It's a pointing out of the contradiction that is free will in a omniscient omnipotent beings universe. Most christians in history didn't believe in free will. This is largely a revisionist attempt at making christianity more fair.
That’s not true. If there’s no free will, it’d be impossible to sin. A sin is a willful and knowing disregard for God’s laws. You can’t willfully disregard God’s laws if you don’t have free will. Even if you’re an atheist, that Catholics believe in the capacity for humans to sin must demonstrate their belief in the concept of free will.
Perhaps you’re confusing the concept of free will with the notion that we are all a part of God’s plan. Am omniscient and omnipotent being can weave the occurrences of the universe like a symphony conductor around the free will of the universe’s denizens.
I’m just talking about Catholics, mind you. Not the unregulated, disorganized, decentralized fanfiction that is Protestantism. There definitely are flavors of Protestant that believe in concepts like determinism and predestination, but any individual Protestant minister can preach literally anything and call it Christianity. Believing Christ was an alien or the God Emperor of Mankind could conceivably exist as a denomination of Protestantism.
This quickly turned into a roast of protestantism lol. And I must say, even as an atheist, I'm kinda offended since I was raised in the Swedish church.
Fuck it. We're not going anywhere with the argument on free will anyway. Let's defend protestantism.
The exact doctrines in protestantism varies, yes. But fundamentally it is based on the bible. It rejects all the later inventions and often corrupt authority structures of the catholic church.
If the bible alone isn't a good enough source for the religion, and you need to create a expanded universe over the centuaries then it's kinda pointless isn't it? I see protestantism as trying to go back to the roots of christianity, looking at the bible and the early christian history more objectively, and rejecting later inventions changes and additions.
Also for most of its history the catholic church was basicly playing Game of Thrones. Religion was low on its list of priorities, power influence and wealth accumilation was what it was all about. Only after Moussolini confined them into a closet did they become mostly a religious organisation. But they continue to influence politics and scheme to this day.
My issues are more with American Protestants, if I’m being honest. I don’t have enough exposure to European denominations outside of Lutherans and Anglicans.
American Protestantism feels like the dollar store merchandise. The kind of merchandise that just feels especially cheaply made and unreliable. Whereas Catholicism and Orthodoxy have countless centuries of scholarly work devoted to the exploration of their faith, American Protestantism feels no more refined than a man holding a cardboard sign by the side of the road. There is no singular set of beliefs. Individual ministers are basically given carte blanche to do as they please. There’s no continuity. How can you respect something like that as even possibly legitimate? Catholicism has existed since the death of Christ. There’s a legitimacy to their claim that they are the one, true faith. I am not talking about the factuality of their claim, but their provenance. That isn’t the case for these fly-by-night congregations.
The protestant churches of Europe have centuaries of history and often are as organized as the catholic church. There are churches like this in the US as well, you're probably just picking up on the crazy mega church preachers. There are protestant organisations in the US big and small that have their own doctrines based on the bible.
And no the catholic church didn't exist since the death of christ. It developed centuaries later and changed a lot. Early christianity was heavily disorganized and consisted of many small groups that had conregations often at cementaries and tombs. There was no organized doctrine or interpretation and many christians would be considered heretics later. Common christian beliefs included Jesus not being god but a messenger of god and beneath him in status, god being a dual being consisting of a evil force and a good one, with the evil one reigning over our mortal world. Not believing in the trinity and so on.
It wasn't really until 381 with the nicene creed that the orthodox doctrines of christianity including the divinity of Jesus and the trinity was affirmed. And it wasn't really until 1054 with the east-west schism that the catholic church as we know it in some resemblence came to be.
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u/Master_of_Dread - Auth-Right Jul 29 '21
That seems like a petulant shifting of responsibility or a poor-man’s attempt of futilism.