I believe because ...

There is a children's song that I often sing to myself, in a corrected version.

The original is, "Jesus loves me — this I know because the Bible tells me so."

My correction is, "Jesus loves me — this I know because the Apostles tell me so."

Or "because Tradition tells me so."

The Church is Apostolic

In the Catholic tradition, "blind faith" (fideism) is a heresy.

We have good reasons for the hope that is in us (1 Pet 3:15).

I believe that the Church is the Body of Christ on earth because she has grown out of the apostolic tradition.

I believe that she grew out of the apostolic tradition because her whole life can be traced back to the communities founded by the apostles.

I believe in the communities founded by the apostles because they were tested by persecution and did not abandon their faith in Jesus.

I believe in the faithful apostles because they laid down their lives to bring me the gospel message.

I know that I don't have any access to the public ministry of Jesus or His passion, death, and resurrection except through the apostles.

I don't have a time machine.

Historical events are not the product of natural laws.

I cannot reproduce the historical Jesus in the lab or run controlled experiments on the claims that His apostles make about Him.

I cannot duck out of time and take a peek into eternity to see whether God is Three Persons in One Being and to determine whether God the Son became human.

The apostles are my soul source of information about the real history of Jesus. Those who did not believe in His death and resurrection did not publish their eyewitness accounts of what Jesus said and did.

The only way for me to know Jesus is to believe that the apostles are credible witnesses.

Reason is a gift from GOD

I believe in our power of reasoning because ...

I believe we can recognize that there is a God because ... [Rom 1]