For Non-Believers Only - a New Blog Site

[Linusthe2nd]

Well thanx for the invite! Note: not all non-believers have questions about God. But I suppose the site is for those that do.

Well you never know…some one may surprise you.

I would be well pleased. Linus2nd

 

[Linusthe2nd]

A refusal to ask “Is what I believe true?” is a refusal to pursue the Truth. It is relegating the responsibility of discovering the Truth to the accidents of your birth. If your faith cannot withstand questions, what good is it?

You don’t understand what Faith means in Catholic Teaching and Morality. Faith is a gift of Grace, a spiritual gift from our Creator that enables us to say " yes " to the truths of Divine Revelation, as handed on by the Tradition of the Church, the Scriptures, as defined by the Magisterium. It is a mortal sin ( a grevious sin ) against the Gift of Faith to deliberately question its truth. It is sort of the same thing ( comparatively ) for a happily married man or woman to deliberately " flirt around " with another man or woman. That would be cruel and mean and would endanger a once true love and would be a seriously uncharitable act, an insult against ones spouce.

Linus2nd

 

[ngill09]

You don’t understand what Faith means in Catholic Teaching and Morality. Faith is a gift of Grace, a spiritual gift from our Creator that enables us to say " yes " to the truths of Divine Revelation, as handed on by the Tradition of the Church, the Scriptures, as defined by the Magisterium. It is a mortal sin ( a grevious sin ) against the Gift of Faith to deliberately question its truth. It is sort of the same thing ( comparatively ) for a happily married man or woman to deliberately " flirt around " with another man or woman. That would be cruel and mean and would endanger a once true love and would be a seriously uncharitable act, an insult against ones spouce.

Linus2nd

There is a significant difference between a marriage and an ideology.

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”
~Thomas Jefferson

 

[polytropos]

You don’t understand what Faith means in Catholic Teaching and Morality. Faith is a gift of Grace, a spiritual gift from our Creator that enables us to say " yes " to the truths of Divine Revelation, as handed on by the Tradition of the Church, the Scriptures, as defined by the Magisterium. It is a mortal sin ( a grevious sin ) against the Gift of Faith to deliberately question its truth. It is sort of the same thing ( comparatively ) for a happily married man or woman to deliberately " flirt around " with another man or woman. That would be cruel and mean and would endanger a once true love and would be a seriously uncharitable act, an insult against ones spouce.

Linus2nd

I am going to have to disagree. Can I say I really believe in something if I am consciously ignoring alternatives? Questioning and doubting are not sins.

I know my Faith is not perfect. Weighing it against alternatives is a way of making sure that it’s sufficiently strong (and a way of exercising it). If I am afraid to do that, then is it really Faith?

 

[Al_Moritz]

I am going to have to disagree. Can I say I really believe in something if I am consciously ignoring alternatives? Questioning and doubting are not sins.

I know my Faith is not perfect. Weighing it against alternatives is a way of making sure that it’s sufficiently strong (and a way of exercising it). If I am afraid to do that, then is it really Faith?

I agree, in broad terms. I went through questioning my faith against atheism as well, and I came out stronger on the other side (after some in-depth study I find naturalism, which is superficially attractive, quite weak, actually).

 

[Linusthe2nd]

I would like to call the attention of all Catholics to paragraphs 2087 - 2089 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In summary, they warn that to intertain doubts against the faith is a serious sin against faith. The reason is clear. Faith is a supernatural gift and it covers and includes everything the Church teaches, whether by defined Dogma or by the ordinary teachings of the Magisterium in regard to faith and morals.

The reason is simple. God does not lie. And the Church is the Divinely appointed means for determining what God has Revealed and Taught. To intertain doubts about the faith is to doubt the veracity of God, it is to call Him a lier. This would be a grave sin.

On the other hand, to question the " reasons " the Church gives in support of the body of faith and morals would not necessarily be a sin, so long as we always gave the " assent of faith " to the teaching itself. But even here, we should strive to understand the " reasons, " since the Church is using two thousand years of her understanding of human nature and human wisdom in showing the reasonableness of all her teachings.

