Saints for Atheists

  • Thread starter Thread starter avgjoe
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

avgjoe

Guest
Can someone direct me to quotes concerning not judging the Church by it’s sinners but rather it’s saints. I have an atheist friend who is trying to make a case about about how deplorable actions of certain priests “illustrates the weak forces of your living God if he is indeed a reality”. I am seeking clarification in what exactly he means by force, but I presume he alludes to God’s power working in people to create the perfection it preaches. Surely, I will make a case about providing us with free will, but also it made me think about what great examples we have in our Saints and how I could use these to show the way his ‘force’ is manifested through grace.

Joe
 
His clarification:

“To me there is nothing more devout than a priest. They sacrifice everything for their calling. Now I guess if the power of prayer can not deliver priests from their demons, I feel this illustrates the power of prayer to be very weak at best or as I believe prayer does nothing beyond the laws of chance and coincidence. Now one could argue these men in question are complete frauds, but I really don’t think someone would go into the priesthood to pull a con job…I believe for the most part these people go into the priesthood in hopes of delivering themselves from their demons of homosexuality and pedophilia. Just the thoughts of one man who’s thought about it a lot.”
 
Sounds like the best thing to do is simply link him in on some studies that show how Prayer IS effective.

Atheists tend to only respect facts and figures so some simple examples of how Prayer is statistically proven to heal more than placebo would be the best way.

Another way would be to point him to a miraculous event happening in response to prayer that couldnt have occoured naturally.
 
I wouldn’t personally go with facts and figures. While science and faith aren’t at odd, they aren’t the same thing, either.

Your friend starts with the assumption that priests are the most devout folks out there. That’s the first mistake. Priests are just people. They have the will of people, the intellect of people, and the concupiscence of people. They must work enter into the process of theosis just like everyone else- they get no free pass. In fact, if they’re running to the priesthood to escape their “demons”, then things will likely be worse on them.

The second mistake is assuming that God will just deliver us from the weakness of the flesh. We have work to do. Certainly, we do it with his grace, but he demands work of us. Some people get weighed down with the difficulty of mortification and just give up. Some people get tired and slip.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top