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Author Topic: A fundamental question  (Read 417 times)

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Änσnymσus

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A fundamental question
« on: October 13, 2026, 11:13:50 AM »
Perusing the latest argument about receiving certainly valid Sacraments brought up a question that I ponder from time to time. At what point does a reasonable person start to question whether Catholicism is actually true and not just a conglomeration of some "truths" bound up with a lot of human invention? I mean, it's pretty tough to see, on the practical level,  that "[God] Who will have all men to be saved" would make it so improbable that any one person might be saved.

Anonymous in the hope (hopefully not a vain hope!) that honest, thoughtful responses might be proffered, instead of the all too typical knee jerk shut down posts.
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Offline Angelus

  • Supporter
Re: A fundamental question
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2026, 11:19:05 AM »

A traditional Catholic should not entertain such questions when tempted. Instead, he makes an Act of Faith: 


O my God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost; I believe that Thy divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived. Amen.


Domine Deus, firma fide credo et confiteor omnia et singula quae sancta ecclesia Catholica proponit, quia tu, Deus, ea omnia revelasti, qui es aeterna veritas et sapientia quae nec fallere nec falli potest. In hac fide vivere et mori statuo. Amen.
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Änσnymσus

  • Guest
Re: A fundamental question
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2026, 11:27:24 AM »
Quote from: Änσnymσus on October 13, 2026, 11:13:50 AM
Perusing the latest argument about receiving certainly valid Sacraments brought up a question that I ponder from time to time. At what point does a reasonable person start to question whether Catholicism is actually true and not just a conglomeration of some "truths" bound up with a lot of human invention? I mean, it's pretty tough to see, on the practical level,  that "[God] Who will have all men to be saved" would make it so improbable that any one person might be saved.

Anonymous in the hope (hopefully not a vain hope!) that honest, thoughtful responses might be proffered, instead of the all too typical knee jerk shut down posts.
I just think people have a very bizarre version of God in their mind. They implicitly think God would give stones and snakes to their children asking for bread and fish.
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Änσnymσus

  • Guest
Re: A fundamental question
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2026, 11:40:59 AM »
Quote from: Änσnymσus on October 13, 2026, 11:13:50 AM
Perusing the latest argument about receiving certainly valid Sacraments brought up a question that I ponder from time to time. At what point does a reasonable person start to question whether Catholicism is actually true and not just a conglomeration of some "truths" bound up with a lot of human invention? I mean, it's pretty tough to see, on the practical level,  that "[God] Who will have all men to be saved" would make it so improbable that any one person might be saved.

Anonymous in the hope (hopefully not a vain hope!) that honest, thoughtful responses might be proffered, instead of the all too typical knee jerk shut down posts.
I like the way Fr. Wathen put it:

"….All of you know very well, what God has revealed both in the Old Testament and Through Christ and His Apostles, is one doctrine.

Not only does it mean one thing, but it is a single, as it were, a single cloth woven from the top so that there are no seams, there is a perfect unity.

 Therefore, anyone who in any way teaches contrary to any one of it’s doctrines, any part of this holy deposit, violates it’s holiness and of course the truth of God. And if anyone comes forth and presents a doctrine contrary to it, he necessarily rouses the ire of Almighty God because he substitutes his puny human ideas and preferences to the holiness of the Divine Revelation."

IOW, it is precisely because there is a perfect unity in all of the truths of the Catholic faith, which is to say that one truth never contradict another. OTOH, if any of those truths were "a conglomeration of some "truths" bound up with a lot of human invention"(i.e. "puny human ideas"), that would be impossible, there would be contradictions all over the place as there are with prot "doctrines."

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Änσnymσus

  • Guest
Re: A fundamental question
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2026, 12:20:08 PM »
Considering the faith as a whole, I continually conclude the Catholic faith is most true compared to any other religion or explanation of the universe, and that there is simultaneously an anomaly (the crisis). Most people so easily could have been saved if they worked together to ensure the most success, but carelessly, foolishly, and negligently they do the opposite. I think the end result of those saved would be perfect, because why would God go through the trouble of creating humans, for it to be a great failure? Inequality is apparently important to give value to things. What is rare is considered more valuable. Those who are saved wouldn't be special if they were not few, and those who are most precious among the saved, are in a way given such status by the presence of the great number of lesser saints, yet all are infinitely separated from the damned.
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