Defending the catholic faith against druidism

[stringbeanduck]

Hi I have recently joined these catholic forums and I am very glad of doing so. Have any of you heard of druidism? Well I am part of these discovery forums. One of which is called The Lost Tomb of Jesus. On this forum there is a person who is a druid and very much dislikes Christianity, particularly Catholicism. He believes they have ruined the bible and hid so much truth, and are money hungry. Now this is a druid. Not a very solid religion. Here is a link to the lost tomb of Jesus. You will not be able to post on it. But you can read the posts and threads.

community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/3601981278

If you all can, could yall help me defend the catholic faith against this druid? Any opinions on what I should say to him would be great Thanks. Or if you care to join the discovery forums you will be able to post on The Lost Tomb of Jesus as well as the other forums discovery has.
-SBD

 

[MerryAtheist]

A druid? Oh my!

Is he aware that no authentic druids survived much past the Roman occupation of Britain, and their beliefs and practices were lost? This makes him bit of a poseur, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I’m not one to help you defend Catholicism (considering my name), but debating someone posing as a druid would be a hoot!

 

[Church_Militant]

St. Patrick had some success dealing with the original Druids.

Today, most of the ones I talk to are sort of neo pagans and though most have been pretty decent folks, their religion doesn’t have much interest for me. It seems empty…since all there seems to be is nature. To me that stops too far short of what life is all about.

 

[KarenNC]

On this forum there is a person who is a druid and very much dislikes Christianity, particularly Catholicism. He believes they have ruined the bible and hid so much truth, and are money hungry. Now this is a druid. Not a very solid religion.

There are an awful lot of threads and posts on the link you gave. Could you link to specific posts? In which ones is he arguing specifically against Catholicism rather than Christianity in general?

Do you have links that show arguments he is advancing based specifically on his Druidic beliefs? There are a variety of different streams and forms of that and it would be helpful for me to know which one he claims.

If his arguments are not based on specifically Druidic beliefs but rather what he sees as internal inconsistencies within the Christian (or more specifically Catholic) religion, then it is just the same as arguing with anyone else who is not convinced by the evidence presented. You have to work on defending the inconsistencies presented (whether perceived or actual).

 

[rtconstant]

Well first off he isn’t a Druid. He may call himself that but they died out a long time ago. Most of them didn’t make it out of the pagan Roman era (outside of Ireland anyway). Those that were around during the early Christian era and the Dark Ages either died out or actually converted to Christianity. Many Druids and Bards became Christians in Ireland and Scottland.

To this day one our best sources for Druidic lore are the Chronicles of Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. Even that is barely trust worthy as Julius probably exaggerated a bit so as to appear more heroic and his enemies more noble. The Roman people truly loved epic struggles between noble and well matched foes.

I’m not saying everything that was written was incorrect but the point is we really don’t know. All we have on the Druids is legend supplied to us by the eyes of foreigners.

All the modern day Druidic practices are propagated by groups that broke from the Golden Dawn or are in reaction to those groups. Some Wicca groups claim to practice Druidic magicks which is humorous since that Wicca is itself a Saxon term and Wicca tends to be a religion that focuses on “The Lady” (goddess centered). So it seems unlikely that it has anything in common with a Celtic, male dominated, solar (read: masculine) religion. In the end the mystical tradition this guy follows really can’t have any organized history that goes beyond the 1950’s.

Also many of the current ethics and mentalities of the modern neo-pagan is influenced by Christian ideals and moralities (like not holding the cast system of the brehan law). Sometimes when I see some of these more zealous neo-pagans I’d like to jump into Mr. Peabody’s Way Back Machine and take them to see some old school Skalds and Druids. I think they’d find them less romantic than the crystal rubbing, Enya listening modern equivalent.

Of course all of this aside. You could just take the approach that if he gives you to much lip you’ll chop down his grove, sanctify the ground and build a Church on top of it! That should get his attention.

 

[cheddarsox]

I’m not sure what people mean when they say “defend” a religion.
If the person is making false statements concerning your faith, provide the correct information and sources. If the person disagrees with what you believe, you can state why you believe, but that is about it. If the person is violating the rights of people of your faith or destroying their property, call the authorities.

There is no way to make someone believe your faith is true. Your best bet is always to accurately portray and live your faith. If they see something awesome in your life, they might get interested and desire to know more.

Many times the reason people find fault with other faiths is that they’ve come across people who claim to believe and live it, and those people were “not very nice” or worse.

Some faiths are simply incomaptable. Monotheists can never accept polytheism. To do so would be to deny their own faith. So sometimes, you just come to an impasse, even when everyone has accurate information.

 

[stringbeanduck]

Thanks for the replies every1.

Karen, He floats around a lot but the current thread being used is “to what does it all boil down to Really” Pg 6.

Rtconstant, he really is not much in a right mind. I don’t want to change him but to show others the irrelevances and ridiculousness of his claims. And that the Church and Christianity much different than he claims.

 

[cgirl4ever]

Hi I have recently joined these catholic forums and I am very glad of doing so. Have any of you heard of druidism? Well I am part of these discovery forums. One of which is called The Lost Tomb of Jesus. On this forum there is a person who is a druid and very much dislikes Christianity, particularly Catholicism. He believes they have ruined the bible and hid so much truth, and are money hungry. Now this is a druid. Not a very solid religion. Here is a link to the lost tomb of Jesus. You will not be able to post on it. But you can read the posts and threads.

community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/3601981278

If you all can, could yall help me defend the catholic faith against this druid? Any opinions on what I should say to him would be great Thanks. Or if you care to join the discovery forums you will be able to post on The Lost Tomb of Jesus as well as the other forums discovery has.

   -SBD

just explain the teachings and where they come from in scripture and where the tithing money goes