W.H. Auden - Funeral Blues

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

This poem does not really come to Christian conclusions. It does show some truth though. Death does not come naturally to us. It is something that we are all going to have to face. It is an edge that can inspire a leap of faith or despair.

Lessons from World of Warcraft

I have spent a lot of time playing the game World of Warcraft. One of the lessons this game has taught me is that human created meaning doesn’t amount to much if it is not grounded in a higher reality. I was all into the game, emotionally attached to the characters, struggles, and accomplishments. But the truth is that even though I assigned meaning to the game ultimately the game was meaningless. It was not grounded into a higher reality. Without God to ground the meaning of our human experience, life is just a large game of World of Warcraft but on a different scale.

Without God there is no hope for humanity and this is one reason why I choose to believe. This may not be the best, most altruistic reason to believe. But it is certainly a reason.

Argent

Here is a poem read by Argent over at the Here There Are Lions

It is a poem by William Shakespeare



I'm excited to see what she reads next.

These Truths are Self Evident

I remember as a kid my father getting into a discussion about something religious with my uncle. I don’t even remember what the topic was. I do remember that they ended up agreeing to disagree. A couple of weeks letter my dad got a letter from my uncle. The letter was almost completely composed of Bible quotes. My uncle did not give any explanation for the quotes. Just that they had to do with their discussion. Reading over the quotes my dad had no clue what they had to do with the discussion. To my uncle, the quotes were self evident.

I think recently my blog has been a lot like this. I have posted cool things, but I have neglected to explain how they are related to apologetics. I am going to try to go back and remedy this. I am going to also continue to add new stuff at the same time.

Thanks for reading my blog.

The blob

Some personal truths can change or evolve but they do not have to apply to everyone.

I would agree that there is an element to morality that depends on the individual and her/his situation. There are three parts to morality. There is the intent of an action, the subjective situation, and the universal natural law. An action has to be good in all three areas for an action to be good. For example, I can do an action that is good according to the subjective situation and the natural law but with a bad intention, the act would be immoral. It seems to me that you are making all of morality fit into the subjective situation and the intention but your leaving out the universal natural law.

Natural universal Law is the one that trips everyone up. Though it is easy for one to recognize what a creator has created something for, many people tend to place an opinion on what is Natural as “good” or “right” and what is Unnatural as “wrong” or “bad”. The first thing I would suggest to someone, is to get out from under these judgments. Nature, by design, does not judge, it just has a responsibility to perform. Humans can hack some Natural Laws (we’re getting quite good at it). But instead of realizing that some Natural Laws inherently give room for such tampering and experimenting, some people feel that this is wrong and feelings are indeed subjective.

I agree that nature does not judge but there sure are consequence if you break natural law. You really can’t break natural law, you just end up breaking yourself on it. But there is room for our behavior because life is not all black and white.

Let me give an example using the three areas of morality that I gave in my past post. Lets say that someone breaks into my home and tries to hurt my children and wife. The natural law says that it is wrong to murder someone. It is also wrong to have the intent to do someone harm. But there is the subjective situation. In this situation it would be good to defend my wife and children. My intent is really not to hurt the person but my intention is to protect my family. If I end up killing the man who is trying to hurt my family, due to the principle of double effect, I would not be breaking the natural law. I did not murder the man; he died as a result of my defense of my family. I agree that this gets complicate but it is necessary when trying to be moral. Sometimes we are really unable to see the ultimate right path and we just have to choose the best we can.

Now if we say, “to hell with the natural law” you end up with a blob of a moral system. It would be like a human body without bones. There is nothing solid to support justice and goodness. The options are not an all rigid system, which your suggesting natural law is, verses a all subjective blob of a system with nothing solid to support anything. The human body has bones to support but there are also joints that allow the system flexibility. The same is true with morality. Because of this there is room for experimentation at times.

An important question that show the problem with the relative moral system was in my last post. Without an objective natural law, what high ground do you have to tell someone that they are being immoral? What Martin Luther King Jr. did for the U.S. would not have been possible without him pointing to the natural law. Or does might make right. Meaning the powerful get to determine what is right and wrong.

