I converted to Roman Catholicism AMA

[lightsandmirrors]

I was recieved into the Roman Catholic Church a few years ago, having previously been an atheist. Ask me anything and I will try to answer!

@happinessischocolate

Have you read the god delusion?

I have read it yes, I read it when I was an atheist and tbh it really turned me off the whole argument for no God. I really don't think Richard Dawkins is good advocate for atheism. My impression of him has always been as someone is very condescending, patronising and rude. That's not normally how you win people round to your views.

For a Roman Catholic you need to worry because because the church works it out for you and you trust that their knowledge of theology and philosophy and ancient languages and societies as good as a humans can be

This is almost the opposite of what the nuns taught us - that it is our responsibility to question and challenge and seek understanding and not mindlessly accept what we are told.

There is also huge variety in beliefs depending on which RC culture surrounds you. It is not uncommon to hear things described as canon which are local custom and practice.

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion

As an educated person, which is assuming you are, do you actually believe there is a god? What is God to you?

I have had what I would consider to be a very well rounded education up to postgraduate level. So I would consider myself as educated as you say. Yes I believe there is a God. God to me is the creator, the mother and father of everything, he knows each and everyone of intimately in a way we could never understand.

Phew, finally caught up. Thanks for all the questions everyone. I haven't answered them all directly as some were repeats and others seemed more rhetorical. I don't think an AMA is the place to engage in detailed debate on separate issues and whole books can, and have, been written about the ethics around issues like abortion so we are not going to get to the bottom of it here.
A lot of posters seem to be champions of free thought and each person making the decision that is right for them. Except it seems when that thought and decision doesn't agree with your own recieved wisdom. I made a very carefully considered to choice to convert. I wasn't brainwashed and it wasn't on a whim. Even if you can't understand that decision yourself, if you value freedom of thought and expression I would hope that you could respect that, as I respect your viewpoints.

What do you think of the abortion laws n other countries based on RC teaching?

Eh in Chile if you have a miscarriage you are arrested and it is up to you to prove you didn't attempt abortion, quite a few women are serving life for that 'crime'.

Or a woman with an ectopic pregnancy. There is no chance of a life birth so why can't she be operated on before the tube bursts and puts her life at risk.

Not an actual legal case but the 12 year old who aborted her rapist's child and was excommunicated while the rapist was forgiven?

You write so well and are clearly intelligent and well read. You completely have the right to believe what you wish, yet It amazes me that someone so switched on would believe that an unseen, unknown figure can know us all 'intimately'. It's like believing in sawing a woman in half or the crystal balls at a funfair.

@Puffalicious

You write so well and are clearly intelligent and well read. You completely have the right to believe what you wish, yet It amazes me that someone so switched on would believe that an unseen, unknown figure can know us all 'intimately'. It's like believing in sawing a woman in half or the crystal balls at a funfair.

We're clearly reading different threads. What I keep seeing is a woman who chose Catholicism precisely because she likes the fact that it does all the thinking for her, as she sees it, and requires zero intellectual input or choice.

'A "life begins at conception" thought experiment: You're in a burning building and have time to save a container of 100 frozen embryos OR one living child. Which do you choose? Does your answer change if it were your embryos vs your ds? What would the church tell you to do?

I would choose the child every time. Of course I would, its an emotional decision. But I would argue that is because I am human and so I naturally place value where I can see it (if that makes sense, its a very inarticulate way of saying it). But just because I can't readily perceive the inherent value of 100 embryos. That doesn't mean they don't have any.'

How does this square with being completely anti abortion.

The woman is an actual person you can see in front of you and the embryo/ foetus isn't.

Lack of access to safe abortion results in servere injury/ death for large numbers of women globally every year.

Not all countries that ban abortion are Catholic but the ones that make the news for being incredibly cruel towards women in various situations because of this often seem to be. Women imprisoned for miscarrying in El Salvador for example.

But yes I'd be interested in why the disconnect between the fire question, and the no abortion for women question. Your answer makes no sense.

’In modern life I think a lot of us can feel a bit adrift.’

Very true. I think that religions like RC offer certainties which can be very attractive when you feel you’re adrift in life.

@lightsandmirrors Thanks for answering my questions. I wasn't sure you would, tbh. It was brave of you to start this thread.

