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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Comments

rimwell

"The Celestial Teapot" - a review of Sam Harris's "Letter to a Christian Nation" by James Wood (another kind of atheist) - is important to read in this context (there have been a couple posts on it at "The Socratic Catholic" blog):

http://www.powells.com/review/2006_12_14.html

The "battle lines" of the culture wars may appear to be "more clear than ever", but that appearance is both deceptive and undetermined - it disguises the real battle over men's souls, which is totally nonlinear. The existential necessity of a "choice" between Christianity and atheism (in the wake of "the death of God") is also losing its power to motivate - how could such a choice even be accomplished today? What does it mean today to have chosen one or the other? Who could ever say that they have done so? Possibility is too invasive.

For some reason it is a great comfort - because, in a certain sense, it is all that is left to us - to read this sentence from Wood's review: "Harris is welcome to sit on his floor and get off on his Buddhism; I'll go and sit in a cathedral."

LJ

--"The intent of these authors is to accelerate the elimination of all remnants of the Judeo-Christian tradition. As Sam Harris puts it, the name of the game is "to demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity." As for Hitchens, he seeks to show "how religion poisons everything"."--

A couple of questions come to mind. Why Christianity? Why not start with Hinduism or Islam and proceed to demolish them all with the elimination of Christianity as the piece de resistance? The answer is likely quite simple. Christianity is recognized as the only religion that counts.

Leaving aside that failed soviet system of economics and government, there is also the question of what the atheists' world would look like. I would like to see a comprehensive picture of that brave new world. I think Habermas and Pera have taken the time to think about it and honesty compels them to rcognize that even in this, practically speaking, largely atheistic western world, the remnants of Christian morality are what keeps our society from flying apart, while it frays around the edges. If they were successful at eradicating God, what would hold it together?

Brian Schuettler

The advantages of a Catholic education were enough to persuade even an atheist to make a large donation, as an article posted May 23 on Bloomberg.com explained. Retired hedge-fund manager Robert W. Wilson announced he was giving $22.5 million to the Archdiocese of New York to fund a scholarship program for needy inner city students attending Catholic schools.

"Let's face it, without the Roman Catholic Church, there would be no Western civilization," Wilson said.

There is at least one atheist besides Habermas and Pera who knows his facts.

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