Also, The Catholic church put together the Bible... They picked and chose what books to join together to create it... How can you say you don't subscribe to their belief when the Bible you are quoting was created by them?
...excellent point.
When Constantine convened the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, he pretty much locked all the Christian patriarchs in a room till they came to some kind of agreement.
This compromise result was the New Testament as we know it today.
But consider what they discarded... 76 alternate gospels, some of which have been recovered via the Dead Sea Scrolls, Nag Hammadi Library, Cathar/Bogomil/Albigensian/Aryan literature, the Quumran texts etc etc:
-the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (in which the Magdalene is Jesus' wife/secret apostle/successor)
-the Gospel of Thomas (where Jesus survives the crucifixion only to retire in Pakistan)
-another Gospel of Thomas (in which Thomas is Jesus' twin brother)
-the Gospel of Pontius Pilate (in which Pilate was a Christian true believer)
-the Gospel of Judas Iscariot (in which Judas is ordered by Jesus to betray him)
-the "Secret" Gospel of Mark (for higher initiates, detailing supposedly homosexual rituals)
None of these gospels are self-consistent, most can't even agree on the names of the twelve disciples... and that's not including the wealth of associated midrash literature.
If you choose to distance yourself from Vatican thinking despite it's history as the main branch of Christian thought (as some of the apologists here insist upon doing), you have to be very, very careful of the company you're keeping... traditionally those Christians who had access to the full canon of texts and adhered to the teachings of such texts differed significantly from Vatican thinking.
These "True Christians": The Aryans; Bogomils and Cathars (practically the same group), Albigensians, Old Believers and Hibernian Church, while thoroughly Christian in their attitude and conduct, being far more charitable, tolerant, egalitarian and observant of Christ's message... they didn't necessarily believe in:
-the virgin birth
-the immaculate conception
-Jesus being celibate
-Jesus being god
-Jesus being the "son of god"
-Jesus rising from the dead
-Jesus being crucified
-Jesus being assumed bodily into heaven
-Jesus being a real historical person
-Jesus being anything other than an allegorical example for humankind
...so if you believe the canonical gospels to be LITERALLY true, then it ought give you pause that the majority of Christians throughout Christian history were far better informed regarding the nature of the Jesus, and the vast majority of them had come to the conclusion that Jesus was mythological.
The Luke