Am I still Catholic? (part 1)

08/31/20 - In an attempt to answer “what does it mean to be Catholic?” and “am I still Catholic?” I am putting down the tenants of the catholic creeds and my explanation of it, as I see things now. In this part one, I am explaining the words and meaning of the “Apostle’s Creed” since it is the older and first written creed of the Catholic Church. For the purposes of this essay, the term “alien” implies anything that is not human. Alien could be a literal alien from another planet, another time, a parallel universe or a human from the future. An alien could also be “energy” from a higher level of existence somewhere between where we dwell on Earth and where we end up in Heaven. Also, Heaven is the final resting place of our human souls but is not a physical place. It is another level of existence which is anywhere that is not Earth. Finally, I refer to the Creator of the universes and everything within, as God and as a “he”, although gender is non-existent to the Creator.

MY CREED, PART ONE.

I. APOSTLES' CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, Yes. I believe that something (someone) outside of the human space-time continuum created everything and everyone on our planet and in our universe.

and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Yes. An alien was sent by God and came to this earth and took human form. This alien was either conceived by another alien and Mary, or just entered the body of Mary without the act of human on human procreation. Mary could also have been an alien but either way, Jesus was sent from God to take human form. Joseph was, most likely, a complete human but could have also been an alien. The “virgin” part could mean that Mary did not experience “human on human” sex or, as mentioned, the alien just entered her body.

suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; Yes. Jesus did “suffer” in his human body, was crucified and was buried.

he descended into hell; Yes. There is no way to know where Jesus went during the time his body was in the tomb. Descending to a lower level of existence to grab some souls and bring them up to higher levels is a plausible explanation. He could have also went to other planets/places and visited.

on the third day he rose again from the dead; Yes. On the third day his body was buried, it rose up again. His physical body was dormant/dead so to humans it would seem that he “came back from the dead” but I’ve always believed that the soul carries on when the physical body stops working. If Jesus was an alien, then he could be outside of human laws of physics and he could re-inhabit his physical body and get back up. Generally, the soul leaves the physical body and moves on towards heaven but why can’t it come back. There is no “proof” that I am aware of that the soul can’t come back.

he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; Yes. He ascended into the skies and went somewhere away from the Earth. Where, exactly, he went is up for debate. He could have gone to another energy level, another level of consciousness, or another physical place. Did he go to “heaven” where the one creator of the universe is? Perhaps, or perhaps he went to a level of existence just below the creator and only the creator is at the final level. As a Catholic I can believe that Jesus went back to Heaven and is next to God. It doesn’t take away from the theory of “levels” of existence. Wherever Jesus went, there is still one final creator that made everything and everyone and Jesus could be a piece of that creator.

from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. Yes, but this statement t assumes that Jesus is sitting up in Heaven and when our bodies die, our souls go in front of him and he sends our soul to heaven or hell. This could be the way it works or not. Either way, when our physical bodies die, our souls go up or down a level of existence. If our souls go up they are closer to Heaven. If they go down they are closer to Hell. The final destination of our souls is either the lowest level of existence (Hell) or the highest level of existence (Heaven). Do our souls go straight to their final Heaven/Hell place after our journey on Earth? Who knows? Reincarnation may be a plausible theory as our souls have to keep “scoring points” like a game until we are done gaining knowledge. Or, our life on Earth is the only journey our soul takes and when we die we go to our final destination. Either way “judge the living and the dead” is a human expression that assumes a body sits in a courtroom and the judge (Jesus) sends our soul to Heaven or Hell. More likely our soul just goes up or down based on the quality of life we lived while on Earth and there is no courtroom style judgment.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, Yes. The Holy Spirit is the “energy” that we feel in our souls. It is our “conscience”. The Holy Spirit is not “physical” and is the energy that pushes our bodies and souls towards good decisions.

the holy catholic Church, Yes, but this is an vague statement. What is “the holy catholic church”? I believe that Jesus lived and preached to mankind and his followers started a “religion” that is called “catholic” now. The problem is that “religion” gets corrupted and the “church” of today is not the “Church” that the followers of Jesus started. However, I still believe that the Catholic Church holds all of the teachings that Jesus taught.

the communion of saints, Yes. Communion, in this statement, means community. To a Catholic, “saint” is referring to those who have died and are in Heaven. So, this statement is “the community of those who have left their bodies and reside with the Creator”. That is exactly what I still believe. The “good” souls of those who leave their bodies do, eventually, get to Heaven.

the forgiveness of sins, Yes. This statement means that, as humans we make mistakes but those mistakes don’t necessarily send our souls down a level when our body dies. If that was the case, our souls would never get back to Heaven. How we get our mistakes forgiven is up for debate amongst all of the human religions. However, the basic is that the Creator erases our mistakes, if he feels we deserve it, so that we can start over on being “good” and going upward.

the resurrection of the body, Yes but not in the physical body sense that most people think. Our physical human bodies will never “rise up” but our souls carry on. At one point our souls will stop their upward journey and will take a final “form”. What that form will be is unknown to humans. Will it be a “body” as we think of bodies now? Or will it be something else? Who knows? Our soul will rise continuously though until it doesn’t. That is the “resurrection” that is mentioned here.

and life everlasting. Yes, of course. This literally means that “life” is everlasting. Our souls never die. Only our bodies do.