 

[Joe_5859]

I would like to call the attention of all Catholics to paragraphs 2087 - 2089 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In summary, they warn that to intertain doubts against the faith is a serious sin against faith. The reason is clear. Faith is a supernatural gift and it covers and includes everything the Church teaches, whether by defined Dogma or by the ordinary teachings of the Magisterium in regard to faith and morals.

The reason is simple. God does not lie. And the Church is the Divinely appointed means for determining what God has Revealed and Taught. To intertain doubts about the faith is to doubt the veracity of God, it is to call Him a lier. This would be a grave sin.

On the other hand, to question the " reasons " the Church gives in support of the body of faith and morals would not necessarily be a sin, so long as we always gave the " assent of faith " to the teaching itself. But even here, we should strive to understand the " reasons, " since the Church is using two thousand years of her understanding of human nature and human wisdom in showing the reasonableness of all her teachings.

I forget which Catholic thinker said it, but “A thousand questions do not a doubt make.” I think sometimes we just use “questioning” and “doubting” interchangeably. When some say they “doubt”, what they really mean is they have questions. It’s not necessarily the same thing.

 

[Al_Moritz]

I forget which Catholic thinker said it, but “A thousand questions do not a doubt make.” I think sometimes we just use “questioning” and “doubting” interchangeably. When some say they “doubt”, what they really mean is they have questions. It’s not necessarily the same thing.

Well said.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

I went and gave the site a cursory look. I have to say it gave me a better appreciation for some of the rules that are enforced here in CAF. Also it seems that a blog with comments area isn’t (IMHO) the best format for having a dialog. To me it appears that people are speaking more about stereotypes or overgeneralized personas that are not descriptive of the actual people that are interacting in the forum.

 

[Joe_5859]

I went and gave the site a cursory look. I have to say it gave me a better appreciation for some of the rules that are enforced here in CAF. Also it seems that a blog with comments area isn’t (IMHO) the best format for having a dialog. To me it appears that people are speaking more about stereotypes or overgeneralized personas that are not descriptive of the actual people that are interacting in the forum.

I had that thought, too. If dialogue is the goal, I would think a forum would work better than comments on blog posts. But I understand that might turn it into a larger undertaking than they are equipped to handle at present. Maybe they’ll get there eventually.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

I forget which Catholic thinker said it, but “A thousand questions do not a doubt make.” I think sometimes we just use “questioning” and “doubting” interchangeably. When some say they “doubt”, what they really mean is they have questions. It’s not necessarily the same thing.

Yes, there is a difference. Questions are O.K., to toy with doubts is not. Linus2nd

 

[Linusthe2nd]

I went and gave the site a cursory look. I have to say it gave me a better appreciation for some of the rules that are enforced here in CAF. Also it seems that a blog with comments area isn’t (IMHO) the best format for having a dialog. To me it appears that people are speaking more about stereotypes or overgeneralized personas that are not descriptive of the actual people that are interacting in the forum.

Yes, I think the C.A. format is better. Theirs is hard to read ( print too small ) and confusing. Though the bloggers do take active part. Linus2nd

 

[Charlemagne_II]

There are many atheists searching for God who are not even conscious they are doing so. Some of them may be in this forum. They do as a rule have open minds on many subjects, except on the subject of atheism. The real issue is not whether they have open minds, but whether they have closed hearts. You only get to know God by reaching out to him and embracing him. Until then, the atheist might as well be shaking his logic stick at a non-existent unicorn.

Argument number 17, the Argument from Esthetic experience, is also one of my favorite arguments, and the one that brought me to conversion. However, as Kreeft points out, you either experience this one or you don’t. I know atheists who refuse to listen to sacred music, no matter how beautiful, because it disturbs their conviction that there is no one the music can possibly be addressed to. The music I found profoundly convincing was Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus.

youtube.com/watch?v=6KUDs8KJc_c