italo:


There was never civilization without religion. Christianity showed you that women are equal to men and should be treated with love and dignity. The enemies of religion, like you promote proliferation of indiscriminate sex including pornography which reduces women to little above animals with no love and dignity. It also increases unwanted pregnancies and you enemies of religion encourage the massacre of those innocent souls in the womb.

Those who molest children are clearly going against the Christian religion...so you can't say it was caused by religion.

[b]The only thing Atheism has ever offered the world is death and destruction. E.g in Soviet Union, North Korea, Cambodia [/b]etc.

safarigirl:
they hear it, but they still argue blindly and insist on self-glorification. The 'my church is better than yours' arguments are a testament to their close-mindedness

italo:


There was never civilization without religion. Christianity showed you that women are equal to men and should be treated with love and dignity. The enemies of religion, like you promote proliferation of indiscriminate sex including pornography which reduces women to little above animals with no love and dignity. It also increases unwanted pregnancies and you enemies of religion encourage the massacre of those innocent souls in the womb.

Those who molest children are clearly going against the Christian religion...so you can't say it was caused by religion.

The only thing Atheism has ever offered the world is death and destruction. E.g in Soviet Union, North Korea, Cambodia etc.

safarigirl:
@italo, I beg you in the name of all that is Holy, just stop!

Twas hard reading the second page with all your spans there.....most of the things you claimed were stopped by the Catholic church were in fact stopped by Presbyterian and Methodist churches andd pray tell, what was 'evil' about Polygamy? So, all the men with one wife who now cheat on their wives are better than polygamists?

safarigirl:

You already sound brain-washed with all your "the Catholic church has only done good to the world" preaching.

safarigirl:


The church has told you all they want you to know, but nobody will ever tell you the bad they've done. After all, if you write your CV, will you add that you took bribes in your former work place on it?

safarigirl:


I'm also Catholic, and I defend the Catholic church most times, but even I know the hypocrisy that lies in that church and it is sickening.

UyiIredia:


If by close-minded you mean an unwillingness to hear the other side you are very wrong some Christians do such and I count myself as one, there are others. Atheists have a free rein on the Religion board. Compare that to the 'Islam For Muslim' child board where one must declare his/her faith in Allah before posting.

ifeness:


Are you having a laugh? Christianity showed women were equal to men? Didn't the bible clearly ask them never to speak in front of a man? In fact the were never counted in the population censor. In the bible, women are allowed to be raped and called spoils of war!

Get your brain right!

shalomm:


I'm Christian and Proud. but bro you just commit a blunder by saying the bolded statement of yours.... Soviet Union, North korea, Cambodia are we hearing any issue of those country legalizing gay marriage or the LGBTC community? are u saying Russia has no Christians? or aren't there christian in North Korea?

italo:


1. That was a wiki article about the role of Christianity in civilization. Majority of what is there refers specifically to the Catholic Church, as I later enumerated to the person I was talking to. I wasn't trying to say that the Catholic Church did 100% of those things...but it did most. I assumed the person would be sensible enough to decipher that...but envy has blocked his mind a long time ago.

2. I never said polygamy was evil...but it tramples on the spirit of equality of women to men. I haven't found a woman who likes to be a second wife. Do you like that?

3. Can you say the things I mentioned which weren't stopped by the Catholic Church?


The bold is a blatant lie against me. Can you quote where I said or implied so?


The Church didn't just tell me the good it does. Honest Secular sources say it too...and much more importantly...I see it every minute...in every country.

The Church also says the bad it does, as in the apologies of Popes John Paul II & Francis. It also tells me the bad that some individual Church officials do.

When I look at everything...the Church is still an overwhelming force for the good of humanity. better than any other institution.



I never said there is no hypocrisy in the Church. You're arguing against opinions that are your own fabrications. There will be hypocrisy anywhere there are humans. There was hypocrisy amongst the apostles...right under Jesus' nose.

I came here to refute those who were saying Religion is a bane of progress for humanity. That doesn't apply to the Church and most religions, as I have shown.

Overall, the Catholic Church is an overwhelming force for good in the world.

Humblebloke:



This is another reason..... You keep criticizing your religions..... He created all of you..... Why would he want to see billions of people perish



What if you were born in another part of the world.....Perhaps Arabia where Islam is practised or India where Hinduism is their way of life.