Notre Dame Football: Knute Rockne

... And that inner strength is what Notre Dame and the legend of Rockne are all about. You know, so much is said about Rockne's influence on his ballplayers, but actually he liked to talk about their influence on him. In his autobiography, he described his inability to sleep one night before a big game. So, he was up early in the lobby and saw 2 of his boys come down the stairs and go out, and then others came and followed them. And though he had a pretty good idea of what was going on, he decided to follow along. ``They didn't realize it,'' he said in his diary, ``but these youngsters were making a powerful impression on me.'' And he said, ``When I saw them walking up to the Communion rail to receive and realized the hours of sleep they had sacrificed, I understood what a powerful ally their religion was to them in their work on the football field.''

And after Rockne found -- here at Notre Dame -- his own religious faith, a friend of his at the University of Maryland asked him if he minded telling him about it. ``Why should I mind telling you?'' he said. ``You know all this hurry and battling we're going through is just an expression of our inner selves striving for something else. The way I look at it is that we're all here to try and find, each in his own way, the best road to our ultimate goal. I believe I've found my way, and I shall travel it to the end.'' And travel it to the end he did. And when they found him in the Kansas cornfield where the plane had gone down, they also found next to him a prayer book and at his fingertips the rosary of Notre Dame, the rosary of Our Lady. Someone put it so well at the time: Knute Rockne did more spiritual good than a thousand preachers. His career was a sermon in right living. Link

I got this information from the Blog Pro Familia

Here is his famous Locker Room Speech



How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

This post gives a personal answer to how God comes to us and opens greater meaning in our lives. See Avery Cardinal Dulles quote on testimony.

Jane Austen

Austen was not an unthinking defender of traditional social order. Not uncommonly, her heroines are upwardly mobile, particularly through the agency of matrimony. Yet she sensed the corrosive effects of individualism, and her uncanny intelligence and attention to the details of social surface enabled her to give us one of literature's sharpest portraits of this emerging reality. That she also recognized the absence and failure of the Church in combating this decay makes her a public theologian to reckon with. Link

My mom and sisters are big Jane Austen fans and I think they would be interested in this article.

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

Secular society and some denomination put extreme focus on the individual at the exclusion of all else. As a Catholic it is not just me and Jesus but we and Jesus. The Catholic Faith is a family with the saints as our elder brothers and sisters. In many ways Jane Austen was exposing some of the problems with individualism. Or at least this is what the author is arguing.

Waking Life: The Holy Moment

Talking religion can sound cheesy, especially in our culture. It seems that most people need a few drinks before they can get past that. It’s strange how the cartoon element of this video makes it less cheesy and bypasses our cultural resistance.

I also like the element of someone watching a movie that talks about layers in a movie with a layer of cartoon paint over real video.

This video defiantly communicates the idea of being in awe with existence.

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

This clip shows that if you believe that there is a transcendent meaning to reality then life has a mystical quality. The ordinary is no longer simply ordinary.

Greatest Catholic Quotes of All Time (Almost)

Greatest Catholic Quotes of All Time (Almost)

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

These quotes show that the Catholic faith has a long tradition that spans from the time of Christ tell now. It also shows some of the wisdom that the Catholic faith has.

Poem lyrics of Hymn by Edgar Allan Poe

At morn - at noon - at twilight dim -
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe - in good and ill -
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now, when storms of Fate o'ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine! Link

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

It’s a beautiful poem that portrays how special Mary is. It shows that all generations shall call her blessed. It also doesn’t hurt that it was written by Edgar Allan Poe.

From ‘Christian Evidences’ - Robert Hugh Benson

NOW God forbid that Faith be blind assent,
Grasping what others know; else Faith were nought
But learning, as of some far continent
Which others sought,
And carried thence, better the tale to teach,
Pebbles and sheels, poor fragments of the beach.
Now God forbid that Faith be built on dates,
Cursive or uncial letters, scribe or gloss,
What one conjectures, proves, or demonstrates:
This were the loss
Of all to which God bids that man aspire,
This were the death of life, quenching of fire.
Nay, but with Faith I see. Not even Hope,
Her glorious sister, stands so high as she.
For this but stands expectant on the slope
That leads where He
Her source and consummation sets His seat,
Where Faith dwells always to caress His Feet.
Nay, but with Faith I saw my Lord and God
Walk in the fragrant garden yesterday.
Ah! how the thrushes sang; and, where He trod
Like spikenard lay
Jewels of dew, fresh-fallen from the sky,
While all the lawn rang round with melody.
Nay, but with Faith I marked my Saviour go,
One August noonday, down the stifling street
That reeked with filth and man; marked from Him flow
Radiance so sweet,
The man ceased cursing, laughter lit the child,
The woman hoped again, as Jesus smiled.
Nay, but with Faith I sought my Lord last night,
And found Him shining where the lamp was dim;
The shadowy altar glimmered, height on height,
A throne for Him:
Seen as through lattice work His gracious Face
Looked forth on me and filled the dark with grace.
Nay then, if proof and tortured argument
Content thee—teach thee that the Lord is there,
Or risen again; I pray thee be content,
But leave me here
With eye unsealed by any proof of thine,
With eye unsealed to know the Lord is mine. Link

