Mass and movie theaters

1. Catholic apologists like to poke fun at Protestant sacraments. When Protestants take communion, "they are just eating bread"–unlike the Mass. When they undergo baptism, they "just get wet". 

i) Now, there's a sense in which that's true. From a metaphysical standpoint, the bread is just bread, the wine is just wine. And guess what–Catholics are just eating bread like the rest of us. When people make the sacraments more than they are, it's a necessary corrective to explain that the bread is just bread, the wine is just wine. 

ii) But at another level that's simplistic and misleading. It's like saying the famous bust of Nefertiti is just a rock. That's true at a metaphysical level. The bust is composed of stone.

But in another respect, a statue isn't just a rock. A statue is representational. The bust of Nefertiti has a referential dimension. It stands for Nefertiti. It resembles Nefertiti. A symbol involves a relation that points beyond itself. 

Take people who have family pictures on their work desk or fireplace mantle or on their Smartphone. To a stranger, those pictures are just pictures. But if those are your family members, then looking at the pictures has an emotional resonance and recognition that's lacking in the case of strangers. 

2. Many of us have seen houses with a wall-length mirror in the living room or bathroom. It creates the illusion of space. It apparently doubles the size of the room. It looks like two halves of the same room. 

From a certain angle, it doesn't seem to be a mirror. Rather, it looks like you could walk right through the mirror into the room beyond the mirror. 

A related example is a wall-length flatscreen TV or a projector screen. The image has field depth. So it looks like the viewer could step right into that scene. Step right into that world–beyond the screen.

But, of course, that's an optical illusion. A 3D illusion. In each case, there's nothing in back of the image. It's just a projection. A one-dimensional image. Surface without depth or reality. 

To take another example: from time to time I experience migraine auras. At that point the best thing to do is lie down in a dark room until the aura dissipates. I can't read or write because the image is in front of what I'm trying to look at. The image is between me and what I'm trying to look at. I can't see through it or around it. 

3. Let's list some examples of Catholic theology:

• Purgatory

• Transubstantiation

• The Immaculate Conception

• The Assumption of Mary

• The Beatific Vision

• The intercession of the saints

• Baptismal regeneration

• Holy orders confer indelible mark on soul

• Blessing water and holy oil (sacramentals)

Now, what do these share in common? The common denominator is that Catholic believers posit something indetectable. Something behind-the-scenes. It isn't based on empirical knowledge. It isn't based on intuitive knowledge. There's no direct evidence that there is in fact anything in back of what they see or believe. Like a mirror, TV screen, or migraine aura, that's something they project onto reality. Something they imagine to be the case. It's not in the object but in their mind. A reflection of their own faith. Not behind the sensible world, but in front of the viewer, in his mind's eye. Between the believer, between the viewer, and the object. 

I'm not saying imperceptible things don't exist. I'm not saying we can't have indirect evidence for imperceptible things. But that's the rub with Catholic dogmas. There is no evidence. That's why they fall back on sheer ecclesiastical fiat. The raw authority of the church to arbitrarily promulgate dogma. 

Catholics are sitting in front of a mirror or projector screen. The sanctuary is their movie theater. An exercise in sheer belief and wishful-thinking that superimposes itself on the object. In reality, there's nothing above and beyond the object or their pious imagination.