Is the Roman Catholic Church definitely or at least probably the true Church just because it is the largest Church?

Lots of people reason that when a religion is very big that it must be true. The Catholic Church is no exception. Many of its teachings were made binding because the majority in the Church believed them. This attitude that might means right is fallacious for a few simple reasons.

One, the majority is not always right. Phone-poll results prove it. Most of the people who have ever walked the earth have never been believers in the Catholic Church. Paganism which had many different forms but which agreed on essentials has been the world’s largest religion.

There are certainly more Buddhists than Catholics.  That is organised Buddhism but what about solitary and private believers?  It is not just about religious faith and what about political faith?  Socialists in one form or another have always existed and been more numerous than Catholics.  Even Catholicism argues that there could be more people who somehow believe its faith than there are Catholics.  The other side of that is that there are people who are in the Church who have not met the criteria of being Catholic.  And Church teaching is that being Catholic is useless if there is no love for God and neighbour. 

Astrology is never considered a religion by the media.  It actually is even if it is a loose one.  Some schools are very dogmatic.  Yet belief in the stars has always been stronger than belief in a Abrahamic style God. If a pie chart represented all the faith there is now and has been for millions of years, faith you would find that the God slice is hard to see while the astrology one is the largest one of all.  It was because of the stars being seen as conveyors of good and bad luck and some kind of grace that helps you in a bad time that people were easily able to switch to a God who does much the same thing. 

We know how forces and energies can target the body and this in time influences our minds.  For example, a reaction to food can affect your brain - a person who hits their children may stop if they improve their diet.  Even if nothing directly programs you, it can do it that way.  It was because of the stars having the power to send energy that controls your body and put influences in your life and even in your food that people wanted to know what the stars were "planning" or had "planned" for them.  This was also translated unto a God.  Now instead of checking a chart to see what was coming for you, you settled for simply seeing that God would care for you despite you not having the details.  That is an irrelevant difference.

The "big therefore probably true" argument supposes that people devote themselves to religion because they sense that it is true.  That is completely wrong.  They have to know that there is no probably here.  The word probably is used too liberally.  "Big therefore possibly true" is useless for possibilities do not count.  You cannot go to an underground shelter to live just because a meteorite might hit you. 

 We all like to trick ourselves. We do it in the love of fitting into society and for the love of success. It relieves the distress from realising we do not know as much as we want to think.  We sense that not knowing things is harmful for the truth is not about us and does not care what our beliefs or opinions are. 

Just imagine how much more likely we would be to engineer a self-deceiving mind-set for religion!  It even makes us feel stronger when our lies to ourselves spread to others and draw them in.

Two, the majority is not always the majority. Religion would be happy to say that there are a lot of insincere religionists about. Many of the people who support Catholic policy are only Catholics on a Sunday and put Devil-worshippers to shame the rest of the week. Many like to feel Catholic though they do not sincerely think Catholic. Many times I have forgotten that I am not a Catholic and stood up for the pope and the teaching of the Church. I feel a temptation to pretend to myself to be a Catholic. All who are born into religion are conditioned to enjoy it to some extent.

According to a 1989 American poll a quarter of the American Catholic Church denies life after death and 46 % asserted that they have no Christian faith or belief in the resurrection of Christ when they said that no one could avoid being agnostic on life after death. Nearly half of all French and Italian Catholics reject the resurrection of Christ and 77% reject the dogma of eternal punishment. This means that most Catholics do not believe in the Church. If the poll asked about other awkward doctrines would we find that only a handful claim to be submissive to Rome’s “unerring” decrees.

Roman Catholicism is quite a small religion. The counterfeit variety prevails. When you are talking about Roman Catholicism you mean the teaching system that is loyal to what it says is divine revelation. But only a miniscule number who are mainly clergy really understand and could possibly claim to support that system entirely. It is foolish to argue then that Roman Catholicism’s size has anything to do with verifying its claims.

