Have you ever considered the fact that it is you who doesn't understand, not me? Of course not - who could fathom such a thing.
Everything i believe makes absolute perfect sense to me.
It makes perfect sense to you because you've created your own religion, your particular brand of Catholicism. Your a SoonerATC Catholic and your the only one in existence. How many others Catholic's would share your views on "authentic" popes or who gets into heaven?
I did the same thing when I was a believer. I embraced the things I could agree with, that comforted me, and made sense. Then I discarded the rest. I questioned others whose beliefs were not in step with mine. This continued for years, this compartmentalization of beliefs. I was able to look critically at every other aspect of my life except my beliefs in the supernatural.
I never met an atheist until I was 32 years old. I didn't even fully realize non-belief was a choice. I always had lots of questions but I never had the courage to find the answers. It felt dirty and wrong to read threads like this one, much less to pick up atheist literature or watch Youtube debates. When I did started asking the hard questions things began to unravel quickly.
Ask yourself some hard questions,
If the Bible was the inspired word of god and was meant to instruct humans, then why can't Christians at least, if not the world agree on it?
If Jesus does make himself known to his followers through a relationship, then why is there so much conflict within Christianity about scriptural meaning?
If prayer does work, as some in this thread claim, why doesn't god heal amputees, the sick etc..? Why is belief so strongly influenced by birth location and family? Why does a good god allow so much suffering in the world? Is faith a good thing? Is Christianity good for women? What about all the other gods?
To quote Matt Dillahunty:
"While many Christians claim divine revelation some even claiming that the truth has been revealed to them in such a way that there's no possibility that they could be wrong there's hardly any points of doctrine upon which all these purported conduits of divine revelation agree. Which means that some if not all of them are wrong. And if you want to know what's wrong with Judaism, you ask a Christian. If you want to know what's wrong with Christianity, you ask a Muslim. If you want to know what's wrong with Catholicism, or Protestantism, or Calvinism, Hypercalvinism, Neocalvinism, Southern Baptists, the Church of Christ, or the First Baptist Church of Memphis, you can go to the Second Baptist Church of Memphis or any other denomination."
Take off the glasses and start looking at some things as a skeptic. The last two thousand years of Christian history look suspiciously like the work of people exclusively and not that of a god. The evidence to back up the claims religion makes just aren't there. You'll have to trust me when I tell you that's hard for me to say. I was indoctrinated as a child and giving up a lifetime of belief isn't easy.
I'm glad folks on this forum have been able to have a more or less civil conversation about belief.
I respect each and every one of you who have posted. We can respect each other as humans but still be critical of each other's belief or lack thereof.
All the best!