Research Exploratory Blog 2: Research Prospectus

The topic I have picked to write about is how Catholicism motivates people using fear through bible passage interpretations, sacraments, a sense of "community," traditions, and practices to try to attempt to gain their own salvation while ignoring the overall message of the religion. I will discuss how Catholicism has become dealt with in fear and lost focus from it’s true purpose and examine how one is able to live a good, faithful life by placing this fear behind them and opening themselves up to something that is greater and bigger than themselves: life itself. As a Christian man leaning towards Catholicism, I am very passionate about this issue and have witnessed many people fall into the same trap of blindly accepting things they do not fully understand out of fear of going to hell. In this paper I wish to not only express my thoughts about living a life without having to accept fearful ambiguity but explain how one can grasp life for what it is and accept the lack of knowledge humans have for many of the Catholic teachings and practices- and for every religion in that case- and use religion to grow both on a personal and spiritual level in the absence of any sort of encouraged fear that stems from the focused “higher power” one chooses to invest his beliefs in. I am not against Catholicism as I do label myself as “Catholic,” but I believe that Catholicism, like all religions, must be dealt with in a specific manner to ensure maximum potential for growth, hope, and moderate faith-based understanding without being afraid of what could happen if you do not follow as deliberately and literally as possible.

My thesis question is the following: how does Catholicism encourage people to faithfully follow the religion by using methods of fear in its bible passage interpretations, sacraments, ideas about community, traditions, and practices? To answer my thesis question I will first begin with explaining how humans acquired the concept of religion then offer what Catholicism has managed to do well as a religion itself. I will then move on to break down separate components of the Catholic faith that have become approached with through fear of the consequences of not accepting entirely the teachings enforced by Catholicism. I will explain how certain bible readings at the Catholic mass use fear to encourage people to essentially “do good” to avoid going to hell. I will explain how some of the sacraments have encouraged people to use religion as a sort of security from their fear and place their worries and mistakes on the Church in the hopes that it will be able to fix all their problems and give them a certain level of comfort going forward in life. The idea of the Catholic “community” will also be a point I attempt to break down by explaining how the true purpose of Catholicism (a “universal” religion based on love) has diverged from its original path and narrowed itself off from the initial intention of universality through the receiving off the Eucharist at daily Catholic mass. Lastly, I will explain how certain Catholic teachings and traditions have induced fear in the Catholic community of believers by causing people to blindly accept ideas they may not fully understand just to avoid the consequences of sin (aka going to hell).

A counterargument to my thesis question could be that religion has encouraged people to do amazing things all throughout history. The idea of “charity” will come into play because religion has, without a doubt, been a positive thing for the development of humanity as it has brought people to do things for others they may never have taken part in if religion did not exist. Also, the notion that Catholicism uses fear to motivate people to follow can be broken down by explaining how the only people that fear are those who are not adequately educated on the main message of Catholicism and only follow the religion to gain their own salvation when they die. These people are the ones that fear because their knowledge on Catholicism has not been expanded to the point that they actually understand what they are following. A counterargument against my argument for the sacraments could be that the sacraments do not offer people a “blanket of security” but an opportunity for spiritual growth in the attaining of God’s grace.  Another counterargument for my points about the traditions and practices of Catholicism could be that these things are not meant to be taken literally but serve to remind people of the history of religion and how it has managed to stay strong and exist in such a long period of time. Finally, a counterargument for my points on Catholic bible interpretations could be that the bible passages read at daily mass are not suppose to be taken literally but only motivate people to do good as opposed to using fear to scare people into serving others.

For my research I will use an up to date version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a Bible. I will use also use a two and a half hour debate between famous atheist author Christopher Hitchens and former British Prime Minister and Catholic convert Tony Blair on “Is Religion a Force for Good in the World?” I will cite the book A Soul of the Man under Socialism written by Oscar Wilde and I will search for scholarly articles using Google scholar or the online database for the UF Education Library. The book Awareness by Anthony de Mello will also be used in my research in explaining how Catholicism works in the modern world. After my research I hope to acquire new insight on how a deeper understanding and knowledge of one’s religion (specifically Catholicism) can open up a world of personal growth and a strong faith-based spiritual foundation. I also wish to discover how people who have not been exposed to religion (aka do not follow a religion) can still lead faith-filled lives centered around spirituality and a deep understanding that life after death is not only for those who have a religious label.

My three credible sources are as follows: 1) the “Biblical Interpretation” academic journal published by Brill Academic Publishers, 2) “The Fear of God and Human Respect” article published by the Catholic Tract Society of Baltimore based on doctrinal and controversial works in the Catholic Church, and 3) a book by Philalethes centered on the exposition of the principles of the Roman Catholic Church religion with remarks on how it has affected the United States. I will use the first source to help explain how some interpretations of the Bible can be seen as a scare tactic to motivate people to do good deeds. The second source will help me explain how some Catholic teachings and doctrines can be scene as controversial and confusing which cause people to accept them anyways out of fear of not accepting them. The third source will help me describe how religion has affected people in society as a whole and how the absence of religion is not necessarily a bad thing.

By exploring the thesis question I have given in this research prospectus I hope to inspire people to rethink why exactly they are a part of a religion. In doing so I also hope to motivate people to dig beneath the surface of their religious beliefs and try to understand fully the ideals of how their religion works in their everyday lives to better themselves so they may have a more fulfilled spiritual life experience.

