they've come a long way though, and now
are providing more help than pain. And while sometimes they can be a bit annoying, their pressure for morality is a comfort.
Anyways...that's what I view the Catholic Church as....an old but not forgotten power. Who's power now only lies in the faithful.
Hmm..and that was a cheap shot against Freemasonry
How can a belief in A god, be the belief in a "Wrong" god, to be hones I doubt God gives a crap whether or not we believe in him, we are but a speck
in a universe that is 15BILLION light years in radius, that probably has quadrillions of other intelligent species.
Do you really think God is going to care if anyone believes in him? He is omnipotent, it's like a fly saying he isn't going to believe that YOU can
swat him with a fly-swatter. The question you should really ask, is God the type of person that is so petty, and useless that he would show the fly
he CAN swat him, by swatting him?
Or is God secure in the fact that he can swat the fly, that he gave the fly not only a universe, but a beautiful universe, gave the fly air and
sunlight, gave the fly life, and being secure in all these things, simply does not listen to the fly.
I'm sure there can be other types of Gods than the above two "possibilities", but Catholics for some reason chose the first possibility.
Do we not shun the person who bullies others to make himself feel "big"?
Do we not punish those who make others suffer, because they have inferiority complexes?
It seems like life isn't so much about building God a 200,000 mile tall Cross on the North Poll, but rather just to live.
[Edited on 16-3-2003 by Hammerite]