In answer to your question Lula, NO ... Catholics are not the only ones that may go to Heaven ... were it real. As a matter of fact, I can think of no hell worse than spending 'eternity' surrounded by nothing besides Catholics, call it what you will. The question has never been about my believing in the supernatural as this is impossible with a sound mind. The question is "Why do you refute the sciences which can be proved accurate?”  It is one thing to 'just' believe something but it is foolhardy to disbelieve anything real because of it. The only time science and theology but heads is when you religious folk try to bend the sciences to fit into your ethereal beliefs. By definition alone it isn’t going to happen … so stop trying.

We agree.

I've already said that as far as I know the only requirement for a person to get to Heaven is that person's soul must be completely free of sin. Apoc. 21:27.

God is Infinitely Just and He metes out just judgments. Therefore we must assume that God judges the actions of each individual person and rewards or punishes him for his actions according to his consciousness of right and wrong, good and evil. 

Now, I do assume that the chances of Catholics getting to Heaven are the best as they have the Christ instituted Sacramental means that fortify them for the journey through life to the Eternal Jerusalem.

If Heaven (and Hell) were not real (and they are), what say you as far as what happens to us after our death?

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Atheists will be condemned justly after having refused every proferred grace of God. There are bad Catholics in Hell. We know Heaven isn't a solitary place, but Hell may be.

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You know I've said this before but it's worth saying again. There are many evidences of God's existence. Men do not have to persuade themselves that there is a God. They have to try to persuade themselves that there is no God. Yet, no one who has attained such a temporary persuasion has been able to find a valid reason for it. Why don't you believe in God? What is your valid reason (s)?

Lula, I remember what you said before (I wonder how, hehehe) but you do like to repeat yourself a lot for sure. What you didn’t mention was who do you know that has a “pure soul” whatever that is? Sounds to me that the fabled Heaven is destined to be a very lonely place... Aha, there is the fabled purgatory where you guys are to spend your fair share of eternity in … to punish people for behaving like people … those who are not even ‘people’ anymore, go figure. It is certainly not my fault, your inability to prove God exists I mean, so stop blaming me please. The words “…Therefore we must assume …” are totally inappropriate if you are trying to actually make a valid point. I do not see what good and bad has to do with this nonsense of yours because in the final analysis (IYO) your specific mysticism is the only truth there is period and that has nothing to do with good and bad ... only what is Catholic. You take it upon yourselves (as you always do) to self-procure this ‘option’ exclusively for Catholics.

When I die, I am going to see absolutely nothing … just like you are silly. If man is destined for geological longevity (there is nothing pointing that way yet), then we are going to have to do it ourselves because religions like yours are were what is was standing in the way of enlightenment. Truth be told … if Heaven and Hell were REAL … we wouldn’t be having this discussion now would we? So let’s get real too, ok.

“We know Heaven isn't a solitary place, but Hell may be.” Pray tell, how do we know this and maybe that (God help me)? Have you been talking to Elvis again, hahaha? Lula, your logic is something else for sure. This is not rocket science here. I do not believe in God for the same reason I do not believe in voodoo, magic, Islam or any other mysticism and it should be obvious why. I do not need a valid reason for not believing in something I don’t believe in (here is that circular logic of yours). Simply put, if you were born, raised and educated in say India … we again would not be having this discussion and Catholic would take on a whole new meaning … get my drift.

I read this passage somewhere (???) but I liked it: “You Can Safely Assume You’ve Created God In Your Own Image When It Turns Out That God Hates All The Same People You Do.” You might want to think about this more IMO.

This one was in my notes too: "People may use religious agents as a moral compass, forming impressions and making decisions based on what they presume God as the ultimate moral authority would believe or want. The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing. This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God's beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing."      By Ed Yong on scienceblogs.com

Lula, if you could prove your God exists then we wouldn’t even be having this discussion? This view is not exclusively mine as you well know. Proof has little to do with reason, casualty, a voice of conscience or the complexities of Nature I am afraid. I do not have a stubborn bone in my body I just require actual proof to sway my stubborn mind, hahaha. Until we get past this sore point, I am afraid all your mystical quotes are … well meaningless. If you cannot prove the book is about something real … then it is a fiction.

Proof or evidence of God's existence has been offered time and time again. By proof, no one of course, means God's existence is capable of being verified by experimental science.  So, if experimental science is what you'll only accept then your statement is correct.

But by proof or evidence, men are endowed with reason and can appreciate intellectual evidence.

By reason, proof or evidence of God can be in the simple declaration that the existence of the creation, man included, presupposes the existence of a Creator, whom we call God. Nothing in the world came into existence by itself. Motion came from a Mover. Design from a Designer, and life from Life. Even children understand "causality", that something cannot come from nothing. Every effect must be due to a power or agent that caused it.  The proof from design whether dealing with a watch or the cosmos and everything that's in it including plant, animal and human life is simple and irrefutable. A watch needs a watch-maker and the cosmos and life needs a Designer, a First Cause who always was. is and will be. 

Another proof is the existence of law which evidences the existence of a Law-Maker. The Moral or Natural Law written in our heart enjoins us to do or not to do certain things. We have free will which is the power to reckon correctly or incorrectly and an inner voice of conscience which tells us to do what we know to be right from wrong.  

Atheists are a stubborn bunch and for different reasons they prefer to enslave themselves to the dreary gospel of unbelief.

The Book IS about something real..from Genesis to the Apocalypse, it's about Salvation history. The Book is about Someone Real...namely, God Incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ.

And even stubborn you knows what history is but what about God Incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ's plan of Salvation History?

