What is bad about Catholcism?

Question

I was raised a catholic, but spent most of my days in church sleeping, now I'm an atheist, I was wondering, what is so bad about catholicism, it seems to be the most hated religion on Y!A. I'm not sticking up for catholics, I just want to know.

I'm not converting, remember, I'm an atheist, please don't preach to me, its falling on deaf ears.

yea, I always thought the whole kneeling standing and repeating the same thing over and over again was weird.

Okay, still not being clear I guess, I'm an atheist, always will be an atheist. My age has nothing do do with my ability to make my own spiritual decisions.

Answer 1

The problem is that the religion tends to present God as an angry punishing God instead of a loving savior who wants all to be saved. There are also many doctrines that are taught by the Catholic Church that are directly against what the Bible says to be true.

Example:

Having statues or Idols in the Church-
Exodus 20:4-6 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. you shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. But showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Believing the Pope to be holy and above other persons-
Romans 3:22-24 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

There is salvation in works-
Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Praying through/to the saints-
1 Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men- the testimony given in it's proper time.

Giving Mary a special position in God's work-
Luke 11:27-28 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." He replied, "blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

Calling someone Father in a religious sense-
Matthew 23: 8-14 But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father', for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces, You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Besides the blatant disregard for what the Bible has to say about such things--- as a Recovering Alcoholic, I have seen more people have trouble finding a "higher Power" who have come from the Catholic Church. Because of the errors in teaching that the Catholic Religion has perpetuated, when people leave the church they believe they can not be saved so why bother. Catholicism has done more to drive people away from God than any other religion.

EDIT: The Catholics did not give the common man the Bible. They compiled it and then kept it for the monks and priests only. Martin Luther gave the Bible to the common man when He translated it into a language the common man could understand.

Answer 2

Well, the Catholics are a form of Pagan religion. It was originally a Christian based religion, but from about 315 till present, Babylonian beliefs started integrating into the beliefs. Stuff like loving the Mary as much or more then Jesus cause she gave birth to God type of thing. Or calling the person that leads the church father, and having to answer to the person so he can forgive you or ask for forgiveness on your behalf. The cultist symbols and behaviors that are done.

Basically a large part of what they teach is against the bible. Im sorry for them that you were pushed away. But you seem to have made up your mind on what you want.

I will leave a last comment. When Russia's army is supernaturally destroyed, and a large number of people just disappear off the earth, I would start looking for God about that time. I would say now, but it will take a big thing to open your eyes.

To the one comment about being catholic. I suggest studying Babylon and their beliefs. You will see a large amount of things that came from Babylon and were integrated into the Catholic religion. Catholicism is far from the church of God.

EDIT. Yeah I know, the Catholics are the only one that people hate. People hate Mormons, Christians, Buddhists, Atheists, Scientology, etc. Does that mean all of them were what Jesus was talking about?

And the Christian faith came first, then the Catholics. So if there was any church he was talking about, thats the original beliefs, not the paganized version known as Catholicism.

http://www.contenderministries.org/catholicism.php
Read this site for answers on Catholicism.

EDIT: Wrong, the Catholic church has not been around since Jesus. It came from around 315AD after the first 2 churches, the Aposlistic and Persecuted church came and left. The catholic church came from the original church, and the emperor Constantine, who was made highest level of the church, and he brought in his paganistic beliefs as well as bringing in Pagans. So no, the Catholic church has NOT been around for 2000 years.

Answer 3

The catholic church claims to be the only truth but they ignore the fact that many of their practices and traditions are contrary to the scriptures. They do not worship in the same manner as the first century church, their "leadership" does not follow the New Testament example and they claim that the pope is the head of the church.

There are many things wrong with the catholic church including the fact that the catholic church was not in existance until nearly 500 years after Christ established his church, identified in the Bible as the church of Christ.

read the articles in the source to discover the truth

Answer 4

The European Catholic Church has thrown away God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible and replaced them with Italian poetry and fibs.

The European Catholic Church is anti-western democracies, anti- American, and anti-United Nations Declaration on Human Rights.

It views legally married men to women (not men) as evil.

It has intentionally tried to hide child crime/child abuse from secular police departments to save Rome lawsuit money.

Answer 5

There does seem to be a lot of Catholic-bashing going on here today in particular. Not that I'm against that, really, but anybody who belongs to any relgion has a lot of nerve carrying on as if the Catholic brand of baloney is any worse than their own. And any Protestant denomination came from Catholicism (what do they think the Protestants were protesting, anyway?). This kind of nonsense has led to wars and hatred for centuries, but people must enjoy it or they'd have stopped doing it years ago.
Gee, Monica, you think it's weird? How do you think your religious rituals look to someone else? People are so close-minded and incapable of seeing themselves clearly. How dare anyone get superior about their own religion? If you're a Christian, Monica, you think a woman who never had sex gave birth to a baby who was really a god--or, part of a god, who is one, yet is three. You take bread and wine as a symbol of the body and blood of this god-person. Your churches display an instrument of capital punishment because this person was killed in that manner, and you even wear a representation of that instrument of death as jewelry. You believe this god-person went up into the clouds, with his entire body, to where the main god, this guy's father, lives. You think you will go to this place after you are dead, and you will not really be dead. Gee, how weird.

Answer 6

There's just a lot of prejudice built up against Catholics as an identifiable group. While prejudice against other distinct groups (such as the various races, or Jews) has become socially unacceptable, that has never happened with Catholics.

And because it is socially acceptable to denigrate Catholics, many people do. Why?

Because they can. It is that simple, I think.

That and I think some of the more ardently anti-Catholic evangelicals/protestants are a bit insecure about their sects. They don't like to admit or accept that we are their "parent" source, so to speak, so talk a lot of smack to... I don't know... make themselves feel better about something.

Answer 7

I think it's because a lot of the people who supposedly hate Catholicism really don't know what they're talking about. They don't even believe it is a Christian faith, which is an indicator of how poorly educated they are in the history of their own religion.

People like that should wake up and realize that it isn't the 16th century anymore.

"There is only one Jesus Christ; everything else is trifles." --Elizabeth I of England

Answer 8

Ummmmm for starters the crucifix, bowing to the mother Mary and being refused communion for not jumping through their hoops.

Answer 9

The concept of the Pope being infallible is a big one for me. No one but God is. And why do Catholics pray to Mary. She isn't God; Jesus is the one that intervenes on our behalf. They also tend to be very legalistic, judging people by their actions instead of their hearts.

Answer 10

People tend to critize what they do not understand. If people would openmindedly take the time to learn the truth about the Catholic faith from Catholics rather than from others who do not fully understand it, they may come to understand it more fully themselves and therefore not be so quick to judge.

God bless,
Stanbo