re: #11 jc717

Catholics can make their own rules about this stuff. They can consider a card trick to be a miracle for all I care (SNL). I always thought that the whole saints idea made Catholicism into a polytheistic religion.

True, but what major religion isn’t somewhat polytheistic? Even Islam has Djinn and Angels, immortal beings of great power (a.k.a. “demigods”). Those aside, even “Prophets” are imbued with hints of divine power. Take away the polytheistic vestiges and you’re left with a religion centered only around God, with no earthly incarnations of His power, and thus no messengers with the authority to deliver “divine laws” with which to control masses of people.