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There are probably Catholics that you describe like that, sure,but I've never met any who actually believe you need to pray to Mary. The Catholics whom I know myself do not pray to saints and only confess in private without any priest whatsoever. They are indistinguishable from other Christians I have met except thatthey go to a Catholic church because they like the extra ceremony/incense etc because they say it helps them feel closer to God.I think it's funny that you say it doesn't sound logical to pray to Mary when it's illogical to think you have a telepathic connection to Jesus Himself. Remember, faith is outside the bounds of logic, so no method of prayer is any more logical than any other.
Bolded: My Grandma does but I later on heard that it is the old version of Catholic and apparently there is a new version. They don't own a bible as they feel only the Priest has the authority to read the bible and he can say whatever he likes because nobody else has a bible to read it along with him and challenge him afterwards.
Italics: Whatever helps them feel closer to God I'm not going to challenge as that is a personal thing.
Underlined: Yeah it is called the Holy Spirit which Jesus gave us as a gift as he went up to Heaven. That is how we communicate and have a relationship with God.
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Really it's the entirety of the Old Testament. There's just so much that is not literally true that it's impossible to use it as a basis for the foundation of the New Testament (Genesis flood? Young earth? C'mon.) However if you really want to, you can start with explaining the story of how God sent a pair of bears to maul 42 children after a few of them made fun of Elisha's baldness, 2 Kings 2:23-25. That seems like overkill, especially innocents were punished as a result of the actions of a few kids.
I just read it. First and foremost it sounds like these 'youths' were in their teenage years (14 to 18 perhaps?) which means that they all should know better than to pick on somebody. Bullies get what they deserve. Secondly verse 24: He turned around, looked at them and
called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
It sounds to me like Elisha is the one who called the curse upon them for teasing him. Now I don't know exactly how many youths did that but if 42 of the youths were all teasing him about his baldness, I mean come on the youths should know better. It is not like they are 5 years old.
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Lack of evidence to explain something is no reason to believe in a supernatural cause. There is no default answer to any question that is automatically correct in the absence of evidence for some other answer. Even if abiogenesis was 100% disproven and if the Big Bang was 100% disproven, that would in no way give any additional credibility to Intelligent Design. They would still be as unfounded as they were before, and still in dire need of evidence to back up those claims. It would have just as much evidence for the hypothesis that the universe sprang into creation as the result of a calamitous flatulent event brought on by a spicy meal eaten by an impossibly large Viking.
Ahhh but there is evidence. Now I can't pass on the feeling to you when you know the Lord is watching over you and protecting you. I could tell you the story of how I finally crossed the line and became to not only know the Lord but have a relationship with him. However I know that you would try to explain it scientifically or some other logical explanation like so many others have already tried to do. The thing is I was the one that was there and nobody else was around and I'm not going to rely on somebody else for an explanation as they wouldn't have been feeling the same feelings I was.
That was enough evidence for me as I felt the Lord that day and also came to know how much he truly loves us all. I could tell you the story if you want but I know that it won't get you any closer to the Lord because that was MY pathway to the Lord and not yours. The Lord will humble you when the time comes. Or if not you will be humble yourself. The choice is yours.
This post was edited by CPK001 on Jul 28 2011 12:45am