How do you explain catholicism to an athiest?

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My Advanced Placement U.S. history teacher is one one the nicest people I know and one of the smartest. When it comes to the topic of God and Catholicism he ceases to seem smart. I thought he, an expert on history(not just U.S. history), would believe in God and the Catholic church as the true church. But when I asked him if there was a God he responded by saying that people created God for a need of a supernatural beign. He also told me that we were created by the big bang and that when we die we will return to nothingness. When I tried to talk to him about catholicism he said that the Catholic church was corrupted when is sold indulgences. I don’t know how to reach him. Everything I know about catholic beliefs seems to be worthless when talking to a seemingly very intelligent person who dosen’t even believe in God. I feel so sorry for him and want to help him but do not know how. Does anyone have any ideas???
 
First of all, don’t blame yourself if you cannot answer all of your teacher’s arguments. But also don’t be intimidated by his arguments either. He is probably reguritating at lot of bad information he learned in college.

Remember, the best witness of the Faith is living the Faith. Pray for your teacher.

If you haven’t done so already, begin to read up on the Faith. Ask your pastor or youth leader for some reading suggestions. Off the top of my head, I would say C.S. Lewis, Peter Kreeft and Chesterson. Also, don’t neglect the catechism and the bible.

Many intelligent people don’t believe in God. Remember, is up to them to change that belief, not you. Don’t let his questioning lead you to doubt your Faith (which it doesn’t sound like is happening).

The compassion you show for your teacher is laudable.

I hope this helps,

georgeaquinas
 
I second georgeaquinas and only want to add that you should give your teacher a copy of The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton (you can order a copy from Ignatius Press search under Chesterton or the American Chesterton Society search under Books and Merchandise). It is the book that helped C. S. Lewis’s conversion to Christianity.
 
In my experience, it works best to start with morals. Understand what he feels is right/wrong. Persuade him using non-religious arguments on any morals he has that contradict the church. Once their moral charcter is in alignment with the church, point out that they are one and the same.

Grace comes from desiring to be a holy person, even if you do not immediately believe in God. Once you have someone in parallel with the church, it is much easier to get them to believe.

Josh
 
There is a way to catch him off guard! Ask him if he completely knows and comprehends all that exists within the square foot of space that he is sitting in. There is no way that he is absolutely aware of every microscopic particle within that square foot. There are probably things going on there that he has no idea about within that space. If he admits to that, then ask him how he knows and understands completely all that does or doesnt exist in the entire universe. To say that he knows that God doesnt exist presupposes that he is aware of all that exists in the universe and nothing exists that he isnt aware of. Now, if he is all knowing in the sense that he knows all that exists and nothing is beyond his comprehension, then he is claiming for himself the characteristics that belong to God himself. For nothing exists outside of God and aparently nothing exists outside of your professor either, in fact its impossible because if something did exist outside of him then there is a chance he may not be aware of it, which he claims is impossible! 🙂 --sorry for the convolution!!!
 
Good history teachers are prolific readers.

Patrick Madrid wrote an excellent book (actually 3 books, but I cannot remember the name if someone cares to provide it) about converts and how they found the truth of Catholicism.

Someone like your teacher could find this useful.

St. Thomas Aquinas, as others have referenced, has excellent proofs for the existence of God, particularly well suited for academics.

Finally, a word of advice; remember that combining the intellectually superior position of teacher with the common trait among atheists of perceived intellectual superiority is an explosive combination.

You may remember the California atheist Michael Newdow who began the furor over the Pledge of Allegiance.

He is the perfect example of the atheist that believes himself to be smarter than a believer. Science is his god and his idol.

It is very difficult to convince people like this. God can do it, though, so pray always.

I wish you the best.
 
The best source for deep intellectual reasoning for our faith is the catechism. It is so deep that it will blow your mind from the prologue to the begining of the first chapter. Those two in particular talk about man’s search for God and being designed with a desire to know God written in his heart. Also look up atheism and unbelief and anything else you think of. Good luck. Ask him, if there is no God, why is there something instead of nothing. And if he were to use his logical mind, think of all of the coincidences that would have to go into making just one cell in your saliva much less all of the different cells that make up your tongue , your eye, your heart muscle, and your skin. Much less any other species of mammal or any animal or any insect or any of the elements, or plants or rocks. The amount of cells and more precisley atoms, and nuerons and protons, and then order them so they work together and stay together and not just fly apart. Where did the big bang come from, We as Catholics do not neccesarily dis-agree with the theory that the universe that we see today was once one big ball of matter that exploded. We, and when I say we, I mean lay Catholics, since the church has never officially expounded on the science of creation, think that what ever there was before the big bang was created and put into motion by God, and that man was especially created in his image, which makes us his most special creation, so special that he decided to become one. One thing to remember is that since God is the author of creation, nothing in his word(bible) or official teachings of his church will ever contradict science since God does not contradict himself. Since we believe that the church is guarded by the Holy Spirit from error in matters of faith and morals and that the Holy Spirit is the same Spirit that created the known universe, he will never contradict himself.
 