Wait...... Perhaps,he loves you..... He hates the others

italo:



In modern usage "science" most often refers to a way of pursuing knowledge, not only the knowledge itself. In the 17th and 18th centuries scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of laws of nature. Over the course of the 19th century, the word "science" became increasingly associated with the scientific method itself, as a disciplined way to study the natural world, including physics, chemistry, geology and biology. It is in the 19th century also that the term scientist began to be applied to those who sought knowledge and understanding of nature.[4]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science

Edit
Roger Bacon was inspired by the writings of Grosseteste. In his account of a method, Bacon described a repeating cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and the need for independent verification. He recorded the way he had conducted his experiments in precise detail, perhaps with the idea that others could reproduce and independently test his results.

About 1256 he joined the Franciscan Order and became subject to the Franciscan statute forbidding Friars from publishing books or pamphlets without specific approval. After the accession of Pope Clement IV in 1265, the Pope granted Bacon a special commission to write to him on scientific matters. In eighteen months he completed three large treatises, the Opus Majus, Opus Minus, and Opus Tertium which he sent to the Pope.[45] William Whewell has called Opus Majus at once the Encyclopaedia and Organon of the 13th century.[46]

Part I (pp. 1–22) treats of the four causes of error: authority, custom, the opinion of the unskilled many, and the concealment of real ignorance by a pretense of knowledge.
Part VI (pp. 445–477) treats of experimental science, domina omnium scientiarum. There are two methods of knowledge: the one by argument, the other by experience. Mere argument is never sufficient; it may decide a question, but gives no satisfaction or certainty to the mind, which can only be convinced by immediate inspection or intuition, which is what experience gives.
Experimental science, which in the Opus Tertium (p. 46) is distinguished from the speculative sciences and the operative arts, is said to have three great prerogatives over all sciences:
It verifies their conclusions by direct experiment;
It discovers truths which they could never reach;
It investigates the secrets of nature, and opens to us a knowledge of past and future.
Roger Bacon illustrated his method by an investigation into the nature and cause of the rainbow, as a specimen of inductive research

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method

That is how the Catholic Church invented Science, which in modern sense, refers to the Scientific method.

Thank you.

safarigirl:
oya,.Chief Defence Secretary of the Catholic church,.come and answer.

If the church had not gone on a killing and maiming spree against early Scientists who disputed some of their teachings, there would be no illuminati cult today.

safarigirl:

The Catholic church did not support early scientific discoveries and were even enraged that someone would suggest God didn't really create the earth via Adam and Eve,

safarigirl:


we who read, know how they jailed those early scientists and tortured them to retract the theory of the big bang, now italo is telling us the church 'supported' science and was even responsible for it.

safarigirl:
it is not my job to educate you, because just like salvation, the road to enlightenment is a personal race.

I cannot even waste the little knowledge I have gathered on Nigerian Christians because I have found that 97% of them are close-minded people. Even if I brought hard evidencee to dispute what you have accepted as 'facts' you will still argue blindly. You are all programmed like that.

Read Dan Brown's history, discover why a man with access to the Vatican library, a man with a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith than any of you half-baked Catholics in Nigeria, would become an atheist.

Try and read with an open mind, so you can sieve true facts from exaggerations,.because you have all been told to ignore that man and have done so religiously because of your fear of the unknown.

Enlighten yourself, don't wait for someone to enlighten you, your religion cannot grant you eternal life. Surely, you know that Christians are not the only beings in Heaven.

zicoraads:
This argument was supposed to be about religion in general. And when italo started off with his points, I expected him to address Christianity as a whole. Instead, he still unleashed the same attitude most, if not all catholics have that I always find annoying. Catholics never fail to disappoint with their attitude of 'Catholic till I die'. To them, every other christian is wrong. They see nothing good in other denominations. Theirs is the best!

UyiIredia:


I'm not arguing that there aren't close-minded Christians, my gripe was with the 97% figure.

sweetgala:


Actually Christianity did not show women are equal to men, it says it rather clearly that women are not equal in capacity or essence to men , but are just as special.

They are not created for servitude unto men but as special company giver, and vehicle for life. They are God's special creation

Humblebloke:




You are very broad minded...... Something you hardly see in (African) Xtians..... I hope he will answer your question.

