Religion is complicated because the world is complicated. There, isn’t that simple?
In all seriousness, though, I understand where you’re coming from. I remember before I became interested in actually understanding my beliefs (zounds!), everything was so simple: Jesus loves you, go to mass, be nice, yada yada. Then, I started reading up on things, you know, just poking around. Whoa, wait, there’s an “unforgivable sin”? But God can forgive anything! And why is
masturbation, of all things, sinful? After all, it doesn’t harm anyone, right? And what’s all this stuff about “transubstantiation,” and “ex cathedra,” and what about people in Africa who never heard of Christianity before?
All I can say is to keep reading. It
does all make sense eventually, but the thing to keep in mind is that the world is vast, its facets many, and that nothing in it exists in a vacuum. Every page of the bible and every paragraph in the Catechism informs and speaks to every other part in some small way, and understanding any one thing perfectly requires all the rest perfectly as well. Think of it like a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle: it looks all nice and crisp and clean when it’s still in the box, and you can see the pretty picture it’s of right there on the cover, and then you dump it out and wow-ieee does it ever look complicated! But keep at it, and eventually the picture arises again, only this time it’s bigger and more real.
)
); so I thought… this must be serious business…