Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth (Proverbs 24:17). A friend of mine posted the passage above on facebook shortly after the announcement that Osama bin Laden had been assassinated in Pakistan, and it quickly went viral. A lot of us were looking for a counter to the celebrations that broke out on campus, since it felt like there was something wrong with taking anyone’s death, even Osama bin Laden’s, as... Read more
P.Z. Myers has a post up lambasting Christian apologist William Lane Craig for his defense of genocides in the Old Testament. Here’s the damning paragraph: Moreover, if we believe, as I do, that God’s grace is extended to those who die in infancy or as small children, the death of these children was actually their salvation. We are so wedded to an earthly, naturalistic perspective that we forget that those who die are happy to quit this earth for heaven’s... Read more
I am totally confused by Divine Mercy Sunday tomorrow. According to my googling (which began, but did not end on Wikipedia) this Catholic feast was established on the basis of visions by St. Faustina. On this Sunday, Catholics are asked to attend confession that day, before they go to Mass, parishes are asked to display the image above (or a similar design) during services, and, as a result of these practices, those Catholics who go to confession and receive the Eucharist that... Read more
This Easter season, I made it to two days of the Triduum: Maundy Thursday and Easter Vigil. (Since I couldn’t make it to Friday evening services, I went to Tenebrae with my boyfriend instead). The Easter Vigil was lovely, even if my boyfriend was so tired as a result of exams that his mom and I had to keep a close eye on him whenever he was holding a lit candle. Maundy Thursday was a little less pleasant. I had... Read more
I’ll have a longer post up tomorrow with reflection on my experience over Easter, but, in the meantime, I wanted to share some essays that supplement/compliment/shed new light on some of the discussions we’ve been having here. If you’ve been getting into the fight about doctrine on the NFP/Transhumanism post… …you need to check out Simcha Fisher’s “Why Doesn’t the Church Just Make a List?” Plenty of commenters, including me, have been linking to this article, which does a really... Read more
I’ve just turned in my senior essay (which I glossed in a recent 7 Quick Takes) and I took some celebratory photos. And yes, I did dress up for the occasion. Between finishing the essay, making it to church for the Triduum, and spending Easter Sunday with my boyfriend’s extremely extended Italian family, there was no blogging this weekend. I’ll be posting a few last thoughts sparked by comments on recent posts tonight, and tomorrow I’ll have some of my... Read more
Apparently someone set up a cross on a courtyard at school and replaced the letters INRI (Jesus of Nazerene, King of the Jews in Latin) with ROFL. I don’t have many details; all the reporting is happening on the op-ed page, and there are no pictures or other context. I’m going to run down the op-eds that have been written before I give my thoughts. “An insulting prank and hypocritical response” — Jordon Walker Walker broke the story and rebuked... Read more
That’s one possible consequence of the doctrine of invincible ignorance we were discussing yesterday. If I can’t blaspheme or reject God’s perfect love without knowing it (in the connaitre, not savoir sense — thanks KL), presumably the only people who can actually damn themselves are properly-catechized Christians, who know God and still turn away. Except that leads us back into contradiction, since to know God is to love God is to obey God. I can think of three ways to... Read more
I am notorious at school for pushing math classes on my friends. Done with your distributional requirements? But surely you have space for this extra seminar on logic! Thought you would just keep going through the calculus sequence? Could I interest you in a transcendent term of fractal geometry? Claim to hate math? I’ve got a simple reply: You don’t hate math, you hate the math classes you’ve taken to date. Once you’ve got a decent professor, you’ll have to... Read more
I started this blog in part because my boyfriend and I have a problem. Because of our religious differences, it’s hard to figure out how we could make our relationship work out long term. The odds are uncomfortably high that, if he’s right about religion, I’m going straight to hell, and, if we ever ended up raising a family, my atheist influence could interfere with a proper Catholic upbringing, dooming my children and damning my boyfriend for playing fast and... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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