Dave,
Catholics also put all of their faith in God. In doing so we accept what Jesus did in establishing His Church. We believe all of His promises and the scriptures as they pertain to the Church. We believe the writings of the apostles. We believe it when we read in 2 Peter 1:20 that “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,” We believe and follow scripture when it tells us in 2 Peter 3:15-17,
“And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.”
We also believe scripture when it says in Matt 18:17-19 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” There are other verses in scripture pertaining to the Church and its authority. We accept what Christ has given us for salvation in its entirety. Faith in Jesus involves believing all that He told us. He gave us more than scripture alone and while we can totally trust in God, we cannot trust ourselves. If you wonder where all of the varied and contradictory doctrines emerge from I can give you the answer. The errors come from people who claim sincerely, or in some cases insincerely, that their view comes directly from scripture by way of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit was working in everyone as they read the bible for purposes of interpretation then everyone would be in complete agreement. The Holy Spirit is not at fault, but the Holy Spirit and scripture are being used as the justification for personal interpretation which is often filled with error. The Church is the antidote to this.