Contradiction?

[heisenburg]

So, I am seeing in these forums, and in my own experiences that the following seems to occur.

1. A man/Women will come up to a Catholic and say, You know, The Catholic church is Evil and Bad. Nothing Good came out of it.
2. A Catholic Strong in his/Her faith will defend, but usually to no avail.

Then something Odd happens

1. If the accuser is generally a charitable person as well as someone the strong Catholic see on a regular basis, over time, the accuser will say, well, I believe you are saved as you have the right love for Christ, But the Catholic Church is still Wrong…
2. And thus, the Contradiction: At the Meta level, they are willing to defend to the death that the Catholic Church is a flawed belief system. However, on the Micro level, it seems that humble, true faithful Catholics are always seen as true Christians by the same individual.

And so the question arises. How is it that if the Catholic Church has such a flawed interpretation of Christ, that on the individual level, those that truly adhere to what it teaches are almost always considered some of the strongest Christians by the very person making the accusation?

In Christ

 

[NonDenom]

heisenburg
A man/Women will come up to a Catholic and say, You know, The Catholic church is Evil and Bad. Nothing Good came out of it.

I don’t think that the Catholic church is evil or that nothing good came out of it. The Catholic church has however in the belief of many gone astray on some matters of faith and in its teaching.

1. A Catholic Strong in his/Her faith will defend, but usually to no avail.

I have found things out about the Catholic church from this site that I didn’t know before, so not all is to of no avail.

Then something Odd happens

1. If the accuser is generally a charitable person as well as someone the strong Catholic see on a regular basis, over time, the accuser will say, well, I believe you are saved as you have the right love for Christ, But the Catholic Church is still Wrong…

This is a very prevalent claim by many Catholics on this site.

1. And thus, the Contradiction: At the Meta level, they are willing to defend to the death that the Catholic Church is a flawed belief system. However, on the Micro level, it seems that humble, true faithful Catholics are always seen as true Christians by the same individual.

This is very true to Catholics as well. I have see in many threads where a Catholic will say that some Protestants are saved even though they are misguided.

And so the question arises. How is it that if the Catholic Church has such a flawed interpretation of Christ, that on the individual level, those that truly adhere to what it teaches are almost always considered some of the strongest Christians by the very person making the accusation?

In Christ

I don’t think that most Protestants feel that the Catholic church has a flawed interpretation of Christ, but rather a flawed interpretation of the word of God. I think that if you have to write another book besides the Bible to explain your faith then your pointing your faith in the wrong direction. The Mormons do this with the book of Mormon, and they claim that their book is as important as the Bible just like the Catholics do with the CCC. Tradition has added many things to Catholic teaching that are not in the Scriptures, that is what most Protestants have against the Catholic church.

 

[dylanschrader]

I don’t think that most Protestants feel that the Catholic church has a flawed interpretation of Christ, but rather a flawed interpretation of the word of God. I think that if you have to write another book besides the Bible to explain your faith then your pointing your faith in the wrong direction. The Mormons do this with the book of Mormon, and they claim that their book is as important as the Bible just like the Catholics do with the CCC. Tradition has added many things to Catholic teaching that are not in the Scriptures, that is what most Protestants have against the Catholic church.

The Catholic Church doesn’t hold the Catechism in the same esteem as the Bible, and the Church doesn’t need to “write another book” to explain the faith. Although, we could mention that the New Testament was written by Catholics (with God as the primary author).

The Bible is inspired; the Catechism is not.

The Church does, however, believe in Tradition as well as Scripture, but Tradition is–by definition–not written down. The Catechism is a summary of the teachings of the Church that come from Tradition and Scripture, but it is not the source of Tradition. Tradition goes back to the apostles who faithfully handed on the faith in their preaching and example.

 

[I_Leatherman]

So, I am seeing in these forums, and in my own experiences that the following seems to occur.

