Your pleasant or unpleasant conditions suppose the dogmas of heaven and hell, dogmas which reason cannot accept.
The dogmas of heaven and hell guarantee the conditions. Nor is there anything in those dogmas which conflicts with sane reason.
God & Faith
331 articles from the existing collection.
Let us leave these mysterious inner activities of God, and turn to external creatures. How do you view the theories of creation and evolution?
Creation is not a theory. It is a fact revealed by God. Evolution is a fact within certain restricted spheres, but a mere theory when made of universal application. We have to admit evolution in knowledge, or in growth from babyhood to manhood. As a universal theory, however, evolution from nothing is absurd. Yet granted that Go…
Your argument from justice weakens morality. If there were to be no rectification of things in the next life, all the more reason for men to remedy injustices in this world.
That might seem to you a reason why it would be better if there were no future life and reparation of justice. But we know that there is such a future life, and a priori possibilities cannot avail against fact. Also it is a fact that men who give up their belief in a future life are not consumed with a passion for the rectifying…
But Jesus said, “These signs will follow them that believe.” He even said that His true followers would do greater things than He.
The signs predicted by Christ did follow. But He never said that they would always follow, and that every single believer in Him throughout the ages would be able to do them. As a matter of fact they have not followed at the discretion of every follower of Christ, and if He had intended them to do so, then He has failed, and you…
I cannot understand how highly intellectual men can accept obvious legends and fairy tales as historical facts without question or doubt !
Highly intellectual men do accept the doctrines of Christianity as certain. Being highly intellectual, they have not done so without profound investigation of the reasonable grounds for their position. And knowing that such men are convinced, it is not highly intellectual conduct to reject as legends and fairy tales the doctrine…
Where this terrible dogma does not embitter happiness, it destroys character.
That is a gratuitous assertion. I believe in hell. Since it exists I would much rather know than not know. And the knowledge does not embitter my happiness. As for my corrupt character, you at least have not sufficient evidence to judge me on that point.
The Bible says, “Believe and be baptized.” How can children make an act of faith?
The command to believe and be baptized was addressed to adult listeners only who, without faith, would not even see the necessity of Baptism. But children belong to their parents, and the parents may certainly give their children to God, professing faith on their behalf and promising to bring them up as Christians.
But our intentions at least are all good. We are all striving for the one end.
The Jews could have made a similar remark to Christ when He tried to convert them to Christianity. If we are Christians, we must deny that good intentions will suffice. And if Christianity is better than the Jewish religion—as Christ knew it was— then if the Catholic Church has the complete doctrine, and every form of Protestant…
Do you say that God makes a man infallible who has to be voted for just like politicians?
God says He does. But the Pope is not infallible because voted for. He is elected by votes, and when elected he receives infallibility from God. The Pope does not derive his infallibility from those who elect him.
Is there any truth in the claims of Spiritualism?
There is truth in the claim that the soul is distinct from, and can survive the body. All men instinctively know this, and as they lose faith in Protestantism, this fundamental truth of reason remains. Many of them therefore turn to Spiritualism. Thus this new phase gains ground among non-Catholics. As a religious system Spiritu…
You have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, Mary the Mother of God, Satan the God of Evil, invisible Angels and Saints, etc.
Polytheism teaches several gods. Christianity teaches but one God. The three Divine Persons share the one Divine Nature, and are but one God. The other beings you cite are declared by the Church to be creatures, and cannot be used as an argument for the plurality of gods. If we taught that they are gods, you could rightly accuse…
Granted their belief that Christ once ascended that staircase, could they not show their love for Christ in some more practical way?
Other actions could certainly be more pleasing to God. But one has not only to go up a staircase sanctified by Christ. In fact, it is not necessary to do this. Life consists of a series of actions, not all of equal value. If I am in circumstances which give me an opportunity of showing my love and reverence for Christ, the quest…
What proof have you that original sin is inherited?
The very best—the word of the God who created us. In Ps. L., 7, we read David’s testimony, “In sins did my mother conceive me.” The original Hebrew has “in sin,” not “in sins.” He is speaking, not of his own personal sins, nor of any actual sin of his father or mother. He is speaking of original sin derived from Adam and the fir…
But in the end, is not religion a matter of opinion?
If you except the Catholic Church, I’m afraid it is. That other churches think so is shown by the amazing exchanges of pulpits and attendances. But the Catholic Church is a different thing altogether. Until we prove a tiling it is a matter of opinion. Thus before Australia was discovered, it was a matter of opinion as to whetlie…
You believe that you can accept science without sacrificing the Mosaicaccount of creation?
It will take science all its time to clarify its own conclusions. But apart from that, no proven scientific conclusion will ever necessitate the rejection of a single jot or tittle of Scripture. Truth can never contradict truth, and the Biblical account is absolutely true in its own order. It does not profess to give a technical…
Can we believe that the devil would promise things to God in order to secure His worship?
No. But he could quite well tempt an apparently human being whom his finite intelligence did not know for certain to be God, and in order to test his conjecture that he might be.
These seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church are to assist us in the sanctification of our souls, and to prepare us for a happy eternity. But will you maintain that your Catholic dogmas concerning the future state in no way violate reason?
I am quite prepared to maintain that.
It is easy to confess to a fellow man and get forgiveness. But it is not so convenient to remain in humble doubt.
The humiliation of Confession is an inconvenience not found in Protestantism, and from that point of view Protestantism is easier. On the other hand Christ was too merciful to leave us without some definite assurance of forgiveness, and He gave us a very definite Sacrament to alleviate our anxiety.
Is it not a concession to rationalism to say of every unpalatable Biblical story “I have not got to believe it absolutely”?
I have never made that concession. We have to believe the Bible absolutely, but according to the exact sense intended by the Bible. If you think that we do not believe it absolutely because we do not subscribe to what you think ought to be the sense, that is no fault of ours. Nor is such an attitude of mind rational.
Can any one Church claim to have all the truth, which has so many angles?
The Catholic Church can and does claim to have all the truth. For you must not confuse false ideas which are opposed to the truth with merely different angles of the truth. If, for example, it be true that Confession is a Sacrament instituted by Christ, then denial of Confession is not a different angle of the truth, but its neg…
You, as a Priest, argue to a clock-maker. I, as a rationalist, ask, “Who created your uncreated clock-maker?”
That is not a rational question. I say that the universe is obviously created, and that what is created supposes a Creator who is uncreated, or the problem goes on forever, the whole endless chain of dependent beings as unable to explain itself as each of its links. It is rational to argue to an uncreated clock-maker. It is not …
Do you personally believe that all non-Catholics deserve burning at the stake?
No. Present-day Protestants are not ex-Catholics in bad faith, and even if they were I would not wish to burn them. Some of them might deserve it. Some Catholics certainly do deserve it, for if a traitor to his country deserves death, so too does a traitor to God who has a far greater claim to our loyalty than any country could …
Faith in Christ is the only thing that will save sinners.
All the faith in the world could not save a sinner who intends to go on sinning. A man must repent of his sins, and try to live a good life.
You suppose, of course, the validity of your dogmas concerning the person and work of Christ.
Those dogmas are valid. I do not suppose their validity.