The pope came out with a statement saying everyone has to stop letting people's differences get in the way of treating them with respect and to stop wasting so much time on these issues. That is a change. It isn't a full on change of doctrine, so i don't know if they will just keep their doctrine and become decent interpreters of scripture and therefore love their neighbors, or actually change their view completely over time. These guys have massive political power, so I doubt they will ever be less than a bunch of years behind the curve.
So, who is bringing about all these changes? God? Or mere men?
The pope certainly isn't the voice of god. He is just some dude, like the president, or the Dalai Lama. He might be really cool or smart, I don't know him. He might even be getting ideas inspired by god somehow, I don't know, but if he tells anyone not to love their neighbor he is off the list of reliable people.
I would say if god actually communicated some doctrine, during the Bronze Age, the doctrine would have to be understandable by those people. Since no person can grant an understanding of god to someone else, the modern person would by necessity have to understand to some degree the doctrine as applicable to their lives, but humans translated and translate it all for each other to try to get a grip on. Asking for a human religion without humans interpreting it doesn't really make any sense. Unless you get the "word of god" spoken directly to you, there will be humans intermediating.
And if religious dogma is that 'easy' to change, then how could it ever have originated from 'God?'
You have set up up very nice dilemma here. The church can either change and be nothing more than some humans talking, or it can maintain Bronze Age ideas forever and be a blight on society.
The Catholic Church wants to be popular, and it seems to be doing what it needs to, in order to become just that--popular. Even if that means turning on its own faith teachings.
so you feel the Catholics should stay in the Bronze Age and just get left behind the rest of the planet?
This is why it's capable of appearing as though it supports the theory of evolution.
and of course, since you know their motivations and true idea inside the Vatican you know it is an appearance, but hey no bias.
This isn't something to be proud of, it just flagrantly shows that it will contort its own dogma, or banish it altogether, if it doesn't fit with its social agenda. The reason it's troubling is because it doesn't take a firm stand for faith or for science, as a religion. I'm no longer religious, but religious dogma should never 'change,' because it is based on the supposed ''word of God.'' How on earth does the Word of God, poof....just change? This is what led me away from Christianity, in general. If religious teachings can just change on a dime...then, they can't be based on anything supernatural, but rather just designed to suit the whimsical nature of mankind. (with the purpose of controlling mankind through fear)
you and others have certainly set up an impossible task for the church. They arose during a time when everything was totally different, but if the text mentions slavery in a way that is actually ahead of the Romans in terms of slave treatment, it gets bashed for supporting slavery. If the texts are reinterpreted they also get bashed as being from men, although people obviously wrote about things they knew, and any inspired texts meant to communicate to the world would have to to be written in context of the world they were written in. The only way some of you would be satisfied is if the bible had mention of computers and jet planes and modern egalitarianism, which of course would have meant nothing to the people far in the past. If I were to want to create a feeling of safety within my belief, i would certainly look for a way to set up this kind of dilemma with my definitions of opposing ideologies, rather than take responsibility for choices, knowing they aren't being made for me.
The Catholic Church didn't become 'powerful' by being docile.
Agreed, but are the people in the Catholic Church powerful or are the people who climb the ladders of power within the organization powerful? The fact that those types of people who have risen to power within the organization then try to assert their control just like any primate group leader should come as no surprise.
