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Re: Explain your religion to me! - May 9th 2013, 04:17 AM

Heads up, this is long.
Catholicism- So God made us, as His children. He loves us more than is possible for human logic to figure out. Like a parent, He'll get pissed when we're doing things he thinks are bad, but loves us regardless. He loves everyone equally, yet He also loves everyone uniquely, the way a parent does for their children. A (good) parent loves their child more than anything, and yet they feel that way about each of their children, in differing ways. He loves everyone He ever made, including Satan, but he despises the bad choices we make. Like a parent, God doesn't actually judge his kids- good parents could never throw their kids in hell.
But say a person turns to cocaine, that person will get addicted to cocaine and turn away from society, because he loves it so much. Drug addicts tend to not care what society thinks, and they'll do it anyway without regards to how other people feel. These people are imprisoned, regardless of how much theyre loved. In a way, they put themselves in jail. God doesn't throw people in hell- we throw ourselves in, if we choose not to love God(theres an example of this in the Gospel, about a prostitute. Jesus says only a sinless person has the right to judge (and stone) her. but instead of stoning her, he tells her to be good from now on) we will go to hell instead, which satan created when he betrayed God.
So that leaves sinners who still love God. They want to get into heaven, but if they still have sin, they need to wait and be purified in purgatory. Then they can go to heaven.
So heaven... is a place that we cant logically comprehend. you might say heaven will get boring, because its 24/7 perfection, but we're not there yet, so we wouldn't know if that gets boring.
People question why God allows sin. Without sin, we couldnt love, but wed be forced to love God without free will, which is more like slavery.(would you rather your wife loved you, or was forced to?) So we have the choice between good and bad. The accomplishment is huge if we love God with our own free will, so were rewarded. On the other hand, this allows suffering into the world, which makes some people think God cant be there.
The universe has too much order... it couldn't happen naturally, it needs a divine being to start it. Plus... the theory of (relativity?) says that something cant be created from nothing. I believe that God started the Big Bang, because a divine being that we cant comprehend would have to put the atom there himself, because it cant be created otherwise.
Im not sure if this is necessarily straight out of Catholicism... but it can be logically reasoned if you believe in the whole God the Father thing. I referenced the book "The Shack" quite a few times. Its a fantastic book, even if you think this is all a fairytale.