i am a practicing catholic and could not imagine a less fulfilling life without god considering the amount I have achieved. I know that come the time of my death, my soul will rise to heaven and live in eternal happiness
Comments like the ones above do continue to test my belief, but i know never to succumb to them.
it never ceases to surprise me the number of non-believers that make it seem as though having a faith (and a soul once more) is stupidity ("we are brainwashed"). To be quiet frank, without God (and a spirit) one is just lowering them self to the status of an animal (animals don't believe nor attend church).
And as far as worshiping the pope, well the first original pope I believe goes back to biblical times, so the tradition has carried over in history.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope
enough said for me - this is a controversial matter but go forth in peace
Your view that people lower themselves to the status of animals if they don't embrace the God/spirit thing is, in my view, silly in the extreme. And quite offensive to the many good, decent and worthwhile people out there who don't believe in God. You're right in saying that animals don't believe nor attend church. But a more balanced viewpoint would also point out that neither do animals make breakthrough discoveries in science, industry and technology, build hospitals to care for their sick, make breakthroughs in medicine and healthcare, etc etc etc.
Does it not occur to you that by having the ability and the willingness to do all these things, we humans put ourselves on a completely different level to other species of animals, regardless of whether we do or don't believe in God?
As for you 'knowing' that your soul will go to heaven, the fact is that you know nothing of the sort. Clearly you believe it very strongly, but belief does not make it fact.
Islamic terrorists also believe that they're headed for the same place you claim you're going to. It would be interesting indeed to know how you'll cope with them if you all find yourselves bundled together in the same place!
And if you (or your soul) do in fact end up where you think you will, then it stands to reason that the last few thousand years will have produced quite a few billion people just like you who have died and gone to heaven before you. And since life is supposedly eternal in heaven, these billions of people, or their souls, will still be there, crowding the place to breaking point. So how exactly do you think that you and several million more people who die at around the same time as you do, are going to comfortably fit into such an overcrowded place? Or live harmoniously with each other?
I'm not trying to have a go at you with these questions, and I don't expect you to answer them on a public forum. But if you're a responsible and intelligent person then you owe it to yourself to at least consider them.
If tradition is the only reason you can give for hero-worshipping the pope, then I'd suggest it's a very poor reason. The world is full of pointless traditions.
But anyway, you've confirmed my belief that the hero-worship lavished on the pope is simply a case of Catholics embracing the adoration routine because it's the done thing in their religion.
99.9% of the population, including most Catholics, had never heard of the pope prior to his appointment to the top job. To the best of my knowledge he wasn't a noteworthy man who had made magnificent contributions to his fellow humans and to the world in general. Yet as soon as he's appointed pope he becomes an instant hero to millions, a shining light who can do no wrong. It's just too silly for words.
Anyway, the discussion has strayed off track, as discussions tend to do. So to get back to commenting on the Catholic youth festival......I saw on TV last night that many of the young people in attendance are taking the opportunity to have a good old booze up, with a certain amount of associated drunken, silly behaviour, although nothing too serious at this stage.
The TV reporter asked several drunken groups "Is this the way his holiness would like you to behave at a Catholic youth festival"?
He received some silly, high-spirited and drunken replies that were mostly unintelligible.
Not that I'm condemning anyone having a bit of a booze up....done the same thing myself plenty of times. Just making the point that the squeaky clean behaviour exhibited by these young people at the start of the festival is not quite so squeaky clean any longer, at least for some of them.
Incidentally Agro.....thanks for posting your views. You must have known you'd cop some criticism but you went ahead anyway. I admire you for that.
