Atheist 1 - Christian guy 0

[Jonathan Wylie]

Because it is statistically impossible to have lived through the shit that I have. I have been shot, stabbed, jumped by a gang of 17 men (armed) Trapped in an airtight toolbox in the middle of summer in Houston, TX. Been in more (american street) fights than anyone I know of. Trapped in a waterfall when I was 9, trapped long enough that dozens of people where searching the river for me!
Brother I can go on and on. I was shot in the head at point blank range... God entered my life at a young age, and has been beside me every since. I do not agree with organized religion, because I believe they became corrupted long ago... according to your take I should be a multiple Lotto winner with my luck, if that's all it is...

What the fuck Bill? Crazy!

[Jonathan Wylie]

technically yes. However, they have quite an addendum to the bible with rules that are not necessarily scriptural. The Bible does not have a purgatory for instance. So you get a lot of fundamentalist christians who say catholics are not cristians. I guess I am Evangelical in that I believe that the Bible is literal. I don't argue over religion because it is a matter of faith. If you could prove a spiritual belief then faith would not be required. I just try to answer the questions I can and correct misleading statements.

I guess the question should be do they regard to their selves as cristians?

[swap]

"I guess the question should be do they regard to their selves as cristians?"

Yes.

"Catholic doctrine teaches that the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD and that the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles signaled the beginning of its public ministry." source Wikipedia.

From what I understand, the Catholic church was the first Christian church.
Other Christian churches formed for various reasons such as the one mentioned above.

"The Bible does not have a purgatory for instance."

The Bible never calls it "purgatory", but it does talk about it. For instance, 1 Peter 3:18-20 reads:

For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit. In it ( it being death ) he also went to preach to the spirits in prison ( prison being purgatory ), who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water.

I added the emphasis ().

[Taylor Culbertson]