Will things ever change? (Los Angeles, Long Beach: high school, closing, to live)

[Jakehorror]

I get it now. Some heavy stuff there. Thanks for the explanation.

[edelweiss]

You're welcome! Sorry my explanation got a little heavy. I taught religion at a Catholic high school for years answering questions and explaining things like this everyday, and I guess I just got carried away. Happy weekend.

P.S. - Jake, you are to be commended for your volunteer work. We need more people like that if the answer to the title of this thread is to ever be "yes!." God bless.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by edelweiss

I taught religion at a Catholic high school

By the way, I went to catholic school for 13 years: Louisville in Woodland Hills (they used to have a co-ed kindergarden there in the 1960s), Our Lady of Malibu, and Chaminade. (The alternative would have been to attend LAUSD.)

I am pretty familiar with most of the catholic high schools in the the region: Alemany, Crespi, Notre Dame, de La Salle, Bosco Tech, Paraclete, Mary Star of the Sea, Pater Noster, Cathedral...I played football and soccer in HS for three years in the 1970s and those were the schools we played.

[motoman]

Religion is always an interesting topic.

I grew up Catholic, went to Catholic school through elementary, and never did well in religion class because I always questioned the Bible.

If Adam and Even were the first two people, and then they had two sons, how did the rest of us get here? Incest must have been acceptable in the beginning, so why isn't it now?

And since Adam and Eve are always depicted as white people in the Bible, how in the world do we have all other races and ethnicities? It isn't a possibility if you believe in Adam and Eve.

Most people also believe if you don't believe in God you're going to Hell. Really? So what you're saying is that God, who supposedly created this incredibly fantastic universe we live in is such a petty being that by simply not believing in him he is going to condemn you to eternal damnation?

And what about sin? If God made us, he also made us fallible. Therefore, if he condemns us for being fallible, is it not that he is condemning his own creation? How does that make sense?

I don't believe in a God like a lot of people do. Perhaps there is a higher being that created all that is. But honestly, I don't care if there is or not.

I think the Bible was simply a way for the leaders of the times to guide the masses, as well as to explain the unexplainable. Think of what little was known about the world and the universe when the Bible was written. Everything still revolved around the Earth, and the Earth was still flat, and they still drilled holes in people's heads when they had a headache, etc.

And why cannot the Bible and science co-exist? Why does the Bible have to be a literal translation? Why could it not be that Adam and Eve were in fact amoeba that developed into the amazing human beings we are today? In my eyes that is even more beautiful than believing that Adam and Eve just appeared out of nowhere, and knew how to talk, and write, and build cities, and procreate and raise healthy children, etc.

And why cannot the 7 days in which God created the universe have actually been billions of years? Because it's not in the Bible? Are you serious? Because thousands of years ago, when people were totally ignorant of the universe and how it works, because they said something happened a certain way, and wrote it down, somehow it's the infallible truth? Come on, folks!

Having faith is fine, but in my view blind faith is a recipe for disaster. For example, through history, there have been more people killed in religious wars than all other wars combined. How is that preaching the word of the Lord? And yes, respected religious leaders were involved in those wars.

It seems to me that the meaning of the Bible changes with the ages. For instance, when the Bible was written women were property and had no rights. Should we go back to those times? "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife." No mention of husbands. Why is that?

[Joe_Ryder]

Originally Posted by motoman

Having faith is fine, but in my view blind faith is a recipe for disaster. For example, through history, there have been more people killed in religious wars than all other wars combined. How is that preaching the word of the Lord? And yes, the Vatican was involved in some of those wars.

No war in history has been fought over any religion. Religion is used to get people fired up.

I feel that religion was the greatest and most significant weapon system ever invented.

[DontH8Me]

Can one of the mods pleeeease move this thread to the religion forum? It has squat to do with Los Angeles and everything to do with theology.

[GracieJJ]

Originally Posted by DontH8Me

Can one of the mods pleeeease move this thread to the religion forum? It has squat to do with Los Angeles and everything to do with theology.

Haha, after reading you post, made myself read the whole thread, and yeah you're right...



+1 rep motoman, good points.

[katenik]

Originally Posted by Charles

By the way, I went to catholic school for 13 years: Louisville in Woodland Hills (they used to have a co-ed kindergarden there in the 1960s), Our Lady of Malibu, and Chaminade. (The alternative would have been to attend LAUSD.)

I am pretty familiar with most of the catholic high schools in the the region: Alemany, Crespi, Notre Dame, de La Salle, Bosco Tech, Paraclete, Mary Star of the Sea, Pater Noster, Cathedral...I played football and soccer in HS for three years in the 1970s and those were the schools we played.

have you heard that daniel murphy (not exactly in the area, i know) is scheduled to be permanently closed at the end of this school year? the archdiocese needs to raise money to pay off that half billion dollar settlement to the victims of sexual abuse by priests, and i guess trader joe's needs a bigger parking lot. (actually, that latter statement is speculative, but TJ's does currently use their parking lot after school hours.) i find it ironic that an institution that exists to serve the educational needs of teenaged boys is going to fall victim to the fall-out of decades of abuse perpetrated against, for the most part, teenaged boys.

[katenik]

Originally Posted by DontH8Me

Can one of the mods pleeeease move this thread to the religion forum? It has squat to do with Los Angeles and everything to do with theology.

although it's been civil and an interesting read, i can't quite understand why it's here, either--particularly considering that a thread i started in the education forum, expressing outrage at teachers who become sexually involved with students, was removed for being "controversial." i have no idea what was controversial about such a discussion in a place where dozens of teachers post, as it was their thoughts in particular that i wanted to hear. i love city-data, but the moderating can be very biased and illogical!

[little peg]

Originally Posted by edelweiss

You are refering to the mystery of the Holy Trinity. As I Catholic, I will explain it like this: We belive that Jesus is one with the Father. From the begining of time, God existed. He simply is. You've maybe heard the word "Yahweh?" This is how the ancient Jews refered to God (although they held even God's name in such high esteem, that they often felt unworthy to even pronounce the name). It translates simply to "I am" or "I am the One who is." So, yes, you are correct in assuming that God has no creator.

As I said, we believe that God exists in the form of 3 persons. One God in three persons. By name, they are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is why Christians make the sign of the cross when we pray; we are annointing ourselves in the name of the Trinity. About 2000 years ago, God chose to reveal Himself to the world in the person of Jesus, thus the celebration of Christmas. Yes, Jesus is the Son of God, but he is also one with God.

Here is a portion of the Nicene Creed, which Catholics recite every time we go to Mass: "We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man." It goes on and on, but this part answers your question. It's kind of like three candles bundled together, wicks intertwined and burning in one flame. We believe God exists in three unique persons but still one God. It is the mystery of the Holy Trinity - impossible to understand completely with our simple minds. Only with faith can this be embraced. So anyway, this is why we believe that Jesus is divine. He is Son of God, but equally he is God Himself.

What a nice explanation.