Catholicism is more morally admirable than Protestantism

ONE - My mistake there, what I really was trying to get across is that Catholics say they are against killing, and they are actually against it in all situations. There's no qualifying "well it's okay to kill murderers, but not fetuses. " At least they have consistency in their beliefs. You see many Protestants who are against killing fetuses, for killing murderers, and are okay with war. Now, I will concede that sometimes blanket beliefs are a bad thing, true. But take this for example: Let's say Protestants say they are against spending money on defense, but they are okay with spending money on fighter planes, tanks, and missiles. They may try to argue that those things are actually OFFENSE, so it's okay to spend money on it. I feel like we have to cut through B. S. with many Protestant beliefs to figure out what they mean by pro-life, for example, whereas Catholics, if they say they are pro-life, you know they mean it. For your stealing example, not stealing the food = killing, so Catholics would stay consistent in their beliefs in such a way. TWO - Yes, Catholicism does have an advantage in the good works department, but looking at it as 'bribery' is misleading. It is not bribery so much as it is an accurate view of human nature. I mean, come on, how many people are going to commit selfless acts on their own? The very existence of selfless acts is questionable, at best. Catholicism encourages good works by saying people can get into Heaven with them - the net gain is great. Who cares if people are doing it a little bit for themselves in the process? The morally admirable quality is that Catholicism is getting people to do it at all. Taking advantage of human nature in order to promote the welfare and benefit of others is a good thing. THREE - True, it is not some self-worship cult, but its focus on individuality was unseen before its time. Again, not to debate the merits of capitalism, but it led to such things as what we saw on Wall Street recently. The Protestant Work Ethic lead to capitalism and its ideas led us directly into this economic mess we are in right now. (See Max Weber's book, "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. ") Protestant ideas of individualism did not reject wealth and possessions, something other religions, and Christianity in its pure form, looks down upon. Protestantism supported materialism. Again, see Weber's book. It also deified the individual. You talk of the Pope being raised up, but this Protestant individualism deified everyone, taking something away from Christianity as a whole. But this is a smaller point. THREE 2 - Going back to prayer, I doubt that it really wastes that much time to say a few prayers each day. You could spend that time in much worse ways. It only takes a minute out of a day to say several of those prayers, so it is not like some big time-wasting ordeal. But let's make this one a wash, because the ritualism is not harmful or helpful, I think we can both agree. The rituals really don't waste that much time anyway. They don't take hours and hours, so it doesn't have anything to do with an argument of which is more morally admirable. The same with prayer, and especially since both Protestantism and Catholicism focus on prayer. CONCLUSION - Catholicism holds a bit more consistency than Protestantism in its beliefs. If they say they are pro-life, they actually are, not just conditionally pro-life as with many Protestant denominations. They are pro-life when it benefits them and they're okay with death when it benefits them. Catholicism is pro-life even when supporting such a position may not be popular and they cannot be called out on being hypocrites. - Protestantism preached individualism that leads to greed and a want for wealth, very non-Christian ideals. Materialism and want for possessions were okay with Protestant morals. Catholicism does not preach such individualism. - Protestantism's "salvation through faith alone" took away the focus on good works. Catholicism preached faith AND good works to get into Heaven. Catholicism just recognized how humans are and decided that the best way to do the most good for the world would be to have incentives for people to do good deeds. It is morally admirable that they recognized this fact and very morally admirable that they got so many people to focus on doing good deeds in the process. The positive impact Catholicism created through that teaching is quite significant and admirable. These three major points show that Catholicism is more morally admirable than Protestantism. There are various less significant issues in which Protestantism has a slight edge, but these issues are more paramount and Catholicism holds the higher moral standard for all of them. Thank you to my opponent for a great debate. This is one of the better ones I've had here.