>1)I see it as destructive and looking at its history with the crusades and inquisition, hard to believe it's the church of God
It's hard to take this point seriously when you consider joining the equally violent and corrupt EO as an apparent metric of comparison.
Using the crusades as a justification for converting to EO, the same faction which invited the Franks to the East for help in the first place? Come on.
>2)intercesory prayers. I've heard all of your arguments but sitting down, closing my eyes and asking for help from someone other than God Himself is freaky to me.
I am sorry but this means nothing. If you would ask for prayers on this board, then asking the saints and angels in Heaven ought to be no trouble. Why is this?
>3) Catholics themselves. Whenever I get into a debate with you guys and you and then you try to 'get me' with the "that's just your fallible interpretation" argument. It doesn't even convince me but pisses me off. It just shows that you can't defend your beliefs biblically so you use these tricks.
This isn't really an argument. I think it's fair to say that if we took believers rather than the Beloved in the the account, absolutely none of us would be Christian at all.
>4)Your apostolic succession. I get what you're saying but I feel like it really has no meaning when the church can make up whatever it wants and as long as it's a part of this apostolic succession, no matter how far removed it is from the apostles or apostolic faith, it has validity because the 'infallible' magisterium says so just seems meaningless.
AS isn't some bureaucratic rubber stamp to approve any old BS so long as it sounds right. The reason we believe in things like the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption/Dormition, the Infallibility and Invincibility of the Church etc. is because according to Sacred Tradition, the Apostles themselves did.
AS is also just as applicable in the East as in the West.
>5)when I read the bible it's just so hard to think this is what Christ, the apostles and Paul wanted the church to look like. Like, I imagine that if you got Paul, zapped him to today, or for you sedes the years before v2 happened, I think think he would freak out. He would be like "what religion is this?
Thought experiments aren't really arguments. I imagine St Paul would have the same reaction to sacrament-free Baptist "churches" taking operating out of warehouses.
This also implies that St Paul (to say nothing of Christ Himself), despite being in Heaven, is ignorant of how the Church he himself helped to establish is faring on earth, which is contrived, to say the least.
>6)I feel like you have taken a lot of focus away from Christ with the devotion to the saints, indulgences and youre, what seems to me to be, innovative prayer methods like the sacred heart. Like, what even is that?
The saints would be worthless if they did not have both power from and proximity with Christ. We don't ask them to pray for us because they were neat, but because they themselves reflect the glory of God back to Him.
I just want to say that please be aware, if you are considering EO (and it's not for you to decide, but His Who draws you to Him) then all of your concerns are equally applicable to there, too.