Thats like saying America has Five different presidants. George W Bush. Bush, Georg Bush, W, Bush Jr., and Son of Bush.

God Akraasiel. The God of Christianity is God. And what do you mean where are we hiding him? I don't see Yahweh frolicking at Hanukkah (sp?) or Allah partying at Ramadan. (Correct me if I got any of those Gods, festivals or spellings wrong).

The hiding thing was him being sarcastic and saying that there are multiple gods, so stop trying to hide this "one" and tell me who he is.

But, like Daganev said, America by Akraasiel's definition has multiple presidents.

So that ain't gonna stick.

But that was a pointless argument because his point was that there were three gods in Christianity or something. He never asked anyone to define him. I was just correcting that there is one God in Christianity.

Well, he was suggesting that Yahweh and that other one that I can't be bothered to go check the name of and so forth are actually seperate gods, not the one you say there is.

That's what confuses me because I don't see where that comes into it. I was talking about God being the God of Christianity. I didn't go into whether he was the same as Allah or Yahweh or whoever.

1) God the Father
2) Jesus Christ - the Savior
3) Holy Gost


One GOD, three members of the GODHEAD

Yes, the Holy Trinity.

The distinction, for me at least is that the trinity are three distinct seperate beings... most disagree...

Well I know the Catholic Church teaches that God can be experienced in three ways, Son, Spirit, Father. I think there are other denominations that disagree though. But do you believe that they are three seperate beings, and therefore all Gods, or that God is God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are somthing else?

during the tv coverage of the pope's vigil, I noticed that they prayed to Mary because praying to the mother to get a responce from the son 'makes most sense'

What doesn't make sense to me though is how Mary can be the mother of god yet also a creation of god...

Also why pray to mary when you can pray to god itself, is mary more powerfull than god is? More comppasionate?

Is it son spirit father, or sone mother father, or son father spirit mother? it confuses me.

Technically Christ is NOT GOD, as in he is not our spiritual father. He is God's firstborn. However different from us, Christ was perfect in every way. He is the mediator, the one who will speak on our behalf at the day of judgement.

I agree with Dagnev here. Mary, however important... is still only a woman. She is not God, and I doubt God has ever had a problem listening to ANYONE's prayers.

Raan: If, as I do, you believe that the Holy Trinity is one being, but also as three, as a Holy Mystery (very complicated, we're supposed to just believe it because the Church said so I guess. I fine it iffy ) then you believe Jesus is God.

Daganev:

The belief in Mary as the Mother of God relies on the belief in the Holy Trinity being one being. She gave birth to Jesus, who is God, and she is by this teaching the Mother of God. (It's very complicated, seemingly impossibe and of course hard to believe. It is a true matter of faith. There is no proof, you either believe it or you don't.)

Praying to Mary is based on the belief of Divine Intercession. By praying to Mary, Catholics (I believe this is predominately a Catholic practice, I think Mary is not prayed to in other denominations) believe that she will intercede with God for us, and will pray for us and talk to God for us on our behalf.

Finally, Mary is not part of God. The Trinity is Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

All very complicated, all purely faith-based. I was brought up having this drilled into me, but I believe it less and less as I get older.

I'm not sure why praying to Mary is supposed to have any effect though, so to speak, as she's not God or part thereof, and presumably doesn't have any of these powers God has. Maybe I'm just trying to make it too complicated though.

God, refers to the Trinity as GOD, one entity in mind. In otherwords, they all have the same goal. Christ is the Father's son. Not another incarnation of the Father.

Heres where I deviate from mainstream christianity. Christ and God as most refer to him are not the same being, but two disctinctly different beings, each with is own soul and spirit. They are united as one, with the same goals and the same ideals.

There is a difference between something being a matter of Faith and thus there is no proof, and something being inherently consistant.

Now, I'm making an assumption that when the prophets said to not pray to anything other than god, that idea was still kept by christianity, although I get the idea that some people pray to saints as well, so maybe that assumption is wrong.

To me, when someone prays to something they deify it. Because who sends an appeal to the county courthouse when they are automatically given access to the supereme court? (assuming this was allowed and not illegal and all that real life stuff)

It is complicated, not very consistant and often contradicts itself. That is the problem with much of Christianity.

Catholic teaching says that by praying to Saints you are asking them to pray to God for you. They intercede with God for you. It does not mean they are Gods themselves.

Saints are saints... they dont have the ability to answer, and very likely hear your prayers. The only One who has that power is Christ.

Interesting, when people pray to 'saints' in Judaism the pray goes something like this...

Dear G-d, Remeber your cool Saints who excelled in the area of my shortcomming? Do you think you could use some of thier merit to replace mine since I belief they had good ways? If not, could you ask that cool saint if he is willing to participate on my behalf if my own charachter is not deserving? Yeah? Cool thanks... your the best dad.

But what I heard on TV sounded much more like...

Dear Mary, Think you could help me? Your good at this stuff maybe you can do something. If not, at least you can ask god for me, I hear he likes you.(an almost implied...but not me) Yeah? Cool thanks.