Plato realized that the intelligible is immaterial by identifying a fundamental difference between the intelligible and the material. The intelligible is universal, while the material is particular. The concept of dog is universal: it applies to all dogs, whatever might be the medley of particular properties possessed by each material dog. Plato proposed that there […]
Last month I presented the First Way St. Thomas Aquinas explained the logical existence of God. Here is the Second Way. While this is a quick read, it may take some effort to discern St. Thomas’ subtle concepts because of the different use of words between his time and ours. The Second Way: The Argument […]
The historicity of God—God’s presence in history—should never be taken for granted, yet we do have a tendency to forget that God is active in history. The apostles and St. Paul testified about historical facts. They were not acting as ethical philosophers who had invented a new code of ethics. No, they were people who […]
Thomas Aquinas’ Ways But on one particular day, she grabbed my full, locked-on attention. She was talking about St. Thomas Aquinas’ famous Five Logical Proofs of God’s Existence, or five ways to demonstrate God’s existence. Up until that moment, I’d pretty much taken the Catholic Church’s teachings for granted. But this was new! These five […]
There are any number of reasons to believe that a God exists. But actually proving that God exists is much harder. And once you prove that a God exists, you still have to connect said God to the God of Christianity. Philosophy is hard mental work; most of the bad ideas driving our culture today […]
“Always be ready,” Scripture tells us, “to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Here is my defense for my hope in Christ, and it comes down to this: either we exist for a larger purpose or we don’t. There are […]
Do we really need to believe in certain miracles to be Christians? That is the question Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times asked Evangelical pastor Rev. Tim Keller and more recently former President Jimmy Carter. The answer Kristof seems to want is, “No, you can be skeptical about the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection […]
With the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation coming up later this year, it’s sad to note that while great strides have been made in ecumenical outreach between the various Christian communities out there, there are still many things that divide us. However, there are more than a few Christians, typically those outside of mainline Protestant […]
I first began to understand certain mystical truths as I prayed at the place where Jesus was crucified on the first Good Friday. I have written about some of these insights when I spent a night in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, but some were too much for me to understand at the time, and […]
As a cradle Catholic, I spent every Sunday morning in church, every Wednesday night in Faith Formation Classes and then as I got older, every Sunday night in youth group. My faith was a part of my everyday life, and just as my brain does not have to remind my body to breath, I never […]
I was working in a Youth Summer Conference job (they were very similar to Steubenville conferences) when I had the most uncomfortable experience in my life. The summer staff, ten of us split into two groups of five, were blindfolded and put in a car by our bosses. We drove for what felt like three […]
As a child I thought that being a Catholic was simple. One must say grace during meals, attend Mass on Sundays and other days when required, and occasionally say the rosary. I attended a Catholic grade school (with actual nuns!), and received the sacraments of baptism, confession, communion, and confirmation. The religious instruction seemed as […]
Sharing the Catholic faith with our separated brothers and sisters can be a challenge, especially when there isn’t a shared understanding of early Church history. Many still believe that the Catholic Church was actually created when the Emperor Constantine signed the Edict of Milan, making the Christian faith legal in the Roman Empire. The other […]
A Love-Hate Relationship with Sexual Freedom Our culture has a love-hate relationship with the ideas of sexual liberation that spewed out of the sixties and seventies. By promising instant gratification and sexual self-realization, the sixties and seventies crafted a narrative in which the purpose of sexuality was totally separate from procreation. This liberation has created […]
Today’s secular society operates on an array of levels when it comes to belief, truth, and moral relativism. For this reason, it becomes necessary to examine these entities in our world to provide an adequate response to moments when their meanings become convoluted. Belief and truth can convey deeply held convictions of an individual or […]
As a Catholic, I am often challenged about our use and reverence for the crucifix. The most common charge has been that the crucifix focuses on Christ’s death and fails to celebrate the Resurrection. But as Catholics we recognize these two events are necessarily intertwined. Each time we reflect on the image of Christ […]
I was involved in an online discussion last week on Facebook and the points raised in the discussion illustrate many erroneous ideas many people, including some Catholics, have about abortion. I pray some of the counterarguments in the debate may be of help to you if you become engaged in an argument with people who make […]
Almost 70 years ago a famous but now somewhat forgotten debate took place on BBC radio between Bertrand Russell and Rev. C. J. Copleston, S.J. The topic of the debate was whether or not God existed. Russell, a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist, and self-described atheist, argued against God’s […]
Amoris Laetitia. Regrettably, both Catholic and secular media seem to be dancing to a cadence of increasing hysteria. These bold-print emotional barrages are spreading undue anxiety into the ranks of otherwise placid and well-reasoned Catholics, who previously exampled more stoic equilibriums. De Facto Schism! Heresy and Scandal! Pope Francis leading the Church into confusion? Traditional […]
You probably had your first experience of reality long before you were born, in your mother’s womb. From that experience, a small handful of crucial ideations were created. It was your first experience of otherness, as well as your first experience of selfness because I came in contact with something that was not I. This is […]
Today there are many people who claim to be atheists. Some famous ones, like Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens, have even written books with the usual misapplication of scientific facts that somehow disprove the existence of God. The purpose of this article will be to take a rational look at the world we […]
Heaven, Evangelization, and Bumper Sticker Christianity
“Who did you bring with you?” That, Dear Reader, is the question God will supposedly ask us Christians when we beg admittance to the Heavenly Kingdom. I don’t suppose the person who thought this gem up really thinks of Heaven as a dinner party to which we all are expected to escort a plus-one or […]
Plato, Miracles, and the Reality of Matter
Plato realized that the intelligible is immaterial by identifying a fundamental difference between the intelligible and the material. The intelligible is universal, while the material is particular. The concept of dog is universal: it applies to all dogs, whatever might be the medley of particular properties possessed by each material dog. Plato proposed that there […]
What is God’s Will and Desire For My Life?
Have you ever pondered this question? “How do I know God’s will for my life”? I believe God has placed this question deep within our heart as a compass to navigate us toward greater fulfillment: ‘What is my unique purpose on this earth and how do I find it?’ The Catechism of the Catholic Church […]
Muslim Good Samaritans in War-Torn Marawi
As I write this article for Catholic Stand (July 6, 2017), the battle to free one of the cities in the southern part of the Philippines from the presence of an ISIS-inspired organization, the Maute group, has just entered its sixth week. Marawi City, located in Mindanao, has been under siege for more than a […]
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