Research Exploration Blog 1

As a devout Christian and Catholic-raised male, I tend to question my religious beliefs from time to time and ask myself why humans really accept the "truths" that some religions- to be specific, Catholicism- have to offer for those who participate in it. Ever since I began high school in 2007 I was always curious about "Why people are Catholic?" and I attempted to poke holes in their religious beliefs and traditions (which wasn't out of the ordinary for the little snobby, ignorant freshman that I was back in the day). I went to an all-boy Catholic private school in Tampa so I was coming in contact with the religion quite often and I started to learn more and more about it through the classes we were required (or, forced) to take. As I matured I started to develop my own beliefs and ideas about Catholicism and whether I wanted to take part in such a massive community of faith-based believers. Here are some of my developed and drawn-out thoughts regarding my ideas about Catholicism as it relates to what I wish to write my research paper on in the future: 

I've come to find that Catholicism only "works" for people who are not afraid to die. When a religion "works" for someone I find that it helps them grow on both a personal level and a spiritual level while inspiring them to keep a sense of faith in a higher power and live a more filled life in the hope that their is something greater to come after death. What I mean by this statement is the idea that the most essential belief of Catholicism (gaining "salvation" to one day find ourselves with a community of believers in what humans have named "Heaven") is partly based off fear because nobody wants to find themselves in a hot fiery pit hanging out with Satan after their life comes to an end. This thought leads me to an interesting question: Are Catholics good (ambiguous term, I know) people or are they just doing good deeds so they don't end up in Hell? Now, I'm not saying all Catholics are bad people that would be absurd; instead, the motivation for a Catholic to perform a "good" deed is skewed because he/she could only be doing it to save themselves...which goes against the Catholic message of being "universal" because your only serving yourself in reality. The idea that Catholicism draws people in through a sense of fear is found in many aspects of the religion such as communion, bible readings, sacraments, etc... Bottom line people are scared. People need something to fall back on. People want security. Nobody wants to die but everyone wants to go to Heaven. As Kenny Chesney puts it in one of his many hit songs, "Everybody wanna go to Heaven but nobody wanna go now." Don't really know why I just wrote that but it is free writing so what the heck. Catholicism seems to give people a feeling of comfort that reassures them that even if this life ends you got another one ahead of you....you just gotta be a good person to get there. Well what if you do bad things? It's okay because there is a man dressed in all black that can make your sins go away after he waves his hand in a cross formation so you can still get into Heaven. These are just random thoughts that pop into my head as I sit and stare at my Mac but what I want to base my research paper on (in a more organized, factual, and understandable fashion) is how Catholicism motivates people using fear through bible passage interpretations, sacraments, a sense of "community," traditions, and practices to try attempt to gain their own salvation while ignoring the overall message of the religion. I received Holy Communion as I Catholic boy in second grade. Did I know what I was really doing when I received it? No. I had no idea. The priest gave me a piece of unleavened bread so I ate it. Did I know that it was suppose to symbolize the body of Christ? To a certain extent, yes, but why was I taking it? Now I know that accepting the Eucharist is a symbol of remembrance for what Jesus did for his people in dying for our sins. What does that mean? How did he die for our sins? Did we sacrifice Jesus or did he sacrifice for us? I feel Catholicism has so much questions that are answered with our own fear of the possibility that their may be no life after death. Religion is tough stuff. Nobody knows the exact answer of where we are going once we die and nobody knows the exact answer of how we got here. What we do know is that we are here, and we should be thankful for that. Life, in that manner, is a gift. We didn't do anything prior to our own life that allowed us to be able to live. Nothing. We are all the same in that sense and the fact that we all did nothing to deserve what we have - life, the greatest gift on earth- is enough for me to treat everyone as equals. Everyone as taking part in something we don't deserve and enjoying this temporary period for what its made of: family, friends, love... things that move us to feel a greater good. When we look at some in a wheelchair we feel bad...unless your just some terrible person who hates wheel chair kids. But aside form those people we feel bad. Why? Because we find ourselves more fortunate than the kid in the wheelchair and we want him to have what we have. We have an immediate love for this kid because he is not "equal" (on a physical level) to us. This feeling of care and affection and the unconscious movement towards an innate good in our emotions leads me to believe that there is a higher power. We arent trying to feel bad for this child, we just do. But what is driving us to feel bad and desire a better life for this child? Humans cant be the "supreme" life form. Excuse my language but people are shitty. We lie, we cheat, we steal, we are selfish, and we hate when things dont always go our way. It cant end with us, the shitty people. There has to be something greater. Something that is driving us to that innate feeling of good that is worth going through a temporary stage of personal growth and purification (aka life) and joining into that greater community after life. How do we grow? How do we develop into a more full human being? Religion can help...if used correctly and not out of fear or lack of knowledge. But why not think of life as a religion. We are all already celebrating it just in our own way. We have our own traditions and practices. And we are not encouraged or forced to do anything we dont understand or because we are scared of what might happen if we dont do it.

I'm ranting, I know.

For my paper, in order to keep it from sounding like empty preaching, I wish to begin by explaining how humans acquired religion then offer what Catholicism does well. I will then go on to state the problem is that Catholicism has become dealt with in fear so it has lost focus and then move on to explain how to live a good life without fear. 

Im not biased against Catholicism at all...it has helped me immensely to grow as a person through its many teachings and ideals and I without a doubt agree with its overall message of love and universalism.  Im Christian. I believe there was a dude named Jesus and he lived a full life filled with friends, family, sacrifice, etc... and he serves as a great model for us to be and act like while he also gives us a hope that their is something greater to live for that lies in our future. Thats my gig. Hope to write more in the future.