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Goodbye Jesus

Why Do Catholics Make Everything Up?


Neon Genesis

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Even as a Christian, the one denom that I could never understand at all was Catholicism. With most other denoms, even if I didn't agree with their doctrines, I at least was able to understand how they came to their conclusions yet as a believer, I could never understand Catholicism and I understand it even less now as an atheist. The thing I don't get is why is like 90% of Catholic doctrine is bullshit they blatantly made up that isn't even in the bible. Granted, 100% of all xtians make up their own shit too, but at least it seems like most other denoms at least try to base their claims on their "interpretation" of biblical scriptures (aka their reimagining of the scripture). But with Catholicism, it's like so much of it isn't even anywhere in the bible at all. Like I never understood the logic behind the whole pope concept at all. Where do they get the idea of establishing a so-called "infallible" pope as practically the mouthpiece of God when the pope isn't even mentioned anywhere in the bible whatsoever? Then you have other shit that isn't in the bible either like purgatory, confessions, the whole rosary thing, and then you have all that made-up Catholic "legend" that even gets accepted as "historical" fact by other denoms like all the stories about the martyrs of the apostles and the death of St. Paul etc.

 

Then you have some Catholics who treat the Virgin Mary almost like she's a freaking goddess by praying to her and even having statues of her and stuff even though she didn't do anything in the bible at all other than the virgin birth, but was otherwise completely pointless in the story. I've heard a lot of people accuse Catholics of never reading their bibles, but one of my friends is a Catholic and she's pretty knowledgeable about the bible or about as knowledgeable as most Christians are, and yet she still believes in all this made-up crap anyway, so I don't know if lack of bibilcal knowledge has anything to do with why they believe in it. You'd think Catholicism would be the most blatantly made-up denom of them all since so much of their beliefs isn't even in the bible, yet why do people still blindly accept it? I know all the stuff about the pope is mostly politics and all, but I just don't get how Catholics come to their beliefs about these things or what the rationalization is for having them. When so much of Catholicism isn't even biblical, it's certainly no wonder that even most Christians consider Catholicism to be almost a different religion from the rest of xtianity all-together.

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The Bible is made up. Why can't an enterprising religion make up stuff too?

 

Catholics, Mormons, Scientologists . . .

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Hey Neon, get yourself a copy of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" and a copy of the New American Bible. It will attempt to explain where we get our half-baked doctrines from. Supposedly, if I remember right, we get the belief in purgatory from 2 Maccabees, which isn't in many of the mainstream Protestant bibles. That book along with several others are called "The Apocrypha", which was excised because King James or one of his cronies didn't like it or something like that. Kind of shows why being a Catholic is an exercise in mental regression.

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My theory is..

 

They got this book... just the one... To do all this stuff with, so they get bored, since they have already been over it 20 gazzilion times..

 

So what would you do if you were that bored? ADD to it, make more stuff to do, more doctrine etc etc!

 

New an improved rules right?

 

Doh...

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From what one Catholic told me, the Bible wasn't the end of the road. They saw the church as evolving over time dynamically.

 

Although if we look a little closer, Saint worship was tailor-made to appeal to reluctant pagans who were fond of ancestor worship as well as any number of household gods, and Mary is the stand-in for the Mother Goddess.

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In answer to the OP, tradition.

 

and as a point of balance - Catholics (Anglo and Roman) largely think the rapture and the End of Days is bollocks, best left to red necked primitives and inbreds...

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Gramps is right. THE major difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is that Catholicism is not Sola Scriptura. Scripture AND tradition are the two pillars of the Church. Now as to what tradition is, if you really want to know, you should probably take a catechism class. There is actually very little, if anything, that is made up of whole cloth. But the origins and reasonings behind many of the non-scriptural things in Catholicism are incredibly obscure.

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Where do they get the idea of establishing a so-called "infallible" pope as practically the mouthpiece of God when the pope isn't even mentioned anywhere in the bible whatsoever? Then you have other shit that isn't in the bible either like purgatory, confessions, the whole rosary thing, and then you have all that made-up Catholic "legend" that even gets accepted as "historical" fact by other denoms like all the stories about the martyrs of the apostles and the death of St. Paul etc.

 

The idea of the Pope is based upon a doctrine called "apostolic succession" Each pope gets his authority from that succession, which Catholics believe can be traced back to the apostle Peter, who founded the church. It should be noted that the church only views the Pope as infallible when he makes edicts from the papal throne.

 

The passage in the bible they use, it the one where Jesus says that Peter is the rock on which he will build his church. However, some scholars believe that this passage may have been a later interpolation into the gospel, to justify "apostolic succession" after the fact.

