Comment by tasuki
> Philosophically we are able to understand that God must exist without even requiring theological revelation.
Perhaps you are, but this is not universal for philosophers. Most modern day philosophers do not believe in any god.
> Catholicism is Judaism! It is the continuation and fulfillment of the covenant God made with Abraham. The Old Testament and the many, many very specific Jewish prophecies of Jesus that are fulfilled in the New Testament are part of the Catholic faith.
Judaism does not accept any of the claimed fulfilments of prophecy that Christianity attributes to Jesus[0].
> Catholicism is correct because Jesus founded a church with the 12 apostles as the first bishops and the succession of bishops from the 12 apostles has never been broken in the catholic church.
I don't see how that follows.
> Normal people like Martin Luther or Calvin or Joseph Smith do not have the authority to start valid religions on their own especially since Jesus (who is God) has already created the religion He wants us to follow and has been very clear that it is the way God wants us to worship Him.
This is just your opinion: I'm sure Jesus was a remarkable character, but I don't see how it's clear that he was god. From my point of view he was just a normal person and didn't have the authority to start a valid religion.
> The church is very intellectually rich. If you engage with it in good faith and an open mind you have the smartest people of the past two thousand years
Respectfully disagree with both. The smartest people I know have figured out it's nonsense.
> And I can’t emphasize enough, the fruits of engaging with the church in good faith and asking God to help you are very, very real and literally the antidote to 99% of the problems that modern people are suffering from.
Here I think I can agree with you that the church is an antidote to 99% of the problems modern people are suffering from. Though I think there are other ways too.
I think the only historical narrative supportable by the evidence (without having a pre-existing axe to grind about what the conclusion can or cannot be) is that Jesus was crucified by the romans and that he came back to life. Obviously normal people can’t do that.
Faith is a gift, it’s not something we can create for ourselves or claim responsibility for. We can only pray to God to give us faith and I believe He will always grant it!