Beliefs about holy water are internally logical.
Darth_Katie Send a noteboard - 11/06/2011 07:36:08 PM
They are in the Catholic tradition, anyway, which is the only one I have enough knowledge about to talk about.
Of course you have to be in the right frame of mind. If a hobo wanders into a church off the street and takes a bath in the baptismal font, he is not anymore blessed than if he had gone to the homeless shelter and took a shower. In that sense its not "magic water." But it does have power in the sense that it has be specially designated as set aside for use in religious ceremonies as a reminder of baptism and the cleansing power of God. As such, holy water is a potent prayer aid and "prepare[s] us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. ... Sacramentals are sacred signs instituted by the Church. They prepare men to receive the fruit of the sacraments and sanctify different circumstances of life."* The fruit of the Sacraments is Grace, and the the Grace of God is really what drives out demons or heals the sick or what have you.
If you really care, check out the section about sacramentals in the Catechism. Catholicism is all about consistent internal logic. That's what theology is for. I mean, this is the religion with canon lawyers, for goodness sake.
* The quote is from the link, btw.
Honestly, I don't see why you're picking holy water out to have a problem with. In the grand scheme of religion, its a small thing ...
The issue I had with holy water is that, despite whatever justifications people come up with, it is basically treated as "magic water." If you touch it, you are blessed. If you use it in your baptism, that's better than regular water. It can be used to ward off attacks from demons (I'm not being facetious, the idea that holy water can ward off evil is definitely a part of the perception of holy water, even if it's not one that comes up often during a sermon).
Of course you have to be in the right frame of mind. If a hobo wanders into a church off the street and takes a bath in the baptismal font, he is not anymore blessed than if he had gone to the homeless shelter and took a shower. In that sense its not "magic water." But it does have power in the sense that it has be specially designated as set aside for use in religious ceremonies as a reminder of baptism and the cleansing power of God. As such, holy water is a potent prayer aid and "prepare[s] us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. ... Sacramentals are sacred signs instituted by the Church. They prepare men to receive the fruit of the sacraments and sanctify different circumstances of life."* The fruit of the Sacraments is Grace, and the the Grace of God is really what drives out demons or heals the sick or what have you.
If you really care, check out the section about sacramentals in the Catechism. Catholicism is all about consistent internal logic. That's what theology is for. I mean, this is the religion with canon lawyers, for goodness sake.
* The quote is from the link, btw.
Honestly, I don't see why you're picking holy water out to have a problem with. In the grand scheme of religion, its a small thing ...
Insert theme music here.
A question on baptism
- 10/06/2011 09:21:44 AM
900 Views
To my knowledge, baptism does not stem from the Resurrection.
- 10/06/2011 11:01:17 AM
656 Views
What I meant
- 10/06/2011 11:03:08 AM
498 Views
I don't follow.
- 10/06/2011 11:08:07 AM
470 Views
Re: I don't follow.
- 10/06/2011 11:10:40 AM
560 Views
I don't keep up with RC theology much.
- 10/06/2011 11:15:52 AM
454 Views
Re: I don't keep up with RC theology much.
- 10/06/2011 11:17:53 AM
457 Views
They should, IMHO, but the difficulty of definitively saying is why Limbo was created.
- 11/06/2011 10:39:26 AM
541 Views
Re: They should, IMHO, but the difficulty of definitively saying is why Limbo was created.
- 11/06/2011 11:53:53 AM
484 Views
You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 11:50:53 AM
490 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 11:52:27 AM
439 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 11:55:01 AM
491 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 11:58:36 AM
465 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:16:46 PM
608 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:19:16 PM
465 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:25:08 PM
669 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:26:30 PM
666 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:28:45 PM
472 Views
Re: You haven't necessarily developed a wrong impression.
- 10/06/2011 12:29:43 PM
500 Views
Circumcision remains common among Christians mostly for symbolic reasons as well.
- 11/06/2011 10:48:48 AM
545 Views
Hm, I don't know. I don't think I know any non-Jews who are circumsized that see it as a symbol
- 11/06/2011 04:44:02 PM
622 Views
I took a holy dip into the Ganges
- 10/06/2011 11:48:26 AM
561 Views
Early Christians and Jews were obsessed with purity
- 10/06/2011 12:56:58 PM
596 Views
Oh, I know about the historical/academic/anthropological reason
- 10/06/2011 01:04:43 PM
534 Views
A first responce
- 10/06/2011 02:09:32 PM
659 Views
Do you want a theological answer or a historical one?
- 10/06/2011 03:16:44 PM
629 Views
The theological. I already had a fairly good idea of the historical
- 10/06/2011 03:18:51 PM
502 Views
My favorite fact about baptism is that is REQUIRES water... but it can be ANY water
- 10/06/2011 04:31:12 PM
593 Views
That is absurd.
- 10/06/2011 08:37:13 PM
687 Views
It is absurd
- 10/06/2011 08:56:19 PM
499 Views
When your post is eviscerated, resorting to "HURR RELIGION IS DUMB" isn't a winning move.
- 10/06/2011 10:00:39 PM
617 Views
Psh.You can dress it up with spiritualism and semantics, but the concept boils down to "magic water"
- 11/06/2011 03:56:03 AM
443 Views
The point is that it's a symbol.
- 11/06/2011 04:45:19 AM
470 Views
I have no problem with water as a symbol
- 11/06/2011 04:59:52 AM
541 Views
You are totally missing the point.
- 11/06/2011 02:46:08 PM
622 Views
Which again, is something that sounds nice and spiritual, but doesn't actually make any sense
- 11/06/2011 03:46:51 PM
588 Views
your problem is you're trying to apply objective logic to religion
- 11/06/2011 04:13:01 PM
843 Views
I'm not, exactly. Religion has internal logic. For example, certain things are "unclean"
- 11/06/2011 04:40:33 PM
488 Views
Beliefs about holy water are internally logical.
- 11/06/2011 07:36:08 PM
531 Views
Shrug. It was on topic.
- 11/06/2011 08:06:16 PM
812 Views
The more I read of your posts, the more I think you fundamentally misunderstand religious symbolism. *NM*
- 11/06/2011 10:51:17 PM
209 Views
Let me clarify: your statements are absurd.
- 10/06/2011 10:14:06 PM
507 Views
Check my response to Ghav for elaboration, but basically, your argument doesn't hold
- 11/06/2011 04:00:18 AM
489 Views
You went from saying spit was good to saying "clean water".
- 12/06/2011 02:04:26 AM
433 Views
I'm completely consistent. I was just staying away from extremes for conversation's sake.
- 12/06/2011 09:02:02 AM
470 Views
No one from a respectable faith thinks of holy water as "magic water". Period. *NM*
- 13/06/2011 04:56:53 AM
196 Views
All I know, Is a Lutheran Pastor told me, b/c i was not baptised I was going to hell, and had *NM*
- 11/06/2011 03:44:38 PM
187 Views
I never thought of it in that way, that is why I like this site 
*NM*
- 12/06/2011 04:26:40 PM
229 Views
*NM*
- 12/06/2011 04:26:40 PM
229 Views