Atheists or Protestants?

Question

What are your perspective towards Catholics?

I wish to hear some earnest sharing :)

Answer 1

I was raised Catholic and still have much respect for their faith. I have no respect for all the Catholic bashers who use "questions" to spread lies and propaganda about the Catholic faith. It just makes them and their religions look petty and ignorant.
I left the Catholic Church when the priest said my dog would not go to Heaven.

Answer 2

Catholics people are fine. Their religion offers more comfort to many. Everything is spelled out. Simple. For example, If you make the 9 first fridays, you are 'guaranteed" to have a priest at your death bed. They have pergatory which is like some kind of temporary hell. Each rosary prayer you say subtracts a month off your 'time' in pergatory. How absurd! They used to have 'Limbo" for unbaptised babies, but the Pope declared recently, it does not exist.
I was raised as a Catholic, enjoyed high mass, with gregorian chant, and all that ceremony. But Catholism does not allow for independent thought, and it is too hung up on guilt and pennance.
As far as the Pope's infalability, How a sane person could believe that the Spanish Inquisition, Excommunicating people like Galileo, Voltare, Darwin, Thomas Paine, and other papal screwups was inspired by God is amazing to me.
The Catholic church has done a great job of extortion and accumulating wealth over the centuries at the expense of others. Now with all their abuse scandals, it's payback time.

Answer 3

Well I am a protestant and, personally, I have no problem with Catholics. I don't hold anything against those who go to a Catholic church and follow Catholic doctrine. If that's how you choose to practice your Christianity, then that's your choice. After all we are ALL brothers and sisters in Christ. I just could never be Catholic. I find fault in some of the Catholic beliefs and practices. I believe in only two holy sacraments (baptism and communion). I don't agree with the idea of Saints and the practice of praying to them; we are only supposed to pray to God. I don't believe that you should have to confess your sins to a priest, that you need someone to absolve you of your sins and that you can't talk directly to God. The important thing about confessing your sins is that you confess them; you pray to God and confess your sins in a spirit of true reverence and try your best to make ammends. Jesus absolves us of our sins, not some priest. Furthermore, in the Catholic church, you must be a confirmed Catholic to take communion, and if you don't go to confession you can't take communion. I think the practice of communion is an extremely important part of our religion and that you shouldn't have to be confirmed in the church to take communion. At my church, all who understand the significance of the sacrament and wish to partake may have communion. I don't like how Catholics hold Mary to be divine; as mother of Jesus, Mary is an important part of Christian history and Christian faith, but she was a woman, not a divinity. I also don't like how the emphasis in the Catholic church is on the cruxifiction, whereas in most protestant churces the emphasis is on the resurrection (which is why the Catholic cross has Christ on it and the protestant cross does not).

Anyways, I don't really know that much about Catholicism except what my Catholic friends have shared with me, so I may be wrong on some (or all) of my assessments. But this is just how I feel about it; I find the Catholic church to be too rigid and old fashioned. I am a traditionalist, but the Catholic church is not old fashioned in its thinking, its down right ancient most of the time. Not only that but I think a lot of its practices were wrong from the beginning. I would never think less of someone because they were Catholic, I could just never join the church. So if the guy I end up marrying turns out to be Catholic, we would have a whole lot of issues.

Answer 4

Catholics are definitely NOT Christians as a whole. There may be few exceptions. The Pope is not the Vicar of Christ. Mary did NOT ascend into heaven bodily. The bread and wine of communion are NOT the literal body of Christ. Homosexuality is NOT an acceptable lifestyle of Christ's leadership. Peter is NOT the 1st Pope and the "rock" of his confession to Christ is NOT the church which the gates of hell shall not prevail against. The Pope decreed that there is a place for all Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, Atheists, (you name it) in the Catholic Church. This is NOT the Bride of Christ. WAKE UP!!

