i hav a religious question?

Question

what is the differance between catholics and christians?

Answer 1

As everyone said - Catholics are a subgroup of Christians.
The misunderstanding comes from the American "fundamentalist" insistance that they have "pure" Christianity - even though these groups are founded on West European Protestantism - which is about 1500 years and many many cultural miles away from the origin of Chrisitanity.

A bunch of answers were wrong in saying that Catholicism was the first and everyone left out a bunch of important others ie:
The Ethiopian Church and the Coptic church (followed in Egypt) both developed independantly of Catholicism and are just about as old or older.

With respect to the relationship of the Greek Orthodox to the Roman catholic church again there was a mistake -- indeed the two were originaly somewhat one and there was a schism (division) in the Middle Ages but to say that the Greek Orthodox came from the Roman catholic is as wrong as to say that the Roman Catholics came from the Greek Orthodox. It was a paralel development in two cultural centers vying for primacy.
Also, the Irish church was originaly fairly independant of Roman control and had vastly different rules but in the middle ages was "brought into line" and merged into Roman catholocism.

Answer 2

The name.

Answer 3

Catholics are Christians.

Answer 4

Catholics ARE Christians.

There are three branches of Christianity:
1 Catholic
2 Protestant (includes 100's of sub-denominations)
3 Eastern Orthodox

If you are a Christian, you are one of those. Period.

Every Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches broke away and were established during the protestant revolt, which began in 1517. Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. The line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken succession, to Peter himself (see list at: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm ).

For more info on the Church, go to:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Pillar.asp

Answer 5

The almighty RC church started the whole religious fervor. Christianity falls under the umbrella of where it all began and, it WAS the RC church. In the RC view its founder was St. Peter.

The reformation produced:

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was an anti-Semite, who thought women to be inferior to men and supported the horrible massacre of 100,000 peasants in the Peasants Revolt of 1525.

John Calvin (1509-1564) had a general intolerance which lead, in one instance, to his gleefully describing the execution of a theological opponent.

King Henry VIII (1491-1547) joined the Protestant movement because he wanted to remarry. His sexual exploits are legendary.

Answer 6

Catholics have the cool hats.

Seriously, they are Christians.

Answer 7

Catholics are christians but with a hierarchy of hats.

Answer 8

Um Christianity is a group.

Catholicism is a subgroup within that group, along with protestants and orthodox, each with their own sub-classes.

Answer 9

Nothing. They're all loony.

The Catholic Crusader, with a big Cross on his chest, hacking someone to pieces with his sword!! What a Christian thing to do!

Simply proves my point.

Answer 10

Catholics are a sect of Christian. The earliest one, actually. And the only one until the Protestant Reformation.