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> but you'd think anyone who believed in the bible would follow outright restrictions like that. Many churches and certainly the big catholic one interpret the

by tpm 4y ago

> but you'd think anyone who believed in the bible would follow outright restrictions like that. Many churches and certainly the big catholic one interpret the word of god for their believers (this is called magisterium), so if you are catholic, you don't believe in the bible but in the particular interpretation. And the differences are huge.

lo_zamoyski 4y ago
> so if you are catholic, you don't believe in the bible but in the particular interpretation. Any reading of the Bible is an interpretation. It makes no sense to speak of ANY text, or any spoken word, apart from interpretation. All of them are interpreted. So the question really is: do you have the correct, or at least a licit, interpretation? The Catholic Church interprets Scripture through the lens of unbroken tradition. Compare this with the 40,000 Protestant sects in the US alone, most of which interpret things however they want. That doesn't even touch on the question of translation, as well as how one translation may render something more accurately than another. And, of course, there's the other bit, namely, that the Bible was compiled by the Catholic Church, again, through the lens of tradition. How else are you going to determine which gospels are reliable and worthy of being made canonical, which books are apocryphal, which are fabrications, and so on, if you don't rely on something parallel to and 'outside' the text? (Luther did somehow manage to convince himself that he was qualified to 'tweak' the Bible, but I'll leave it at that.)
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  There's the added wrinkle that sola scriptura is, ah, kinda difficult to support using only the Bible. It's easier to argue against it, using the Bible as your only source, than to argue for it. Which is a bit awkward.
- tpm 4y ago
  > The Catholic Church interprets Scripture through the lens of unbroken tradition. Yeah and also always promoting its own power. So when the Bible explicitly says the bishops should be married men, the Church says actually no we don't like that because it would lessen our power over the bishops so let's make them celibate. Thus making lots of people very unhappy and some commit horrible crimes. How can anyone believe the Church's interpretation is correct is completely beyond me.

by tpm 4y ago

lo_zamoyski 4y ago

> so if you are catholic, you don't believe in the bible but in the particular interpretation. Any reading of the Bible is an interpretation. It makes no sense to speak of ANY text, or any spoken word, apart from interpretation. All of them are interpreted. So the question really is: do you have the correct, or at least a licit, interpretation? The Catholic Church interprets Scripture through the lens of unbroken tradition. Compare this with the 40,000 Protestant sects in the US alone, most of which interpret things however they want. That doesn't even touch on the question of translation, as well as how one translation may render something more accurately than another. And, of course, there's the other bit, namely, that the Bible was compiled by the Catholic Church, again, through the lens of tradition. How else are you going to determine which gospels are reliable and worthy of being made canonical, which books are apocryphal, which are fabrications, and so on, if you don't rely on something parallel to and 'outside' the text? (Luther did somehow manage to convince himself that he was qualified to 'tweak' the Bible, but I'll leave it at that.)

yamtaddle 4y ago
There's the added wrinkle that sola scriptura is, ah, kinda difficult to support using only the Bible. It's easier to argue against it, using the Bible as your only source, than to argue for it. Which is a bit awkward.
tpm 4y ago
> The Catholic Church interprets Scripture through the lens of unbroken tradition. Yeah and also always promoting its own power. So when the Bible explicitly says the bishops should be married men, the Church says actually no we don't like that because it would lessen our power over the bishops so let's make them celibate. Thus making lots of people very unhappy and some commit horrible crimes. How can anyone believe the Church's interpretation is correct is completely beyond me.