Comment by dragontamer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dragontamer | Hacker News Reader

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Catholic here.

We don't actually place that much emphasis on Genesis or the Bible in general. A lot of Catholic traditions are outside of the books: the sacraments, the assumption of Mary, the Apostles and their connection to the Bishops (and Bishop of Rome/The Pope), etc. etc.

Some Christians overemphasize the written word of the Bible. But just gonna toss this out: Biblical Literalism is not part of the Catholic tradition. It simply cannot be, as many important traditions were never written down at that time.

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The importance of the Torah is that Jesus was born as a Hebrew, so understanding his religion helps us understand the life he lived. As well as the prophesies he fulfilled.

But in terms of story? It's all an allegory or metaphor. Catholics are generally comfortable with saying that, ex evolution exists, even if it's not part of the book of Genesis.

Except that original sin thing is pure Genesis. It's what introduces the entire need for salvation throughout all Nicene Christianity.

The Gnostic Christians who rejected the Old Testament entirety had to insert some other reason to require Christ. My favorite mechanism is how Marcion handled it, purely because his was more interesting than "everyone starts broken."

But yes, generally Catholics are not sola scriptura while most Protestants are.

I'll admit that my only understanding of Gnostics are the random anime references to the Demiurge or other Gnostic concepts (and nearby Wikipedia pages). It is an utterly fascinating viewpoint of the early church and the different ideas circa the 1st and 2nd century AD.

It's important for any Catholic to study that IMO, and what led us towards the Nicene Creed / council of Nicaea. So it's definitely on my todo list of historical facts to look up.

And point on the Genesis ideas like original sin. We do take from Genesis just not as much as some other churches.

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The debate and back and forth of the Gnostics with regards to the nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are hugely important and the very reason why the Creed was created in the first place.

So much Catholic tradition is a continuation of the decisions of our early leaders recorded in the 300s AD and onward. (And the big gap between 30 AD when Jesus likely died and 300ish AD is simply oral traditions and barely written down outside of the Gospel and Paul's letters.)

Yes, it is a shame the Bible became "a book", taken to be homogenous, when it should be approached as it is, a large collection of books which should be considered individually.

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