Think of the total number of people who followed the old-style paganism with gods of rain and goddess of this and that and their sacrifices and oracles. The names and myths – which were not literally true anyway - might have been different but the main religious principles were the same. Your are talking about nearly the whole world being pagan.

If the Catholic Church is the true religion the Catholicism of Rome is certainly not the true Catholic Church.

BOOKS CONSULTED
A GREAT LEGACY, Rev RJ Coates, Irish Church Mission, Dublin
A PATH FROM ROME, Anthony Kenny Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1985
A ROMAN CATECHISM WITH A REPLY THERETO, John Wesley Protestant Truth Society, London
A WOMAN RIDES THE BEAST, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1994
ALL ONE BODY – WHY DON’T WE AGREE? Erwin W Lutzer, Tyndale, Illinois, 1989
AN ACCOUNT OF ARCHBISHOP JAMES USHER 1581-1656, ND Emerson MA PhD, Townsend Street, Dublin
APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION, James Heron, Outlook Press, Belfast
BIBLICAL EXEGESIS AND CHURCH DOCTRINE, Raymond E Brown, Paulist Press, New York, 1985
BUT THE BIBLE DOES NOT SAY SO, Rev Roberto Nisbet, Church Book Room Press, London 1966
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Veritas, Dublin, 1995
CATHOLICISM, Richard P McBrien, HarperSanFrancisco, New York, 1994
CATHOLICISM AND CHRISTIANITY, Cecil John Cadoux, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1928
CATHOLICISM AND FUNDAMENTALISM, Karl Keating, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1988
CHRISTIANS GUIDE TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM, Bill Jackson, Colonial Baptist Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1988
CITY OF GOD, St Augustine, Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1986
DAWN OR TWILIGHT? HM Carson, IVP, Leicester, 1976
DEAR CATHOLIC FRIEND, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1989
DIFFICULTIES, Mgr Ronald Knox and Sir Arnold Lunn, Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1958
DOCUMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, edited by Henry Bettenson, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979
ENCHIRIDION SYMBOLORUM ET DEFINITIONUM, Heinrich Joseph Denzinger, Edited by A Schonmetzer, Barcelona, 1963
EVANGELICAL CATHOLICS A NEW PHENOMENON, Stanley Mawhinney, Christian Ministries Incorporated, Dundrum, Dublin, 1992
FUTURIST OR HISTORICIST? Basil C Mowll, Protestant Truth Society, London
HANDBOOK TO THE CONTROVERSY WITH ROME, Karl Von Hase, Vols 1 and 2, The Religious Tract Society, London, 1906
HOW SURE ARE THE FOUNDATIONS? Colin Badger, Wayside Press, Canada
HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR VOCATION IN LIFE, Thomas Artz C.SS.R, Liguori Publications, Missouri, 1976
INFALLIBILITY IN THE CHURCH, Patrick Crowley, CTS, London, 1982
IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH A BIBLE CHURCH? John Hamrogue, C.SS.R, Liguori, Missouri, 1983
IS THERE SALVATION OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? Fr J Bainvel SJ, TAN, Illiniois, 1979
JESUS HYPOTHESES, V Messori, St Paul Publications, England, 1975
LETTERS TO A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, H A Ironside, Loizeaux Brothers, New Jersey, 1982
LION CONCISE BOOK OF CHRISTIAN THOUGHT, Tony Lane, Lion, Herts, 1984
LIVING IN CHRIST, A Dreze SJ, Geoffrey Chapman, London-Melbourne 1969  
LOOK! THE DOUAY BIBLE AGAINST ROME, Connellan Mission, Dublin
MORAL PHILOSOPHY, Joseph Rickaby SJ, Stonyhurst Philosophy Series, Longmans, Green and Co, London, 1912
NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, The Catholic University of America and the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, 1967
