If you cannot leave the Catholic Church, then their numbers are OVERINFLATED

[zipplewrath]

10. In some senses, any number would be "over inflated"

Even amongst the "faithful", there aren't many "devout" catholics. Heck, amongst the CLERGY their aren't really a totality of "devout".

Get involved in any church, and the vast majority are there for the sense of community. It gives them something, a sense of beloning, a moral framework in which to work, a moral code to teach their children. Tremendous numbers of catholics haven't studied their theology in decades, and don't remember much of what they were taugh, if they ever knew it.

The numbers of clergy who currently have a "crisis of faith" might surprise many. They go through the motions for roughly the same reasons many of us do, "cause it's their job". But no parish priest could stand there, look out at his parish, and not notice that the famlies are small, the divorces are numerous, and there is rampant ignorance of theology.

This country, culturally, was headed towards deism at it's founding. Somewhere along the way they took a right turn into fundamentalism. It is probably worthy of some serious study how that happened.