The Connections Project

Catholicism

Catholicism is a direct descendant of Judaism. Jesus basically hijacked the Jewish holy writings, claiming to be the savior prophesied in the Torah. After his martyrdom, he left a cult of radical devotees. At first, they lived in hiding, but eventually the religion was co-opted by the Roman Empire (who wasted no time twisting it to fit their own agenda). This led to the establishment of the Papacy and Catholicism in general.

The biggest difference between Judaism and Catholicism is the differing opinion about the Jewish savior. Catholics believe that the prophesies were fulfilled by Jesus, whereas Judaism holds that the savior has not yet come. Catholics worship Jesus and his mother Mary, whereas Jews worship God directly.

There is a large overlap between the two religions' holy literature.

Protestantism is a direct descendant of Catholicism. It arose when heretical Catholics rejected many of the Catholic doctrines. In principle, Protestantism is a lot more humanist and liberal than its mother religion. In theory, there is no privileged protestant with greater access to God than others (whereas Catholic priests are privileged). The Church is theoretically quite optional in protestantism. The protestant needn't attend mass or confession, being himself a priest just by virtue of believing in the religion. Of course, in practice, the modern protestant has strayed from these forming principles, thus the rise of megachurches and famous pastors.

A key difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is the worship of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Catholics worship Her, whereas protestants hold such worship to be idolatry, a deadly sin.

The relation between Shinto and Catholicism depends largely on one's interpretation of Shinto. The confusion rises from the fact that the Japanese word for "god" can also mean "spirit". Thus, Shintoism can be viewed either as a polytheistic paganistic religion, or as a spiritualistic philosophy. The former is radically, violently at odds with Catholicism, whereas the latter is perfectly compatible.

The only similarity between Buddhism and Catholicism is the institution of Monkhood. The two religions share having monks, but otherwise there is almost no similarity.

The two religious are jealous siblings. Both are born of Judaism, but they have a long bloody history of conflict between them. Catholicism extended Judaism with Jesus + The Pope; Islam extended Judaism with Jesus + The Prophet Muhammad.