THen why do they say the Pope is the conduit to god. To heed the teachings of god thats in the bible. Why would they follow a bible if they say it was a man who made up everything in it and wasnt gods word?
Why does it have to be one extreme or the other.
The Catholic church believes the bible is the "word of god." but that word was given to mine through inspiration, not a word for word translation.
The Catholic church believes the source of what God wants, isn't so much the words in the bible, but the interpretation the Catholic church has drawn out of those inspired words through thousands of years of study and thought.
The reform religions, broke away from this (and many other things.) They think the source of what God wants is the words of the bible, but they then reinterpret it their own way. They don't think you need the councils and philosophers and all that to extract meaning from the bible. They rejected the authority of the Catholic Chrurch's interpretation , and many denominations have constructed their own, and some do take a more literal interpretation that others.
But yes under Catholic theology, the church and pope is the authority on what God wants, and the bible is a tool they use to extract God's demands and pass them on to man.
Thats one of the key differences, in Catholicism, the Church is the conduit between man and God, man can't just pick up a bible and understand God, or just start praying and talk directly to God... so says the Catholic church.
The reform religions break down these barriers and open a more personal connection to God. With it comes the idea anyone can understand the bible, which creates many differing interpretations, some more literal than others.
And you don't understand my point, Islam is not a religion of peace. I don't need the koran to tell me anything about the religion the fact that there are so many stories of violence between muslims and against others is all I need. The evidence speaks for itself.
A religion is nothing more than what its adherents think and do. There is nothing intrinsic in Islam to make it a religion of peace or violence. The reason why so many Muslims are waging a war against the modern world isn't the text their reading, but the situation their in. And that is the destruction of their traditional way of life by the modern world.