1. A man/Women will come up to a Catholic and say, You know, The Catholic church is Evil and Bad. Nothing Good came out of it.
2. A Catholic Strong in his/Her faith will defend, but usually to no avail.

Then something Odd happens

1. If the accuser is generally a charitable person as well as someone the strong Catholic see on a regular basis, over time, the accuser will say, well, I believe you are saved as you have the right love for Christ, But the Catholic Church is still Wrong…
2. And thus, the Contradiction: At the Meta level, they are willing to defend to the death that the Catholic Church is a flawed belief system. However, on the Micro level, it seems that humble, true faithful Catholics are always seen as true Christians by the same individual.

And so the question arises. How is it that if the Catholic Church has such a flawed interpretation of Christ, that on the individual level, those that truly adhere to what it teaches are almost always considered some of the strongest Christians by the very person making the accusation?

In Christ

's prob’ly their consciences kicking up a row, they’re taught christianity in relation to Catholicism - but unsurprisingly, when they meet Catholic people they can’t help but love them…sigh…

 

[clmowry]

I don’t think that most Protestants feel that the Catholic church has a flawed interpretation of Christ, but rather a flawed interpretation of the word of God. I think that if you have to write another book besides the Bible to explain your faith then your pointing your faith in the wrong direction. The Mormons do this with the book of Mormon, and they claim that their book is as important as the Bible just like the Catholics do with the CCC. Tradition has added many things to Catholic teaching that are not in the Scriptures, that is what most Protestants have against the Catholic church.

You are not really claiming to believe that Caholics see the CCC like a Mormon sees the Book of Mormon are you?

Chuck

 

[JaneFrances]

I don’t think that most Protestants feel that the Catholic church has a flawed interpretation of Christ, but rather a flawed interpretation of the word of God. I think that if you have to write another book besides the Bible to explain your faith then your pointing your faith in the wrong direction. The Mormons do this with the book of Mormon, and they claim that their book is as important as the Bible just like the Catholics do with the CCC.

If you have ever set foot in a Christian book store, you surely realize that there is an entire industry of non-Catholic Christians who “do this” as well. Neither the Catholic Church nor the Mormons have a corner on the market of writing books to “explain faith.”

Tradition has added many things to Catholic teaching that are not in the Scriptures, that is what most Protestants have against the Catholic church.

Tradition has also added many things to Protestant teaching that are not in the Scriptures. . .This is not a Catholic-particular accusation.

 

[Greg27]

Sometimes a very powerful argument which is rational and coherent against your beliefs or belief system can force to re-assess your beliefs. I find this happens a lot to me in Philosophy, particularly when I come across a powerful argument from a skeptical thinker like Pyrro or David Hume.

Sometimes your belief can be destroyed with a powerful counter-example which shows its falsity, or at least its flaws.

Sometimes the personal behaviour of people who hold the same beliefs as you thought you did and would lead to better behaviour, can make you question whether that belief is both justified and leads to personal improvement.

Another thing is a certain belief can be shown false by empirical evidence or by science.

In all these cases, I think it opens an opportunity, whatever the belief, to expand the mind and consider your beliefs from a deeper perspective. If we are talking about faith, if faith can weather a bitter storm of controversy and skepticism and doubt, it will be far more robust, and if doubts or criticism make one think more deeply about what one believes and search more and research more into the sources and roots of what one believes, and makes you grow in knowledge, then that can only be a good and not a bad thing in my view.

 

[JimG]

I think that if you have to write another book besides the Bible to explain your faith then your pointing your faith in the wrong direction.

I think that if all Christians truly believed this, then Christian bookstores would become extinct. At most they would sell only bibles, as all else is superfluous.

But this idea works better with a sola scriptura viewpoint than with the Catholic Church. If everything other than the scriptures is superfluous, then one should simply hand out bibles, since anything else that is said or written is simply adding to the word of God.

But in fact, most religious argumentation is done from the point of view of each participant’s tradition–what they have been taught, what they have learned from others, about what is in the bible.