Hmmm. If true, someone better find that guy and bring him in for questioning! I surely don't want more Breiviks running around at large and filled with homicidal rage. Quick, who is "this guy"?
Oh. He's me. Really?
Well, that's the grave judgment rendered by @Catelli_NQU, a self-described "middle aged IT guy who works in Ontario's Manufacturing Sector" who tweeted that little bit of TwitterSlander in response to my post, "Evil and the empty soul". He doesn't specify how exactly I am "detached from reality", but I suspect it's because I wrote crazy and outrageous remarks such as this:
The sick and tragic irony is that the more man attempts to use purely material, scientific (or scientistic) means to "liberate" himself from (take your pick) poverty, hunger, oppression, illness, bigotry, death, the more he distorts and destroys his true nature as a creature created for good and for God. Put another way, he merely furthers the Fall by falling even further, if that is possible. While materialism and scientism seek to explain and control the mystery of evil through technology, psychology, and other such "ologies", Catholicism recognizes that, first, evil is indeed a mystery—that is, it is at root a spiritual deprivation and corruption that cannot be explained by materialist philosophies—and, secondly, it can only be really addressed through faith and grace...
Which is to say, I'm fairly confident he thinks Catholicism is as "detached from reality as Breivik is."
By the way, Blessed John Paul II wrote very beautifully in Fides et ratio about the same topics I addressed in passing in my post. Here is an excellent passage worthy of a few moments of reflection:
God alone is the Absolute. From the Bible there emerges also a vision of man as imago Dei. This vision offers indications regarding man's life, his freedom and the immortality of the human spirit. Since the created world is not self-sufficient, every illusion of autonomy which would deny the essential dependence on God of every creature—the human being included—leads to dramatic situations which subvert the rational search for the harmony and the meaning of human life.
The problem of moral evil—the most tragic of evil's forms—is also addressed in the Bible, which tells us that such evil stems not from any material deficiency, but is a wound inflicted by the disordered exercise of human freedom. In the end, the word of God poses the problem of the meaning of life and proffers its response in directing the human being to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, who is the perfect realization of human existence. A reading of the sacred text would reveal other aspects of this problem; but what emerges clearly is the rejection of all forms of relativism, materialism and pantheism.
The fundamental conviction of the “philosophy” found in the Bible is that the world and human life do have a meaning and look towards their fulfilment, which comes in Jesus Christ. The mystery of the Incarnation will always remain the central point of reference for an understanding of the enigma of human existence, the created world and God himself. The challenge of this mystery pushes philosophy to its limits, as reason is summoned to make its own a logic which brings down the walls within which it risks being confined. Yet only at this point does the meaning of life reach its defining moment. The intimate essence of God and of the human being become intelligible: in the mystery of the Incarnate Word, human nature and divine nature are safeguarded in all their autonomy, and at the same time the unique bond which sets them together in mutuality without confusion of any kind is revealed. (par. 80)
As for being compared to a Muslim-hating, church-less, cyber-twisted, pseudo-Christian mass murderer, I'm increasingly convinced that such a tactic is about par for the course when it comes to skeptics and atheists, many of whom (not all, but many) would rather slander and sneer than engage in a half-way intelligent conversation. And when they do engage, they often resort to this sort of opening gambit: "So instead of continuing to attempt to alleviate material deprivations we should be concentrating on devotion to a sky-god?" And so forth. Here is the full (initial) exchange:
Angling Saxon: I'm used to atheists/skeptics getting most everything wrong, but you've taken it to another level: you get everything wrong. A few specific responses:
So instead of continuing to attempt to alleviate material deprivations we should be concentrating on devotion to a sky-god?
Who said or wrote that? I certainly didn't. After all, I belong to the largest and oldest charitable organization in the world, which operates hospitals, charities, orphanages, soup kitchens, etc., all over the world: the Catholic Church.
I know the term "sky-god" is meant to be some sort of clever insult, but it is actually laughably ignorant, as Christians do not worship a god "in the sky". God, in Christian and Jewish belief, is completely Other, the ground of all being who is, to draw upon ancient philosophical language, the Prime Mover and the First Cause.
I guess people in Europe were better off in the Middle Ages when they were pious and died at 30 of infections or influenza because, hey, at least they had "divine" purpose in life, eh?
