ahhh sooo much to write back to!! Unfortunately I can't write for shit today. But I'll give it my best attempt...
First of all Catholics ask St. Anthony not St. Andrew to help them find lost things. And commonly the definition of "lost things" is thought of as material. However, i believe that this is a misconception and myth that has developed over time. Ideally we would pray to St. Anthony because we have lost our soul or self. We have lost the basis of who we are and strive to be. And yet again we do not pray to them like we would a god. He is only a messenger of God who has lived his life ideally.
You tend to take everything concerning Catholicism so literally when there's so much to see behind it all. Yet at the same time there's so little necessary.
Again, I believe that we look to our ancestors for guidance because they've already conquered life to the best of their abilities. We hold them high because they fill a special place in our heart. We do the same to anyone who has left an imprint in our life. This is just a human characteristic. What do you mean by worship? I think there is a distinct difference between loving someone and worshiping someone. It's true there is a finite line but they're not the same. Maybe you just define it differently than I.
I do not pray to Ryan or believe that he is perfect. He is definitely a huge part of my life and he constitutes who I am in many ways but I don’t worship him. We get in fights and make mistakes, we offer constructive criticism to each other, and even if we may seem overly in love it’s only because we’re excited to learn and experience something so great.
You say Catholics merely deny that they worship things other then God. Well maybe they do. I can’t speak for the entire Catholic population. But it seems that you really just define it differently. As much as I love words I really just hate them sometimes.
Again I don’t think of placing flowers on a grave as a sacrifice. It’s mere remembrance. My interpretation of the burning of incense is to remind us of our roots and where we came from. We are born of dust and it is to dust that we return. God is everywhere even in the air we breath. Hence, incense. You know stuff like that.
Offerings should be intangible because ideally material things should not constitute the mainstream of our life. I mean they can be part of your life and a necessity to the extent that you learn something from them but they should not take over because that introduces selfish -desire.
I think we believe a lot of the same things; they are just masked by different words. Because when u take all the fancy words away everything is basically just a different version of the truth. You get stuck on words a lot. In my opinion the purpose of religion is to set you on the path to salvation and goodness. Is that not the purpose of every major world denomination?
I commend you for your belief that we each have our own gods!! That is so true!! I just believe it in the sense that your different gods are equivalent to my belief system. What leads me through life and guides me to love and loving others may not be what guides everyone else. Do u get it? Your gods are like the major influences that I will experience in my lifetime. Such as, like you said, Ryan. So you’re we agree in that sense. We just define gods much differently. And such differences are trivial…but I see how you’ve come to your conclusions.
What I mean by: “why create something that isn’t there” is that my Catholic version of God is everything that your gods comprise when combined. So for me to take Jesus and assign him as creator of only one of the things that I believe he is responsible would mean to complicate things. It’s just natural for me to accept the monotheistic belief because I was brought up with it. But I think that yours is just as valid. No matter how different it may seem it’s only another way of believing the same thing.
Hun, I know what hubris means. Do I seem that stupid? J I can only say that Apollon does not exist because I believe that my Catholic God is constantly working through every life force. He is a part of everything. He’s in the air we breathe, the birds that chirp, that wonderful sunset, and the starry moonlit sky that we witness each day. After all, "Music is God's gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven." I cannot say that you do not witness such greatness. That would be naïve of me. In fact I know that you do just by what you’ve said. But when you think of Hermes I think of God. I did not mean to insult your beliefs. Hopefully from what I’ve said you’ll understand where I’m coming from. Even I have sometimes wondered if my faith was based upon untruths but I now realize how trivial that all is because the form it takes is unimportant. And since when do animals worship? Lol I may be teetering on the brink of vegetarianism but I know that animals do not have human souls. They have animal souls and serve an animal purpose. They relish in Gods creations out of instinct. Although, it is attractive (for ex. To people like KT) to believe they are more because they’re often so cute and cuddly, it’s elementary. Animals live life out of pure instinct and experience.
Precisely what I’m trying to get at!! See how much more interesting your creation story is? It’s like a soap opera. Is all that necessary? I probably would have gone for it at one point too. But it’s just a glorified version of Adam and Eve. Your box=the tree of good and evil. Hope=free will. The world will keep getting worse until it comes to an end and God will return to earth and lead us to salvation. How realistic are half of your beliefs? Not very, so I find it hypocritical to make fun of any of the far-fetched Catholic ideas. You have to look behind things. It’s all symbolism as in any denomination. And there are so many connections. And I know you like to be able to make fun of what you believe. But it’s hard for me to find anything silly or worthy of being made fun of. To me it’s all very true and I can find explanations for each and every thing. Just as I don’t make fun of your beliefs because I see where they originated.
I only asked because I was curious as to what you believed.
In conclusion, words are a curse and a blessing.:-P Bahai’is stand for a united world religion and they’re way ahead of us for it. They recognize that denominations are merely different versions of the same beliefs, consisting of different traditions. As Ryan and I discussed for nearly 3 hours tonight, you just have to remember that God (or gods in your case) is/are good and he/they is/are everything, stuff (a distinct version of desire) gets in the way of truth, when you see the truth you know it and you’ll never forget it, everyone practices something that they believe and it’s a all another version of something someone else believes, and everything is united. This is why I say: why complicate things? The complexities are unnecessary,
But I owe all of this thought and most of the opinions I’ve expressed to Ryan because he’s helped me come to these conclusions. Without him I’d be nowhere.