ON BEING A CHRISTIAN, Hans Kung, Translated by Edward Quinn, Collins, Fount Paperbacks, Glasgow, 1978
OUGHT I TO SEND MY CHILD TO A CONVENT SCHOOL? Rev Walter H Denbow, Protestant Truth Society, London, 1969
ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS, Charles Gore MA, Longmans, London, 1894
ROMAN CATHOLIC OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, Rev H O Lindsay, John T Drought Ltd, Dublin
ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHING CONTRASTED WITH BIBLE TEACHING, Bernard Burt, The Bible Student Press, Coventry
ROMAN CATHOLICISM TESTED BY THE SCRIPTURES, John A Coleman, New Litho Pty. Ltd, Victoria, 1987
ROMAN CATHOLICISM WHAT IS FINAL AUTHORITY? Harold J Berry, Back to the Bible, Nebraska, 1974
ROMAN CATHOLICISM, Lorraine Boettner, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, NJ, 1962
ROMANISM AT VARIANCE WITH THE BIBLE, Rev James Gardner, Protestant Truth Society, London, 1987
ROME HAS SPOKEN, A GUIDE TO FORGOTTEN PAPAL STATEMENTS AND HOW THEY HAVE CHANGED THROUGH THE CENTURIES, Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben (Editors), Crossroad Publishing, New York, 1998
ROME THE GREAT PRIVATE INTERPRETATOR, Peter S Ruckman Penascola Bible Press, Palatka, Florida, 1969
SALVATION, THE BIBLE AND ROMAN CATHOLICISM, William Webster, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh, 1990
SECRETS OF ROMANISM, Joseph Zacchello, Loizeaux Brothers, New Jersey, 1984
THE ADVANCE OF ROMANISM, S M Houghton, Cotswold Bible Witness, 1964
THE BIBLE OR THE CHURCH? Ken Camplin, Printland Publishers, India, 1996
THE BIBLE REFUTES ROMANISM Philip H Rand Protestant Truth Society, London
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS THE ANSWER, Paul Whitcomb TAN, Illinois, 1986
THE CHURCH AND INFALLIBILITY, BC Butler, The Catholic Book Club, London, undated
THE CHURCH OF ROME AND THE WORD OF GOD, Rev Eric C Last, Protestant Truth Society, London
THE DEVELOPMENTS OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM, John A Bain MA, Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, Edinburgh and London, undated
THE EARLY CHURCH, Henry Chadwick, Pelican, Middlesex, 1987
THE GREAT MEANS OF SALVATION AND OF PERFECTION, St Alphonsus De Ligouri, Redemptorist Fathers, Brooklyn, 1988
THE MOTHER OF GOD AND OUR INTERIOR LIFE, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, TAN, Illinois, 1993
THE PRIMITIVE FAITH AND ROMAN CATHOLIC DEVELOPMENTS, Rev John A F Gregg BD, APCK, Dublin, 1928
THE RICHES OF ROME AND THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST Robert D Browne, Protestant Truth Society, London
THE STUDENT’S CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, Rev Charles Hart BA, Burns & Oates, London, 1961
THE TRUE CHURCH AND THE FALSE, The National Union of Protestants, Suffolk
THE VATICAN PAPERS, Nino Lo Bello, New English Library, Kent, 1982
TRADITIONAL DOCTRINES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH EXAMINED, Rev CCJ Butlin, Protestant Truth Society, London
TREASURES FROM GOD’S STOREHOUSE, Dr Bill Jackson, Colonial Baptist Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1991
VICARS OF CHRIST, Peter De Rosa, Corgi Books, London, 1993
WHAT HAPPENED! Francisco Lacueva, Evangelical Protestant Society, Belfast
WHY BE A CATHOLIC? Fr David Jones OP, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1996
WHY I AM NOT A ROMAN CATHOLIC, Rev Canon McCormick DD, Protestant Truth Society, London, 1968
YOU CAN LEAD ROMAN CATHOLICS TO CHRIST, Wilson Ewin, New England Mission, Nashua 1980

BIBLE VERSION USED
The Amplified Bible

THE WWW
The Anti-Catholic Bible
www.catholic.com/library/The_Anti_Catholic_Bible.asp
Christians versus the Lies of Catholicism
www.cephasministry.com