UyiIredia:


You are just blabbing. Who criticized what ?

herald9:
Italo, why are you trying to narrow the topic from religion to catholicism?

herald9:


It's laughable when you said science was invented by the Catholic Church. Please stop spamming ignorance all over this thread and read deeper.

shalomm:


I balance my faith with reason and logic...

joywendy:


Yes it may seem far fetched but I would also agree to that figure. Many if not majority of the christians we have here are totally close minded. Try sharing this topic to a bunch of 'true born again christians' and you would be surprised the kind of response you will get there after. People calling you names from different corners,people fighting over denomination and whose religion is better off. Fortunately for us, this thread just described what I am saying. The thread was probably created by an atheist and also Most of the comments on this thread are by either athiests,agonist,satanist but where are the 'true open minded christians'? They are very very few! Infact you can barely count them here. The one's that are here are busy talking about a particular denomination and have abandoned the main essence of the thread. So Where does it leave us?

Humblebloke:



Which is one thing we share....... I really don't why believers think its a crime to question their beliefs.

leke12:
Criticize islam @ ur own RISK!#amnonmuslim#

freecocoa:
Pray tell when/where atheists rap*d kids or killed and justified it.

senbonzakurakageyoshi:
@op
Much as I partially subscribe to your idea of "criticizing religions" (though, to me, I see it more as an in-depth analysis), your position that all religions are invalid and that the tacit implication that we should all be atheists puts a taint on your position. Fact is, much as I have seen how much damage has been created in modern society in the name of religion, I can't ask anyone to abandon religion as a route to development and mental improvement. Let's face it, religion has had it's fair share of positive contributions to world peace and development.

However, I do support a critical analysis of religion by everyone who chooses to adhere to one; if not for anything, then to make it much more difficult for religious charlatans to bamboozle them with false theories whose only end is to line private pockets or use gullible people as their willing but unwilling slaves.

Unfortunately, the very same religious charlatans have used fear to create a godlike image of themselves and put themselves beyond examination. Touch not my anointed and all that. I have always said that critical analysis of religion can only produce two outcomes: a strengthening of faith when your analysis exposes further truths in religion and shines a light on existing falsehoods or a change of faith when there's a personal realization of a religion's inconsistencies.

Admittedly, a lot of religious dogmas are human constructs but therein lies the possible solution that a critical analysis would provide: recognize the charlatan and rejects his attempts to hoodwink you. Not wholesale dumping the religion because of a bad egg or two. That would amount to tossing the baby out with the bathwater.

safarigirl:
it is not my job to educate you, because just like salvation, the road to enlightenment is a personal race.

I cannot even waste the little knowledge I have gathered on Nigerian Christians because I have found that 97% of them are close-minded people. Even if I brought hard evidencee to dispute what you have accepted as 'facts' you will still argue blindly. You are all programmed like that.

Read Dan Brown's history, discover why a man with access to the Vatican library, a man with a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith than any of you half-baked Catholics in Nigeria, would become an atheist.

Try and read with an open mind, so you can sieve true facts from exaggerations,.because you have all been told to ignore that man and have done so religiously because of your fear of the unknown.

Enlighten yourself, don't wait for someone to enlighten you, your religion cannot grant you eternal life. Surely, you know that Christians are not the only beings in Heaven.

italo:


There was never civilization without religion. Christianity showed you that women are equal to men and should be treated with love and dignity. The enemies of religion, like you promote proliferation of indiscriminate sex including pornography which reduces women to little above animals with no love and dignity. It also increases unwanted pregnancies and you enemies of religion encourage the massacre of those innocent souls in the womb.

Those who molest children are clearly going against the Christian religion...so you can't say it was caused by religion.

The only thing Atheism has ever offered the world is death and destruction. E.g in Soviet Union, North Korea, Cambodia etc.

italo:
Read about nambla...The communists' persecutions and mass killings etc

ifeness:


Are you having a laugh? Christianity showed women were equal to men? Didn't the bible clearly ask them never to speak in front of a man? In fact the were never counted in the population censor. In the bible, women are allowed to be raped and called spoils of war!

Get your brain right!

italo:


1. That was a wiki article about the role of Christianity in civilization. Majority of what is there refers specifically to the Catholic Church, as I later enumerated to the person I was talking to. I wasn't trying to say that the Catholic Church did 100% of those things...but it did most. I assumed the person would be sensible enough to decipher that...but envy has blocked his mind a long time ago.

italo:
@adsonstone,
FAIL! "Christianity" in the article was essentially
referring to the Catholic Church."
...Now you shamelessly want to take the glory of
another and ascribe it to yourself.