NON CATHOLICS - Have the these forums helped you convert or consider converting?

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Rand Al'Thor:
What does CARM stand for?
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CARM = (Link removed as per CAF policy) Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

It’s basically a fundamentalist apologetics site. You can go there to see what they’re gonna say before they say it! 😛

They have a debate board. (Link removed as per CAF policy)
 
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dennisknapp:
What if the paths contradict each other? … If two points of view contradict either one is right or both are wrong.
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the easy reply is that it depends on the path 🙂

that blurb about 5 wise people wearing blindfolds describing an elephant. each person had never seen an elephant before & was touching a different part of the elephant. so the person touching the tusk said the elephant was smooth, solid, sharp, spearlike, the person touching the ears said the elephant was flat, thin, flappy, and so on

the more difficult reply is when violence is involved. yes Christianity & other religions have turbulent histories, all in the name of their respective holy figures and I have no idea how to resolve that issue except to think that the people involved were as sincere as they could be

the final truth will be revealed to us all, hopefully I make the right choice !!!
 
Rand Al'Thor:
What does CARM stand for?
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I think it is “Christian Apologetics Research Ministries.”
Rand Al'Thor:
Sounds like you had a “Jimmy Swaggart Made Me Catholic” sort of conversion!
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Pretty much. Seems strange that people trying to disprove Catholicism ended up confirming it for me.
 
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SemperJase:
Pretty much. Seems strange that people trying to disprove Catholicism ended up confirming it for me.
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That’s exactly what happened to me. I set out trying to learn how to show that Catholicism was wrong; and instead I ended up seeing how Southern Baptist where wrong…and now I’m Catholic. Most all of the anti-Catholic arguments just made me more pro-Catholic.

This board didn’t help because I converted before this board was around. But it WAS Catholic Answers that started me on the road to Rome. I found them on the radio one day and decided to listen. I then looked into the issues myself and found out how I was wrong and Catholics where right.
 
Attention,

Your post # 21 has been edited due to the inclusion of a link to an anti-Catholic forum and possible suggestion for readers/members to visit it for the purpose of a potential board swarm.

In an effort to illuminate and explain the Catholic faith, CA makes every effort to provide our participants with a pleasant and informative place on the internet where Catholics and non-Catholics may gather.

The saying “it pays to advertise” has merit. We ask therefore that forum members do not “advertise” anti Catholic or otherwise contra-church websites which only encourage others to visit them out of curiosity,

Please be aware that most every web site has a “counter” which records visits called “hits”. The more “hits” the more popular the website is assumed to be which often motivates webpage providers to create “more of the same” or an expanded version of similar material.

Additionally posts like these can be taken by others within the forum as an invitation to “swarm”. It is our hope that respectful dialogue and discussion will lead to better faith understandings. And so in charity, we ask that our forums not be used for encouraging mass visits to other websites. In the past these kinds of efforts, although perhaps well intentioned, leave participants at other websites with negative impressions.

I hope you find the above helpful in future board contributions and meanwhile let me assure you, that we value all members who do so much to help us keep the overall experience of Catholic Answers Forums an enriching and instructive influence in the growth of Catholic faith to so many. Your cooperation in helping promote these aims of faith exposition, hope for fruitful discussion and charity in implementation are sincerely appreciated.

Sincerely,
Michael Francis
 
No. And I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the level of nastiness, narrow-mindedness, and downright bigotry expressed against non-Catholics. I have never been attracted to the Catholic church and if I had been, what I’ve seen on these forums would change my mind in a hurry.
 
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MercedesBents:
No. And I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the level of nastiness, narrow-mindedness, and downright bigotry expressed against non-Catholics. I have never been attracted to the Catholic church and if I had been, what I’ve seen on these forums would change my mind in a hurry.
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It looks like you’ve been on these forums for a sufficient amount of time to make a judgment like that. (not even 1 day!) :rolleyes: BTW, why would anyone ever desire to be broad-minded? :eek:
 
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MercedesBents:
No. And I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the level of nastiness, narrow-mindedness, and downright bigotry expressed against non-Catholics.
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I suppose nastiness is a matter of opinion. In my experience, narrow-mindedness means “they don’t agree with me, therefore they are narrow minded.” I’ve not seen bigotry here unless you mean that catholics are bigotted since we believe have inheirited the church founded by Christ.
 
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MercedesBents:
No. And I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the level of nastiness, narrow-mindedness, and downright bigotry expressed against non-Catholics. I have never been attracted to the Catholic church and if I had been, what I’ve seen on these forums would change my mind in a hurry.
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First day, first post? I’m just as shocked.
 
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MercedesBents:
No. And I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the level of nastiness, narrow-mindedness, and downright bigotry expressed against non-Catholics. I have never been attracted to the Catholic church and if I had been, what I’ve seen on these forums would change my mind in a hurry.
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I was raised and was a practicing Fundamentalist/Evangelical my whole adult life until recently, and I have to disagree with you, this place is a love fest compared to what you hear spoken against Catholics in that world. I am embarrassed to have been part of all of that. Love a Catholic? When hell freezes over. Still dealing with that kind of attitude. It’s very sad, very un-Christ like. As a matter of fact, it breaks His Heart. 😦
 
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MercedesBents:
No. And I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the level of nastiness, narrow-mindedness, and downright bigotry expressed against non-Catholics. I have never been attracted to the Catholic church and if I had been, what I’ve seen on these forums would change my mind in a hurry.
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What? Huh?

