Greetings all

Chaduke · Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:34 pm Post subject: Greetings all

I'm a 35 year old guy from Louisiana. I joined the forum to see if I could get some good testimonies from people about why they believe the bible is true, accurate, and/or the word of God.

I grew up Catholic and went to catechism as a child and then from 7th grade to graduation I attended a Catholic school. I have a fairly good familiarity with the bible because of this, but not to the degree that I believed whatever I was taught just because someone else was doing the teaching. In fact, most of the heated discussions / arguments I can remember having in school were in religion class.

I've always had a difficult time with the bible because I tend to be very logical, analytical and scientific. At the same time I try to be both open-minded and skeptical when approaching an area where there is little scientific proof but perhaps much anecdotal evidence.

I have a theory about why there so many different religions and even many different flavors of the same religion, all with firm believers to compose them. I suspect that there's a power in belief that we haven't been able to explain or measure with science at this time in history. This power increases when groups of people share the same beliefs and practice and pray in unison through this belief system. I think this power can be great enough to create an entire reality, not only for those who practice it but sometimes even for those outside of that system.

I hope to participate in some good discussions here and thanks for having me.

holly102869 · Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:48 pm Post subject:

Welcome

I guess you are the guy that I need to ask my Catholic questions to. My husband is from Puerto Rico and Catholic. I have a hard time trying to understand why they do some of the things they do because I was not raised this way. He has a hard time because his first language is Spanish. He wants me to go to RCIA and I am going to starting next month. Not sure if I will convert though. I guess if I can understand some of the thing I question I might.

Chaduke · Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:03 pm Post subject:

Sure ask away. I'll try to answer them as best I can from my perspective. In my experience Catholicism varies from place to place just like everything else, so I'm sure there are a few things that he picked up from the culture in Puerto Rico as I would from the way we practice in Louisiana.

I'm no longer a practicing Catholic though. I attend Catholic church on occasion for weddings and funerals, but I quit going to regular church when I left my parents house at 18. The best description for my religious orientation would be agnostic.

Nobby · Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 2:19 pm Post subject:

Chaduke, "Welcome" to our group! Very Happy

Glad to meet you. Hope you will enjoy your stay with us! We welcome your input. I may move your thread as it becomes larger.
But I will leave it here for a while as others will want to say hi! Very Happy

You have any questions, please ask one of the mod's or myself. We will be glat to help if we can. Smile

holly102869 · Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 2:44 pm Post subject:

Chaduke,
Thanks for the help..

1) Why do they pray to the Saints?
2) Who decides who is a Saint?
3) Why the lavish ceromony?
4) Candles?
5)Why are so many questions answered by saying its a mystery, you have to have faith?

I have a lot trying to type and cook. I will ask more later

MoJo · Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:01 pm Post subject:

Hi Chaduke. Welcome to the board.

Very Happy

theseldomscene · Banned Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 7817

welcome... Very Happy

atoz · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:47 am Post subject: Re: Greetings all

Hi Chaduke,

Welcome!

I too grew up Catholic...convent, first communion, confirmation, married in the rcc, etc.

Just add the Axiom of Love to that logical analysis and it will all come together for you.

In other words, Love loves both the logical and the illogical...so that you can see logic in the illogical...which shows that the problem is always in the premise...see 2 corin 12:9-10: plug is any opposites such as logical and illogical for weak and strong and it still works.

Then, guess what?
It is the power of Love in beliefs that makes them work for each belief and the opposite!

How that helps.

with Love and Respect,
atoz

Chaduke · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:08 pm Post subject:

Wow, thanks for the welcome.

Holly, I'll answer your questions from my perspective as I stated before, but if you look up an official Catholic definition or talk to a priest you may get a different answer.

As far as I understand it, Catholics pray to saints for help in a specific area that deals with something about the saint's history when he/she lived. I can recall growing up hearing about people praying to certain saints for financial help, or to cure an illness, etc. This may be totally against the established doctrines of the Catholic church but I can tell you that it IS practiced, at least here in Louisiana.

As far as becoming a saint, I know that a certain amount of testimony has to be brought forth to the church establishment by a certain amount of people to request that a person be made a saint. Coincidentally I have a co-worker that recently made a website for a group that is trying to get a soldier from WW2 canonized.

From what I've heard the process can take many years (hundreds even). I'm pretty sure it is required that the establishment acknowledge miracles occured involving the potential saint. On the webpage I mentioned there's a spot to report miracles via e-mail.

I'm not sure what you're referring to about the lavish ceremony. If it has something to do with the canonization of a saint I've never been to one personally.

Candles are used quite a bit in Catholic church, and they are basically used as a symbol for something. I can remember my grandmother taking me to church when I was very young, at a time when the church was empty. We would walk to this place with a few hundred candles, light one and say a prayer for a specific person, perhaps someone in our family who was sick or troubled. Then we'd stick a dollar or a few quarters into a slot that was cut into the base that held all the candles. It's actually kind of funny now that I recall it.

During other times of the year, certain candles will be lit during mass to symbolize certain events. I paticularly remember four candles being lit one at a time on four consecutive Sundays for Advent. There's also something called a Paschal candle that symbolizes Christ being the light coming into the world. It's lit at a ceremony the Saturday before Easter and at other times througout the year. I would read up on Wikipedia about those if you're more interested.

As for your #5 question, that sounds a lot like the answer I used to get from people when they couldn't think of a good answer to my question. It's often been explained to me that once you attain a certain level of faith more things are revealed to you. How they are revealed exactly is still a mystery to me. I feel very skeptical when people make statements like this.

Again, you can always look up the officially recognized answers to these questions but I thought I would give you my perspective. It's interesting to think about how there are so many underlying meanings to things dealing with the Catholic church that I never really payed attention to growing up, even though it was around me all the time. I guess I was very disinterested in it at that age.

Chaduke · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:44 pm Post subject: Re: Greetings all

Atoz:

I interpret that quote as him explaining the basic principle of Taoism. I'm not sure how that's supposed to help things come together for me but I'll continue to think about it. It's definitely got me thinking.

I'll tell you the things that bother me about the bible and Christianity. The main thing I suppose is that the way God is described in many places - sadistic, jealous, mean, intolerant and unforgiving.

It's difficult for me to imagine that God is an all powerful entity that created a race of humans only to have the vast majority of them end up burning in hell for eternity. The reason happens to be that they can't bring themselves to believe in someone with no actual proof of his existence. That whole thing is very difficult for me to absorb. It immediately makes me want to look for alternate theories that make more sense.

Ana · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:13 pm Post subject:

Hi Chaduke, and welcome to the board! Very Happy

I used to be Catholic too...

Plotinus · Tiger Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 840 Location: Canada

Welcome Chaduke.

pastor2022 · Moderator Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 690

Hi, Chaduke from a fellow-Louisianian! I'm in Alexandria. Hope you enjoy it here and join in. It can get interesting at times. Been to Prejean's? It's great.