Answer 5

I was brought up as a Roman Catholic, got a great education from it and also a total fear of hell and the devil too!!!
But at 14, not only did my b***s drop but so did the penny and I woke up to the complete fabricated cult that all Christianity is:-an amalgam of early central european religions deriving idioms and foundations from ancient Rome, Greece, Etruscans, Egyptians, Celts, Germanics and Sumerians to basically subjugate the population and control finances, taxes through spiritual doctrine and disempowerment of the Green World(natural world) around mankind to use and abuse for their every whim.
So yeah, that`s how I feel!
You don`t need a monotheistic,(tyrannical and male) belief system to guide your heart to what the universal rights and wrongs are in life-it all comes from the wondrously unexplainable and undefinable spirit within.
And just because millions subscribe to it doesn`t make it the universal truth either!!!
As for the Inquisition and the Crusades-don`t get me started!!!

Answer 6

I'm a Wiccan, so I'm gonna post anyway. :P
I think Catholics are very self-centered much of the time. They're so caught up in supporting themselves and supporting others that they never stop to think that other people believe in other things just as strongly as they believe in Catholicism. It bothers me that they simply toss away (especially my) beliefs just because they think there's no way anyone could believe in 'that stuff.'
I am an ex-Catholic, so I understand this thinking PERFECTLY.
However, since I've moved on, I've realized that people from other beliefs think that Catholics are just as dismissable. Their beliefs are not 'more believable' simply because they are THEIRS. They really need to be more mindful of this.
Another problem I have is that the Pope has the ability to be 'infallible.' I mean, that's an older man, who could possibly someday develop mental problems, who has the ability to make a statement that no human being can EVER change. And the Catholics will FOLLOW IT. He could say ANYTHING!
Even when I was Catholic, this idea intrigued and bothered me. I mean, He could tell people that all men must impregnate their daughters or something, make it infallible, and nobody could TOUCH it. It just bothers me that they put so much power in the hands of one man like that.

Answer 7

My perspective is they are Christians, because they believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy spirit.

In my personal opinion, they do have a very intense desire to focus on being catholic, whereas most of my protestant friends focus on Jesus more intently.

the Catholic Church also sanctions exorcisms, so also believes in the intense influence of demons, which a lot of protestant churches shy away from....

So the Catholic faith has a lot of great points, if they would only focus on Jesus and his Resurrection more, it would be great.

Many of my protestant friends also have fierce and intense focuses on things I also don't find important, such as which Bible translation is correct, etc. Some things just are not worth arguing about! If it is bringing people to know Jesus, then who cares what translation it is!

Just some thoughts...

Answer 8

I come from a family of mixed religions. My dad's family came from England as Quakers. Somewhere through marriage his great grandfather became Catholic. I am a Reformed Episcopalian. I have have cousins that are Catholic and some that are Mormon.

My husband's family was Episcopalian but one of his ancestors was Joseph Smith founder of the Mormon church.

I also have a sister-in-law who is Jewish and believes in Christ.

With such a wide range of religions in our families we have some great discussions. We do not always agree on the finer points but the most important thing is we believe the Bible is the Word of God and we believe Jesus is our Savior.

Answer 9

Catholics are Christians. I have never really understood the resentment that many have toward Catholics.

I grew up in an area where most people were Catholic. Most of my friends were Catholic. Although I never believed in any of it, I attended mass from about the age of 7 through 10. Went through Catechism and First Communion.

While I have met a few Catholics who are very serious about it, most of the ones I know go to church on Sunday.. and then they are just people the rest of the week. Just people. I admire that.

Answer 10

I went to Catholic school all my life but i am still an active Episcopalian. the two religions are basically the same. but it feels like Catholics aren't as inviting, such as i can't have Holy Communion even though in my faith anyone who is baptized can receive the sacrament. Catholics also have to memorize A LOT, making the service not as visitor friendly. it may vary from church to church, but i think being an Episcopalian is more rewarding.

God bless

Answer 11

I consider catholics to be sincere and devout. Ask them what religion they are and they say Catholic but ask them if they are Christian and they say of course.
some still believe they are the one true church and the clergy is starting that up again. Watch out!
I find them no more confused than most protestants and in a lot of cases more knowledgeable of the word of God than your average protestant that thinks reading a psalm each morning is bible study.