Amazon Catholic-Protestant discussion cont

  • Thread starter Thread starter sainteriksrose
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
It was just a general discussion of points raised mostly by Protestants, about Catholic teaching and practices. Like why Catholics “worship” Mary (which we don’t), and call her the Mother of God Incarnate; or is Jesus a human person (as a few of the Fundamentalists posting insisted), or a Divine Person (as Catholics have always insisted). The topics could vary from day to day since it was just a general discussion. But often atheists and agnostics would join in. My last post over there was in response to a quotation from Aquinas’ Summa, (posted by an atheist), which Nietzsche made famous when he took it completely out of context and used it to portray Aquinas as teaching that the Saints in heaven delight at seeing the suffering of those in hell.

But in context, Aquinas was saying that the Saints delight in the perfect Justice of God and NOT in the suffering of others.
Unfortunately, no one was able to respond to it because, though we were told the discussion boards would close on Oct. 6th, all the discussions were locked on the 3rd. As a result of closing the boards 3 days earlier than we were told, , many of us who have been posting for years, and had made many friends, were not able to say Goodbye or anything since we thought we had a few more days to do so.

I think we all learned a lot from each other, and I hope some of the others who used to post on that thread will be able to come here and share their knowledge and insights.
 
Joe_5859 said:
I think you would have people create threads like the one linked to above where Protestants and Catholics could basically come and go back and forth with each other hopping around from topic to topic. The thread is a subcategory unto itself.
Click to expand...
You have described that particular thread well. It actually went on for several years (basically, 39 threads with 10,000 posts in each thread, thus, the XXXIX after the name of the thread). There were several people, Catholic and non-Catholic, who contributed and had been doing so for several years, so we developed a commraderie that will be missed.
 
You might contact @cawebmaster and see if he/she can help you register under your original username. I think it is preferred for continuity @sainteriksrose.
 
Thanks for that correction, Reesey…it was the 39th thread (I posted that incorrectly, above).

I’m not sure about the rules here. We are apparently limited as to how many times we can post in a day, so I could not reply for most of yesterday.

Hope other’s find their way as well! Am going to try and send you a pm, too.
 
Yes, we were a very lively bunch over there, but it’s gone now so there’s no way to leave a link.
 
Hi Faith, Hi Reesey. I miss you guys so much. What do you want to talk about?
 
Hi Senneville! So glad you’re here too!
Well, Kevin’s thread can apparently continue here. I think we can only post so much in one day; I don’t know if that’s a temporary rule or not. In the meantime, there are other threads in this forum, that deal with Apologetics and many other topics. As you and Reesey are A1 Catholic apologists, I would encourage you to check out some of the other threads. You might encounter subjects similar to what we’ve been discussing for years at Amazon, but here they will not allow some of the comments we saw there…thankfully!
 
They changed the format over here, so I’m still getting used to it. I think it’s nice though…
 
Yes, Reesey. I felt I was being devested of friends. I mourned the loss. But am anxious to get back to it, maybe with new people joining in.

Can we start with the Aquinas issue I never got to respond to? I think many people try to use 21st Century standards to judge historical figures instead of trying to understand in the context of the writing and the life and times of the author. As a result authors such as Augustine and Aquinas are often misunderstood and/or dismissed. I read Augustine’s Confessions this past summer. It is an amazing book; how the man thought, amazing.
 
Last edited:
I think the judging by 21st century standards happens often these days, unfortunately. For some reason it seems to be encouraged, even though its practice does NOT help one develop a proper understanding of historical events.
 
How GREAT TO SEE YOU, Senneville! It was so distressing that we got shut down 3 days before anyone expected, so I’m glad to see you and Faith here. I hope EAR and Kevin and others will find their way here.
 
I was so scared I lost my friends. But you and Faith are here. Oh, happy day!
 
Senneville said:
Can we start with the Aquinas issue I never got to respond to? I think many people try to use 21st Century standards to judge historical figures instead of trying to understand in the context of the writing and the life and times of the author.
Click to expand...
Yes, while I wanted to use those last few days I THOUGHT we had to say our Goodbyes or make other plans to continue elsewhere, I felt I just had to respond to LD’s misuse of that quotation from Nietzsche- purporting to be from Aquinas. In reality, Nietzsche did not accurately quote Aquinas, he gave no citation of the source of the quote so others could look it up, nor did he give the context in which Aquinas wrote it. Nietzsche ‘s goal was to portray Christians as being hateful and vengeful, delighting in Divine Justice only insofar as it punishes those who have wronged us and who we can’t punish ourselves. Nietzsche claimed that this is the basis of our heavenly bliss!

But that was NOT Aquinas’ teaching, and so Nietzsche’s argument, and his use of Aquinas to support it, was untenable. It’s bad enough that Nietzsche misrepresented Aquinas (and by extension, Christian teaching) this way (particularly when Nietzsche himself insisted that his own words be understood ONLY IN THEIR PROPER CONTEXT), but that atheists and others who try to find fault with Christian - especially Catholic - teachings, still use that out-of-context MISquote today. As LD did. So I’m happy to continue that discussion! (LD also posted an alleged quotation from Pope Gregory the Great, which seemed to show the same vengeance mentality. But that was not a quote from Gregory at all. It is a quote from the anti-Catholic Charles Lea in his “History of the Inquisition”, who, like Nietzsche, gave no context at all, didn’t quote Gregory, and tried to portray Catholic teaching as vengeful and full of hate in “delighting” in the suffering of “heretics”.

I get tired o these gross misrepresentations being used so uncritically by those who have an axe to grind against the Catholic Church.
 
I hope Alan will find his way here. He was so delightful to converse with, the more so because though he didn’t share our beliefs, he respected them and was always open to discussing them reasonably and respectfullly. .He often would restate my argument back to me BETTER than I presented it myself - which always amazed me. Of the non-Catholic posters, I will really miss him, and Frank and Craig and a few others.
 
I hope so also. I notified K. Cooper and Lily on Facebook. I thought I was friends with Kevin, but couldn’t find him. Will look again tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
So far a couple of wonderful friends have posted! And they’re trying to pass the word along…
 
😊
Well, I just want you both to know that I subscribed to that thread, so I THINK I have all the posts, although I don’t know if they’re emailed in their entirety.
So if you want something looked up and referenced, I can use the mail search and try and find it for you.
 
Btw…

The young man in my profile pic is the extraordinarily talented musician Martin Johnson of “Boys Like Girls” and “The Night Game”, who is a favorite of some of the young (& not-so-young=) people I know. I <3 this pic not only because I’m a fan, but because he is pointing to Heaven.

My apologies as it is a cropped pic of a pic of a pic…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top