"A Humble Servant's Catholic Blog"

In Part I , I described the video I had shared which made a logical case against denying God’s existence simply on the basis that “evil” exists and discussed a definition of evil which excludes God and relies on our own subjective opinions. It’s worth repeating that, without an objective definition of “evil”, all you are left with is subjective opinion ( …how I perceive something…which may differ from how someone else perceives the same thing ).   Subjectively defining evil becomes a meaningless mash of opinions which destroys any definition of evil. And this is where the dialog with “MC” comes in.   I had addressed this to another friend of mine [Jay], but it was “MC” who replied.   Dave:   God’s existence can’t logically be denied just because there is evil in the world.   In fact, wouldn’t you agree that the existence of evil implies that there is a way things are “supposed to be” (a.k.a. “good”)?     And if there is a way things a...

It began with a video posted to a friend’s FB wall.   https://www.facebook.com/joshua.feuerstein.5/videos/549242585178428/?pnref=story In this short [scripted] video, a young lady demonstrates that evil and suffering in the world are not sufficient evidence to deny the existence of God (logically).   One might as well not believe in dentists because of all the tooth problems, she claims.   The dentist remarks that he can’t help those who don’t come to him for help, and thus the analogy is made that evil is simply the result of people not turning to (or turning away from) God. Obviously the analogy falls short, because analogies tend to do that.   She couldn’t really deny the existence of the dentist because she’s at his office.   (Though, that wouldn’t stop someone who has never experienced a dentist from not believing.)   But the point is a logical one.   Denying God’s existence because of the evils of the world is fallacious because 1) it pres...

The following is a written version/adaptation of Trent Horn’s short 6-minute video “ When Does Life Begin? ” on Catholic Answers. (There is an even shorter version HERE .) I have attempted to maintain the integrity of that video, presenting it here in written form for those who like to have the text available. While this may not be a word-for-word reproduction, it’s fairly close. The question of why abortion is wrong is tied directly to the question of when human life begins. When asked when life begins, abortion advocates will give any number of answers: “ Once the baby has fully formed organs ”; “… when it has a heartbeat ”; “… when it’s identifiable as a human ”; “… the moment a baby can breathe ”; “ we can’t really know when life begins ”, etc. (In fact, I have even heard similar answers from pro-life advocates.) ‘Because we can’t really pin-point when life begins’, so they say, or ‘because it begins at [some random point selected by any given person]’, the imposition o...

I once read a comment from a combox in a discussion about clerical abuse that read something very similar to this: “ When Catholics are attacked about the sex-abuse scandal, we should only focus on the Church, not other organizations, because it only comes across as ‘making excuses’ or trying to draw the focus off of ourselves. It doesn’t help the cause .” I could not disagree more. I think we should focus on ALL areas where child sexual abuse is occurring. Anything less would be hypocrisy.  We should absolutely hold the Church accountable and keep a watchful eye. But ONLY focusing on the Church will only harm the cause, because we otherwise neglect over 62,000 other victims each year . There are an average of 8 reported sex abuse cases each year at the hands of Catholic Priests (see item #3 in that link), according to the CARA report . That’s obviously 8 too many, and we need to continue to do something about it. But in ONLY focusing on the Church here, we are doing tw...

United in Christ: What Can I Do?!? : When I look around I feel like we are losing the fight. Yes, we are in a fight. Evil seems to be winning. There is division everywhere. Our...[click link to continue reading]. Michael Henderson is a husband and father to six beautiful children of God (one of whom is still enjoying the comforts of her mommy's womb at the moment). The Henderson family has recently accepted the call of God to become Catholic Missionaries, and you can find out more about them HERE on their Family Missions Company portfolio page.  Donations to support the Hendersons as they do God's work are welcome, and can be given on that page. 

Some groups of Christians believe that every saved person speaks in tongues, and anyone who does not, isn’t really saved. Here’s an example of what I have been told by such a person: “ When we receive the Holy Spirit or we are filled with the Holy Spirit after being born again, the initial evidence is speaking or praying in tongues . Anyone who cannot pray in tongues does not have the Holy Spirit within them. Acts 2:4, 10:45-46 and 1 Cor 12:28 list the ministry gifts. The last one is diversities of tongues. Praying in tongues is your own personal prayer time for your edification. Every Christian can do it at will (1Cor 14:4,14.). The other 3 gifts are done as the Holy Spirit wills. ” But does the Bible really say that ALL Christians will speak in tongues, or even be able to? Is there any indication that this will be THE sign that a person is saved or has received the Holy Spirit? Let’s look at the passages cited and see what they say. This person (a Pentecostal) cites Acts ...

I once had a discussion with a friend of mine who believed that the world would be better off without any religion.   “ I think I figured it out ” , he said.   “[The one thing humans can] do away with that would make the world a much safer, brighter, happier, more progressive and innovative, and loving world [is religion]” .     Going with my own understanding of “religion” , I asked, “ How could the world be safer, brighter, happier, more progressive/innovative/loving by doing away with a relationship with our Creator? Seems like that would be a step in the opposite direction. ”   We ended up talking about several different topics at once ( whether we really know our Creator; whether He created evil/sin; the nature of free will; the state of humanity; etc. ) but the main focus was religion, and whether the world would be better off without it.     I said, “ Let’s make sure we are talking about the same thing:   ‘Religion’:   f...

I recently had a discussion with a “Bible Christian”, who goes by “Ed G.”, who leans on the side of conspiracy theories about the Catholic Church, believes the Church to be a one-way ticket to hell, and also believes spurious claims made by “ex-Catholics”.   I have “ex-Catholics” in parenthesis because Baptism leaves an indelible mark, so there’s really no such thing as an “ex-Catholic”.   They are merely non-practicing Catholics, and sometimes commit calumny in their false witness against the Church.   Ed brought up the testimony of two “ex-Catholics” who have made some serious accusations against the Church; one was a Priest and the other a Bishop.   You can look both of them up, and you will find that each left the Church over one matter or another and flatly rejected any authority within the Church.   Ed believes that because they were Priests in the Church, their testimony is therefore reliable.   I disagree, and our conversation will explain why....