For what it's worth, I agree with a lot of the RCC's teaching on social justice and I admire the charitable work they do in the US. I also understand how attractive it can be when someone says that they have all the answers. What they actually have is the opinions of fallible men based on the same Bible you can read for yourself. I like that the EC encourages me to question with their guidance. The three sources of authority in my church are scripture, reason and tradition. That's more work but yields a fuller, more responsive answer.

I will also never forgive the RCC for the coordinated, decades long cover up of clerical sexual abuse that put the church's reputation above the well being of children.

I am glad you found a church home. Just don't check your brain when you enter the sanctuary.

Do you like ants?

We're clearly reading different threads. What I keep seeing is a woman who chose Catholicism precisely because she likes the fact that it does all the thinking for her, as she sees it, and requires zero intellectual input or choice.

Completely agree. What I meant was that she's clearly educated as she structures her writing well, she just prefers not to use that education when she considers Catholicism.

@Puffalicious why is it strange that someone 'switched on' as you put it would have a belief in God? I can't quite see the comparison between deep metaphysical stuff and the kind of magic tricks you mention.

RosyPickle because I'm very, very cynical about all religion. I grew up Catholic and saw the Wizard behind the Oz curtain at age 16, when my logic defied the teaching.

I'm sorry to offend some, as religion can indeed bring true joy and comfort to many, but to me a God is a form of ancient, magic trickery designed to control the masses.

Of course, we can all believe in what we wish, I just have a deep seated mistrust of Catholocism. I wouldn't sneer about it in rl as I have here, so apologise if I have offended you or anyone else.

[quote RosyPickle]@Puffalicious why is it strange that someone 'switched on' as you put it would have a belief in God? I can't quite see the comparison between deep metaphysical stuff and the kind of magic tricks you mention. [/quote]
Because the OP has specifically said on a number of occasions that she chose Catholicism because it didn't require any further thinking of her once she'd converted, and that she is happy to 'delegate' her decisions about basic issues of morality to a Church responsible for the oppression, imprisonment and abuse of countless women and children -- that's a deeply peculiar decision from someone averagely intelligent.

@Puffalicious that's fair enough and no you didn't offend me.

@Sundries it was a comment about belief in God, not specifically about Catholicism.

Do you speak to God every day, and does She reply? What does She tell you?

@Coffeeoverload

Do you speak to God every day, and does She reply? What does She tell you?

God just rang me and She told me She thought your post was a bit goady.

Even the pope is pro civil unions these days but amy coney barrett is not

civil partnerships but not marriage though

This is absolutely fascinating op and through your explanations I can now see why someone might choose this path, particularly the 'simplicity' of it all.

However, a lot of the things seem to work for you because your life sounds (sorry to be blunt) reasonably nice. It doesn't sound like you have the lived experience of being gay and feeling the love you have for your husband for another woman, of being raped and becoming pregnant (by your own relative), living through absolute poverty and still having to give all your money to make the church beautiful. You have got to experience the beautiful, spiritual side of it. You haven't lived through it's horrors. You can say a lot of religions are like this, but we are talking about yours that you have chosen to join. Can you not love the teaching and ideas but still say hang on, this is still wrong for these people. For example saying the barrier method is wrong. When women have 10 kids and are very ill from stis as an intelligent, strong woman do you really honestly think that is a good idea? When this was created at a time women were controlled and sex is for men's pleasure? It just makes me shudder.

Of course you can love and enjoy many of the teachings, but can you not still be angry at what awful things the institution has done with power in its name?

Can you admit you have the luxury to have these beliefs and that for many people, actually, the world might be a better place if they didn't? (Sorry, tough one).

Also, the whole 'going to hell' if you don't believe. I've seen so many people traumatised by this and believe only through fear. Surely this is wrong? Do the church still teach with this language?

And have you ever visited South America?

No I have never been to South America.

I totally understand what you mean when you say my life has been reasonably nice, and of course you are right. It has been relatively easy for me to change my life in order to be in agreement with the Church's teachings. I do think for people who would not find it so easy, for example someone who is gay, that they may be happier in a faith which will marry them to their chosen spouse etc. And I would encourage them to do that if that is what they chose was right for them. Equally if a gay person decided to live celibate in the Catholic Church I would support that too. However, for the person in your example who was raped by a relative and found themselves pregnant I do not believe that abortion would be the answer that would bring happiness. Nothing could right that wrong, let alone the death of another person.