A rather bizarre "argument", as if the Catholic Church delights in sickness (which wouldn't makes sense of the many hospitals that she operated in the Middle Ages), or did nothing to alleviate illness, disease, and so forth. On the contrary, as many scholars (both secular and Christian) have shown in recent decades, what we now take for granted in terms of science, medicine, technology, etc., came directly from the philosophical and scientific advances brought about by Christianity. See my essay, "Dark Ages and Secularist Rages: A Response to Professor A.C. Grayling" for more. I also recommend the excellent book, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies (Yale, 2009), by David Bentley Hart.
Really? This would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Think about it: the greatest horrors of the 20th century were unleashed by and between Christian nations, but did that elicit much "soul"-searching by those in churches Catholic or otherwise?
Another weird "argument", which displays a breathtaking absence of any historical knowledge whatsoever. The fact is, almost every Western war from about the 16th century onward was based in political struggles, not religious conflicts. And, to be specific, how was the Nazi regime "Christian"? Especially when it openly stated and pursued the destruction of Christians and Jews? And how was Communism in the Soviet Union and China "Christian"? It is far more accurate to note that countries such as Germany and Russia had once been Christian to one degree or another, but that they had succumbed to dictatorships that were aggressively anti-Christian. And those dictatorship (Communist and Nazi) accounted for some 100+million murders in less than 70 years.
Why on earth are you so convinced that we are leading empty, meaningless lives that only prostration before a sky-god from a fairy tale will assuage? One loony (and far right Christian, don't forget!) shoots up Norway and all of a sudden society is falling?
A life based in a materialist philosophy and that denies transcendent truth and meaning is, if lived true to its premises and convictions, essentially nihilist and meaningless. It's simply logical. Of course, few skeptics/atheists are willing to live in complete and full accord with their basic beliefs; they will talk about "love" and "gratitude" and even being "spiritual", even while tacitly denying the metaphysical realities without which "love" and "gratitude" and "being spiritual" have any substantive meaning. For more, see my essay, "Love and the Skeptic" and my post, "Can atheists be grateful?"
What's interesting is that other horrors in the Soviet Union and China did in fact eventually produce debate and introspection, though not always by those in power. But even so, those systems of thought were mostly, if not thoroughly in those two countries, discredited.
Highly debatable, at the very least, especially since China continues to be run by a government that is Communist and atheistic, although its methods of control are often far more subtle than they once were. Europe has, at least on an official level, turned its back on theism in general and Christianity specifically. In fact, the West is deep in the throes of a materialist desert, both on a social/economic level and on a philosophical/cultural level.
You sincerely believe that life without your particular brand of sky-god is meaningless. Well...terrific! Bully for you! As much as I do not respect that, I can understand it...
Actually, I don't get the sense that you understand Christian belief, Western history, or basic philosophy very well at all. It is consistently the case (if not always the case) that Christians understand atheism far better than atheists understand Christianity; it has nothing to do with intellectual abilities, and quite a bit to do with intellectual integrity and honesty. I've studied atheism over the years (see my introductory essay, "A Short Introduction to Atheism"), and I can honestly say that I understand, on an intellectual/experiential level, the attraction of atheism, but that I do not find atheism to be intellectually fulfilling, logical, or appealing. In the words of Walker Percy, a former atheist: "This life is much too much trouble, far too strange, to arrive at the end of it and then be asked what you make of it and have to answer, ‘Scientific humanism.’ That won’t do. A poor show. Life is a mystery, love is a delight. Therefore, I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing less than the infinite mystery and infinite delight; i.e., God." ("Questions They Never Asked Me," p. 417)
More to follow, it appears.
You just have to love and greatly admire the Atheistic argument's against people with a faith in a Creator.The wonderfully catchy "Sky God" and another one pulled straight out of the top drawer is "Religious idiocy",the latter i seen posted on another "Reputable" website today,is serious food for thought,not.
Like any Christian should be,i will not be cowed by these "Enlightened" people easily.I always stand my ground to give my view's and thought's on matter's of faith,their unintelligent dismissal of God,their creator,can be off putting,but certainly not soul destroying.<< Matthew 10:14 >> give's us good advice,by telling us to shake the dust from our feet.
God Bless.
Posted by: peter l | Monday, August 01, 2011 at 05:13 PM
I truly wonder if it ever occurs to people like Mr. Catelli just how completely ignorant and divorced not only from reality, but from every measure of reasonable and logical argument, they appear.
When did atheism become so anti-intellectual?
Posted by: Davod K. Monroe | Monday, August 01, 2011 at 07:11 PM