In the words of GK Chesterton: “Don’t be so open-minded that your brain falls out.”
 
Although I don’t post much, I’ve been reading these forums for the past year. I was in RCIA when I registered, and had considered going through it when I first came across this site.

I can’t say it helped me much in my decision to convert, but it did help me become more educated on some of the doctrines and rules that unfortunately even some Catholics do not follow.
 
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MercedesBents:
No. And I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the level of nastiness, narrow-mindedness, and downright bigotry expressed against non-Catholics. I have never been attracted to the Catholic church and if I had been, what I’ve seen on these forums would change my mind in a hurry.
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Actually, most of the reason why you see these forums as being so bad is because you have chosen to look at them in a bad light - either you just judged the forum based on the worst posts you could find, or you applied some pre conceived ideas to the forum, or something, I don’t know, but you certainly don’t see CAF like anyone else sees it. If you actually were attracted to the Catholic Church (or even just not as against it as you sound), then you would see CAF in a different light. You would not see people explaining their faith and call it being narrow minded, you would see it exactly as it is - people explaining their faith and trying to help others.

I mean come on, what do you expect on a forum called ‘Catholic Answers Forums’? Did you expect to see people saying that all denominations are just as good as each other? Did you expect people to say that it doesn’t matter if others want to attack the Church? I’ve got no idea with what you expect from CAF, but from your first impressions of it, it doesn’t sound like you’ve found what you’re looking for here, it sounds like you would perhaps benefit from finding some other forum to post on.
 
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Flopfoot:
it sounds like you would perhaps benefit from finding some other forum to post on.
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I couldn’t disagree more. People like that need to stick around and see what Catholicism is really all about.
 
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MercedesBents:
I’ve been shocked and dismayed by the…narrow-mindedness
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“An open mind is really a mark of foolishness, like an open mouth. Mouths and minds were made to shut; they were made to open only in order to shut…The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”
-G.K. Chesterton
 
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JSmitty2005:
CARM = (Link removed as per CAF policy) Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

It’s basically a fundamentalist apologetics site. You can go there to see what they’re gonna say before they say it! 😛

They have a debate board. (Link removed as per CAF policy)
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Peace.

A fellow Catholic e-mailed me that CARM is actually an acronym for Catholics Abused Research Ministry.

And, lest we forget, the owner/operator of the site has a masters degree in theology so that obviously makes him an expert in all religions, especially Catholicism :rolleyes: He is also a devout Calvinist and most of the posters on the site slant toward the Calvinist view.

Peace.
 
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JSmitty2005:
I couldn’t disagree more. People like that need to stick around and see what Catholicism is really all about.
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Well, what I reckon is that if this person is going to continue to view these boards in the same light as they have on their first day, then they won’t learn a thing about Catholicism because they’ll be too busy trying to turn things into evidence to support what they believe about this forum. I guess people can change though. Also, mostly I was worried about posting (have a look at what you quoted me saying), of course anyone is free to read the forums - that’s their choice - I just fear that people who come here and see the forums in a negative light straight away may turn into trolls, and we don’t need any more of them posting on CAF.
 
Hi:
One day while dailing around the radio in my car waiting for my wife to do some shopping I came across a Catholic radio station. I started to listen for a few days and decided to investigate further.and logged on the Catholic-Answers Live
I found the Catholic faith to be spiritually shallow and enemic. Also most of what Catholics believe are assumptiom and not based on Biblical truth.
I also think that Catholic idea that non-catholic Christian do not have as Catholics call it “the fullness of the faith” nothing more that sanctimonius self-righteous (Edited out unChristian vulgarity per Forum Rules ) !! (guest what the stars stand for)

forever and ever Baptist
allischalmers
 
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allischalmers:
Hi:
One day while dailing around the radio in my car waiting for my wife to do some shopping I came across a Catholic radio station. I started to listen for a few days and decided to investigate further.and logged on the Catholic-Answers Live
I found the Catholic faith to be spiritually shallow and enemic. Also most of what Catholics believe are assumptiom and not based on Biblical truth.
I also think that Catholic idea that non-catholic Christian do not have as Catholics call it “the fullness of the faith” nothing more that sanctimonius self-righteous (Edited out unChristian vulgarity per Forum Rules ) !! (guest what the stars stand for)

forever and ever Baptist
allischalmers
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Well, thanks for your thoughts.

These forums helped me realize something while I was going through my Protestant era. Having only read the Bible with “Protestant Eyes” it didn’t make sense to me.

And I would disagree, allis. There is more Biblical truth found in the Catholic faith then I ever found when I was a Protestant. (And I left the Catholic Church for a Baptist one, no less. It wasn’t until I educated myself that I came home.) And not to be sarcastic, but I don’t think the Catholic Church used the Bible for over a 1000 years, and then went “Oh no! How did that get in there!?” when the Reformation happened.

To answer the OP, I was the worst Catholic on the face of the Earth. I left the church. And through catholic.com and these forums, I came back home. I can honestly say that these forums were the only source of information that prompted my return. I am forever in debt to everyone here.

Adam
 
Hi
Sorry for the word I used. I thought it was a sling word and not valgarity.

forever Baptist
allischalmers
 
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