Skeptical Analysis of the Paranormal Society

"Le doute n'est pas une condition agréable, mais la certitude est absurde."

—Voltaire

This information was collected from Pedro Moreno of the Fort Worth Diocese. ( http://www.fwdioc.org )

Catechism of the Catholic Church
PART THREE: THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY
SECTION TWO: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
CHAPTER 1: YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND
WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND
ARTICLE 1: THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

III.  "YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME"

2110 The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than
the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes
superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents
a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect
to the virtue of religion.

Superstition


2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the
practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we
offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some
way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To
attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their
mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions
that they demand, is to fall into superstition.41

Idolatry


2112 The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires
man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the
one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols,
210
[of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths,
but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make
their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so
are all who trust in them."42 God, however, is the "living God"43
who gives life and intervenes in history.

2113 Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains
a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what
is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres
398,2534
a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for
example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state,
money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon."44   2289
Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast"45 refusing even to  2473
simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of
God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.46

2114 Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God.
The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and
saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion
of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers
his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God."47

Divination and magic


2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints.
Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself
confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the  305
future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence,
however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan
or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed
to "unveil" the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology,
palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of
clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for
power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human
beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict
the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to
tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have
a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake
of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of
religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when
accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they
have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is
also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical
practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it.
Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the
invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.

Back to the reports.

All content © 2007 by Alison Smith
Site by White Kangaroo Design