Why is everyone so shocked to find out that Catholics are encouraged to think for themselves?

[FreeThinkerJP1CA8165]

Of course, I am talking about the Vatican astronomer claiming that there probably is life on other planets, and the pope's subsequent decree that "believing in aliens is not against the Christian faith".Yet everyone has been posting questions in disbelief."The Vatican LETS you believe in things?"No, it doesn't. Catholics are free to -gasp- think for themselves. We are free to study science and come to our own conclusions about evolution. We are free to study astronomy and come to our own conclusions about life on other planets.The pope is NOT a guy in a multi-million dollar stadium "worship center" telling us what to think. We are NOT mindless drones using the Bible as a Biology, History, and Physics book.Catholics have been this way for years. Why are people so astonished?P.S. My Bible, in the footnotes for the story of Genesis, actually refers to it as an "obviously allegorical story".My BIBLE says that. Go figure. If it's in the Bible it has to be true, right?---Actually, Catholics believe in salvation through good works, NOT faith, so we are also free to believe whatever we want, too.

[spiritroaming9888]

All I can say is .......AMEN!!!!!!I was getting a little sleepy from all the drinks so early in the day! LOL

[IC8769]

Typical American-Protestant bias.While there's much to be said about the authoritarianism of your Church, even I have to give a certian level of acknowledgement to the intellectual contributions made by Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits to the advancement of Science.To be frank, you folks wouldn't be such a half-bad iteration of Christianity if it wasn't for the fact that y'all became so political around the middle ages.Politics made you do stupid things like Crusades and Inquisitions whereas if you had stuck with the core message of your founder, you'd probably have the current reputation shared by Buddhists or those other ancient Churches.But non-intellectual? That's proposterous. Outside of the older Protestant churches, your miles ahead of the rest...at least by this atheist's standards.

[AtheistHooliganDiverDude3175]

There is a BIG difference in being allowed to THINK for yourself as opposed to BELIEVING for yourself.Sure, you can think about all you want, as long as you realize that if you change your mind you will burn in hell. So go ahead, think all you want!

[MizzZero0936]

It says that in your Bible...? I think I might be in the wrong church... lol

[MsBunnySwan9737]

Amen amen I say to you

[turtlesallthewaydown9838]

The problem is that some Catholics don't think for themselves. (That's not surprising. Some members of any large group of people will follow others blindly.) People generalize from these few instances and believe that all Catholics don't think for themselves. It's simply the result of seeing a pattern that isn't there.

[misty04087227]

Yes, we can think for ourselves. but we cannot determine Church doctrine for ourselves. That is where people get these silly ideas. The story of Adam and Eve is believed to be allegorical by many faiths, but the Catholic Church does believe that Adam and Eve were real people, that God created the earth and human beings. Pope Pius XII stated: "When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parents of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now, it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own" (Humani Generis 37). The story of the creation and fall of man is a true one, even if not written entirely according to modern literary techniques. The Catechism states, "The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents" (CCC 390). http://www.catholic.com/library/adam_eve_and_evolution.asp

[Croaker9904]

i saw that as the other way around...or as what you see everyone posting.the vatican is now giving permission... for you to think.

[Born-AgainCatholic7362]

I suppose they'd rather think we're spoon-fed by priests, brainwashed, told to toe the party line, kept in darkness by fear, not allowed to question, et cetera, et cetera. Makes for much more drama, doesn't it? I find this is held mostly by misguided evangelicals who seem to think Catholics are their mission field. Pity the poor natives, you know.P.S. To address your additional details: The Church teaches salvation by grace through faith.http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s1c3a2.htm