 

Many of the other doctrines in the catholic church can be traced back to some form of papal edict, they don't feel the need to justify such things with the bible because a papal edict made from the throne of St. Peter carries the same weight as a passage in the bible.

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The Catholics know who compiled the Bible -- They did. They know it is not a magic book from the hand of God. Up until the Protestants managed to get the bible widely published in the vernacular, the bible was all but a baned book for the laity. The Catholic Church sees itself as having authority over scripture and for that reason tradition including new tradition usually trumps scripture.

 

If you enter a Protestant Church that has an altar you will probably find a fancy bible opened in the center of it. In a Catholic Church the bread and wine or the host will have that position.

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The passage in the bible they use, it the one where Jesus says that Peter is the rock on which he will build his church. However, some scholars believe that this passage may have been a later interpolation into the gospel, to justify "apostolic succession" after the fact.
The current pope sure hasn't been infallible with the child molestation cases. >> And that's another thing that confused me. If the pope is supposed to be infallible, and Peter was the original pope, why wasn't Peter infallible? How do they explain the instances where Peter disagreed with Paul over their doctrines? Since both men are inspired by God, and Peter is supposed to be infallible, then shouldn't he and Paul have reached the same conclusion? Or was Peter more inspired than Paul was or something?
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The passage in the bible they use, it the one where Jesus says that Peter is the rock on which he will build his church. However, some scholars believe that this passage may have been a later interpolation into the gospel, to justify "apostolic succession" after the fact.
The current pope sure hasn't been infallible with the child molestation cases. >> And that's another thing that confused me. If the pope is supposed to be infallible, and Peter was the original pope, why wasn't Peter infallible? How do they explain the instances where Peter disagreed with Paul over their doctrines? Since both men are inspired by God, and Peter is supposed to be infallible, then shouldn't he and Paul have reached the same conclusion? Or was Peter more inspired than Paul was or something?

 

For protestants, Paul has more infallibility than Peter, or even Jesus. Maybe it is the other way around among Catholics, but for protestants Jesus is interpreted by Paul, rather than Paul being interpreted by Jesus. Thus for protestants you are saved by faith (Romans 3:21-31) even though Jesus said you would be saved by works (Matthew 25: 31-46).

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I worked with a cath. lady that went to the Cabrini (sic?) shrine near Denver, Colorado, and took pictures of what she claimed were appearances of mother mary. She showed me the pictures which showed light reflections shaped like a cross, which you get when you point the lens of a camera at the sun. I've seen this reflection on many outdoor photos I've shot over the years. She got insulted and never spoke to me again cuz i did not believe her BS about seeing mary ...

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he current pope sure hasn't been infallible with the child molestation cases. >> And that's another thing that confused me. If the pope is supposed to be infallible, and Peter was the original pope, why wasn't Peter infallible? How do they explain the instances where Peter disagreed with Paul over their doctrines? Since both men are inspired by God, and Peter is supposed to be infallible, then shouldn't he and Paul have reached the same conclusion? Or was Peter more inspired than Paul was or something?

 

Like I said, Catholics get around this by saying the pope is only infallible when making statements from the papal throne of St. Peter, at this point they view the Pope as sort of being possessed by the spirit of St. Peter, they wouldn't use the word "possessed" I don't think, but that is basically what it is.

 

Otherwise, he is just a man, and therefore he can make mistakes. Honestly the pope rarely makes pronouncements from the Papal Throne, maybe once every few years.

 

Not really defending them here, cause the theory behind this is crazy, and makes my head hurt, but it is how they justify their continued belief after all the crazy things various popes have done over the years.

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I worked with a cath. lady that went to the Cabrini (sic?) shrine near Denver, Colorado, and took pictures of what she claimed were appearances of mother mary. She showed me the pictures which showed light reflections shaped like a cross, which you get when you point the lens of a camera at the sun. I've seen this reflection on many outdoor photos I've shot over the years. She got insulted and never spoke to me again cuz i did not believe her BS about seeing mary ...

 

I found out a long time ago that one must be careful in discussing these matters with Catholics. In my first job the attorney I worked for was immersed in the Mejugordjge (spelling?) occurrances somewhere in, I think, Yugoslavia. Visions of Mary that happened in the 80's. Many Catholics were quite serious about these sightings or visions or whatever you call them. I didn't believe in it, but i was also still a Christian. Incidentally, he is the only employer I have ever had who asked me what my religion was on a job interview. That was an illegal question and he knew it, but asked anyway. If I hadn't said "Christian" I doubt I would have gotten the job (and it was a crummy job!)

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NG, here's a quick link about papal infallibility. It is actually a good deal more complicated than this, and there are strict rules about invoking it. I knew them all in HS, but the details have faded with time.

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