You ask 'Can you not love the teaching and ideas but still say hang on, this is still wrong for these people' and to a large extent I agree with you. People who cannot afford to give to the Church should not be forced to or guilted into giving money. I don't think that is in contradiction with the churches teaching. In fact the Church should be helping them. However, if someone chooses of their own free will to give out of their poverty then I believe that would bring its own spiritual rewards. Where people are being forced to give money I believe we have duty to try change that, working within the church to do that.

Yes I can, and am, very angry at the awful things the institution has done with power in its name. I am sorry if that hasn't come across in my previous answers. Believe me I do not take lightly the harm which has been done through the perversion of power, and no doubt continues to be done in places. But I can still separate that from the good that the church does.

Use of the barrier method for me IS a tricky one. As I previously mentioned somewhere up thread. I am presently considering whether to use the barrier method myself. I personally cannot see issue with it. And I have read all the arguments and literature a number of times. (I think) It is something I wish the church would change its teaching on, because I see it causing a lot unnecessary harm and distress for people and is in many cases compounding poverty. I understand that may sound very hypocritical because I have previously said what I like about the faith is that I can trust in the church to make the right moral decision. But the church has changed its mind before and I hope that this is a time it will.

I haven't personally come across any hellfire teaching. In my experience that very much isn't the way things are done now. Although obviously I can't speak about what might happen in other countries. Besides the Church teaches that it is possible for non-Catholics to enter into heaven so I'm not sure the 'youll go to hell if you don't believe' teaching is correct. That is one of the things I liked about the faith, that it was more open when it came to salvation than a lot of other Christian denominations where salvation is through faith alone.

@lightsandmirrors

No I have never been to South America.

I totally understand what you mean when you say my life has been reasonably nice, and of course you are right. It has been relatively easy for me to change my life in order to be in agreement with the Church's teachings. I do think for people who would not find it so easy, for example someone who is gay, that they may be happier in a faith which will marry them to their chosen spouse etc. And I would encourage them to do that if that is what they chose was right for them. Equally if a gay person decided to live celibate in the Catholic Church I would support that too. However, for the person in your example who was raped by a relative and found themselves pregnant I do not believe that abortion would be the answer that would bring happiness. Nothing could right that wrong, let alone the death of another person.

You ask 'Can you not love the teaching and ideas but still say hang on, this is still wrong for these people' and to a large extent I agree with you. People who cannot afford to give to the Church should not be forced to or guilted into giving money. I don't think that is in contradiction with the churches teaching. In fact the Church should be helping them. However, if someone chooses of their own free will to give out of their poverty then I believe that would bring its own spiritual rewards. Where people are being forced to give money I believe we have duty to try change that, working within the church to do that.

Yes I can, and am, very angry at the awful things the institution has done with power in its name. I am sorry if that hasn't come across in my previous answers. Believe me I do not take lightly the harm which has been done through the perversion of power, and no doubt continues to be done in places. But I can still separate that from the good that the church does.

Use of the barrier method for me IS a tricky one. As I previously mentioned somewhere up thread. I am presently considering whether to use the barrier method myself. I personally cannot see issue with it. And I have read all the arguments and literature a number of times. (I think) It is something I wish the church would change its teaching on, because I see it causing a lot unnecessary harm and distress for people and is in many cases compounding poverty. I understand that may sound very hypocritical because I have previously said what I like about the faith is that I can trust in the church to make the right moral decision. But the church has changed its mind before and I hope that this is a time it will.

I haven't personally come across any hellfire teaching. In my experience that very much isn't the way things are done now. Although obviously I can't speak about what might happen in other countries. Besides the Church teaches that it is possible for non-Catholics to enter into heaven so I'm not sure the 'youll go to hell if you don't believe' teaching is correct. That is one of the things I liked about the faith, that it was more open when it came to salvation than a lot of other Christian denominations where salvation is through faith alone.

Very interesting :) thanks op! Very measured and thoughtful responses, which are normally hard discussions to have in real life!