re: #3 Skip Intro

But the catch is you have to join the right club. Apparently here the right - and only club - is the Catholic church. Ask an evangelical, and they’ll tell you that the Pope worshipers are going straight into the pits of Hell, and only way to be saved is to belong to their club.

I don’t know why God decided to make it all so complicated, unless, prankster that He is, He’s going to send everybody to Hell just for laughs.

My guess is that’s a misquote. The priest almost certainly meant little “c” catholic church, not big “C.” And that isn’t church doctrine anyway. Christ clearlly says “all who believe in me” shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that’s from John, which is the suspiciously-wordy version of the gospels anyway, meaning a) there’s nothing in primary sources about needing to be a member of a club and b)Christ doesn’t say anything doctrinal on the issue either.

One of the problems atheists have with Christianity is the fundamental misunderstanding about how theology works. Theology is like black-letter law on crack. If something isn’t said, it doesn’t mean it isn’t necessarily true, and if something IS said, it may well not mean what a normal reader would think it means. Its meaning flows from other things that the “court” decided elsewhere and that are now part of the framework.