Apologetics-low level scholarship

[SteveG]

amarischuk:

But I am curious why you assume a low birthrate is a negative thing.

Let’s see, putting the moral issue aside for a moment since you think it so silly, I wonder what will happen in western societies when social systems for the old built on the younger generations can no longer be sustained because there are to few young. Well, you have only one choice in that case, immigration, which as we are seeing in Europe likely will mean the loss of their European culture of the next 100 to 200 years. Maybe that’s a good thing in some peoples eyes, but if a nation values it’s unique cultural heritage and wants that to survive, it had better do better than replacement rate to do so….
I’ll let the UN explain…
un.org/esa/population/publications/migration/migration.htm

 

[Makerteacher]

Melchior:

Better yet go get your hands dirty at a soup kithcen or become a big brother or something else that will get your mind off of you. The Christian life is to be lived outward not inward.

Amen. “We are healed through service.”

 

[Stylite]

amarischuk:

I have never read much of Most for a number of reasons. Firstly, he is definitively over-rated. The fact that his books are published by TAN (the Jack Chick of Catholic publications) is not a good indicator.

This said, he is obviously a well schooled and fairly universally educated man.

As far as I know, only one or very few of his books are published by Tan ( I think they only publish his entry level book on apologetics). Now, of course, not everything published by Tan is “Jack Chickian.” Yes, they have published some unfortunate things, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t cast doubt on a work like St. Francis De Sales “Treatise on the Love of God” just because Tan publishes it!

Most of Most’s works are published by groups other than Tan, so your main argument against Fr. Most is thus moved aside.

You haven’t given any valid reasons as to why “he is difinitively overrated.” You would do well to read his works, as he tackles many of the theologians you have mentioned without resorting to strawmen, and even gives them credit where it is due. His treatment of the Abraham question may not be satisfactory to you, but I think you would profit from reading his stuff nonetheless.

God Bless,
Stylite

 

[hawkeye]

Weren’t we told not to worry about what we are to say, at the time it will be the Holy Spirit speaking in us.

 

[SteveG]

amarischuk:

LOL: “Is there an impact of the loss of grace on marriages. And I think that the fact that 50% of marriages are ending in divorce, among Catholics as well as the rest of the population, suggests that there’s an impact of the loss of grace in this.”

I suppose Muslim marriages which have extremely low divorce rates yet use contraceptives somehow managed to have more grace than Catholic marriages. Earlier in the thread I noted that ‘grace’ provides no measurable change yet here is “Dr. Janet” saying there is as spouses who use contraceptives have higher divorce rates. There is a sociological explanation for this, no need to fall back on ‘grace’.

Laugh all you like, but again you look at this in such an oversimplied decontextualized way that your point becomes meaningless.

To compare the divorce rates of the west with Islamic cultures is frankly absurd and sheds no light on the topic whatsoever. The cultures are so different as to make it a meaningless comparison. Need I mention that in many places Islam allows for polygomy, as well as generally having much more theocratic forms of government in which such value systems can be mandated and enforced and keep the divorce rate artificially low.

Secondly, in order for the ‘Catholic’ divorce rate to have any meaning, you need to stratify the data. It would be more useful for us to know what the divorce rate was among ‘practicing’ Catholics. I know many people (I suspect you do as well) who never or rarely attend church, who know next to nothing about the faith, yet if asked what religion they are, they would respond Catholic. These people should hardly be counted in the Catholic divorce statistics. Well less than 50% of Catholics attend mass on any regular basis.

Grace is not magic. Getting married in a Catholic Church will not automatically make your marriage wonderful. Yes, assuming it’s a valid marriage, there is a change, but one need still cooperate with God on an ongoing basis in order to have that change mean anything. If I have a heart transplant, yes, I have a new heart, but if I go back to smoking, drinking and living an unhealthy lifestyle, what difference will it make? The sacrament is just the first step that opens the doors to grace. The grace must be allowed to come into the marriage for it to mean anything. Someone not practicing their faith is hardly cooperating with God in the Catholic sense.

In general, I am beginning to agree with GeorgeAquinas. I am doubtful you want to engage in any kind of meaningful dialogue. I attempt to give you thought out responses and instead of addressing them, you belittle them based on polemic statements that have little thought behind them.

 

[philipmarus]

"Ignorance of scripture is Ignorance of Christ"

• St. Jerome