Any logic behind your decision to be a devout Catholic?

[onenow1]

The title of the thread says it all

I am finding it difficult living amongst so many people that don’t care about God or don’t believe in Him here in England

Are there solid reasons for bein a Catholic? Like proofs? How can I evangelise when I am struggling with my faith and don’t even know what reasons there are to have the belief systems of a Catholic?

I just want something to show/tell my future kids and other people why to be Catholics, because otherwise there’s no point in me being a Cathiolic, having kids and not telling them to be Catholics and evangelising

Hi crazy
Quasi logic = In my memory I cannot remember not ever not being, this fits into Christianity very well, God says in the OT I knew you before you were in the womb.

God Bless
onenow1opcorn:

 

[Cinette]

Hee hee hee . I have $25 to go shopping for Catholic movies with, and I’m going to have fun!!! My two brothers, one of whom is Protestant, are watching dramatic Catholic movies with me, so that’s good too . . .

Cool . I only know an overview of what’s been said about the Shroud of Turin, myself. I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt. Plus some of what I’ve heard is amazing.

*I love you Lief Erikson! I shall certainly go read your papers.

God love you
Cinette*

 

[Lief_Erikson]

I love you too .

 

[John_of_Woking]

The title of the thread says it all

I am finding it difficult living amongst so many people that don’t care about God or don’t believe in Him here in England

It’s difficult… but you’re not alone! There are some other practising Catholics here in England

 

[dawid]

From the various replies it seems that each has their faith strengthened by a set of individual experiences and insights that we find in the richness of the Church.
We are blessed!
The Church is universal indeed!

 

[tqualey]

Hi, Bluemary,

Let me welcome you to CAF and complement you on an excellent post.

God bless

I am also a logical thinking person, it’s just my nature. I prayed for God to reveal himself to me in a way that I would know beyond a doubt that he existed, and he did.

I studied the scripture, reading them over and over to gain more of an understanding and learned also what the Catholic Church’s true belief’s are. (many people will tell you what the Catholic Church believes, both Catholics and non, but most are wrong.) Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Plus I might suggest a set of easy to read and short booklets called Beginning Apologetics from San Juan Catholic Seminars. ( about 6.00 ea.)

Also very important is the reading of the writings of the early church leaders. We have writings as early as 96 ad by followers of the apostles. These were found and authenticated by Historians. There are many, many writings too. I would highly suggest that you start with a series called, The Faith of the Early Church Fathers by William A. Jurgens (the selector and translator) If you can’t afford the 3 book series, just start with the earliest writings in Vol. 1. It will blow your mind! You’ll see where we get much of what we believe through the writings and they also clear up the meaning of contested passages in the Bible.

The vatican has documented 100’s perhaps thousands of Eucharistic miracles, many have been studied and verified, such as the host, when being consecrated by a priest turning to flesh or blood. When the flesh was examined by scientist it was concluded to be flesh from a human heart, type AB (I think), and every time this has happened throughout history and the blood was typed it was found to be human blood and the same type, AB.

This just so happens to be the same type of blood found on the Shroud of Turin. This is another thing to study. Go on the internet and read up on all of the current scientific knowledge on it. I did a paper on the shroud and it will blow your mind once you see all of the evidence to support it truly being the shroud of Christ and the image only being able to get on the cloth through a sudden burst of energy emmiting from the body of the crucified man. I believe the group of U.S. scientist is called STURP.

Plus there is much, much more. If you want evidence, we’ve got plenty. The evidence can bring you almost all the way to proving that Jesus was God and that God truly exists, but it can’t bring you all the way. You have to reach out and search for Him. Done in sincerity, you’ll find Him. As one ex-atheist lawyer put it, “If I had to try this case in a court of law and I was trying to prove that Jesus was who he said he was, they would have to find for Him, based on simply the evidence alone. It is beyond any reasonable doubt.”

 

[tqualey]

Hi, Benedictus2,

It all hinges on how we define our terms… and we are not quite on the same page on this item.

Here is my take on creation or evolution.

I do not think as a Christian that we can believe in evolution because evolution by its very nature is something arbitrary and unplanned. In short evolution rests on chance.

To say that we believe in evolution and yet believe that God is the cause of this evolution is contradictory since once intelligient intervention is factored into the equation it ceases to be evolution but design / creation.

Here’s a simple analogy.

Say I am invisible.

I place a little blob of clay on your desk. Whenever you are not looking I would slightly alter this blob of clay until one day you look and it has become the form of a man.

From your vantage point this clay is evolving as it seems to be taking on a different form on its own.

