The idea in the Catholic faith is that the dead watch the living and plead with God on the living’s behalf. Therefore, if a miracle happens after a person has prayed to a potential Saint, that Saint may be attributed with that miracle (for the proposes of sainthood).
Wow that is pagan as hell. I never quite realized it but when you put it that way it’s really interesting how similar Catholicism is to East Asian religions (my point of comparison is Shinto, but if I’m not mistaken these aspects aren’t unique to it). The dead looking over and protecting the living, being able to deify and worship dead people of note and of course rigid priest hierarchies. I wonder if there’s an anthropological or otherwise scientific reason for this.
I think your statements about paganism is what the Protestant branch of Christianity would say as well.
Another slightly unrelated anecdote: I once heard from a former priest that Catholics pray to the saints because they can’t believe that a father (male-like God figure) could be compassionate and would care about their troubles. I don’t know if that’s true, but I think it’s an indictment of men as fathers in general :/
Wow that is pagan as hell. I never quite realized it but when you put it that way it’s really interesting how similar Catholicism is to East Asian religions (my point of comparison is Shinto, but if I’m not mistaken these aspects aren’t unique to it). The dead looking over and protecting the living, being able to deify and worship dead people of note and of course rigid priest hierarchies. I wonder if there’s an anthropological or otherwise scientific reason for this.
I think your statements about paganism is what the Protestant branch of Christianity would say as well.
Another slightly unrelated anecdote: I once heard from a former priest that Catholics pray to the saints because they can’t believe that a father (male-like God figure) could be compassionate and would care about their troubles. I don’t know if that’s true, but I think it’s an indictment of men as fathers in general :/