Can I still call myself a christian?

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Although I have found that there was an ancient christian sect that had simular views, I've begun wondering.

Basically I believe that God is the universe, so the best way to understand god, is to understand the universe. So I view learning and thinking as a religious process. I guess you can say I worship knowledge itself. This extends to my moral system. The greatest offence is a lie, which defiles knowledge. It posions the purity of information. As well as my views on life. That life is the aquisition and analasis of information. To impeed this by ending a life is also a horrible act and should only be done to continue life.

My views have began to differ so much, I wonder if I can still claim to be a member of the roman catholic faith.

So for Genesis 1:1 you would have,

"In the beginning the heavens and the earth created the heavens and the earth"

instead of,

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"



That would be a mix of pantheism and materialism, not Christianity. As for the Roman Catholic church accepting you, ask a priest. He'll probably say that you're accepted.

To understand the universe is to understand god's grand design. To become closer to god we must come closer to that incredible wealth of knowledge and understanding.

Though I should say, I dont really care if the church accepts me, but I like being accurate in what I say. I dont want to call myself a catholic if I am not one

To be omniscience you must at least know the position of every particle throughout the universe throughout all time and eternity. Is your mind capable of storing such knowledge?

There's one simple question to determine whether you can call yourself a Christian:

Do you believe in the divinity of Yeshua ben-Joseph, the famed Jesus of Nazareth? Do you believe that he was the literal Son of God, as well as the metaphorical sense in which we all are?

That is the only important question to determine Christianity. The rest is doctrine. Now, if you want to know if you can call yourself a Catholic, you need to speak to a Catholic clergyman - I'd recommend a Jesuit, if you can find one; they seem to enjoy that sort of discussion.

Sounds like your describing something more toward gnosticism, that's kinda the way I tend to veer myself if anything. Its more like were here to experience the reality that god gave us, experience it for him, with all parameters of who we are - strengths, weakness, perspectives, emotions, etc.

I think your right though, illusions and lies are probably the biggest enemy of peace of mind, true happiness, and true understanding. I was raised Catholic but couldn't stay with it just because, too many things bugged me, too many things lacked explanation, and there was absolutely no explanation of the larger context of what we were really outside this earth, what's outside this earth and the plane that we know, I tend to need details like that just for it all to make sense and stick if you know what I mean (and of course if something doesn't stick I can't follow it, I end up feeling like I'm lying to myself and that nauseates me more than anything).

If you haven't already though, pick up a copy of the Nag Hammadi - real interesting reading and it goes right along the wavelengths of what your talking about.

no and in fact the laws of physics says thats not even possible. But thats why I'm not god

i think you have a great point of view, on who god is. and if you feel that way go for it!

How many petabytes does that require?

Being 99% of that's not really salient its probably nothing to even worry about. Striving to understand what's around you on all levels I think is still making the choice to walk the high road in life.

To acheive your goal is to reach your peak. To strive for perfection means you will forever improve.

Roman Catholic? Probably not. There, the church has the all the answers, you get enlightened by believing what they tell you. If you think God is the Universe, then the Catholic teachings on Galileo and Copernicus are probably enough to convince you that RC is not the answer.

That is, more or less, the view of Father Matthew Fox and his "creation spirituality." He began as a Roman Catholic priest. However, he is now a priest in the Anglican Communion (the Episcopal Church in the U.S.).

This Wikipedia article article has a good summary of his views (toward the bottom):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Spirituality

And here are a couple of websites on the subject:

http://www.creationspirituality.info/

http://www.matthewfox.org/

The term is Deist A short copy and paste of the term.
"Deism: Deism is the recognition of a universal creative force greater than that demonstrated by mankind, supported by personal observation of laws and designs in nature and the universe, perpetuated and validated by the innate ability of human reason coupled with the rejection of claims made by individuals and organized religions of having received special divine revelation." from the World Union of Deists web site
http://www.deism.com/index.html And no you sould not call yourself after a minor player on the theist realm of thought.

If you're a Roman Catholic, then you could just end up being excommunicated. Look at what they did to Galileo.

I don't know anything much about the Roman Catholic Church, except that John Calvin, John Knox and Martin Luther used to be Catholic.

If the world was created so that Mankind can get to know God (Calvanist idea), then the only way is through knowledge, and it would be wrong not to seek to understand the world and the universe in order to get to know the workings of God better. But the only way to God is through faith in Jesus Christ.