Holy water, saints and miracles...

Here's an amusing exerpt from an article I came across about the Catholic Church (found one of the local rags here). Having once been a Catholic, I found it quite funny. Are these guys for real?

"...The theories behind transmutation of base metals into gold and "transubstantiation", the conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, are identical but spurious. The same can be said of "holy water", another miracle substance, like the universal elixir, that is used to purify oneself upon entry into the church merely by splashing it about your person using rapid hand movements. Holy water is given its potency by the priest waving his right hand over it and saying some magic words in his mind. The process is called "blessing" whereby normal tap water is instilled with the power to make anything it touches quite holy, especially people. However I do not think it works so well on vermin because I distinctly recall seeing the occasional dead fly or moth in the little ceramic pot that contained the holy water; they still drowned despite the holiness of the water they fell into. Of course, the swift response to explain this anomaly (had I ventured to enquire) would be: "Vermin do not have souls!"

The act of blessing something is the prerogative of the priest who can bestow the privilege upon anything he likes including animals, people, other priests, entire armies, water, bridges, and rockets. But I am unsure precisely what it means to be "blessed". Apparently it makes something holy. But then what does that mean? A "holy" person might be made into a "saint" some time after his death, but just exactly what it means to be a saint is anybody's guess. The pope has raised all manner of obscure individuals to sainthood and I have no doubt their stay in heaven or hell or purgatory, or wherever their souls might be aimlessly floating about, is made all the more enjoyable for them by this generosity, but the whole idea is still an arbitrary invention by the Church no matter how it is packaged. The Church cardinals sit in session debating the merits of this person and that person and, after hours of discussion and argument, they finally decide upon some unknown individual who died nine million years ago in some equally obscure rainforest, who shall henceforth be known as Saint Juxtaposition, or whatever. These cardinals are the same individuals who see nothing even remotely odd in the idea of transmuting ordinary flour and water into the flesh of a man who lived two thousand years ago. They further believe that this mysterious event might easily occur simultaneously in hundreds of places around the world.

I can think of only one possible reason for the invention of such a notion as sainthood: they act as examples for others to look up to. But surely these individuals were already fine examples of humanity before they died so why is it necessary to label them as something new? Presumably the person in question, who is normally dead, is unaffected and I doubt God would care, so if it adds nothing of value, what indeed is the point? As a child, I was taught that all saints go straight to heaven because that is what it means to be a saint, that is what they do upon becoming one. I always wondered how anyone could be so sure.

However the idea does have some pedigree because one of the first saints to strike gold was Constantine's mother, Helena, who took a trip to Palestine and miraculously dug up the True Cross, thereby becoming a saint. What happened after her death is not known for certain, but those 'in the know' suggest she went straight to Heaven.

It is a wonder that relics of the medieval past can still find a home in our modern world, especially since we enjoy a significant advantage in terms of education over our ancestors. Even so, there is an important lesson here; namely that if it is possible to convince an educated population of a fantasy like 'transubstantiation' in our modern age, you could probably convince them of anything. And therein lies the danger. The Catholic mind is typically hamstrung by habit and a blind dependence upon meaningless ritual. It becomes shackled and weakened by slavery to custom and tradition, finding it extremely difficult to break free of its grip and think outside the circle. And yet, this mental deterioration has a poisonous effect whose symptoms are difficult to detect by the untrained eye, but which may be severe and long-term nevertheless. As a consequence, Catholics in general seem to find it extraordinarily difficult to think through ideas of a mythical nature with the application of pure reason, no matter how absurd the story. It is here then, that one is laid vacant to the dangers of dizzy ideas and dubious suggestion; there exists a sad reluctance to question the patently absurd because of the dependence on mindless obedience, habit or just tradition. But strangulation of the mind is a high price to pay for spiritual contentment, especially when the contributing factors can so easily be shown to be flawed.

Originally posted by SpastiGov
Here's an amusing exerpt from an article I came across about the Catholic Church (found one of the local rags here). Having once been a Catholic, I found it quite funny. Are these guys for real?

"...The theories behind transmutation of base metals into gold and "transubstantiation", the conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Chris ...[text shortened]... ecially when the contributing factors can so easily be shown to be flawed.