As of late I have become increasingly annoyed with Roman Catholics and their Eastern Orthodox kinsmen. Being a former Roman Catholic I know a little bit about what they believe concerning the essential doctrines of the faith and I stand opposed to most Protestant claims that Catholicism is a cult and that Catholics have another Jesus and preach a false gospel.
That being said, the more I speak with Catholics (Roman and Eastern) the more I'm starting to believe that something definitely ain't right. The second you disagree with them on anything (and this is not limited to doctrine) they label you an "anti-Catholic" or a "Catholic Basher" -- Yet when asked what exactly "bashing" entails, they give no repsonse (at least I haven't gotten any yet).
Aside from the name calling (which is illogical, ad hominem argumentation) the Catholics I speak with seem to come to a lot of irrelevant conclusions, erect a lot of straw man arguments, and argue emotionally more for the purpose of glorifying their church than glorifying God. For example, I was in the Christian Beliefs chat room earlier and the topic of the canon of scripture came up. Now this one Roman Catholic who I speak with all the time and really can't stand for the above mentioned reasons, began to say that the Catholic Church gave us the Bible... Without the Catholic Church there would be no Word of God, etc... Of course I responded that such a belief was nonsense.
The fact is that God gave us the Bible and scripture has been scripture since the moment it was written. This guy actually claimed that because the apostles didn't know that what they were writing was scripture that it wasn't actually scripture until the Catholic Church decided it was! I couldn't believe it. So I respond with my usual argument which is the fact that the same NT canon that the Catholic Church recognized as inspired was recognized by Athanasius in A.D. 367 which was two to three decades before the Church made any declaration on the subject. He didn't need the Church to tell him what was inspired... In fact, they followed his lead! Although I would add that Athanasius recognized that the deuterocanonical books did not belong in the canon.
Next there is the issue of the councils of Hippo (A.D. 390) and Carthage (A.D. 397) being local councils and not ecumenical, therefore Catholics can't even claim their canon was binding on the entire Church (which obviously it was not since the Eastern Church has a different canon). It wasn't until 1545 at the council of Trent that the Catholic canon was established.
So are we to believe that all the Ante-Nicene Fathers from the first to fourth centuries didn't know what scripture was? Are we to imagine that without the Catholic Church there would have been no Scriptures at all? It seems to me that the Jews did fine without them... In fact they did so well that they never saw the need to add a deuterocanon (second canon) as the Catholics did.
But my real frustration is not so much in the belief of some of these Catholics, so much as it is in the way they argue their points. They constantly appeal to history, yet the history has been seriously revised. They employ anachronism like no other group I have ever seen (Mormons included) claiming that modern Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox understandings of terms must be first and second century Catholic understandings of them. Next is the constant appeals to Popularity and Tradition as if something is true because a lot of people believe it or because it has been believed for a long time. The circular reasoning used by Catholics is also quite irritating, constantly appealing to 2000 year old "Christian beliefs" while only assuming that the first century Church believed these things and never actually proving it. When we examine most of these beliefs in light of scripture they don't hold up.
After having spent many hours of my life speaking with Catholics and debating certain doctrines, e.g. transubstantiation, prayers for the dead, the canon of scripture, etc... I have grown tired. Tired of the attitude that they display toward anyone who is not Catholic... Tired of the revisionist history they present you with and argue as fact... Tired of the lack of humility exhibited by those I speak with... Tired of the ridicule laced comments that they make when debating... Tired of the superiority complex and arrogance possessed by those Catholics who see no need to even examine alternative points of view or their opponents arguments... I'm just tired...
That being said, they ain't all bad. There are some very nice Catholics that I converse with and am able to have intelligent and meaningful dialogues with. We may disagree but we can do it agreeably. In general though I find that Catholics are a big pain in the neck. They're no easier to reason with than Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons (and no, I'm not saying that Catholcism is a cult, but its members do exhibit some cultist behavior).
To be continued...
