Okay I read it, I already knew half the arguments on there, but that's okay...
The Catholic use of statues appears to me to be idol worship when I see people bowing down in front of them in prayer and kissing them. I never said you couldn't have artwork, it's like I said, the bowing down and kissing part that makes it seem like idol worship. I've never seen anyone kneeling down praying to and worshipping the bible like this article says, but I haven't seen every person in the world do whatever they do. I'm sorry I can't look at what the Catholic church does with images as anything other than idol worship.
A important thing to note is the Second Council of Nicea which declared:
To summarize, we declare that we defend free from any innovations all the written and unwritten ecclesiastical traditions that have been entrusted to us. One of these is the production of representational art; this is quite in harmony with the history of the spread of the gospel, as it provides confirmation that the becoming man of the Word of God was real and not just imaginary, and as it brings us a similar benefit. For, things that mutually illustrate one another undoubtedly possess one another's message.
Given this state of affairs and stepping out as though on the royal highway, following as we are the God-spoken teaching of our holy fathers and the tradition of the catholic church--for we recognize that this tradition comes from the holy Spirit who dwells in her-- we decree with full precision and care that, like the figure of the honoured and life-giving cross, the revered and holy images, whether painted or made of mosaic or of other suitable material, are to be exposed in the holy churches of God, on sacred instruments and vestments, on walls and panels, in houses and by public ways; these are the images of our Lord, God and saviour, Jesus Christ, and of our Lady without blemish, the holy God-bearer, and of the revered angels and of any of the saintly holy men. The more frequently they are seen in representational art, the more are those who see them are drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these images the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration. Certainly this is not the full adoration in accordance with our faith, which is properly paid only to the divine nature, but it resembles that given to the figure of the honored and life-giving cross, and also to the holy books of the gospels and to other sacred cult objects. Further, people are drawn to honor these images with the offering of incense and lights, as was piously established by ancient custom. Indeed the honor paid to an image traverses it, reaching the model; and he who venerates the image, venerates the person represented in that image. (pp. 135-7).
The bowing or more specifically kneeling is actually kneeling in prayer and not to the statue itself.
The assumption of Mary is not supported by the scriptures, only by Catholic tradition, and since the Catholic church has no foundation to stand on(see my post about Peter not being the Rock) all of the Catholic traditions are automatically called into question.
The Assumption has been a belief since the earliest times. We find no need for it to be written for a few reasons, the most important of which is that most of the NT (with the possible exception of Revelation) was written before a probable date where she would have died.
As far as the Ever Virgin, there are plenty of scriptures that talk about how Mary had other children and at least one that talks about Joseph not knowing Mary until after Jesus was born, so no, Mary wasn't always a virgin.
I've debated this at length in another thread. Mainly it boils down to a couple of things: 1. All of the people said to be the "brothers of Jesus" are later identified to be the children of another woman (often times another Mary), and what the Greek word for "till" or "until" actually means.
I can't see Praying to the Saints as anything other than trying to communicate with God through someone (a dead person at that) other than Jesus Christ. To me it screams necromancy, contacting spirits of the dead in order to get something from them.
The teaching of the Catholic Church is that our departed brothers and sisters in Christ reign in heaven with God, who is a god of the living (cf. Matthew 22:32), and therefore enjoy an especially close relationship with him. This does not deny that Christians still combating their way through the trials of this world are saints (from the Latin for holy, sanctus), because we are children of God even now.
I don't agree with the article on calling no man father, it lists scriptures that have other people using the term father in a completely different context from what the priests called father are in, so it doesn't work. You can go on about people calling there dad's father, but that isn't going to work either because it's a completely different context. You have to look at it in context and the context in which you see the Catholic Priests being called Father is exactly the context that we are forbidden to use it in.
And I already covered the one about Peter in a different post.
I'll get to both of these tomorrow.
