That just proves another point... There almost as many different interpretations of the Bible as there are people, and each brach of Christianity claims absolute truth. How can you claim YOU worship the right way, when the other 1,000,000,000 Christians worship differently from, and they equally think they're right? This inconsistency is one of the first things that turned me away from religion when I was a kid...

To actually fit the definition of "Christian" means for one to be "saved by the blood of christ". You have to understand that even those who call themselves christian, and don't believe that first and most important thing are not christians. Christ asked that we "follow him" and that's what we try to do. The reason there are sooo many different denominations of the same church is because Christianity is a world wide religion with many different cultures and backgrounds. Any major difference between two branches of the christian church usually involve political or social events that change with the culture practicing them, but never any theological or spiritual arguments. Mormon's are a good example but most christians (98%-ish) would qualify the mormon's as a "cult" and non-christian (their doctrine has no emphasis on Christ as the son of man, aside from the fact that they Hold Joseph Smith on the same level)



Probably the only good thing to come out of Soviet Russia....



You're right, it's not just the Catholics, it's all the Christian groups that are doing more harm than good. You cannot go to a place like Africa and preach abstinence as a measure for fighting AIDS. Unlike white Europeans, Africans never did demonize sex, but see it for what it really is, the key to life and probably the most enjoyable thing a human being can do. Going around there saying "don't have sex, mmmkay?" just doesn't make sense... And I might add, it doesn't make sense in the US either, judging by the alarming and ever-increasing number of teen pregnancies.[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry but to really argue in this area we both need to be clear on the situations in Africa. You have to understand that the African people were just as bad as any other with how they held sex, except that they hadn't "gotten their yet" in terms of social stability, so leisure was not as abundant as our culture now. Less spare time was available to sit on the couch and get horny by watching MTV or Much Music. THEY still brought apon themselves the aids virus though, and proof of that is the fact that there's an EPIDEMIC right now. How can you say they did what they should've with sex? I'm not even pointing at the genocide or poverty of that place of the world, but the point is that you should at least get the point that in NO place in the world (not just africa) are we doing what we should be doing in order to accomplish anything. Technology goes towards mainly two things: Leisure, and Medicine...live longer, work less is pretty much the only thing humanity has shown to be working towards.

Telling people to "not have sex, mmmkay!" is hardly what the church is trying to do, but to rather help people see their sin. People need to know that having sex with multiple people is wrong, because our conciquence (or as we NOW like to usually put it, our "risks") has been things like aids, teen-pregnancy, and a morally twisted society. The reason the catholic church dismisses the idea of protected sex simply has to do with the fact that it gives humanity more option to bend sex to whatever seems to fit our desire at the moment. Doing something like this in Africa is simply bringing their wrongs to their attention. "Condoms are bad because you use them to rape women and children and get away risk free" (yes THIS is probably the largest reason for the spreading of aids btw)