Is the Infant of Prague Idolatrous?

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:16 pm By Scott Eric Alt

Every so often the Catholic apologist will be minding his own business, fulfilling the precepts of the Church, when a Tasmanian Devil of anti-Catholicism will come whirling by. TD will wreak mad and aimless destruction on whatever is in its path, and the Catholic apologist will be left behind to calmly clean up the mess and restore order to the community. Such is my task today, after Rhology compared the Infant of Prague to a Shinto statue of Buddha, based solely on the visual impact of seeing a picture of the one followed by a picture of the other. I’m guessing at the subtext here, but I think that Rho means for us to say something like this: “Aha! IP is Buddha in quasi-Christian disguise!" [Read more] Read more

Killing Jesus: Could Christ Have Spoken From the Cross?

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:17 pm By Scott Eric Alt

The best that can be said is that “slow suffocation” is a debated and unsettled question even among medical experts. So why is Mr. O’Reilly certain enough on this point that he can deny Christ’s very words from the Cross? Does he have this revelation from the Holy Ghost? And why would the Holy Ghost inspire Mr. O’Reilly to contradict St. Luke? Did the Holy Ghost mislead Luke? Did Luke mishear the Holy Ghost? Has the Church been mistaken about the infallibility of Luke’s gospel for 2000 years? Should Martin Luther have taken that book out of the canon too? And why would the Holy Ghost wait so long to correct all this, and why would he choose a talk show host from Fox News? [Read more] Read more

Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome Vol. I

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:19 pm By Scott Eric Alt

It is worse than irony. The very same lysergic, Francis-bashing acid, which one can buy — almost on a daily basis now — from John Bugay, that trippy anti-Catholic man in Pittsburgh, is also being sold by some Catholic bloggers themselves. Now, obviously, one expects all this from Mr. Bugay. But I don’t intend to conclude my review of PFDS with him. PFDS is a mental fog — a hookah-inhaled hallucinogen — that has put a lot of already stoned minds, and some sharp ones that should know better, into a tripped-out purple haze — whether of paranoia (traditionalists), pink elephant sitings (liberal media and Catholic progressives) or a hazy and tiresome spiritual certitude (Mr. Bugay). [Read more] Read more

James White Agonistes

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:20 pm By Scott Eric Alt

The Dividing Line of May 21, 2013, found here, is all the evidence I need that Dr.* James White is so predisposed to see lack of intelligence, seriousness, credibility (fill in your noun of choice) in Catholic apologists, that he will let himself be played on like a pipe. No need for Catholic apologists who engage Dr.* White to wait for him to invent straw men. You can hand him one of your own making: He will grab it, tear it to shreds, stomp upon it, and cackle in triumph. Meanwhile, you can proceed with your serious apologetic. [...] Read more

A Primer on Moral Law, With Reference to Same-Sex “Marriage”

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:23 pm By Scott Eric Alt

I shall begin where I did earlier: “Of things that exist, some exist by nature, and some from other causes.” With the help of Aquinas, we may amend that to read, “Of things that exist, some owe their existence to God, and some to other causes.” That is the beginning of all right reason. And if it applies to the question of Rights, it applies no less to the moral law. No one, I expect, would argue that Aristotle’s words apply to only tangible things. Rights, though intangible, exist; for that is how people talk about them. People talk as though intellect, and love, and reason, and logic, and freedom do exist, and do matter, in a much more profound way than a world of tangible things. [Read more] Read more

Pentecost: To Woo Back a World’s Desire

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:24 pm By Scott Eric Alt

The more I look at the world I find myself in today, the more I am convinced that the twenty-first-century Church must be the first-century Church. We must allow our hearts, our spirits, our lives to be an upper room—a cenacle—in which the fire of the Holy Spirit can ignite and prompt us, if necessary, to shame and martyrdom. For once again the Church finds itself confronted with the very thing it was confronted with in the first century: paganism. The only difference today is that it is a secular, and often a statist, paganism. But it is no less hostile to truth and to the ways of God. It is no less ugly a place to find yourself in in time. St. Paul said we are to preach the truth in season and out of season. [Read more] Read more

A Counterblast to Dr.* James White and His Blithe Denial of 48,509+ Protestant Sects

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:35 pm By Scott Eric Alt

Dr.* James White (Th.D., D.Min., etc., etc.) seems to walk through life with the assumption that, if he can just get the number of sects low enough, he can sleep the sleep of the just. Contrariwise, some Catholic apologists seem to feel that the higher the number, the greater the case against Protestantism they have. But the fact is, St. Paul says that there is one Church. Does it really matter whether there are 48,500 sects, or 9000, or two? The Scriptures continually warn us against any division in the body of Christ. [...] Read more

Ephesians Chapter Four: Only One Church

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:36 pm By Scott Eric Alt

If in Gal. 1:7 St. Paul says that there is not any other gospel, in Ephesians he doubles down. In that book he says that there is not any other Spirit, there is not any other hope, there is not any other God, there is not any other faith, there is not any other baptism, and there is not any other Church. When I was a Protestant, I was aware of the Catholic “one Church” interpretation of this passage. But when I looked at it I would protest, thus: But the phrase “one Church” is not there! Only, I was wrong. [...] Read more

A Primer on Rights, With Reference to Same-Sex “Marriage”

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:39 pm By Scott Eric Alt

"Of things that exist, some exist by nature, some from other causes.” That is the famous opening of Book II of Aristotle’s Physics, and if you’re philosophically-minded it’s impossible to get that sentence out of your head. It is the beginning of all correct reason. A tree exists by nature, but a park is made by man. For Aristotle’s “nature,” the Christian will substitute God, since the tree does not spring up ex nihilo; things that exist imply a maker, and Aquinas improves on Aristotle. Thus of things that exist, some are created by God and some by man. And since they are, in fact, created, it follows that they are created for a purpose. It follows, too, that their purpose is defined by the maker alone. [Read more] Read more

Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams Attempts to Lecture the Catholic Church on Same-Sex “Marriage”

Last updated on: March 9, 2017 at 5:45 pm By Scott Eric Alt

It behooves any who be honest to get the expression “marriage equality” out of his head. No one believes in any such thing. I doubt very much that Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon believes in it. I would be stupefied into a coma if she told me that she thought it was all well and good if I were to marry two women; or two men; or one woman and one man; or my cat; or a three-year-old child; or six cows; or the exhumed body of King Tut. The reason she doe not believe I may do these things is because she doesn’t believe in marriage equality. To find out what does believe in, and why it amounts to the destruction of marriage, we need to read her latest piece of easily-stunned piffle with a careful eye. [Read more] Read more