Are you Catholic or Protestant? Why?

Answer 1

I am Catholic. The reformation was the first real attempt to critically read the apostolic message. The Catholic, Copt and Orthodox Churches are really acritical of the apostolic message simply bringing it forward from generation to generation without altering. Readings of early Christian writings through the 21st century would support a Catholic or Orthodox reading of the New Testament.

The problem with critically reading the apostolic message is that every point of view then becomes the correct point of view and you get narrower and narrower understandings of the message. There is more diversity within Catholicism than across all of Protestantism. There are ancient forms of Christianity present in Catholicism that have no analog at all in Protestantism.

When I teach engineering students financial decision making for project design I do an exercise with M&M's. I have them arrange them in a logical order. Each of them does so and it is rare in a class of 130 to find many if any replicas of the order.

I then ask, which one is correct. The answer is usually either "mine" or "none." The correct answer might be, if there is any, the one the customer values. However, the reason there are 46,000 Protestant denominations is that scripture is a robust set of documents that can be re-arranged at least 46,000. Further, I do an exercise where people "value," the M&M's. Protestantism sometimes excludes certain M&M's as not part of their doctrine. For example, Luther excluded the books of James Jude and Revelations. Baptists limit belief to "symbolic," belief rather than "real," belief in the sacraments, even though that is clearly ahistorical.

The advantage of critically reading the apostolic message is that it can bring out important ideas that may be pushed to the back of the broad message. The whole area of biblical criticism is a child of this perspective.

The disadvantage is that critical reading is useless to develop doctrine and that is what the Reformation has used it for. You must be quite arrogant to believe you and you alone can correctly read the scriptures and the other ancient beliefs and correctly order an entire Church's belief system.

No pope, bishop or lay person of the Catholic Church would ever attempt to do such a thing. We simply believe no one is bright enough to do that. What the apostles left us, they left us and it is our struggle to make it meaningful in our life using the examples throughout history, even to some extent Protestant examples.

Answer 2

Catholic...yes, obviously I'm Catholic because my parents were Catholic and their parents, etc. However, if i had to choose, i'd still be Catholic...its the ONLY church that can trace itself back DIRECTLY to Christ...it's true that the Catholic Church did go through some "rough" times, but I still would never have become a Protestant...besides, I think a lot of the Protestant religions just don't got the hammer right on the nail, and the way they think about things and do things seems a little shaky to me sometimes...but afterall, we all believe in Christ, yet some of the protestant religions are drifting away from Christ even though they think they arent...complicated, I know (I am not talking about ALL protestant religions!) I also don't think that the Bible is the only thing we should go by because that was written HOW LONG AGO!!! we need someone, like the pope---> who came from Peter who was set up as pope by Jesus who started the Catholic Church----> to interpret things for us today and to not only preach to us whats in the Bible but give us teachings that answer the question "WWJD"! *deep breath* so yea, thats why Im Catholic but i have nothing against Protestants whatsoever (if thats how you took what I said)

Answer 3

Catholic!!

Answer 4

Protestant. Why, Just because I see contradictions against what the bible teaches and in what the catholics believe. NO offense intended.

Answer 5

Catholic, as i come from a long line of catholics. True, I am lapsed, but still a catholic

Answer 6

I was Catholic, now Im muslim

Protestants make me laugh though. They mock Catholics, but more than half of their religion is based on Catholic writings.

Answer 7

Catholic. Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament and it is the faith Jesus started. The Catholic Church is the Bride of Christ.

Answer 8

One Hundred Fifty Reasons I'm Catholic
And You Should Be Too!

http://www.ourcatholicfaith.org/reasons.html
.
.

Answer 9

catholic... coz my parents are catholic???

Answer 10

protistant it has brought me closer to Jesus. I know him as my personal savour he lives with in me.