Kiss the Flame - Jewel

Please love let's make no impartial vow
Let all fall away
That's not crucial now
I want to brave love, one that makes me weak in the knees
I want a crazy, crazy love
One that makes me come undone at the seams

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

If you do not mind me asking Cure Of Ars but what exactly is it that you hope GOD will do for humanity. What does a hope in GOD mean for humanity?

This is the greatest question that I have ever been asked. I hope that God will fulfill the greatest human desire. To quote Jewel, “I want a brave love, one that makes me weak in the knees, I want a crazy, crazy love, one that makes me come undone at the seams”

I want to be able to Love like Christ loved. I want to be a part of God’s love. This is what God made us for.

W.H.Auden

After Reading a Child's Guide to Modern Physics

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

Auden in the poem seems to be pointing to truth that we are more than the sum of our parts. He is pointing to the supernatural.

The Catholic Sun

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s always laughter and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!

Hilaire Belloc

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

The Catholic world view is an incarnate faith. God came down, humbled himself, and became man. This has the consequence that this material world is good.

I like a good glass of red wine. It points to God. But if I try to take wine and make it my meaning it turns from something that is sweet to something that is like a mouth of ashes. It’s like God has made things to lead us to him but as soon as we try to make something our fulfillment instead letting it point to him it goes wrong.

The Hound of Heaven

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Link

How is this related to Catholic Apologetics?

It is truer to say that God is chasing after me than I him. In my weakness I have fallen short. I have been selfish and turned away from God. But when I find that the selfish desires that I am chasing do not lead to my happiness I always find that God is there. Ready to take me back.

The Bark of Peter

The Bark of Peter

Omelettes anyone?

Jack Chick Spoof

A Jack Chick Spoof

Blog Improvements

I have been trying to improve some things on this blog. With the help of Phatcatholic, I was able to figure out how to make the definition of words come up by double clicking the word. So if you don’t understand a word just double click it and a definition will come up. It’s actually a rather cool feature.

The side bar will have some changes. I am going to consolidate some things and expand others. I will have a lot of posts this weekend. I will be taking some of the links off the side and making them into posts so they will be part of the tags.

I went back and categorized all the post on this blog. So if you are interested in one aspect of this blog you will be able to search those type of posts. The category are on the bottom of each post and the list of categories will be on the side bar.

I am also going to try to do some things to try to increase the traffic here. I’m learning all of this through trial and error so bear with me.

If you have any ideas or suggestions please feel free to post them here in the comments. I am open to ideas on how to improve this blog.

The Three Musketeers

Is The Three Musketeers an anti-Catholic book? At first blush, some might think so.

Its most famous villain is a man of the Church, Cardinal Richelieu; Alexandre Dumas, the book’s author, had a rather irregular private life; and the idea of cavaliers having mistresses is taken for granted.

But for a Catholic to deny himself The Three Musketeers would be an enormous mistake, for it is one of the greatest adventure yarns ever written, one that hasn’t dated a bit. That’s almost recommendation enough, for Catholics should remember their heritage. Catholics are not Puritan bluenoses, inherently suspicious of art or narrow-minded in intellect. While one might never find books with such titles as A Treasury of Presbyterian Art or Great Baptist Intellectuals on library bookshelves, replace Presbyterian and Baptist with Catholic, and such titles seem perfectly reasonable, necessary even. The Catholic faith affirms everything that is good, and in the great Catholic theologian Karl Adam’s words, "Art is native to Catholicism."

The Three Musketeers is a fine example of popular literary art, and if one approaches it without puritanical fear, one will be rewarded not only with excitement and joy but also with a few theological surprises. Link