Why do I still defend the Catholic Church against Born Again criticism even though I'
I know a lot of fellow ex-catholics who are the same way. I've been an atheist for a while now and don't believe anything the Catholic church says, but I still get really defensive of it and annoyed when the Fundies/Born Agains/Evangelicals attack Catholicism. Am I mental or what?
Because the Biblical literalism's are just so clearly wrong. There is no way the Earth is 6000 years old. Everything we know and every piece of evidence that we have goes against that. Nothing in biology, geology, physics or cosmology would make sense if the Earth was 6000 years old.
I don't blame you if you get annoyed by people who ignore evidence and just blindly repeat what they've been told. However, try to remember that you're not responsible for other people's ignorance.
I am in the same boat. I think it has to do with being a cradle Catholic and all, but I really hate to hear some of the hate the Fundies spew out at their fellow Catholic Christians. Some people has said it is because I really can't throw off Catholicism as easily as I have tired. I hope that is not the case.
If you grew up Roman Catholic, your identity as a Catholic was drilled into you. Now when you hear criticisms of your former faith, you take it as a personal attack. You are not alone in your feelings.
Even if I don't like someone, let alone agree with someone, if I see another person being a douche bag toward them for no good reason (and a difference of opinion about faith is NOT a good reason to be a dishrag) I defend them. There's no excuse for such behavior and no room for people who engage in it in a civilized society. So you may be like me, and many others like me, and actually be a decent human being at your core.
Because you are a good person and still are a Catholic Christian. I lost my faith once and didn't believe in God. I think what brought me back to my faith was my mother's death. She was a very devout Catholic Christian that cared for all people including my father who abused her. She suffered horribly with cancer before she died. But even through her suffering she remained faithful to God, I only wish I have a fraction of the strength she had.
Jesus said no one could even see heaven unless they were born again. (John 3:3-7)
It does not matter if you are an atheist or very religious; only those who are born again enter heaven.
well i think its because ..... you were born and brought up in that environment .... well you have certainly changed your logical thin kin... however the influence still remain ... just like me .... even though ... i do not worship idols and i hardly go to temple and my ideology for god is completely different than what a religious person would have, be it any religion... but even i become defensive when some one says anything about Hinduism or Christianity and Buddhism which i find acceptable in my eyes, may be because i had the influence of all the religion. As my mothers family is Buddhist ... my dads family is Hindu and did my schooling from a Convent school..maybe that is the reason i became more open to all kind of thoughts in religion.. So i think all religions are flawed if you follow one its perfect ..... but i really hate ones who says this is great and all other religions are crap. and are really adamant to accept its flaws.
Yurem, it is called loyalty. We all like to think we are a part of something bigger then we ourselves. You being raised Catholic confirms their saying--give me a child until they are six and they will always be Catholic.
Let's talk about the attacks you sense from Christians not Catholic---I will use Christian for them and Catholic for Catholic, okay. Most I am sure do not know the true history of the Catholic, nor do most Catholic. I will not get into the argument of actual beginnings of the Catholic like back to Jesus. What I will start with is when it was organized as a state church for the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great in AD 313. It was organized in the same order as the Pagan Mithra religion of BC 600 Babylon. Now you may object but these are document facts of the matter, like them or not. Catholic's of course reject these fact but they are not the only record keepers you and I know that to be true. Okay, what does all that mean--it means for the next 1200 years with the power of Rome to back her, the Roman Catholic Church attempted to force all civilization under her dominance, and those who refused were labeled heretics and 50 million of those where true Christians and murdered by the church under those circumstances. That is part of the story. Catholic's claim to have given the Christian world the bible, no God gave us the bible. In the fourth century the Catholics translated the Greek documents of the bible into Latin called the Vulgate. This became the standard and anyone caught reading or possessing any other bible was killed---Your church history is viscous.
An interesting feature of the Vulgate is the Catholics had the interpreters lean the true bible message in their favor--traditions, opinions, decrees, rituals and so forth. A man by the name of John Wyscliffe, an Oxford professor began to translate the Vulgate from Latin into English late 1300's, but he was also reading the Greek covering the same topic. He was finding the discrepancies dictated by the Catholic and had to flee from England due to the Pope's fury. He completed his translation but was found and murdered by the Catholic.
Martin Luther, of Lutheran fame, ex-Catholic Monk was the first to translate from Greek to a common man's language, German in this case--about 1517. However in 1496, John Colet, also an Oxford professor began the translation of the new testament from Greek directly into English. This new bible in the hands of the people using the printing press opened Christianity to the masses for the first time in history--it became a people's book and a people's religion. Rome had fallen, the Catholic's lost their power base and this new revelation for the people to have their own bible in their own language was a very stinging blow. Those true Christians who were force to remain hidden for centuries due to the violence of the Catholic church were now emerging and spreading the good news to all who would listen. So you see the first English bible came from the hands of Colet, not the Catholic.
What does all this mean as related to your question. It means that the Roman Catholic Church is a secular, most pagan church organization flying the Christian Banner. Except by name and association, the Organization is no more Christian than is Hinduism. That does not mean the people are not Christian, many are wonderful Christians but they follow the teachings of false prophets or leader who are secular. They have replace the Chief of the Church Jesus who is High Priest of the Church he founded and made a mere man the infallible leader--the Pope. No where in the Holy Bible was this to be. They claim that the apostolic powers and authority is being passed down into the body of leaders(Bishops) and that too is not scriptural. They have make Mary an intercessor when Jesus said he was our intercessor. They established works as a mean of salvation so they could profit from indulgences, which now being exposed they no long do. They practice infant baptism with salvation being a result of the act which again is not scriptural, only a saved person is baptized so children are not in that category. The church does not preach individual personal salvation but that the church is their salvation--again not scriptural.
Why do I still defend the Catholic Church against Born Again criticism even though I'