But from my vantage point, (the “invisible god” who is making this possible), there is nothing evolutionary about it at all because I had planned this from the beginning.

Once you factor the hand of an Intelligient Being, it ceases to be evolution. So evolution in real terms is really atheistic.

You have honestly provided a splendid analogy. The Hand of God was necessary in every aspect of creation. As I see it, God chose to act in slow (as in billions and billions of years) manner for Him to bring us to where we are today. We did not create ourselves or our souls or anything else - the Hand of God is as responsible for creation today as when He started. The gradual progression that I see, under the direct Hand of God, allows for a gradual development as opposed to a literal reading of Genesis for a six 24-hour day event. I feel quite comfortable with God’s Hand directing all in this process we have come to call evolution - and, while there are some atheistic versions of evolution - this is not true of all of them. Here is quote you may find of interest:

As the Church recognized, certain theories evolution are incompatible with the Catholic faith, as are the materialistic ideas often associated with them. That evolution would operate apart from God’s sovereignty, for example, or that it produced the soul of the first man, or that man has no soul—all of these are incompatible with the faith and unprovable as matters of science.

On the other hand, it is not clear that every possible theory of evolution is incompatible with the faith. Though the majority interpretation of Genesis 1–3 in Christian history had been quite literal, there was also a strain of less insistence on the literal. In fact, the greatest of the Church Fathers, Augustine, speculated in ways that were congruent with certain.aspects of modern cosmology and evolutionary thought (see his work The Literal Meaning of Genesis).

Here is the entire link: catholic.com/thisrock/2004/0401bt.asp

The Catholic Church definitely condems atheistic evolution, but did not close the door on a God-Centered evolution. This is what I am proposing. I think it has both merit and logic.

God bless

 

[Lief_Erikson]

The Catholic Church definitely condems atheistic evolution, but did not close the door on a God-Centered evolution. This is what I am proposing. I think it has both merit and logic.

God bless

There are several parts of Genesis 1 that really imply (to me) the truth of this viewpoint.

Firstly, the possibility is opened by the fact that man is created at the end, which means he could not have seen firsthand all the preceeding “days” of creation. They would have to have been shown him by God. God often reveals truths in dreams or visions, which involve symbolic imagery. “Seven” represents perfection. This symbolic number is used many, many times in the Book of Revelation, with spiritual meanings. This doesn’t refute the literal interpretation of the seven days, but it does open the door for a symbolic possibility.

It is interesting that in Genesis, the first living creatures are made in the water, just as the Theory of Evolution says happened (1:20). After the creatures of the water were made, the land animals were made, and finally humans. The Theory of Evolution says the same about the order of how animals were made. First sea creatures, then land animals, and finally humans.

Genesis 1:24 offers the most explicit affirmation of evolution.
Gen. 1:24:

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.

The land, according to Genesis, produced the living creatures according to their kinds. The Theory of Evolution argues that environmental shifts caused the development of species. According to the Theory of Evolution, the land, very literally, did produce the animals according to their kinds.

 

[distracted]

***3 words:

The Real Presence***

:hug3::bible1:

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[tqualey]

HI, Distracted,

EXCELLENT RESPONSE!

God bless

***3 words:

The Real Presence***

:hug3::bible1:

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.

 

[PJM]

=crazydyl;6727526]The title of the thread says it all

I am finding it difficult living amongst so many people that don’t care about God or don’t believe in Him here in England

Are there solid reasons for bein a Catholic? Like proofs? How can I evangelise when I am struggling with my faith and don’t even know what reasons there are to have the belief systems of a Catholic?

I just want something to show/tell my future kids and other people why to be Catholics, because otherwise there’s no point in me being a Cathiolic, having kids and not telling them to be Catholics and evangelising

ABSOLUTELY

Matt. 16:19
Matt. 18:18

Matt. 26-26-28
Mark 14: 2-24
Luke 22:19-21
John 6: 47-55 [note verse 55 from the very mouth of Jesus]
Paul 1 Cor. 11:23-29 [Pual coud not say this about ordinary bread and wine.]

John 20:19-23 especially v. 23

Theres MUCH more but this makes the case just fine!

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW LOOK THESE UP:shrug:

Love and prayers,
Pat

 

[distracted]

HI, Distracted,

EXCELLENT RESPONSE!

God bless

Godbless you too…

 

[distracted]

if you study the Church teachings & history you will see nothing BUT logic…

the greasted piece of logic of all is this:

Jesus established ONE Church and there is STILL only ONE Church…

***God is not the author of confusion… ***

44,000 + “churches” is very confusing… for those outside the real Church…

let’s help them find the true Church…

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