When I was a child indoctrinated into the catholic church I said my prayers. I prayed for the starving to be fed. And I prayed for the end of all wars. Realizing that as hard as I prayed, thousands of people were still starving to death and war continued, they weren’t being answered. That or it was a resounding it’s part of gods plan.
This was the beginning of my ascent into the enlightenment. Then there was the hypocrisy of idol worship. I couldn’t understand the priests telling me not to worship idols while they prayed to the various saints. And then the all completely unbelievable; we are the right religion, every other religion is wrong.
Following my catholicism I tried other religions because I was still sold on the god thing. But I soon realized that none of these religions could produce a valid miracle or an answered prayer that wasn’t just as easily answered by praying to a milk carton And of course, god himself could not be produced.
I found myself thanking science for seeing reality as it really is. I have to say the final straw for me was watching Carl Sagans “Cosmos.” Telling the story of the emperor crab opened up a door to a whole new world for me. And from then on it was Atheism for me. No more guilt, no more sin, no more fear of hell.
Sam Salerno
United States
Sam will not be disillusioned, I hope, if I mention that Sagan’s samurai crab story was completely bogus. It’s not entirely his fault; he cribbed it from Julian Huxley. It’s not a case of artificial selection at all, but one of chance.
@PZ #1 – interesting, did not know that.
@OP – Cosmos, can it be topped? I’ve watched it what seems like billions of times.
As a person who grew up surrounded by Catholics, I have to say I’ve never seen anyone treat any religious imagery (paintings, sculpture, stained glass, etc.) as an idol. Perhaps the priests were preaching the familiar metaphor “do not make idols in your heart of wealth, etc.”
Catholics certainly can develop sentimental attachments to favorite works of art or decor, but they do not actually worship them, and only the most superstitious consider them holy in any sense. The image is there as part of a long tradition of story-telling for the illiterate masses. There’s a big difference between worshiping an object and worshiping the supernatural being the image represents. There’s a special way to dispose of consecrated host that is unused, but there is no such protocol for disposing of church statuary that is no longer needed. Visit some antique dealers and buy your own “decommissioned” saints.
There’s plenty of stuff wrong with Catholicism, but “idolatry” is as bogus as matzos made with blood.
One of the (many) funny things about prayer is that yr basically claiming you have the power to change god’s mind.
I am a huge fan of Carl Sagan, having read all of his books and many lectures I could find, and of course having Cosmos, both in book and dvd form.
In 1978 when Cosmos was released I was entranced and waited for each episode with great anticipation. It was years later that I discovered the Hieke crab bit of the show was essentially bogus.
However bogus or not, he explains the process of artificial selection in a manner that is easily accessible to non-biologists and you understand it, he then extrapolates that if artificial selection can have such an effect, in such a short period of time, imagine what natural selection can do over billions of years. For that understanding alone, the error is worth it in my book
Really? Seems like most of the famous Euro churches do exactly this; what with healing relics, etc. I’m trying to recall any devout Catholics I know who do not idolize at least one object. It’s fait reconnu in Latin America as well.
OK, so you have never seen it happen personally. Are you really also denying that it happens at all ?
And that is just not true, as you know. Why did you think you would get away with saying something so idiotic ?
It always struck me that the Catholics violated both the “No graven image” commandment and the “No other Gods” prohibition. The pantheon of saints must rank at least as Demigods, since they are the objects of prayer.
Even Islam, with its strong prohibition against images, manages to idolize the Koran. It is not the words in the book that are sacred, but the physical book itself.
That’s a fairly large block of Catholics, though. I find this sort of explanation highly amusing (from wiki):
That’s some precision hair-splitting, right there. The same no doubt would be said to apply to the Saint Christopher my mother gave me for ‘protection’, and the metric shit-ton of crap for sale at Lourdes and similar places. Hell, we were only even in Lourdes so that my mother could buy some sort of special prayer card for my great-grandmother.
I guess that means I was raised and schooled by only the most superstitious Catholics then. I personally wouldn’t have put it in such superlative terms, but there you go. I strongly doubt that some of these extremist Catholics (of my childhood) could tell the difference between worship and a sentimental attachment if their lives depended on it. Then again, maybe they already did think their lives depended on it and still couldn’t conjure up a coherent set of beliefs.
In my very small town the Catholics and the Protestants shared a church building.
The statues of Jesus and Mary were in display cases with doors which the Catholics opened and the Protestants closed.
The large and gruesome crucifix was always on display.
julietdefarge #3 wrote:
Now I think this statement could be both right and wrong — because Catholics, like religious people in general, can get very good at doublethink. Distinctions get blurred. You do not worship idols; there are many sacred objects which have powers. How could both be true? By flipping your mind back and forth from one to the other without noticing the discrepancy, and denying that it’s there.
Greta Christina once wrote about the phenomenon from her standpoint as an ex-wiccan. Wiccans did not believe in literal magic: it was all symbol. Unless it wasn’t. Tarot cards are just a tool to jump-start your creative thinking: but they never lie. Which is which depends on who you’re with, what your need is at the time, and which perspective momentarily makes the most sense. Be holistic. Consider it “deep.”
Remember, spiritual thinking involves learning to trade on ambiguities. Nothing throws off faith-based beliefs like a commitment to clarity.
Sam only mentions praying to saints. Are you telling me you have never seen a catholic praying at a saint?
I’ve seen plenty of Catholic idolatry, such as kissing the feet of a statue. I had to do it myself in church, back when I was a child.
(In the interests of hygiene, the “modern” practice was to wipe said feet with a rag before each queuing person did their kissing)
I would never be disillusioned by one of the great evolutionary biologists of our times. Only humbled. Thank you for posting P.Z. You are also one of my heros.
Oh, and thanks for the post. That was quite interesting about how the muscle attachment is why these crabs resemble a face. And it was also funny how they compared this with seeing the “Virgin Mary” on a piece of toast. Virgin birth;I’m convinced.