Catholics believe that salvation is a gift of God, eternal freedom of the soul from the bond of sin. Salvation is the attainment of everlasting union with God. Salvation means the rescue of the eternal soul from sin, from the wrath of God, eternal punishment.

Catholics believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ by His Atonement freed man from the bond of sin. He wants all to be saved, but not against their will.

Catholics believe that Christ instituted the means by which man may be super-naturalized where he'll pass to citizenship in the Eternal kingdom of God. However, Christ demands payment for personal salvation. His price is the one true Faith, expressed in good works.

I agree. Well said.

However, you are jumping ahead here!

I agree, but we aren't discussing coming to Faith in God.

Atheists do not believe in the existence of God.

There are proofs or evidences for God's existence apart from the Bible and apart from the supernatural virtue of Divine Faith.

People can fully believe in the existence of God, yet have no Divine Faith in Him; or love or want to obey Him.

Then, it should comfort you to know that only our physical body came from "the slime of the earth". Is it just as disheartening to know that at our death our physical body will return to the slime of the earth, that is, to dust? Genesis 3:19, "...for dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return". 

But really, none of this is disheartening because we are made in the image and likeness of Almighty God. Man is made up of a physical body and a spiritual soul. The likeness of man to God consists in that man has a spiritual soul which not only makes his physical body live, but is also immortal, reasonable (intellect), and gifted with free will. By these 3 qualities it is in a measure like unto God, Who is Eternal, whose intelligence is Supreme and whose will is Infinite.

So while our natural body is frail, subject to sickness and death, becasue it is made from the earth and like every other earthly thing, is perishable, our soul is a spiritual substance directly created by God. Our soul is the life-giving principle of the body. 

Yes, like it or not, believe it or not, man is a composite being consisting of body and soul and the soul is the nobler component taboot.  

You are alive ....that's how you know you have a soul.  A living human body is not the same as a corpse. The soul is the difference between a corpse and a living body. A dead body falls to pieces and goes back to dust, but there is something that stops the body from doing that now. It's your SOUL.

You know that for every activity you must find a principle of operation behind it. The principle in man which thinks and loves, is happy or miserable is a very real thing. Pardon the grammatical double negatives, but it's not nothing, less than the very body it animates. Nor is it a chemical. No doctor examining a corpse, can tell you what chemical is missing that it should not live.

If there be nothing else save chemical substances, let doctors and scientists gather together the requisite chemicals and say, "Live". Try as they will, they can effect nothing like this. There is something that chemistry cannot reach; it is the SOUL, sometimes called spirit.    

Yes, your dog has a soul...it's just not immortal and rational as yours is. When your pooch dies it's dust and no more. 

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There certainly are no definitive answers (facts) for believing you "evolved" from an ape.   You are big on proofs for belief, but evidently not in this case since try as they have, evolutionists have no scientific proofs of evolutionary apes-to-mankind. The missing link between the two is still missing.  Evolutionary apes-to-mankind is pseudo science. 

Reason discredits Godless evolution.

Since Godless evolution from nothing is absurd, I know with certainty I did not evolve from an ape.  I was specially created by God, and you were too. 

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Back to truth? Yes, let's go there. 

Divine Faith (aka true Religion), truth and true science. How are they connected?

You ask, Do I understand the word "truth". 

Yes I do. 

No proven scientific conclusion will ever necessitate the rejection of a single word of Scripture or Tradition (the infallible teachings of the CC). That's because truth can never contradict truth. 

God revealed true Religion (Catholicism) and science call for belief by both faith and study. Faith proceeds all study. religion begins with Divine Faith, that will not in fact decieve; whereas science begins with human faith that is fallible.

It's utterly impossible to study math, physics, archeology, linguistics, etc. as well as Religion, without accepting first principles upon faith, without faith in teachers.

Science, like Religion, begins with mysteries, truths that are not and ever will be fully understood. Electricity is an example. There are natural mysteries about electricity, yet their manifestations prove their existence.  Same thing with Religion and proof of God, 

"The heavens show forth the glory of God and the firmament declares the works of His hands." Psalm 18:1. 

A teacher said: "Science is knowing how God works in the natural order. Divine Faith is knowing how God works in the supernatural order."

If faith were intellectually in conflict with science,the great Catholic scientists could not have consistently proclaimed themselves to be Catholics in faith and practice. They found that faith teaches things so profound they are above reason. Also that faith in both true religion and true science does not teach anything opposed to reason or to those sound principles necessary to reason rightly. 

(getting personal) With all due respect, you fail to understand what faith really is and its basic role in the sphere of true science as well as true religion. 

Faith is not emotional, blind submission to the unknowable. Rather Faith is an intellectual assent of the mind to something not seen with the physical eye; the acceptance of a truth upon the authority of someone else. In true religion, it is Divine Authority (teachers, first taking Christ at His word to His Apostles..to their successors bishops in Christ's Church).

In science, it is dependence upon human authority that may or may not be right.

When faith of science is accepted, and not the faith of true religion, it's wise to recall what St.John said, 

"If we accept the testimony of man, the testimony of God is greater." 

They are not.

Science tries to find explanations that work for observed facts and can be used to predict new facts. The explanations don't have to be true or even very correct to be useful.

Religion tries to find the absolute truth and its explanation is so complete and ready for anything that it cannot predict anything at all.

The two solve very different problems (lifestyle vs engineering) and shouldn't be confused.

Nobody should design a nuclear power plant based on the belief that G-d is good and protects us if we pray enough and nobody should make a decision about life and death based on the weight of a Uranium atom.