“The Catholic Church is the norm of faith. The Catholic Church is the teacher of truth. The Catholic Church is the security of salvation. The Catholic Church is the judge and interpreter of Scripture — which is neither defined nor interpreted. It is not necessary to read the Bible. It is necessary to listen to the Church.” (Some Catholic guy)

I saw this quote from a Catholic yesterday. The point to take away from this is basic. This is an entirely different worldview. It is not a matter of wrong interpretation of a few verses, the above is as distinct from Christianity as any other worldview or religion. When engaging them, you must engage them as you would a reprobate liberal atheist.

I will not go into all the wrong things, nor all the reasons why it is a different worldview, except this one comment.  Your starting-point for knowledge (i.e. epistemology) determines all the knowledge about your worldview. For this reason a worldview can simply be referred to its epistemology, because it is the source for the worldview’s knowledge. The above shows the Catholic’s epistemology in a dualism of the bible and men (Catholic church leaders). At this point I am not even saying if this is bad or good, but only stating what it is. Also because of St. Thomas, most Catholics have a third epistemology of empiricism. However, when there is a contradiction in this triple epistemology, the Catholic’s use Catholic leadership to make a final decision, and so, their true first-principle of knowledge is a human starting point. This is no different than atheism, with their human starting point for knowledge with empiricism. From a human point of power and money, it is clear why men want to be the final gate keepers, but this is irrelevant. The issue is that any deviation with starting points means you have completely different worldviews.  A worldview can be the same view of the world, if the starting point for knowledge is 100% the same. Even with a small 1% difference, because a worldview gives substantial knowledge about reality, the end result will be significant, and thus, different views about reality.

Also, I noticed something with Catholics that I also noticed with Reformed traditions, and that is, the arguments are mostly centered on men. My experience with Catholics and Reformed traditions is like Vincent Cheung’s essay, “Blinded by Atheism.” After their arguments, I am left saying to myself, “Where did God go? God is my defining foundation for reality, epistemology, salvation, praises and ethics, but in all your arguments, God isn’t there.”

 It is all about men. The Catholics and Reformed share this in common, they are a religion of men, focused on men.