{"id":2186,"date":"2013-10-28T17:06:20","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T22:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?p=2186"},"modified":"2013-10-30T19:11:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T00:11:00","slug":"faith-science-and-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2013\/10\/faith-science-and-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith, Science, and Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Years ago, the big thing at Halloween was receiving the annual Jack T. Chick tract about how Halloween was one big festival of the satanic.\u00a0 Fitting, since All Hallow\u2019s Eve is a Catholic holiday, and we all know how Jack T.C. felt about Catholics. (If you don\u2019t, and want to be amused by a tour through the weird and creepy this Halloween, Jimmy Akin\u2019s book on the topic is just the thing<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Concern about the demonic is why certain evangelicals shy away from Halloween \u2014 they know that Satan\u2019s real, and they aren\u2019t taking any chances.\u00a0 A commendable (if misguided) course of action.\u00a0 Our wider culture takes a different tack: Everything spiritual is one big game of pretend.\u00a0 If we have a spiritual life, it\u2019s about feelings and perceptions, comfort and customs, which are all rooted in nothing and all come to nothing.<\/p>\n

The Catholic view is found in the opening lines of the Creed: \u201cI believe in one God,\u00a0 the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n

All things.\u00a0 The demonic is real \u2014 if invisible \u2014 and since it is merely a distortion of God\u2019s own creation, it is not beyond the reach of God\u2019s power.\u00a0 Catholics have a healthy respect for things bigger than ourselves, whether of the spiritual realm or the purely physical.\u00a0 (Earthquakes? Tigers? Lots of big things out there that no amount of good feelings will pacify.)\u00a0 If we can mock Satan on the eve of All Saint\u2019s Day, it\u2019s because we\u2019re the little kid standing behind God the Father saying, \u201cYeah! Go get him Dad!\u201d<\/p>\n

But our contemporary culture is, as I said, fundamentally atheist \u2014 within the pews and beyond it.\u00a0 Spiritual = Invisible = Pretend, we say.\u00a0 Which is funny, because we don\u2019t think love is pretend, though we might have a poor grasp of what love is.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t think gravity, or atoms, or radiation are pretend.<\/p>\n

But weirdly, people think that Catholics \u2014 who are so crazy as to believe in invisible things like demons and angels and God and Heaven \u2014 don\u2019t believe in invisible things like laws of science, or the biological origin of the species.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if they think we\u2019ve used up our invisible-things card, and can\u2019t fit any more of the unseen into our little brains.<\/p>\n

\"Faith,<\/a><\/p>\n

On my shelf right now is one of Midwest Theological Forum\u2019s latest releases, Faith, Science, and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge<\/a>, <\/em>by Christopher T. Baglow.<\/em>\u00a0 The book is excellent \u2014 intelligent, readable, and thorough.\u00a0 It lays out the philosophical trends that underlie the myth that faith and science are incompatible, and digs into the historical reality about science and the Catholic Church.\u00a0 There is of course a long list of Catholic scientists and their works; there are as well a number of supplemental readings that include quotes from those who oppose the Catholic faith.\u00a0 The most interesting passage for me has been the explanation of the historical context behind the writing of the 7-day creation account in Genesis.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit of literary history that I\u2019d never heard before, and that clarifies much.<\/p>\n

Skeptics note: The final chapter proposes a theory that harmonizes the Catholic teaching on the origin of the human species with the current findings in paleontology.\u00a0 It will most likely be an outdated theory in a decade or two, but that\u2019s because the science will be brought up to date; the theology that goes with won\u2019t be changing.<\/p>\n

Conservative Alarm Bells Note: The author uses the term \u201cmyth\u201d to refer to the literary genre of parts of scripture.\u00a0 Coming from MTF, you can be certain the goal is not some bit of pseudo-Catholic new age propaganda; it\u2019s a literary term.\u00a0 That said, if you\u2019re a strict 7-day creationist, this book is not the one that supports your opinion.\u00a0 I say the book is well worth a read even for those who are quite satisfied with seven 24-hour days (some of them sunless) and a young earth.<\/p>\n

Who should read this book?<\/strong>\u00a0 I think the glory days of the Chicklets are fading fast.\u00a0 In the century ahead, we\u2019ll still have our arguments with assorted evangelicals who doubt this or that tenet of the Catholic faith.\u00a0 But what I\u2019m seeing today, and thus what informs my own teaching anymore, is that rampant atheism, and atheism\u2019s pew-infesting brother faithy-ism, are on the ascendant.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think you can consider yourself a well-informed Catholic if you quail in the face of the anti-science accusation.<\/p>\n

The book is written at a sustained high school level.\u00a0 It is readable, but it\u2019s not spoon-feeding.\u00a0 It\u2019s reasonable to expect that anyone teaching the faith above about a third-grade level be able to read the book, comprehend it, and teach the basic principles to others.<\/p>\n

\u2013> I realize there are those whose work in evangelism and even catechesis is primarily rooted in kindness and generosity of spirit, and not so much in academic achievements.\u00a0 So be it.\u00a0 Let there be someone in the parish who can read this book, or one like it, and translate the essential arguments into clear teaching for those who simply aren\u2019t going to open a textbook.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years ago, the big thing at Halloween was receiving the annual Jack T. Chick tract about how Halloween was one big festival of the satanic.\u00a0 Fitting, since All Hallow\u2019s Eve is a Catholic holiday, and we all know how Jack T.C. felt about Catholics. (If you don\u2019t, and want to be amused by a tour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178,118,198,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-church","category-personal-reading-challenge","category-resources","category-review","category-what-julies-reading"],"yoast_head":"\nFaith, Science, and Halloween<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Years ago, the big thing at Halloween was receiving the annual Jack T. 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