Gianluca DeRossi
RELS 255-01
February 23, 2015

My Perception of Catholicism I have a distinct perception on Catholicism, which happens to be rather negative. Note that the things I say in this paper are not fact, but rather what I perceive of the religious interpretation of Catholicism. This negative view I have towards this religion is not based on the teachings, stories, or message it is trying to convey, but rather the persons who exercise their belief by imposing Catholicism on to others. A good example of this would be pretty much my entire family on my mothers side. People who I share blood with have looked down upon me because I do not exercise religious freedom in congruence to them. This negative view I have is directed toward any person who thinks their belief is sounder than another and displays negative confliction towards anyone who thinks otherwise. Who is anyone to tell another what to think, how they were created, what is to happen to themselves when they perish? For the most part I respect all religions, along with the moral aspects they try to teach, but extremists give me a negative vibe on what religion, especially Catholicism, is about. As a young boy my aunt gave me a book, it was a children’s bible. This book helped shaped my knowledge on what Catholicism actually is. Even to this day when my subordinates talk about religious text, the pictures from that children’s bible appears in my mind. In retrospect I absolutely hated going to church, I disliked how we had to constantly kneel, sit, and stand. I would never pay attention to what the priest was saying, or made an effort to sing the songs, mainly because I thought the people who worked for the church were mean. Most people who went to the church I saw as mean. How do you force a kid to sit there and do nothing? To me it was cruel and unusual punishment. But that one book is the outcome of any positivity I hold towards this religion. I was scared of the outside world, what happens when I die? The children’s bible eased my mind claiming we are all children of god and we all go to heaven. The book never had anything about hell or the devil in it, as any children’s book should. I wish the actual bible were written as this picture book, it seems people practice faith out of fear rather than inspiration. Which leads back to my thesis of why I hold a negative view of Catholicism in the first place. I believe people think that by converting their own and others to their faith then that will increase their chances of getting into heaven or paradise. I do not like being told what to do or how to live my life, and I especially do not like to be told how to think or what to believe. I pick and chose what I feel is viable in religion and form my own basis on why we are here. I cannot believe a single entity created everything in a perfect form, which happens to be a human. This notion is unbelievable, especially since space is relatively infinite. How can humans, an imperfect species of violence be the “perfect” species formed by a deity whom him/herself takes the image of human? It’s logically unsound and self-contradictory. Thanks to my grandmother, I was forced to attend a religion class every Tuesday. For one hour a week I had to devote my time to learning about Catholic faith with a group of other kids around my age who suffered the same fate of being forced to read religion text so we all could participate in making our communion. Till this day I am not entirely sure why I did my communion. Nearly everything in that class went right over my head. The Holy Eucharist, Blood of Christ, and the Ten Commandments, I found all of these terms boring and meaningless. Being the second grader that I was I could think of about a million more things I would rather be doing then sitting there in that class. Although every once in a while my religion teacher would tell us a story. The stories such a Noah’s Ark, Adam and Eve, and Joseph and the rainbow colored