Peace be upon you, I\u00a0am a Muslim from turkey, I\u00a0want you ask you a question, is there a difference between secular and blasphemer, what does it mean to say secular blaspemers, are there non secular blasphemers?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Pleased to meet you!\u00a0 I don\u2019t get to chat with Muslims too often, so bear with me since I, as a Catholic, suspect we are coming at questions from perspectives both very similar at times and also very different at other.<\/p>\n
In answer to your first question, yes: there is a difference between \u201csecular\u201d and \u201cblasphemer\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cSecular\u201d is, in fact, a word coined by the Catholic tradition, which affirms that there are thing which are properly secular: that is, having to do with this world.\u00a0 So, for instance, plumbing, or math or fishing are secular pursuits. A person can, of course, do them to the glory of God, but these things have their own integrity and their own internal logic that are not dependent on revelation.\u00a0 2+2=4 is not Catholic math or Muslim math.\u00a0 It\u2019s just math. \u00a0This distinction between secular pursuits and things proper to revelation is found, for instance, in Jesus, who says \u201cRender unto Caesar that which is Caesar\u2019s, and unto God that which is God\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0 Likewise, St. Paul says that Caesar has his own proper sphere of power\u2013under God, of course, yet still not particularly dependent on revelation.\u00a0 The Department of Motor Vehicles or the Department of Agriculture are not commanded in the Bible.\u00a0 They have their own integrity, internal logic, and rationale.<\/p>\n
This is not godlessness.\u00a0 This is, instead, the recognition that God, in creating the world, invests it with its own powers and human being with their own\u00a0 innate dignity.\u00a0 In short, it is to say that while the Catholic faith always maintains that God is the Creator and Lord of creation, his way\u00a0<\/em>of doing that is to make creatures secondary causes.\u00a0 So, for instance, there are two reasons this email exists.\u00a0 The first is that God willed that it exist.\u00a0 The second is that I wrote it.\u00a0 Moreover, I wrote it on a computer that is the result of thousands of secondary causes such as mathematicians, engineers, providers of raw materials, and manufacturers, corporations that generate electricity, ISPs, and a host of other things that help this email I am sub-creating land in your mailbox.\u00a0 All this is secular work.\u00a0 None of it is blasphemous.\u00a0 It is simply human beings doing the work of tending and using the creation God made.<\/p>\nThat said, there are, of course, secular blasphemers.\u00a0 That is, there are those who insist that there is nothing but this world of time, space, matter and energy, and therefore, no higher goods in the world than money, pleasure, power, and honor.\u00a0 This is a kind of passive blasphemy since it takes the gift of the universe God has given us with a stunning lack of gratitude.\u00a0 There is an even more aggressive form of secular blasphemy which does not merely ignore God, but which actively insults him in the name of some merely earthly good, or simply out of raw pride.<\/p>\n
Finally, it is vital to know that, yes indeed, there are non-secular blasphemers.\u00a0 Everybody involved in the murder of Jesus was, at least ostensibly, a believer in God, not an atheist.\u00a0 Judas who betrayed him, Annas and Caiaphas who sought his death, the mob who called for his blood, even Pontius Pilate were none of them atheists.\u00a0 Similarly, the bishop and Catholics who burnt St. Joan of Arc at the stake were not atheists.\u00a0 Likewise, in your own Islamic tradition, monsters like ISIS, who horribly blaspheme God, are none of them atheists, as they murder not only Christians but other Muslims as well.\u00a0 As Jesus warned his disciples, \u201cthe hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.\u201d (John 16:3).\u00a0 The key, of course, is that religious believers are not immune from the reality of sin.\u00a0 We can take our very belief in God and pervert it so profoundly that even it become a tool subjected to our prideful lust for money, pleasure, power, and\/or honor.\u00a0 Nobody in the world is immune from that temptation.\u00a0 But the good news is that God, the merciful and compassionate, is always at work in the world to call us back from such madness.<\/p>\n
He replies:<\/p>\n
Thank you very much for replying my question, my english can\u2019t be very good, but i will try to explain some thing, first about believers in appearance, in the way to describe such persons in the qur\u2019aan we have the word hypocrite,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We Christians have that word too.\u00a0 Jesus had hard things to say to hypocrites in, for instance, Matthew 23<\/a>.<\/p>\nalso about secular activities, we believe if you are believer your every activity is worship,\u201d whatever you are doing he is with you\u201d,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Both the Jewish and Christian Bible have similar ideas.\u00a0 St. Paul, for instance, says, \u201cAnd whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.\u201d (Col 3:17). \u00a0And Jesus says, \u201cLo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age\u201d at the end of Matthew\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n
yes we can express also in the way you speak, this not a big problem but if someone is non-secular blasphemer or secular blasphemar he is blasphemar, there is no difference<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I agree.\u00a0 Ultimately, blasphemy is blasphemy.<\/p>\n
any way i wish you peaceful heart, wish God bless you and keeps you,<\/p>\n
aselaamu aleykum we rahmetullah<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And you!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Responding to this piece about the curious affinity between secular blasphemers and right wing Christian torture defenders, he\u00a0writes: Peace be upon you, I\u00a0am a Muslim from turkey, I\u00a0want you ask you a question, is there a difference between secular and blasphemer, what does it mean to say secular blaspemers, are there non secular blasphemers? Pleased […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,650],"class_list":["post-91625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mailbag","tag-na"],"yoast_head":"\n
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