Catholicism

Though I went to a Christian elementary school, the religion never stuck with me. I just couldn’t get over how people took the story of Christ literally. After all, no reasonable person would believe that someone could walk on water or rise from the dead. It just didn’t make any sense. However, with over a billion Catholics in the world, I thought there must be something to the whole religion. I highly doubt that a billion people are simply naïve or brainwashed.

So to experience what all the fuss was about I chose to go to Mass (almost) every day, and perform Jesuit spiritual exercises in which I would reflect on Bible passages and meditate on specific questions.

What I learned from this experiment is that Catholicism is extremely smart, and full of heuristics, practices, and teachings that can help you be better. I personally learned how selfish I was (good ol’ Catholic guilt) and how meaning can be cultivated by adding activities that serve others, rather than yourself. Literal belief in the religion isn’t necessary, but I found that the belief system makes more sense once you start practicing the religions, even a little bit.

Read through these posts if you are interested in learning how I started from being a skeptic in organized religion, to becoming “pro-religious.”