Okay done
You wrote a lot. Let me say first I wasnt raised Catholic. I converted four years ago and stopped practicing formally about a year and a half. I understand why many protestants feel about the church given i see it objectively too. I also see were they misinterpret either by lack of experience or knowlege from a catholic perspective rather than history. Ill put my comments in parenthesis.
You said:
I will not accept the word of men over the word of God. Nothing taught as additional to scripture after the close of the Bible canon can be trusted IMO.
(Catholicsm is both on sacred tradition and sacred scripture. I cant say they added just a lot if things they have are based on the Bible. Praying to statues and using beads are two of the silliest objections against the Church.)
People will do what they are raised to do. There is no Rosary in the Bible, no prayer beads of any description, no repetitious prayers that are recited by rote in the NT....
(Since I was not raised to pray the rosary I have a different and considently agreeing take on the Rosary as Catholics do. When you take deovotional methods away youeave any christian not just catholic with a sense of emptiness. They dont depend o the rosary. They ae just beads that help in prayer. I can take a teddy bear and do the same. Prayers go to God, not the beads and not the bear. God does not want christians to "idolize" these items. Catholicm does not teach that.)
(Alsoo i didnt know about the asian catholic mix. Catholics sre not using the same beads and prayers as buddhist. The tool is the same the method differs.)
You will not find belief in an afterlife taught in any part of the Bible. The ancient Jews had no afterlife recorded in their scriptures and neither did the Christians. The only way to gain everlasting life was by means of a resurrection. All were to sleep in death until Christ returned to take the first group to heaven. These will reign with Christ as "kings and priests" and they are resurrected "first". (Rev 20:6)
(Gosh that takes out all christians who believe in heaven and hell.)
You will only see death and resurrection in the scriptures as both the beliefs of the ancient Jews and also the first Christians.were the same on this subject. There is no immortal soul taught in the Bible.
When Jesus was told that his friend Lazarus was gravely ill, he delayed his departure for days. Please read his conversation with his apostles when he left to go to Bethany. (John 11) Where did Jesus say Lazarus was?
And yet that is what you just said. (quoted above) You said you 'pray to your grandmother and to Mary'?
(Yes i pray to my grandmothers now. I prayed to Mary because I was rased by my Mother and I knew more about Christ through her. That was in the past.)
Life after death is not just a Catholic belief. Protestants too believe in an immortal soul. Since this is not a Bible teaching, both must have adopted it from the Greeks, which is where they heard it.
(That would mean Jesus had no spirit. Since I and catholics believe we have souls/spirits they--not me--believe that thy will be resurrected like Jesus. Without a soul how is one resurrected?)
Prayer and how to say it are taught by Jesus himself....no Rosary was mentioned. Since there were no images at all used in either Christian or Jewish worship, the "making" of any image of anything is contrary to God's law.
(It was not used that does not make it contradictory. God said so not make imagies of me and do not worship images as id they are me. Catholics do not do that. If they did theyd be disobeying their own bibkr and catechism)
Or a lumping of those who do not follow the teachings of the Christ.
Catholics are only one part of Christendom.
If my child repeated that phrase over and over, no matter how much I loved him I would still dong him on the head for boring me to death with something he couldn't be bothered putting in his own words.
Conversation is only meaningful when it comes from the heart, not from meaningless repetition of the mind. How lazy!
(You are speaking for God here. Also Catholics are putting meaningfulness in their prayers. You are judging a catholic persons devotion based on beads...im speechless)
That is not all they are obscuring. Jesus said to "pray this way" not "pray this prayer".
(My mistake)
You have been taught that, but we all know that it isn't true.
(I was not taught that. A lot of catholic devotion is common sense. Scripture and catechism backs it up well.)
Catholics say they "venerate" their images, which can be expressed by bowing or praying before them or kissing them. It isn't hard to find pictures of people doing that. But what does it mean to venerate something or someone?
(Venerate...I put someone at high esteem like my family, friends, It is humble to venerate someone you dont know. Its not worship)
This is the Thesaurus definition.... (of course you know all of these are dont have to fit together to be considered veneration?)
It's in there, just hiding.
If we follow the principles of the Ten Commandments, we would not "make" an image of "anything" to use in our worship. There were to be no religious images at all, not even a cross. Imagine if Jesus was hanged...would you have a replica of a gallows in your church with Jesus hanging from the rope?
The Bible itself condemn the use of any image.....period.
(So youre saying Catholics are disobeying their own bible and catechism?)
From what I can see, yes.
I do not see parades of idols through he streets or the kissing of images or the bowing before them except in pagan religions...can you find any Christian doing that in the Bible?
(Again you are saying everything a christian does is wrong unless it is "literally" in the Bible. Catholics do not believe in sola scriptura.
I never bow bow in worship to anyone. To me bowing in many cultures is respect. The further one bows the higher the rest..normally for elders and religous seniors.
All of these outside things make you think Catholics are idolizing. Its wrong. I dont know another way to say it.
QUOTE="JayJayDee, post: 4154435, member: 41110"]Ancient mother worship....pick Mary.
Sun worship is indicated by the halo.
View attachment 7647 View attachment 7648
pics mother worship - Google Search
Pagan trinities.
pics mother worship - Google Search[/QUOTE]