Are you Catholic or a Christian?

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7 Answers

Didge Doo Profile
Didge Doo answered

Catholicism is a branch of Christianity. Catholics are Christians.

I'm not. I'm a Pastafarian.,

R'amen.

Pastafarian Church

Charles Davis Profile
Charles Davis answered

The difference between Catholics and christians is the ignorance many protestants have with Catholics. Catholics are christians, it's just many protestant sects do not accept them as christian. However there are some protestant sects that do not accept any other sect as "true" christians, other than their own, Jehovah's Witnesses, Iglesia ni Christo, and so forth. The Catholic church is the original, first christian sect, from which all others came from, they also comprise over 3/4 of the christian population in the world. They set the bible, they set the trinity, they set most all the beliefs still held in the overall christian religion.

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Cookie Hill
Cookie Hill commented
Jehovah's Witnesses has never been part of the Catholic religion and they do not set the Bible. Most Catholic's do note even read theirBible,, if the would they would know that Jesus is not part of a trinity. Jehovah's Witnesses have never accepted the trinity as a bible teaching, and none of their beliefs stem from Catholic Church. John 8:32- John:15:15, " I know longer call you slave because a lave does not know what his master does. But I call you friends,because I made known to you all the things I have heard from my Father."
Charles Davis
Charles Davis commented
Cookie, I never said JW's were Catholic, I said all other christian religions came from the original universal (Catholic) religion, perhaps not directly, but all christian religions trace their ancestry back to the Catholic religion. If it were not for the Catholic church there would be no Christian religion. Now as far as the teachings of the JW's they do differ from the Catholics, but they do use the bible that the Catholics set with some alterations (as all protestants do) using the protestant version of the bible (that Luther set). The Protestant bible canon contains all the same books that the Catholic does with the exception of a few Deuterocanonical writings in the Catholic version. And who made the decision as to what books should be in the bible, especially the NT, that would be the Catholics, it was organized by Eusebius in the 4th century and ordered by Constantine for 50 copies.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society tries to state that their beliefs such as the non-trinitarian beliefs go all the way back to the the Heretic Arius, which is pretty much unsubstantiated. C.T Russell started out as a trinitarian, but influenced by the Millerite movement through a couple of Millerite left overs that attended the private bible study that Russell and his father hosted, they came to the conclusion that the trinitarian belief and a few others were not right. So no, they cannot trace their non-trinitarian beliefs to Arius.
Charles Davis
Charles Davis commented
Thank you Sin.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered

It's not an either-or question. Catholic and Christian are not the only religions. This question is very insensitive and biased.

I am an atheist.

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Tom  Jackson
Tom Jackson commented
A response providing a meaningless fact and an unsupported opinion.

If I were an atheist, I would shudder whenever I read this type of answer from the nebulous "Anonymous."

As an atheist posting this answer, you fail to exhibit any personal human characteristics as an atheist that could possibly attract me to further investigate your outlook on life.
Ray Dart
Ray Dart commented
Actually, Christianity is a state of mind and a set of "rules" for dealing with society in general. It is all about decency and trying to be nice to everyone else. Any other interpretation is dogma.
Charles Davis
Charles Davis commented
As an atheist, I do not see an issue with this question. Any more then someone asking about the difference between Theravada and Buddhism., or Shaivism and Hindu.
Tris Fray Potter Profile

I'm atheist, but there is more than one religion.  FYI, Catholicism is a type of Christianity.

Ty Hibb Profile
Ty Hibb answered

It depends on what you call a Christian. I have seen people that are called Christian because of the religion that they are in. Really a Christian is a foot step follower of Jesus Christ. When that definition is given, a person's identity would simply be whether he is a Christian or not.

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Ray Dart
Ray Dart commented
Actually, Christianity is a state of mind and a set of "rules" for dealing with society in general. It is all about decency and trying to be nice to everyone else. Any other interpretation is dogma.
Charles Davis
Charles Davis commented
A Christian is anyone that claims to accept Jesus as their Savior, anything beyond that is truly subjective and only an opinion, as they all make the claim of being "Christian" by using the exact same writings you use, to claim that only the JW's have the only right way. Iglesia ni Christos do not have a denomination specific bible as you do, but they use the KJV to prove they are the one and only true religion. As do the Oneness Pentecostals.
PJ Stein Profile
PJ Stein answered

I believe what you meant to ask was, "Of the Christians out there, who is Catholic and who is Protestant?"

And to answer your question I believe in God, however I don't belong to any organized religion. I was raised Catholic, as was my husband, but we only attend church on rare occassions. And that is only to please his mother.

Tom  Jackson Profile
Tom Jackson answered

Well I am a Christian (follower of Christ) and also a Catholic (a specific type of follower of Christ).

There are things about Catholic perspectives on God and His creation that differentiates us from other Christians, so in a venue where I am going to elaborate, I will identify myself as Catholic. Otherwise, with notable exceptions, I will simply say I'm Christian.

And some comments that may indicate why I do that: 1) I think truth exists and is the proper object of study; and 2)  I think that CS Lewis is correct when he says that as it grows, truth differs not only from evil, but from other truths. (It is not that truth varies, it is a result of possessing our being in parts, and as FJ Sheed comments in Theology and Sanity, that is a great limitation.)

thanked the writer.
Tom  Jackson
Tom Jackson commented
Well, actually, Ray, Christianity is not a "state of mind" There is a sufficiently common broad agreement about numerous Christian principles attributed to a generally presumed to have existed person called "Jesus Christ" to make the definition of a "Christian" to be described as a "follower of Christ."

Reducing "Christian" to a "state of mind" is to decrease the comprehension of the term 'Christian." The taxonomic scale is useful because it allows us to identify specific members of the animal kingdom by appending a specific difference to a genus, e. g. "homo sapiens" as opposed to "latrodectus mactans."

Observing that they are both "animals" adds nothing to understanding.
Ray Dart
Ray Dart commented
You really don't understand do you?
Charles Davis
Charles Davis commented
Tom, when it comes to religion, truth, is completely a subjective subject. All the sects of the Christian religion claims to have the "truth". It is proven using the same set of writings for each claimant, so therefore is an interpretation of their belief and the holy writings (a few adapt additional writings to underline their beliefs), and not based in fact.

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