If you start off very firmly believing that same-sex romantic relationships can be normal and healthy, and you’re then trying to decide “what religious tradition should I join that makes the most sense given what I presently believe?”, then Catholicism would appear to be an unlikely candidate. There’s at least that one major red flag which suggests a pretty important error somewhere in the reasoning.
Most Catholics I’ve met are pretty immune to this sort of red flagging. That is, they just red-flag the parts they don’t like, and continue to believe in the rest.
I can understand why people raised as Catholics would be so immune. But if you’re making a decision to convert to Catholicism, presumably you like the whole integrated, no-exceptions theology. Isn’t the whole appeal of Catholicism that you’re not supposed to partition, and isn’t that the element that’s supposed to make it “intellectually formidable” as religions go?
I can understand why people raised as Catholics would be so immune. But if you’re making a decision to convert to Catholicism, presumably you like the whole integrated, no-exceptions theology.
As with most, if not all, religions, one would be surrounded by people giving off signals to the effect that this or that contradiction is no big deal. Combined with a relief from whatever discomfort remains from childhood indoctrination, plus the halo of being “intellectually formidable,” it seems a rather seductive package.
People like the idea of science and the scientific method due to the whole integrated, no-exceptions approach. They express their support to it even if the scientific consensus sometimes says things they think are nonsense.
Most Catholics I’ve met are pretty immune to this sort of red flagging. That is, they just red-flag the parts they don’t like, and continue to believe in the rest.
I can understand why people raised as Catholics would be so immune. But if you’re making a decision to convert to Catholicism, presumably you like the whole integrated, no-exceptions theology. Isn’t the whole appeal of Catholicism that you’re not supposed to partition, and isn’t that the element that’s supposed to make it “intellectually formidable” as religions go?
As with most, if not all, religions, one would be surrounded by people giving off signals to the effect that this or that contradiction is no big deal. Combined with a relief from whatever discomfort remains from childhood indoctrination, plus the halo of being “intellectually formidable,” it seems a rather seductive package.
People like the idea of science and the scientific method due to the whole integrated, no-exceptions approach. They express their support to it even if the scientific consensus sometimes says things they think are nonsense.