Religion

[TehCthulhu]

Oh.... I was just wondering some stuff about Catholicism, and how it differs from Pentacostals. There's bad rumors about both in their own respective sects. Ex: 'Catholics are idol worshipers - they pray to people instead of God!' or 'Pentacostals always just put up a show with the speaking in toungues - it's all giberish!'
But, then again, I can see how this could escalate...

The Saints are viewed as a conduit to God: if you have a problem for which there is a patron saint you pray to the saint asking them to pray to God on your behalf, you don't ask them to come down and do anything personally, you just ask for their help in asking for help.

I think (this is mostly my opinion, but let me know what you think) the saints, as they are, are a relic taken from polytheistic religions as Catholicism was spreading to pagan Europe. The newer branches of Christianity have gotten rid of most of the pagan traditions that the early church took on, but Catholicism retains quite a few. Also worth mentioning is when, in the Dark Ages, sainthood (like many things within the church) was something that could simply be purchased. I assume this cemented the Saints as an integral part of the religion because it was such a large source of wealth at the time.