Catholicism is more morally admirable than Protestantism

ONE: My opponent first criticizes me for talking about the consistency between belief and action, but then he does the eact same thing: "Don't we admire people who say "I am against killing" and then do not kill? Don't we admire people who say "I am against stealing" and do not ever steal?" In any case, fanatical, unquestionable belief in a principle is not good. There are scenarios where stealing would be the right thing to do, there are scenarios where killing another human being would be the right thing to do. Closing yourself to those scenarios and claiming that on a fundamental level these things cannot be done ever, that there are no circumstances under which they should be done - that is not morally admirable. That is simply ignorant and closed-minded. For example, if your children are starving and the only way to feed them is to steal, stealing is very much justified. And, perhaps, if a member of society blows up a schoolbus, it is morally right for society to end that person's life. That is another debate - the important thing is, Protestantism allows its followers to examine the pros and cons and come to whichever decision, whereas Catholicism has decided that if killing is ever wrong, it must therefore ALWAYS be wrong. That may be 'consistent,' but it doesn't follow logically. Everything is not black and white - there is plenty of grey out there. To weigh each scenario on its own, and then to follow the best course of action - that is morally admirable. TWO: While it's true that Catholicism tells people to do good works, it does this by bribing people with some reward. That's not morally admirable. Even so, I have admitted that it isn't all bad - that the increased amount of good works is indeed morally admirable. However, Catholicism does not encourage good works very much more than other Christian sects. No Christian sects tell believers to just act however they want - however, they don't try holding eternal wrath over people's heads to force them into behaving well. While Catholicism has an advantage on the good works it gets people to do, that advantage is ever so slight and is counterbalanced by the fact that bribery is used to make people 'act' moral against their own nature. THREE: Protestantism does not preach extreme individualism. It simply does not put AS MUCH focus on listening to whatever your community (church) wants you to do. Both Catholicism and Protestantism are community-based, just Protestantism is a bit less extreme about it. My opponent paints Protestantism as some self-worship cult, an assertion that is completely unfounded and entirely false. ONE #2: My opponent and I largely agree here. I know that Pastors are given undue authority as well, just not as much as the Pope and other Catholic clergymen (clergy is not seen to have much power in Protestant religions, largely due to the larger focus on actual people and the smaller focus on the church itself). But yes, the advantage Protestantism holds here is slight. TWO #2: I'll concede that my point here was largely irrelevant - though I do have to say one last thing on this point. The real moral qualms that Protestants had were the abuses of power in the Catholic church (like the sale of indulgences and the exclusive preaching in Latin to the detriment of the people). While I admit that those individual things are not part of the religion of Catholicism, they were made possible because Catholicism places so much authority in the Church and its clergy. If Church officials have too much power, they will be more likely to abuse it, especially if everyone's a greedy person on the inside like my opponent says. Protestantism does not give the church major authority over individuals - the power is largely seen to be in the hands of those individuals and in the hands of God (though, admittedly, Protestant officials do have some level of power, just not enough to do very much damage). This point (and the one about the Catholic clergy vs. Protestant church officials) really just augments the other point about individualism vs. community (church). THREE #2: Ah, yes, my opponent goes back to the point about consistency. The seven sacraments, part of the ritualistic nature of Catholicism, are based on the bible. Note that this does not make them morally admirable, it just makes them based on the bible (Ex.: all sorts of immoral rules in Leviticus). This is also true of Prayer. Yes, Catholicism and Protestantism both say that prayer is effective, but studies have time and time again showed that this is not the case. By praying, people are given a sense that they've somehow done something good when they actually haven't. I agree that this is a problem for both Protestantism and Catholicism, but it is moreso for Catholicism, where there is a much larger focus placed on prayer. I will concede that many other ritualistic parts of Catholicism aren't really all that harmful, though some other rituals do discourage secular thinking. It's not a very large effect, and probably not even worth discussing or considering here. But I do hold that focus on prayer is harmful, since it makes people think they're being helpful when they're really just wasting time they could have spent actually being helpful.