Speaking just from what I have seen, I agree that when both are relatively young and healthy its not such a big deal, but at the far end it becomes a huge issue I think. My mother in law is 60, her husband is 80, and not a healthy 80 where as she is a vigourous 60. It is very difficult for them now, she is raring to go and he is nearly wheelchair bound and not very healthy or energetic at all.
Big Dog
JoinedPosts by Big Dog
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31
Marriage and Age
by pratt1 in.
would you marry someone more than 15 years older or younger than yourself?.
it seems to be somewhat common for men to marry women significantly younger than them selves, but when a woman marries a man much younger, it seems to generate a lot of attention.. what are your thoughts?
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90
What would you have done?
by defd inwhat would you have done back in the 1st century when jesus came on the earthly stage and started christianity.
would you have became his follower?
how about after he left the earth and christianity began to spread by means of the apostles, would you have been involved in the many congregations that were started throughout the area?
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Big Dog
Derrick,
Don't want to ignore your questions, asked the wife about the kissing of statues, she doesn't do it, and most don't do it (I personally have never seen it done in over 10 years of attending) but explained at length that for those that do is it not idolitry as they are not worshiping the statue, it is merely an act of respect and reverence for what the statue reperesents, a fine distinction, but to my JW roots plausible as the JW's were excellent in legalistic distinctions (ie. blood fractions vs. whole blood).
As for the scriptures, most protestant faiths subscribe to sola scriptura, my understaning is that means that everything is contained in the bible, therefore church from the bible. The wife says the Catholic church believes the Bible was a product of the church and that there were traditions and teachings passed down by Jesus and the apostles that are not contained in the bible. Since the bible was not put together until around the 3rd century it makes sense to me that what the christian congregations were doing prior to the bible being assembled had to come from somewhere, so I understand the tradition arguement.
Where the heck is Jeff Schwelm, he can explain this stuff so much better than I can second hand.
I'm not advocating any position (Catholic, JW, etc.), just that once I got passed my JW bred thinking that the Catholic church was completely insane and actually looked at some of their teachings with an open mind, I have to admit they are not as silly as I was raised to believe, certainly no more so than the JW's.
BD
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90
What would you have done?
by defd inwhat would you have done back in the 1st century when jesus came on the earthly stage and started christianity.
would you have became his follower?
how about after he left the earth and christianity began to spread by means of the apostles, would you have been involved in the many congregations that were started throughout the area?
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Big Dog
Derrick,
I'm not upset at all, I was just correcting what I thought was an erroneous statement. My wife gets really upset with a lot of the stuff people misunderstand about the Catholic church, even those that are members (I recall many JW's that really didn't understand the faith they professed to follow).
From what I can see most christian faiths obviously share a great deal in the way of beliefs and practices, which according to my wife makes sense since all are off shoots of the original christian church. Having been raised a JW and attending the Catholic church for quite a while with my wife and being married to a Catholic I see many paralells between the religions and many differences.
From a practical standpoint it seems to me that Catholics have a much more healthy outlook on living in this world and seem to be better adjusted as a whole than JW's. Just my observation, no empirical evidence is suggested.
BD
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90
What would you have done?
by defd inwhat would you have done back in the 1st century when jesus came on the earthly stage and started christianity.
would you have became his follower?
how about after he left the earth and christianity began to spread by means of the apostles, would you have been involved in the many congregations that were started throughout the area?
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Big Dog
You are right Hibie, according to the Catholic church, saint with a capital S is only for those that have passed in death.
In the Roman Catholic church, the title of Saint - with a capital 'S' - refers to a person who has been formally canonized (officially recognized) by the Church. This takes place sometime after the person’s death and by this definition, never refers to a living person. Formal Canonization is a lengthy process often taking many years, even centuries. The individual is thoroughly investigated by the church and often a number of visions, miracles, or of the holiness and good deeds the person done while on earth in order to be declared a Saint. Also, by this definition there are many people in heaven who are not Saints simply because their lives were not exemplary (though they still went to heaven) and the church does not wish to uphold the individual as an example to be emulated. They are called saints (lowercase 's').
