Catholic Leader Says Bible Not True

[falah]

Adam and Eve? That's just mythology, says Pell

AUSTRALIA'S Cardinal George Pell has described the biblical story of Adam and Eve as a sophisticated myth used to explain evil and suffering rather than a scientific truth.

Cardinal Pell last night appeared on the ABC's Q&A program, where he was debating British evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins.

Cardinal Pell said humans "probably" evolved from Neanderthals but it was impossible to say exactly when there was a first human. "But we have to say if there are humans, there must have been a first one," he said.

According to Genesis, God created Adam and Eve as the first man and woman.

Asked by journalist Tony Jones if he believed in the existence of an actual Garden of Eden with an Adam and Eve, Cardinal Pell said it was not a matter of science but rather a beautiful mythological account.

"It's a very sophisticated mythology to try to explain the evil and the suffering in the world," he said.

"It's certainly not a scientific truth. And it's a religious story told for religious purposes."

Cardinal Pell argued that the "great atheist movements" of Hitler and Stalin were the personification of social Darwinism.

"It's the struggle for survival, the strong take what they can, and the weak give what they must and there's nothing to restrain them." he said. "And we've seen that in the two great atheist movements of the last century."...

...Towards the end of the debate, the head of the Catholic Church in Australia appeared to lament his struggle to promote Christ.

"My life would be much easier if I didn't have to go into bat for . . . Christian principles," he said.

Cardinal Pell then mused that he sometimes wondered if he should regret his life's work, before asserting: "No, no."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226322379822

[Jayne]

Catholics have freedom of belief on the issue of Adam and Eve. Either that it is literal (I am in this camp) or that it is simply a story to be used for religious education.

There is nothing scandelous about this.

[falah]

You are allowed to believe that your "holy" book is true or not?

Is that really faith?

Do you see Pell as a true believer, when he doesn't believe in the Bible?

[from water]

that it is simply a story to be used for religious education.

A fictional story for the purpose of teaching a lesson is one thing, but if it's in your holy books that's like saying God is writing fiction, and of course He is above such lies.


There is a lot of fiction involved in this affair though, that's for sure.

[shaquille20]

I think Catholicism/ Christianity is long gone as there are only people who claim to be followers, yet most of them dont live by any of their scripture... they just have so many personal opinions and ways of interpreting things in their own way without proof

[falah]

There are only a few Catholic believers left. lHere is one of them:

A former Catholic altar boy from northern Uganda, Joseph Kony has waged war in central Africa for more than two decades.

He claims that his Lord's Resistance Army movement has been fighting to install a government in Uganda based on the Biblical 10 Commandments...

Young abductees who have escaped from the LRA say Mr Kony would tell them he got his instructions from the Holy Spirit...

"When you go to fight you make the sign of the cross first. If you fail to do this, you will be killed," one young fighter who escaped from the LRA told US-based Human Rights Watch.

"You must also take oil and draw a cross on your chest, your forehead, and each shoulder, and you must make a cross in oil on your gun. They say that the oil is the power of the Holy Spirit."

Mr Kony appears to believe that his role is to cleanse the Acholi people.

He uses biblical references to explain why it is necessary to kill his own people, since they have, in his view, failed to support his cause.

"If the Acholi don't support us, they must be finished," he told one abductee.

Christmas massacre

...The LRA later went on a major offensive, carrying out a massacre on Christmas Day 2008.

On that day and over the following three weeks, the LRA beat to death more than 800 people in north-eastern DR Congo and South Sudan, and abducted hundreds more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17299084

[falah]

Lying seems to be a not so big deal for Christians.

Teen God squad Culture Shifters' miracle cure claims

Children claim to have miracle powers
"Healing hundreds" on the streets
Youth attracted to flamboyant religious styles




Grant Shaw from the Bridgeman Downs Christian Outreach Centre attempts to heal journalist Anthony Gough

CHILDREN as young as 13 claim they have instantly healed hundreds of people using the miracle powers of Jesus on Queensland streets.

The Pentecostal group Culture Shifters in Queensland says it has healed people suffering from cancer and multiple sclerosis and is developing a large youth following.

Children from the group have been approaching people at random on the street, prompting alarm from parents and warnings from doctors for the sick to seek medical attention.

"Anyone who has a medical condition should always seek advice from their doctor,'' Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Richard Kidd said.

Leaders, aged in their teens and 20s, claim they have also healed an entire football team's injuries, given hearing to a deaf woman and brought sight to a girl's blind eye.

Experts say faith healing has been on the decline globally but, in Queensland, it is attracting an increasing band of followers, who might be putting their lives at risk.

The 160-member Culture Shifters group from the Bridgeman Downs Christian Outreach Centre is led by Grant Shaw, 27, and his wife, Emma, 23.

The couple claim to have had a 95 per cent success rate and to have healed more than 200 people in the past year.

YouTube videos posted online of the "Brisbane miracles'' show leaders talking to teens in areas including busy Chermside Shopping Centre.

"Sometimes there can be a tingle, sometimes there can be a warmth, sometimes there can be a click, sometimes you don't hear anything at all,'' Mr Shaw, a former state government counsellor, said of the moment a person was healed.

Group leader Shayna Kendall, 16, said she joined against the objections of her mother who was concerned for her wellbeing.

"She thought it was stupid that I was getting into some sort of cult,'' she said, adding the group had changed her life.

Christian Research Association senior research officer Reverend Dr Philip Hughes said that about half of all attendance by young people in churches had been happening in either charismatic or pentecostal churches.

Flinders University Department of Theology professor Andrew Dutney said youth could be more attracted to flamboyant religious styles than to mainline churches.

"There are issues of course ... for example, if a person is drawn to this group with a promise of healing and then they are not healed,'' Professor Dutney said.

"There can be situations where people blame the person themselves for not being healed and say: 'You don't have enough faith' and 'You have some secret sin' and that can be extremely damaging.''

http://www.news.com.au/national/kids...-1226327042237

Experts say faith healing has been on the decline globally but, in Queensland, it is attracting an increasing band of followers, who might be putting their lives at risk.

Are putting something in the water supply in Queensland?