Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene (by Simeon Solomon, 1864) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** This occurred on my Facebook page (24-26 July 2015), in a public post. My opponent (a “straight male”) was informed that I might use this in a later dialogue on my blog; but I won’t reveal his name. His words will be in blue. It also turns out that he was an atheist, so we briefly discussed that, and how his background... Read more
Photo by Johnny Magnusson [public domain / Free Stock Photos.biz] My recent, provocatively titled paper, Atheism: the Faith of “Atomism”, raised a firestorm of protest from some 20-25 atheists, who swarmed the combox and wrangled with me literally all day long yesterday, for a total of 194 comments. Long story short: they almost universally accused me of woeful ignorance of atheism (i.e., of making a straw man argument). For my part, I charged that almost all of them failed to understand... Read more
The Last Judgment, Michelangelo (1536-41) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] I think it would be helpful to use the terminology of “desiring that all men be saved” (as the Bible says about God) or “praying for all men to be saved” or “Jesus made it possible on the cross for any men to be saved.” I.e., universal atonement rather than universalism . . . Those statements shouldn’t be controversial at all for anyone who knows their theology. Saying that we... Read more
[Pixabay / public domain] I have made it very clear how I’ll be operating my page here, in the “Discussion Policy” paper posted at the top. Like the old vegetable soup commercial says, “It’s [all] in there.” In a nutshell (it ain’t rocket science): be civil, respect the surroundings (Catholic), stay on topic, and don’t troll. Anyone who follows those simple rules is safe here to comment all they like, about anything, as long as they follow the topic of... Read more
Paul the Apostle, by Rembrandt, c. 1657 [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** 2 Timothy 1:16-18 (RSV): “May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, [17] but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me – [18] may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day – and you well know all the service he rendered... Read more
“The Door to Hell” in Turkmenistan, Darvaza [Wikimedia Commons /Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license] Someone wrote on my Facebook page: I don’t like when Mary said to the children at Fatima that people are going there because they have no one to pray for them. It just really bothers me. The thought is awful. How shall Christ be all in all when so many of his members are eternally damned? Lord please have mercy on a soul destined to be... Read more
Cryosphinx at Karnak Temple, Egypt; photograph by Guillaume Lelarge [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] It’s currently fashionable for atheists to deny that a universe without God is caused by “pure chance” or “randomly colliding atoms,” as their earlier forebears might have boldly and proudly described it. Yet natural “laws” somehow attained their remarkable organizing abilities. One either explains them by natural laws or by humbly bowing to divine teleology at some point, as an explanation every bit... Read more
The Ancient of Days (William Blake, 1794) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] When God creates, what He creates is already less perfect than He is, just by the fact that it is created, whereas He is eternal and uncreated. So, for example, human beings are not omniscient, or omnipotent, or omnipresent, as God is. They’re not absolutely perfect, and indeed cannot be, since there is only one God, Who is perfect and self-existent, needing nothing whatsoever. Human beings are limited... Read more
Noah’s Ark (1846), a painting by the American folk painter Edward Hicks [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** I received the following question on my Facebook Author page: I am not convinced that the belief in a world-wide deluge is supported by any kind of balanced, rational evaluation of the material evidence. How do you, as an apologist, reconcile the Biblical account of the Deluge with the many empirical evidences which support conventional geology, and oppose the possibility of a... Read more
The Last Supper, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, late 19th century [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] From Facebook exchanges in the last few days. Words of Catholic apologist Tim Staples (from Catholic Answers) will be in blue. Words of noted Catholic film critic Steven D. Greydanus will be in green. * * * * * A friend of mine, who seems to be perpetually in limbo between Catholicism and Protestantism, cited Catholic apologist Tim Staples on his (public) Facebook page: The... Read more
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