Many who have left The Church were sacramentalized, but not catechized. Neither did they ever have a personal relationship with Christ as Catholic’s are called to do.
So after they leave they become catechized in error, and believe that they have found something new, unheard of their Catholic faith:
- That we are saved by Grace
- That our salvation is from Christ alone
Then they believe things unheard of in Christianity for the first 1,500 years:
- That baptism is only symbolic of one’s faith
- That baptism should be delayed to the age of reason
- That the Eucharistic meal is symbolic only…truly not the Resurrected body and blood of Christ.
- That there are only 66 books in the bible
When one ask’s them for citations from the early Church on the belief’s above before the year 1,500, answers get vague quickly. When one cites the early Church belief’s in support of the Catholic position on all these subjects, the early writings are dismissed as forgeries (all of what St. Ignatius of Antioch said was written several hundred years later).
Your right though, ex-Catholic’s and others on CARM included tend toward frustration. The intellect get’s clouded and the will doesn’t move to find the truth.