I would LOVE to run my RCIA program, as a convert I think I understand where they’d be coming from… but if they asked me what anything in Latin meant I’d be stuck! I think Cradle Catholics have MUCH to offer as well.
Like what, for example?
As a convert and an RCIA Inquiry facilitator myself, I’d say, have a mixture, and have lots of people on the team.
I can tell you from my experience newbies make the best RCIA sponsors, and that extra year makes a huge difference, IMHO they are ready to be catechists after that. Believe me you would not want to run the program, too many headaches. newbies also make the best active parishioners in just about any area of service or apostolate you can think of. Cradle Catholics bring a lot of baggage and I am thinking it takes more effort to weed out the dissent, habit of disobedience, attitude of challenge to Church authority, and reliance on “what I learned in 3rd grade from Sister” than it does to train a neophyte.
What do you mean by converts? Do you mean atheists who convert to Catholicism, or do you mean other Protestants who convert to Catholicism?
God converts them. We just teach them their catechism and how to say their prayers, and help them find what they need.
You know Ribozyme someday you will realize that people in these forums could not care less about what your gods, Singer , Shapiro and Joyce think about anything.
I already know that. Do you want to know why people in these forums do not care about Joyce and Shapiro’s ideas? It is because the people here do not care about the origin of life or nucleic acid chemistry. Prove me wrong if you want to. I am continually surprised that most people (even outside of this message board) are apathetic about the origin of life. Why don’t people want this question answered: “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” in reference to the Paul Gauguin painting.
I suspect most of us would much prefer to hear what and why you think about issues trather than continually drop the names of people who’s opinions matter not in the least the the vast majortiy of us.
People here most certainly “care about the origin of life”. I for one do not delve into the physical side of our origins such as nucleic acid chemistry as a means to discern the origins of life. In spite of my lack of knowledge or even interest in such things however, my search for God has yeilded my own anwers to your questions: “Where Do We Come From?” We come from LOVE. “What Are We?” We are products of LOVE “Where Are We Going?” We are going where LOVE leads us. If LOVE does not lead, we will go nowhere.
I would estimate 8-15% for Peter Singer, Gerald Joyce, and Robert Shapiro. Peter Singer would be in the majority of posts because I almost always bring him up when discussing issues such as abortion, ethics, and the sanctity of life. Joyce and Shapiro are brought up less, but I mention them as they influenced the way I see the world. For example, Joyce answered the question of “What Are We?” quite elegantly: We are a self-sustaining system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.
And we meet again. Remember me? The one with a bachelor’s of science in biochemistry, the one who’s working on a PhD in immunology at one of the top 25 universities in the world? Guess what, there are thousands of scientists out there with published manuscripts. Flavell, Rudensky, Abbas, and Janeway are more important to my work. I don’t have scads of time now to study up on Joyce and Shapiro, as the odds that I will ever work with them or in sub-fields related to theirs are very, very slim. As for their ideas on theology…let’s just say I prefer to learn about theology from the experts, and they certainly don’t fall into that category. Perhaps you could learn the distinction and avoid falling into the trap of insulting everyone on these boards in one fell swoop.
Most of us know what the origing of life is. All scientists do is try to figure out the machinics of how God did it.
Exactly.
I mean Protestants who convert to Catholicism.
With all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Believing in scientific fact such as the role of DNA etc. does not preclude any possible belief in God. You should read “The Language of God” by Francis Collins (headed the Human Genome project). He talks about why his extensive research in the field of DNA has actually reinforced his belief in God.
Reread my quote, I never said belief in nucleic acids is contradictory to religious dogmas. I DO know biochemistry quite well (Well, I mastered most of the material in Berg, Tymoczko, and Stryer’s* Biochemistry*, and read my fair share of journal articles on the origin of life and *in vitro *evolution); however, when discussing physics, I am not that competent.
The answer is obvious: those converts are familar with the Protestant objections to the teachings of Catholicism and they are able to refute them elegantly.
And therein lies the tragedy. God has blessed you with a great intellect at a young age. And you misused this God given gift to discern you were too smart to believe in him. As your life goes on perhaps you will realize that brilliance does not equal wisdom and that every blessing you posess, including your intellect, came from him.