Why talk about atheism? (July 7, 2015)

Re: Why I Hate the Phrase: “True Christians Don’t Do That!”

Link to the Article

I actually liked this article. The author raises a good point. Every brand of Christian thinks they are right and others are wrong in some way or another. That's fine. That doesn't mean there is no correct way. The authenticity of one's adherence to the teachings of Christ will be determined at the right time. It won't be me, nor will it be this author. The author writes, "There is no way to determine which denomination is following the bible the correct way. There is no one correct way to follow Christ. If there was 40,000+ different denominations wouldn’t exist." That is a presumption. There was one group once upon a time, then there were two and then more. That was because groups started to degrade the original teaching of one church. The Church, made up of fallible and broken individuals can make mistakes and they have at times. That fact does not negate that God exists and that he established a church, outside of which there is no salvation.

Laurence Gonzaga
6.16.15

Re: Cursed are the Meek, for They Dream of Being Enslaved

Link to Article

1. You can't just take one passage to make your point. Obviously, not all Christians have been, are, and will be, meek. But it would be convenient to make the author's point that Christians are only made up of gullible ignoramuses. 
2. The idea that a bunch of men with power came together and cooked up the Jesus story and then managing to impose that on an entire group of people to systematically enslave their minds is rather unlikely. I'm not sure how you could even begin to prove such a theory other than simply asserting it as fact.
3. The author writes, "They believe those obviously made-up fairy tales because when they were very young they were taught not how to think but what to think, and were warned on pain of unimaginable eternal torment never to doubt what they were taught." If it were that obvious then how does one explain how Christians become atheists. IQ doesn't magically change because a person get's butt hurt and now has a philosophical axe to grind against religion. Atheists also become Christians or religionists, so how does the author explain that? Maybe they lose IQ points, as a result of PTSD perhaps. 
4. This article was nice poetry. Perfect for all atheist conspiracy theorists. 

Laurence Gonzaga

6.16.15

Re: God Isn’t Real but the Devil Is: Childhood’s End and Five Years of Hell

Article

This was a good piece to read. Abuse is nothing to ignore. Anyone who suspects abuse should address it to the proper people and/or authorities. Of course, use your best judgement. The only thing I can criticize about an article such as this is that it is used as a way of arguing against the existence of God. What happened to this young girl and now woman was terrible and the one responsible needs to answer for his crimes. However this:

I now know that God did not “let” this happen to me because God does not exist. No God would allow something like that to happen to a child.

... is a leap in logic. Tragedies do not disprove the existence of God. It may disprove certain ideas of God, but could not in itself disprove his existence.

Laurence Gonzaga
6.16.15

Christopher Hitchens and Mother Teresa

I found this video interesting.  A few years ago I read Christopher Hitchens' formal criticism of Mother Teresa, The Missionary Position. Though it has been criticized for it's lack of documentation by Bill Donahue, I still think it is worth a read. I think there is room to question the methods of Mother Teresa. That is not un-Catholic to do.

Re: Mercy Killing: Humane for animals; Immoral for humans

Link to Article

Why is it right for me to have killed the duck – without him being able to tell me that’s what he wanted – but not okay to end the misery of someone begging for it? Exactly what is it that makes the second immoral?

Just read this over at Atheist Analysis. The simple answer is that if you don't believe in God then all creatures are equal. They would have to be, otherwise the parallel the author is trying to make is lost. But I wonder if the author is a vegetarian. Is eating meat an act of murder? Somehow it just seems obvious that killing a human has to have a graver punishment than killing your neighbor's cat. If the author is asking the person who is against "mercy killing" why is it moral to do that for an animal and is immoral to do that to a human is that the person against it is likely a Christian and on that basis opposes murder and assisted self murder, suicide. According to Catholic theology, humans and animals have souls, but humans distinctly have incorruptible souls and only humans were created in God's image.

Laurence Gonzaga
1.17.15

Albert Einstein Was Neither An Atheist Nor A Pantheist

I saw this meme posted in an atheism group on Google+. I responded and said Einstein wasn't an atheist. and the response was, "He would have defined "God' as all that is. Even atheists would agree with that definition." God being all that is is pantheism. He wasn't a pantheist either. 

I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written these books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations. 

- Albert Einstein, quoted in Max Jammer, Einstein and Religion, 48.