Joshua, my eldest son, is a thoughtful child. After having a meal this week, he asked, “Dad, how is Catholicism different from Protestantism?” Then there was a long conversation. “I think the biggest difference is freedom. At that time, Catholicism was centered around a pope and priests, and people were ignorant to a point that they thought they would be saved if they participated in a ceremony – ignorant enough to believe in “exoneration,” a paper that allows you and those who are already dead to go to heaven.”
“Was there no Bible at the time?”
“There was only Latin in the Bible, and some of priests did not know the meaning but memorized it like a spell to guide worship. So, Martin Luther translated the Bible into German for the first time. Before that there were attempts to translate the Bible into other languages, but those who attempted were burnt at the stake. However, at the time of Luther, the Bible could go to hands of many people, thanks of invention of printing technology. Within Catholicism, people tried to kill Luther who wanted a reform, and as many of the feudal lords who had their own armies started to help Luther, conflicts further rose and led to the start of Protestantism.”
“Although people often accuse religions of causing wars, because Protestantism won the long battle between Protestants and Catholics that lasted in Europe for 30 years, Europe became a society where individuals can work freely and vote for rulers, from a society where everything was controlled by a few people in all areas of politics, economy, and religion. Thanks to that, Europe became well-off, and the Protestants moved to America to make the United States what it is now. Next were Japan and Korea, which accepted such culture only in Asia and became so well-off. In the end, Jesus is not just a man who sends us to heaven, but a man who has saved many people from poverty and dictatorship in the world and has given freedom to each individual. So, it is really great to believe in Jesus.”
In addition, comparing other religions that he learned from school, Joshua said Christianity seems to be really right. His logic was that, unlike Christianity, which has been passed down throughout the history of a country called Israel, Islam, which relies only on the mouth of Mohammed, and Hinduism, which believes in a god who accidentally cut his son’s head because he did not recognize his son and replaced it with a head of elephant, do not seem to be divine.
In addition, he asked about the existence of aliens. I answered: given God’s salvation plan to make people his own and only children, it is clear that all creation is centered around humans. Therefore, it is not right to follow aliens that have developed into religions wishing for extraterrestrial saviors. Then, as we moved to discussions on topics like Big Bang and Evolutionism, I told Joshua that as the Bible focuses on “who” created the world because it is a book of what is needed for our salvation, and as science focuses on “how” the world is created, there is no conflict between the two. However, as many of those theories are still based on speculation, we will wait and see, and as for those facts that are clearly revealed, like the earth circling around the sun, we can accept them as a way God created the world.
After this conversation, Joshua brought a comic book featuring Luther and reviewed the conversation. Although those were difficult topics, it was good to have a serious conversation with my son. Our beliefs are very rational and logical.