Contrary to popular belief, Saints are not worshiped - this would violate the Commandments - but they are asked for help or to pray for a person. Saints are usually considered to be specific intercessors for specific problems as well. The term Patron Saint usually defines this purpose. Once a person has been declared a Saint, the body of the Saint is considered to be holy. In past centuries, the bones of saints were distributed as holy artifacts. The ring on the finger of Catholic bishops contains the relic of a Saint. In modern times, however, there is a growing trend to show respect for the body of a Saint by leaving it alone and buried.
For Derrick, please note the first sentence in the second paragraph, this info is from the Wikpedia site.
BD
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90
What would you have done?
by defd inwhat would you have done back in the 1st century when jesus came on the earthly stage and started christianity.
would you have became his follower?
how about after he left the earth and christianity began to spread by means of the apostles, would you have been involved in the many congregations that were started throughout the area?
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Big Dog
Hibie,
This is more or less the definition of a saint that I was given:
In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. It can be applied to both the living and the dead and is an acceptable term in most of the world's popular religions. The Saint is held up by the community as an example of how we all should act, and his or her life story is usually recorded for the edification of future generations.
BD
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90
What would you have done?
by defd inwhat would you have done back in the 1st century when jesus came on the earthly stage and started christianity.
would you have became his follower?
how about after he left the earth and christianity began to spread by means of the apostles, would you have been involved in the many congregations that were started throughout the area?
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Big Dog
Derrick,
I checked with my wife, born and raised Catholic and she says that she worships no one other than God. She venerates saints but does not worship them, which she explained to me is an important difference.
Also, she made the same comment as others have, you have the 144,000 as mediators, she has saints that petition God in her behalf, she asks what's the difference, none that I can see.
BD
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163
The Bible...trust in Faith or trust in Fact?
by jgnat ini read the most extraordinary claim the other day.
"the bible is factual.
" i wondered, how could the speaker possibly back up such a claim?
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Big Dog
Zen, I absolutely agree, God as the author of the Bible, total faith, end of subject.
The Bible as containing any historical fact, debateable.
Two separate issues, I was commenting on both, sorry if I was unclear, not enough coffee yet.
BD
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163
The Bible...trust in Faith or trust in Fact?
by jgnat ini read the most extraordinary claim the other day.
"the bible is factual.
" i wondered, how could the speaker possibly back up such a claim?
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Big Dog
One of the best threads I have read in a long time, really got me thinking. Secular history really isn't much better than biblical really as it has been said the history books were written by the victorious. I mean, how reliable are the historical accounts of secular history? I would venture to say they have to be taken with a huge grain of salt as well, or when studying ancient civilizations via their crude pictographs and ruins, I would say good guesses at best, what do we really KNOW about what went on, all the things that happened behind the scenes etc.
For God's sake, we can't even decide who the hell killed Kennedy.
It would seem with modern technology history is more well preserved, but even that has problems, i.e. data tampering. In the last century photographs were absolute proof in a court of law, but now with digital techniques the old saying a photo doesn't lie is no longer true, they can be altered. Even video can be altered or parts can be taken out of context.
My point, why stop at ripping on the Bible's veracity? Hell, pretty much all of what we think we know about our history is at best moderately suspect if not highly suspect. What George Washington really said to his troops, who the hell knows, I know what I was taught in history class but we really can't say for sure what exact words came out of his mouth, etc.
In my opinion we take a whole lot more on faith than the Bible.
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90
What would you have done?
by defd inwhat would you have done back in the 1st century when jesus came on the earthly stage and started christianity.
would you have became his follower?
how about after he left the earth and christianity began to spread by means of the apostles, would you have been involved in the many congregations that were started throughout the area?
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Big Dog
Defd, if you follow your own example then you should still be a Roman Catholic, afterall, the Catholics and Orthodox churches are the only ones that can trace their roots all the way back to those 1st century congregations.
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37
Hey Everyone.
by Sam the Man ini've been lurking for some time and now its time for me to say hello.
i want to call myself sam on here to avoid any repercussions, whatever they may be i have learnt to cover my back in this life from the experiences i now ask if i may relate.
i was born into a black working class household in england to a mother who had remarried after splitting up with her first husband in barbados.
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Big Dog
Welcome Sam, I look forward to more of your posts.