Agreed.  Nothing wrong with a belief system that diverges from the bible.  And there’s generally nothing wrong with the followers of Catholicism.  The problem is that the Catholic church purports to follow the bible and in reality does not.  They (again, the church leaders and not the average Joe sitting in a pew) have twisted things to suit their purposes for literally thousands of years.  They have persecuted people who disagree with them (Martin Luther, Galileo, etc), knowingly allowed their priests to molest children, tortured and killed untold numbers of “savages”, and helped to contribute to starvation and the spread of AIDS in the 3rd world.  All these things are indisputable facts.  Faced with these historical facts, how could anyone view the church as anything but a power hungry, evil organization?

Agreed.  Nothing wrong with a belief system that diverges from the bible.  And there’s generally nothing wrong with the followers of Catholicism.  The problem is that the Catholic church purports to follow the bible and in reality does not.  They (again, the church leaders and not the average Joe sitting in a pew) have twisted things to suit their purposes for literally thousands of years.  They have persecuted people who disagree with them (Martin Luther, Galileo, etc), knowingly allowed their priests to molest children, tortured and killed untold numbers of “savages”, and helped to contribute to starvation and the spread of AIDS in the 3rd world.  All these things are indisputable facts.  Faced with these historical facts, how could anyone view the church as anything but a power hungry, evil organization?

That’s why my mom left the catholic church a couple years ago. The archbishop sent out letters to parishoners telling them they he wouldn’t stand “buffet-style” catholics who pick and choose what to believe in. He also condemned Protestants for corrupting the church. My father has done more for that church than anyone I know and he’s a lutheran. Needless to say, this whole thing pissed off my mom and she left. The archbishop also   used parish money to redecorate his house instead of helping to keep the high school open (St. Cecilias has a grade school where I went and used to have a high school). 

On a personal note, I don’t blame my mom for having me and my sisters raised catholic and going to a catholic grade school. I would be atheist even without that experience but I probably wouldn’t be so bitter towards religion.

wow maybe i shouldnt have made this topic. Too much argueing going on here.

Look what you’ve done, Mr. Gohan. You should be ashamed of yourself!!! 😛

In response to all of the replies above.. yes I do acknowledge that the Catholic religion has many things wrong with it, that the organization has put forth many terrible things.  I’m not trying to justify that I just feel like you guys are putting a huge emphasis on being divergent from the Bible being a sole Catholic thing, yet if every religion was strict to the Bible then many people would be living very different lives.  On the note about Judaism and the New Testament.. I said that was mostly a joke because of course you’re not going to bash on Judaism for not believing in the New Testament.. it was a joke. 

I understand that you’re making these arguments against the establishment of the Church.. but you have to also understand that a person that follows that establishment is of course is going to be a bit offended.  I mean it’s like saying “the church’s beliefs are ridiculous”.. well some of those beliefs are my beliefs.. so in essence.. you get where I’m going… but whatever.

I guess the whole reason I’m defending the Catholic Church even though I myself don’t agree with a lot of it is because I grew up with some amazing preists who have really added to our community and guided me more than once.  Many of my values are extremely strong because of what I learned as a little kid in religion.  I mean, I guess it gets more complicated when you’re older but as a little kid I learned tolerance because Jesus was tolerant.  I learned to be a good person.  And maybe any other religion would teach me the same things.. but it’s just hard to sit and here that the Catholic Church is such a terrible thing when it’s been personally beneficial.