If you've moved from being religious to Athiest, how did that go?

[GuidoHunter]

Originally Posted by Grandiagod

The money that goes into the higher ups (Denominational leaders,etc). Not priests or pastors, they are as controlled as anyone else.

And those people lead lavish lives funded by the poor, "controlled" masses? Right.

You know that every Catholic church's finances are public record? If I went into my church right now and asked to see their books, they'd let me.

Originally Posted by carbo

Religion, or at least Catholicism, was used as a way for people to make money, (e.g. indulgences).

THIS JUST IN: CATHOLICISM TODAY ISN'T THE SAME AS IT WAS 1000 YEARS AGO, OR EVEN 50. It boggles my mind why people even bother to bring up a religion's history to judge it today...

Originally Posted by Fiction

I thought doubting the doctrines of <insert branch of Christianity here> was a sin? At least it is heavily frowned upon in Catholicism, that much I can say.

[buzzer noise] Try again, bud. In fact, it's encouraged, as the only way to become truly devout is to question your faith, understand why you believe what you do, and feel secure in it. Really, the most devout people are converts to a religion, since they sincerely believe in it and understand that, as opposed to the people who were reared in the religion and just follow it out of habit. My questioning of my faith is the reason I have such an appreciation for it today.

Originally Posted by iggy

Unless you're talking about a catholic Bible, no book from the Bible canon was written 100s of years after Jesus' death. 98 C.E. was the date of the last books written (John wrote them).

All of the apocryphal books are in the Old Testament, and were thus written well before Jesus' time.

--Guido

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