You can start right where he is.

The Big Bang arose at a time when the expansion of the universe was thought to be constant and limited. So, it was easy to think that eventually, gravity slowed and stopped the expansion, so everything could fall back together and explode again, over and over. See the work of Fred Hoyle.

Within the last few years, scientists have learned the the expansion is accelerating, everything is moving apart faster and faster. So there’s only ONE Big Bang.

Where did the matter and energy of the Big Bang come from?

Where did the laws of physics come from; why should there be laws of nature at all?

Mass (or energy) and momentum (motion, mass times velocity) are conserved (invariant) in all known science experiments. There is a lot of matter around, and it’s moving. How did that start?
The Big Bang begs the question: where did the original matter and laws of physics come from?

The measured physical constants are finely tuned; if there’s any change, then the conditions for human life are not met.

You will find many books and web sites where serious scientific work is documented, and where the wonderful areement between faith and reason is clearly demonstrated, like Discovery Institute .

There is also the possibility of some harm to a person that leads them to hate the very idea of God. Theeir pain or sin can make them resist the obvious proofs of God that are everywhere from the stars in the clear night sky to the human eye.

Most of all you have to pray and fast for people. Your example of joy and peace, alongs with your reasons for confidence in God are very important, too. God does the work in His time and way; yours may only be a step along someones way, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate results.

There are literally mountains of information, but the challenge is to find intellectually honest, rational thinkers. I would start with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (400th Anniversary) and found interesting, thorough discussions from various sciences. See if you can find the paper: “A Millenium View of the Universe” by V. C. Rubin in the Proceedings of the Jubilee Session

God is everywhere, for those with eyes to see:
Astronomy Picture of the Day from Hubble Telescope
 
Some suggestions (remember, tho’, as others have posted, that the witness of your personal faith-life is paramount):
  • Always say a prayer to the Holy Spirit before you start.
  • It’s usually best to start with what the non-beliver says and push their arguments all the way to their illogical conclusions. (This is also great fun!)
  • Don’t use the Bible or our Creeds to make your points because then doesn’t accept them anyway. Tell him that you respect him and won’t try to use something he disagrees with to prove him wrong, that talking about the Bible / Creeds with an atheoid is like trying to use a Calculus text to teach a pre-schooler how to count.
  • Ask him what he thinks about evil, if he thinks there is evil in the world. If he answers that he does, then ask him where it comes from, what causes it. Almost always the atheist replies, “FROM PEOPLE!” To which, of course, we believers respond, “Well, duhhhh!!!”
  • Point out to him the fact that IF there is no God, then there is NO evil. Absolutely nothing can be bad. This is because to judge something ‘bad / evil’ is to measure that something against some standard of good, and this leads directly to God. (Atheists are ALWAYS claiming that things are bad. Like religion, for instance.)
Just some starters. I’ve been doing this for decades and can tell you, IT’S FUN! Also, remember that you may never actually see his conversion. Never mind. As St. Paul says, plant seeds. God will provide the water / weeding.
 
Address his concerns that he brought up for not believing in the supernatural and for not believing he should support the catholic church as an organization. He told you some reasons about what he believes as to why he is not a catholic or spiritual. Work from there. You can’t use your conversion story, if you were converted or indoctrination story if you were always catholic. That was what worked for you. You have to learn what works for him and go from there. You may be socially indoctrinated to accept the church is a good thing and that the supernatural is actually a reality, but many people are not.
 
You speak so one-sidedly on “indoctrination,” as if by default having grown up in a belief system one has not been taught to think critically, or as if one could not be indoctrinated into beliefs against a particular belief or institution.
 
EDIT: Oh, beans. I didn’t realize until I’d posted that this was a 13 year old thread that somebody revived…

I suggest picking up a copy of the book “What’s So Great About Christianity?” by Dinesh D’Souza. He wrote the book as a collection of arguments for the existence of God towards atheists (namely, they’re arguments that don’t center around quoting the Bible as proof of God’s existence, other than to show places where the Bible is predictive about reality).

For example, that big bang theory… was a Catholic theory and was central to Catholic theological teaching LONG before Scientists ever came to agree with the notion that the universe literally came from nothing (a revolution of thinking that only occured in the mid to late 20th century). The big bang theory itself was proposed by a Catholic Belgian Catholic Priest (Georges L’Maitre).

As to the sinfulness of priests and bishops who abused the selling of indulgences, yeah, no duh. No teaching of the church has ever stated that membership automatically equals holiness, or that ordination means the perfection of man. That’s kind of the point of the church: to serve as a hospital for sinners.

There’s plenty of smart people out there who believe in God, and plenty of smart people out there who are entirely convinced of wrong ideas. Being smart does not prevent someone from being in error (kind of like being a priest doesn’t prevent someone from sinning!). Just use this as a challenge to yourself to understand more about the justification of faith!
 
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