What do you think about Jesus?

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That's interesting. I'm Zen Buddhist / Vedantist / Atheist. I discovered Buddhism when I was 18 and it made a lot more sense than the Christianity I'd been exposed to. It seems you went in the opposite direction?

Yeah. Well I totally get your perspective. I figured if God was simple his religion would be simple. I thought Christians were especially dumb. Then I had a mystical experience ... while I was folding laundry in my room (401 Witherspoon Hall...) God dropped a bomb of an idea in my head. It wasn't a voice but a "solid" idea - an idea that had this strange weight to it, an idea I couldn't have thought. It went like this: "If there is a God, then Jesus Christ is his Son, and the Catholic Church is his Church." I was like, "What? Where is hell did that come from?" At the time, I didn't even believe in God, I thought Jesus was a stupid fairy tale, and that the Roman Catholic Church was a ridiculous holdover from an unenlightened age. But the idea was so strong and solid unlike anything I ever had before that it didn't go away. So I went to the library and got out books to disprove it all. But the more I tried to disprove it, the more it all made complete sense to me. It was a horrible three years of independent study, wrestling against something I didn't want to become, until I finally gave up and was baptized. The rest, as they say, is history.....my Jewish family was shocked. Hard time.

I had an idea once.

My parents were similarly shocked when I returned from a retreat and told them I was leaving to become a monk. They had no conception of Eastern thought, Buddhism or Hinduism. I think part of it was they were embarrassed to tell the rest of the family and neighbours where I had gone! After just more than a year as a novice monk I left the monastery and continued my education, studying sciences at university. It is interesting that a number of the "hard atheists" in this forum (I include myself in that number) were once heavily involved with religion to a similar extent. I can understand where religious people come from though I tend to have more respect for those who have delved very deeply into multiple aspects of our existence and the nature of the universe etc. Anyway, enough fraternisation with the enemy!

If I may offer one possible explanation for what led you to Catholicism based on this post.

You come from a Jewish background. As a Jew, you were likely faced with continual Christian preaching from Christians along the lines of "Jesus Christ is God's Son, and the Catholic Church is His Church". Because this sort of phrase became stored in your mind, one day, it randomly came out of your unconscious and you interpreted it as some revelation.

Because you felt surprised/confused by this "revelation", you went and did some relevant research as a result. Using some variation of the principle of commitment, you then eventually became a Catholic. For you, the revelation happened, so you felt you had to commit accordingly and be consistent with it ... and you did.

@Tallyman -- I'm happy to see that we had similar journeys. But at the end of your post you said something strange. Do you regard me as an enemy? I'll debate you, but that doesn't make me your enemy.
@MCalavera -- Nothing could be further from the truth. No one ever preached to me. I grew up in a very Jewish neighborhood. And when I heard that "believe in Jesus stuff" as I was going through the radio dials I would simply roll my eyes. My anti-Christian biases were set very strong within me from the time I went to Hebrew School and learned about the Inquisition. To say that there was some "bubbling up from my subconscious" doesn't accord with my experience. The thought that came to me that day in my college room felt like someone opening my brain hemispheres and placing a foreign object into it. That was my experience.
And I did not want to commit to that "revelation" because it implied a total change in my lifestyle at the time......I found that "revelation" to be abhorrent.

It was a joke. It is just that we are probably at opposite sides of a deep abyss in terms of our "beliefs".

I must say!

I am more than impressed with what everybody has told me today.

I only wish I had more to offer.

I voted other because I think he may have existed and been quite a different person than the people of the times. But I think he has been elevated as a mythical sun god like so many before him to get the pagans to appreciate or take on board Christianity.

If he did exist I reckon he despaired of the world he lived in and ended up annoying those in power so they killed him.

Do you reckon he was like Frank Gallagher?

Oh. A joke. It was my literalness.....

No, I don't. It's interesting from a sociology and psychology standpoint, but that's about it.

I grew up jewish and was exposed pretty heavily to christianity. I really struggled with it as a child, then just disregarded it until I went through a phase in my early 30's where I picked up religion as a special interest of sorts. After a couple years of going overboard on it, I realized that it really didn't have any practical implications -- even if it's true, I just don't care. That's pretty much how I view all religion/spirituality: it's irrelevant.

For what it's worth, I was born a Lutheran, am still a Lutheran, and expect to die a Lutheran. My maternal Grandfather's family were Catholic, but he himself was very irreligious, so he let his Lutheran wife give their kids a religious upbringing. While my maternal Grandmother's maiden name was Abramovske - - obviously, someone had converted from Judaism. But that had to have been a very long time before, because her family had never thought of themselves as Jewish, but only as Prussian Lutherans. While on my Dad's side, the family, as far as I can tell, were Lutherans from the start of the Reformation.

That's cool. Lutherans are arguably the most laid-back type of christians in my opinion. Kinda the opposite of Jew-hovah's Witness. lol

nice enough chap

Based on the prior sentences before the last one, I would argue that it does.



Even so, you did go through with it because it was a revelation for you regardless.