My friend the catholic

Heated conversation yesterday with a friend. He is a moderate catholic. I guess he would say a progressive catholic. But in this case I would add a not very involved catholic. He does not go to church, not event at Christmas. I did lent (as a challenge and because I love ritual), he barely followed me by not eating pizza. He have read the bible up to babel tower. He claims to love Christ message but does not seem to remember most of the new testament. He did not even know who that Paul guy was - he thought I was talking about one of the gospel, the one according to Paul.

In every aspect of his life he claims to be progressive: for gay rights, for women equality, agains racism and discrimination, for social programs, etc.

What bothers me is that he thinks his values are directly from the bible - or at least from Jesus teaching - and does not credit humanism by itself. He does know that humanism played an important role in shaping the world as we know it, yet he does not acknowledge the fact that humanism is a way of thinking that was developped against religion not in continuation.

Another thing that botters me, is the obvious I pick what I like. If there are very good and inspiring christian that claims that their faith made them be good, then it is a case for catholism. Yet, the opposite does not stand. Bringing atrocius case done in the name of faith does not hold against catholicism. He sais something along the fact that if someone claims to be good because of his religion, he will not judge that. So he would not listen to my claim that good people do good thing and the fact that they are religious has nothing to do with it. He seems to believe the ludicrous theory that some prisonner finds God in jail and thus turns themselve into good beings. Maybe I should force him to watch Clockwork Orange again. Beside, what are the evidences for this claim? Is there a serious study that shows that faith turns vilain into honnest citizen?

Islam serves as the worst case scenario in terms of religion and for some reason that makes catholicism better - I do have that argument with another of my friends who is pretty much involved in "fighting" islam. The problem is not that islam is worst, the problem is any ideology that claims truth without evidence and that despise critical thinking.

The best part of our argument was when he said I should ask for an official apostasy from the church. I tried to explain to him that I would not bother. That would give them credit. I don't acknowledge my membership. It was put on me without my consent hence it is de facto invalid. I was a minor when they made us confirm our faith. As an adult, I never claimed to belong to this club and therefore I don't.

Am I arrogant? Why is it arrogant to ask a catholic to explain why he associate with a group that is in such obvious contradiction with most of his value (equality between sex, gay rights, etc.)? In the end, I was sarcastic telling him that obviously he knew the real catholic message and all of those who upheld other value had read it wrong - at least they had read it...

I think we must fight this. So call moderate christian have to stop thinking the bible is the source of moral value. They have to realize they are glamourizing a book that has no real value.