Biblical literalism in the primary text

[Guinastasia]

First, let me ask you a question: Do you believe that Catholics are Christians? Yes or no?

@Robert163

Miller, thank you, honestly, for taking the time to type that out and talk to me. I’m just too tired to read it all and respond right now. I know I am responding to other people on this thread but those are short responses…

I’ll respond to this part however:

To answer your question, I am a little reluctant to do it in the open forum but I will still answer.

I have a lot of personal issues, resentment and bad attitude as a result of growing up in the “bible belt” in the 70’s and 80’s. I know there is a huge amount of this bad attitude, this animosity, that flows over whenever I try to have a “normal” discussion on this topic.

Yeah, you’re right. I’m being unfair and I’m being biased. You’re right. For the moment the best I will do is acknowledge that you are right. Certainly it would do me well to improve my attitude.

Damn straight it would.
And you’re letting your biases cloud your judgement, and substituting emotion for logic. You’re not approaching this with an open mind – you’ve already decided what to believe, so what the hell is the point?
If you’re really, truely interested in this stuff (and it sounds like you are), why not read some books about it? There’s a wealth of material on the history of Christianity (hell, you could probably find the works of St. Augustine of Hippo online without even paying for it!).
Just as you’re biased by your upbringing, so am I. However, let me ask you – have you ever taken a class on comparative religions? Or how about the history of religious philosophy? The Reformation?

Do you what the Council of Nicea was about? The Council of Trent? Vatican Council I and II? The Protestant Reformation? (As a history major, I eat this stuff up – it’s freaking fascinating, btw)
Here’s what I said before:

@Guinastasia

When you do so from a position of ignorance, you’re not going to accomplish anything. If you want to stop religion (and good luck with that!), you need to actually take the time to learn about it, rather than just spouting off pre-conceived notions.

@Robert163

Well, religion is less popular than it used to be, so we are making some progress.

Call me ignorant if you want… but I do in fact know a lot about the bible… the talking snake… the talking donkey… the fact that the Israelites did not want a king but eventually wound up with Saul… the race of giants/angels… Jewish law coming from Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy… the prophets imploring Israel to return to Godly ways… the story of Caleb and Joshua… Moses not being eligible to enter the promised land… the magical powers of Elijah and Elisha…

Those are just a few random topics I thought up without pause and without having to look anything up. I could make a longer list for the NT, if you like.

Am I an expert on the bible? No. But you don’t need to be an expert to know that stories of talking snakes and talking donkeys and raining fire down from heaven are false, lies, made up stories… just like Mother Goose or Heracles or Thor. Or Spiderman.*
*Wait… at some point someone made up that story about the talking donkey. Just like Stan Lee did when he created the character of Peter Parker/Spider man.

@Guinastasia

No, you really don’t know a lot about it. You may have read the Bible. But your definition of who is and who isn’t a Christian leaves pretty much most Christians out. Do you really think you know more than people who have studied this for decades? By your logic, Catholics and Orthodox aren’t Christians. Do you really think you know more about Christianity than the largest and oldest sects of Christianity out there?

People have been arguing over this kind of thing for millenia, but you seem to think you know better. Why?