IceDevil9 said:
A) That's the funniest shit I've heard in a long ass time. B) Is this 'thing' named either James or John. C) Does this 'thing work, conveniently enough, as an altar boy?
Just incase that isn't a joke, I meant transubstantiation.
Your argument makes no sense. He removes the 'substance' of the wine and the bread? So I can hold up a gun, replace the 'substance' of it with Gummi Bears and I can shoot myself and not die, but rather be barraged by Gummi Bears? Maybe I can remove the substance of poverty in Africa and replace it with that of food and oppurtunity. God, why haven't we been doing this forever? Hell, who knew it was that easy. -_-
I guess I didn't explain it as well as I thought I did. He is changing the substance, it does not change the accidents. The accidents do not change, when the bread's substance is changed our senses do not notice anything. It still smells, tastes, looks, and feels like bread. It is the substance, what it actually is changing.
Other than the fact that it takes a miracle must be present for the examples you have given to take place, I will still answer them. You take a gun and replace the substance of it with gummy bears you will still die, it doesn't change anything that our senses perceive. Also, last time I checked poverty wasn't an object, so I'm not exactly sure how that would work. Also, we have been doing it for the last 2000 years, ever since Jesus first did it.
Just to point out, if you don't believe that this is happening then you can't also believe that we are eating the flesh and blood of Jesus because this is how it becomes his flesh and blood.
That's metaphysics for you.
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As for the topic of priests, I will answer this in two ways. First is just showing how it is relatively low percent wise. From the latest numbers I have seen, which was awhile ago, it was around .53% of Catholic priests have molested children, and around 1.5% of all sects of Christianity, including Catholic priests have molested children. Compare this to the pedophilia rate of 4% in the general population in the United States you can see there alone that it is lower than in the general population and is not something that happens when you become a priest, such as what sells in the media.
Now the second way I will talk about this by using the bible. Here is one of the many parables from Jesus.
"But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.
But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.
The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?'
But he said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn."
(Matthew 13:25-30)
If you have no idea what that means, then you are in good company, because a few verses later the apostles tell Jesus they are confused and want to know what the hell he is talking about. He responds:
And He said,
"The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,
and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one."
(Matthew 13:37-38)
So if there are weeds mixed in with tares, there is good mixed in with evil. This would mean that the church could not be holy because there is evil mixed within it as well, right? If some parishioners, some priests, some bishops, some cardinals, some popes, etc are sinners, then the church is no longer holy, right?
The answer is no, the church is still holy, but then you must ask why. The answer to this is because the holiness of the church does not come from the people in it, it comes from God. The only part of the church which is holy is its' infallible teachings and its' sacraments. The only reason the church exists is to give out the sacraments and infallible teachings of God. The pope could order genocide of every non-Catholic in the world, yet the church would still be holy because the holiness only comes from the sacraments and infallible teachings.
So this goes into what you were talking about, why must you go to church, because not only are you missing its' infallible teachings, which is the small part, but you are missing the chance to receive the grace of God by receiving his son in the Eucharist.
So there we go, hopefully this is a long enough explanation for you, feel free to point out anything else you wish to know about the church.
