Your Questions Answered, Part 5

From reading your posts, it seems like you are Catholic. Yet you make some comments that seem more just "spiritual", not necessarily "religious"-y. Please comment on your own personal mix of the two and how you got to this point. Your spiritual journey. =)

This was a very insightful question, and you did a good job of sizing me up.

Here's my story:

I was born and raised Catholic (although my dad is an atheist). I have always liked being Catholic. I don't think that being Catholic and being "spiritual" are mutually exclusive. They're not. But I can see how a lot of the teachings of the church seem regimented and dogmatic and less "spiritual". I am in the midst of exploring the spiritual side of Catholicism, and especially the work of the Holy Spirit through all of us. I am trying to model my life after Jesus, and I want to have faith like He did. (Matthew 17:20 - "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.") That's my journey.

I like exploring universal laws and the science behind religion, and seeing how it all fits together (because it does). It is like I am completing this big puzzle of spirituality in my head, and everything is really falling together quite nicely... Catholicism, universal laws, science... it's all connected.

I was reading some stuff about how Christopher Langan (who is considered by many "the smartest man in America") is working on a way to prove the existence of God through science and mathematics. He called it his "Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe". I get excited about stuff like this because I know a lot of people who don't believe in God, but do believe in science (unlike those uninformed New Earth Creationists out there), and I want them to see how it's all related. The way I figure it is, if this very, very, very, very smart man who is much more intelligent than you or I believes in God and can prove it (almost), why doesn't everybody?

So, anyway, within the last couple of years or so, I kind of started thinking for myself more, regarding the teachings of the Catholic Church. I read somewhere that the Catholic Church had sentenced Copernicus to hell because he said that the Earth revolved around the sun (at the time, they couldn't imagine a universe where the Earth wasn't the center). So, this got me to thinking that maybe the Catholic Church, like anything, isn't always correct (the Holy Inquisition and the reassigning of immoral priests are a couple of other examples). What it comes down to is that the Church is just a bunch of people making decisions (and sometimes people can be wrong). I am recognizing that part of it now.

That being said, what I like about the Catholic Church is that it is the rock on which Jesus built his church. The lineage of popes can be traced all the way back to Saint Peter, and I like that. (Matthew 16:18 - You are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.) 

So, now, I guess I'm taking what I like about the church, and leaving what I don't. I'm finally at a point in my life where I can say that and not feel guilty about it.

Also... Mother Teresa. I love her. She is another reason why I am Catholic.

So, in closing, here is a quote by Mother Teresa that I really like that kind of sums everything up:

"We do not try to impose our faith on others. We try to act in such a way that Christ will make his light and his life shine forth in us and, through us, in the world."