Archive for the ‘catholic’ Category

Chapter 1 Why Believe or no?

Posted: January 16, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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I’ve been promising a series of posts concerning religion and belief so lets get the first one started.

Dealing with Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, people tend to give various reasons for belief, for example the raving atheist seems to have come after long exposure to pro life issues.

As CS Lewis notes in his classic The Screwtape Letters number 25 Christianity AND is not the way to go:

Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring.

Since according to Christianity Christ is the Way the truth and the light one must assume truth is the friend of God and falsehood is the foe. Many people give many different reasons why they are Christian in general and or Catholic in particular. I maintain there is only one valid reason, and that reason should trump any and all others:

Because it’s true.

This should and must be the primary reason for being a Christian. No other trumps it. Christianity and the Church is either true or false, there is no middle ground here. If it is true then non belief doesn’t matter. The penalties and benefits are real and will have to be dealt with at some time in the future. Its like not believing in the wind. It doesn’t matter if you believe it it or not it is a reality to deal with.

This means that as a Christian this should be the basis for all belief. I will expand on this in my next post.

Is she outraged by the tooth fairy?

Posted: January 16, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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This article concerning the God probably doesn’t exist ads is interesting but there is one line that hits one of my pet peeves.

Sherine says she conceived the ads after visiting the fundamentalist website of Christians who sponsored the pro-God bus ads last year.

She was shocked to hear that in their interpretation of the Bible, unbelievers would “burn in a lake of fire.” Sherine rejected such an outcome for her Parsi grandmother,

This is silly silly silly. If she is convinced that God doesn’t exist then why be worried about what somebody else thinks? Someone’s opinion can’t make someone burn.

I think it is actually telling. I think it isn’t a question of trying to convince others, I think it is a question of trying to convince oneself. I think that one of the reasons why you see atheists so adamant concerning beliefs that they consider fantasy is the gut fear of the alternative, yet it is only the Christian alternative that produces this fear, and not other religious traditions. I think that is telling and will be touching on that in later posts.

Lets bottom line it. If God doesn’t exist, no exultation, no pronouncement and no statement of belief will make him exist. So no series of actions following creeds will make a difference after death.

If God exists in general and Christianity in particular is correct no amount of billboards or talk shows will change it. Nor will the consequences of belief, actions or non-belief be avoided. Those consequences may not be what some denominations believe but given the above they will exist.

That is reason.

Via Hot air.

College Tour Time Anna Maria in Paxton

Posted: January 15, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, employment, personal
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My oldest has arranged for a tour of Anna Maria College in Paxton Mass. tomorrow.

With employment still not in place, no takers on the eBay support, Fafsa saying I need to put in 25k in cash a year and a college fund that has lost 33% of its value in the last 12 months. The options are very limited grades not withstanding.

Anna Maria has the best aid offer of the 6 or so colleges that have already accepted him so far. Short of Fitchburg State that gives them the inside track. I’m partial to any college that offers daily mass.

That will likely mean not a lot of blogging tomorrow.

I didn’t know this myself

Posted: January 12, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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The Curt Jester links to Fr. Powell’s excellent post on the differences between a parish priest and a priest of a religious order. I actually didn’t know there was a difference in vows:

In the Catholic Church there are two kinds of priests: religious and diocesan. The primary canonical difference between the two is based on who serves as an immediate ecclesial superior. For RP’s the immediate ecclesial superior is the local prior, abbot, or major superior; that is, a member of that priest’s order/monastery who exercises canonical authority in virtue of holding an office within the order/monastery. My immediate ecclesial superior is the prior of this convent. For DP’s, the immediate ecclesial superior is always the bishop of the priest’s diocese.

Very informative and worth reading.

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