Ask a Catholic

[pocaracas]

Ok, how do you compare the current understanding of such fields as history, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, politics... and physics with the religion's requirement of faith in a relatively powerful entity that could, if it so wished, present itself to every single thinking being on this planet and dispose of faith altogether, thus ending any and all animosity that exists and may come to exist due to divergences of belief?

There is no incompatibility. God created all those things and gave us the intellect with which to study his creation, etc.

The question was not "science vs religion".... I threw politics in there to give you that hint.
I know that catholics are ok with science and have been keen to adapt to it.

The question delves deeper. The human psyche is a wonderful thing... full of complexities, but also with a lot of similarities between individuals.
Indoctrination works on the grand grand majority. Do you think there would be as many religious people, were it not for indoctrination of the young?
Why does indoctrination work? Because our psyche is so complex, it must learn a lot of things during childhood... and while learning, we implicitly trust our teachers, our caregivers, our mentors... If they convey the message of a divine entity, we incorporate it into our picture of the world.... just like we incorporate the notion that a particular fruit is poisonous, a certain pattern on a frog signals not to touch it, or the orange glow of the setting sun (at least in Portugal, signals nice weather for the next day.

If the information is truthful, or not, is irrelevant. It is considered true by the young brain and it becomes the future adult's faith.
Ever wonder why religionists speak so much about "truth" and so little about reality? It feels like you keep trying to convince others that some BS is true, when there is nothing hinting that way.

Anyway, onwards to more human psychological stuff, this time, touching on politics. Thirst for power. Every single major religion has been close to the ruling class.... which also touches another subject I mentioned, history.
Ever since Mesopotamia, with their pantheon taking center stage on any particular city, through the famous Egyptians where the pharaoh was considered a god among humans, the romans with their empire wide implementation of their preferred pantheon (first, Jupiter&co., then christianity), the arabian caliphate and islam... not to go into Chinese, japanese or even Aztec mythologies.
So, religion seems to be a tool to rule the people, in some societies, the most prominent tool, in others, merely an extra. But it's been there for millennia.
Present-day catholics follow (at least, most) the guidelines of the church, which leads to some friction with a few of the more recent secular developments, such as abortion, gay marriage, contraception, etc. In a way, catholics are being controlled by a central ruling class, their thoughts are being controlled. For the most part, this control is harmless, and that was probably its original intent - keep the people behaving orderly. But we must acknowledge that this control can take darker contours with the "us vs them" mentality that can easily lead a people into war. Such wars are recorded in the OT for jews, god's chosen people (vs the others that were not chosen), the qur'an again with muslims as god's chosen people (vs all the infidels)...

Now, to touch on another of the subjects I mentioned, the high class, as the implementers of the religion, must know that it's just a tactic. Considering all the religions that have been imposed on the people, the individuals responsible for that imposition either were delusional and fervently believed it themselves, or knew all too well that they were fooling the people, even if they convinced themselves that is was for the best (control people's collective behavior and keep them docile, but ready for war, if the rulers so desire).


So, on one side, we have easily impressionable minds, on the other, we have the desire to impress a particular message on all the people. Repeat, rinse, repeat.
The perfect recipe for the outstanding focus that religion has had on human societies.

And, of course, since we know that there have been and still are, lots and lots of religions, and most of them are mutually exclusive, then it stands to reason that, at most, only one is right. However, they all have that requirement of faith, which, as I pointed earlier, is a bit nagging.

So, knowing that religions exist to impose certain thoughts on the people (thus controlling them) and that the likelihood of any religion being right is near nil, how can you (or anyone else, but let's focus on you) honestly claim that your particular religion is true? (there's that word, again)

However, if God WERE to reveal Himself in the fashion in which you suggest, such a revelation would be coercive.

Well, according to the story, Luke is Darth Vader's son.... oh, wrong story, sorry.
According to the story, there are several people who have had such coercive revelations and they all turned out ok...ish... Let's see:
- Abraham - there's a reason they're called abrahamic religions, huh?
- Moses - responsible for Easter holidays
- Satan - responsible for laboring pains and for snakes to crawl on their bellies
- Adam&Eve - Were doing ok, until they ate some fruit spurred on by satan - there's no justice in the world, even when it's god-administered.
- Mohamed - can we count him in?
- Jesus and his entourage - even with direct palpable evidence of miracle working, the guys just kept being amazed at each new feat of magic!


So, based on this track record, what's so wrong about providing every single person on Earth with palpable evidence of the existence of the magic-sky-daddy?
Results:
- no more religions. Only one, and it wouldn't be a religion, as it wouldn't require any faith, nor any preaching, nor any assembling in the temple - god is everywhere, and talks directly to anyone who requests or requires it.
- no more thought control imposed by the religions - it's no longer a "what would jesus do?", but a "hey, jesus, what do you advise I do?"
- If there are no religions, there's no more "us vs them" religious wars.
- We could ask for a way to attain more power from the sources we have available... of course, he could just tell us to keep researching and we'll get there. But it would be nice to have that info. Warp speed, is it really possible or just fiction? We could ask so many wonderful questions and get answers from the architect of the Universe.
- Millions of people would stop devoting their lives to preaching and praying and writing books on ancient writings... They could write books on recent discourses with god itself.
- warlords all over the world would take heed and stop warring and slaving.
- Money, while still important, would probably become less significant, as universal knowledge was at hand and novel and wondrous methods to ward off disease and famine could be reached (if the guy contributes)
- Society, as we know it, would have to change...
- Atheists would disappear, believers would disappear. Everyone would know god as well as everyone knows gravity.


Instead, we have a handful of people with some stories... these individuals' motivations and/or delusions beyond the reach of our scrutiny. Not a very solid base to stand. Hence what I said earlier about the requirement of belief taking all credibility from the institution.


That is a brief view of the big picture that goes through my mind when talking about religion.... this awareness is what makes me scoff at people who want me to "keep an open mind"... my mind has tons of information that go well beyond what I perceive any believer to have in his/her mind.

So, now that you've been presented with a glimpse of the big picture, how can you remain a believer and, on top of that, a catholic? What's the reasoning? What's the emotional charge that keeps you there? Why believe?