Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

[Enters Laughing]

As far as I can tell, this may be the instance @Eliza Thomason was referring to, given that I quoted her and that I mentioned hell. But it seems as though I talk about the subject fairly frequently with various people over the years here.

Christianity's central doctrine is that you if you do not follow Christ, you will be tortured in hell. I find this utterly immoral, and not something I could follow. The distinction between Catholicism and Protestantism is rather irrelevant, except that anything "not Catholic" is more likely to not believe in the doctrine of Damnation.

You talk of Catholicism having the oldest traditions, but ignore that Protestants tend to believe that their particular sect follows the core of Christ's teachings as they are written in the New Testament, without all the obsession with gilded treasures and invented rituals of Catholicism. When Christ told his followers to eat and drink in remembrance of him, it was not at a formal ceremony in Latin with the disciples clothed in fancy dress and drinking from silverware.

If the Catholic Church sold off all its treasures that it doesn't actually use, poverty could be immediately eradicated. Instead, we have to wait another couple of decades or so. That tells you all you need to know about the Church's level of concern for the poor.

[Enters Laughing]

Depends entirely on the type of wealth. If it were stuff like gold or currency, then releasing it all back into the market would immediately collapse its value, and the impoverished class would stay poor. Even if the wealth were real resources like land, food, or oil, and even assuming the recipients knew how to use and ration it all properly, they'd likely use the wealth to start reproducing, without regard to what would be available for the next generation. Their descendants would grow in numbers beyond the carry-cap opened up by the inheritance of their parents, and within a number of generations, they'd become poor again.

The poorest worldwide (those in extreme/absolute poverty: "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.") mostly live in countries where the populace has a comparatively small impact on the earth's resources. I think also larger families tend to happen in countries where infant mortality is high and resources are scarce, perhaps partly out of a significant fear that their children will die young. I'm hopeful that the general trend now is to use wealth to find ways to live sustainably.