Posts Tagged ‘religion’

Required Catholic Belief; The Devil and Hell

Posted: January 25, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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I’m jumping a bit ahead in my writing about religion and Catholic faith to touch on something that people find uncomfortable particularly in this modern age.

If one claims to be a Christian in general and a Catholic in particular there are several things that are required beliefs. The defining belief is the divinity of Christ. No less critical is the existence of the Devil and Hell.

People like to think that due to the modern world that such things as Devil’s and Satan can’t be real, that no reasonable person can choose to believe in such a supernatural concept. One doesn’t want to deal with the ridicule of such a belief, particularly publicly expressed. After all its one thing to believe in Christ, there is history that shows his existence but to believe in a fellow with a pitchfork and horns out to novel you, that’s just a story to frighten children.

CS Lewis talked about this very thing in Screwtape #7:

We currently live in an age where people believe in psychics, witchcraft and various unseen forces. I can drive down the street in Leominster or Worcester and see the shingle for psychics advertising their services. I have wiccan friends one who is a wiccan priest. You see all kinds of books on harnessing various forces. Science Fiction fans talk of all kinds of planets that might be inhabited by all sorts of creatures; yet all these same people would look as if you had 4 heads if you suggest that the devil or hell exists. (more…)

Where’s my outrage?

Posted: January 24, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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As I’ve made clear on this blog, I’m a practicing Roman Catholic. I believe the reason to be a Catholic is because it is true. I’ve also stated that Abortion is the killing of human life and comparable to slavery.

So why no outraged posts concerning the change in abortion funding rules under Obama? Mainly because this was not an outrageous act.

I don’t mean that in the sense that it isn’t a deeply wrong thing that aids and abets a significant evil that will destroy lives, scar people and help cause suffering in this world and damnation in the next to many. It will do all those things. I don’t in the least disagree with The Anchoress, L.A. Catholic, The Curt Jester or Gateway Pundit. I just can’t get work into a lather over it.

Why? Because this is a liberal democrat. To his party Abortion is a sacrament. He stated clearly that he supported Roe v Wade and that he would repeal these things. The time to get outraged was when this was declared and to campaign against the election of people who would support such a thing and a congress that would back him up. Not after his election when he does what we all knew was going to happen.

This is not outrageous behavior for a liberal democrat. It is evil but not outrageous.

Let it on the bus

Posted: January 19, 2009 by datechguy in catholic, opinion/news
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Via Hotair it looks like the bus ads have spread to Italy, not:

The city was targeted because it is home to the head of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, an outspoken opponent of artificial insemination and gay marriage.

Cardinal Bagnasco was said to be ‘furious’ about the plans and had his assistants write to the bus company and the advertising firm in charge of the £13,000 campaign to express their opposition.

At the last minute the campaign was cancelled. A source said the cardinal was ‘delighted’.

I disagree with this move. Christianity is more than strong enough to compete in the marketplace of ideas. It has hundreds of centuries of experience in delivering its message and it has the added advantage of being true. As always speech should be answered by more speech. If the church with the power of Christ behind it can’t compete with this message then you need different people delivering that message.

As a purely free speech move lets cut to the chase:

The Bus company has a perfect right to accept these ads and take the cash.

The Cardinal has a perfect right to object to these ads loudly.

And the customers of the bus company have the perfect right to give or not give their business to them accordingly.

That’s how it should work. In my mind you can’t argue for Churches in Arabia and argue to repress this speech.

Chapter 1b Expanding the choices and decisions

Posted: January 18, 2009 by datechguy in catholic
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In Chapter 1a I talked about God either existing or not, today lets talk about the possibilities concerning God. I’m not going to argue the existence or non existence of God here, plenty of room for that at the raving Theist but I won’t give it as a given.

There are quite a few different religions out there and a lot more denominations as well within them. Monotheistic religions are by their nature mutually exclusive, that is if Islam is correct then Buddhism can’t be. Within the various religions there are also divisions (Reform and Hasidic Judaism for example).

This leads to the possibilities

  1. God doesn’t exist and all religions are wrong.
  2. God exists and all religions are still wrong.
  3. God exists and One Religion in general and denomination within that religion in particular is correct and everyone else is wrong.

If we look at this as a flow chart then if one decides that #1 is correct then their personal quest is over unless other evidence comes in to play. I would also point out that #1 would not preclude some from of “existence” after death. A full understanding of the consciousness doesn’t exist at this time. If consciousness exists as some form of energy what becomes of that energy can be the subject of an interesting debate, but without scientific evidence at this point the logical conclusion of one who does not believe in God is that existence ends period at the moment of death.

If we decide on #2 then we are left with two choices. One can choose to decide that since one doesn’t know the nature of God there is no point in trying to worry about it and simply your life. The second choice to attempt to decipher the nature of God. If one concludes that all religions have it wrong then this would seem to be an insurmountable problem as there is no correct frame of reference to guide one.

If we decide on #3 then logic dictates we try to determine the nature of God as eternity would be more important than a much shorter life.

This gives us a path to go on.

Now all of this is a question of what kind of thing you decide. I have come to the conclusion that #3 is the path with Christianity as the correct religion with Catholicism in particular is correct. I’ll go into details concerning whys and wherefore at a later point.

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