"What is the importance of being Roman Catholic? What is the point of it all?" (Main Forum)

by James, Australia, Thursday, June 05, 2008, 08:50 (1841 days ago) @ Nicholas

Yours is an interesting comment, Nicholas and it reminds me of a comment made by Patrick White that one of the things he regretted is not having a Catholic childhood because his friends who had long since given the faith away continued to luxuriate in it. However, there is a problem with being with the Catholic clan, as distinct, for example the Jewish clan. I have Jewish friends who tell me that amongst their community are rabid atheists right down to those who won't cut their hair around their temples because of a biblical prohibition. But they are all regarded as Jews and there is no such thing as being "outside the faith" or being "excommunicated". This may have something to do with their community being based, if not on race, then at least on being somehow tribal. On the other hand, Catholicism, Islam etc, is based entirely on a belief system and if you cannot accept that belief system anymore, then you are out. Indeed you are regarded as being worse than those who never were Catholic, because you are had the "gift of faith" and then threw it away. From the little I know of Islam (or at least some forms of it), it is even worse in its attitude to apostasy. One of the things about this site that I find interesting is that those who use it do not seem to have that same fundamentalist attitude towards disbelief that makes a lot of religion these days both depressing and dangerous.