Well, it's been a hell of a ride, laying rubber all over the road for the past decade. But it's time to call it a day and park the Rogue in the garage. Effective today, I am shutting down my blog to focus my attention on other endeavours. My thanks to the more than 2.7 million people who regularly joined me on these sojourns through news stories over the years that dealt with the places with issues of religion and faith intersecting with public affairs. May God bless you with a continuing desire to learn about and help disseminate the issues of faith throughout the public square. Happy trails in your continuing travels! Fr. Tim Moyle, p.p. Diocese of Pembroke
Reflections from the pastoral ministry of an Evangelical Catholic Priest.
Might one better ask, given the state of the community of Catholic men's religious, can we be good even with God. I am convinced that I am doing better than them and according to their lights am excommunicated and heretic. I am convinced I am the better for all that makes me thus.
ReplyDelete"Humans might be able to live pursue a noble and tasteful and even an altruistic life without God, but why should they? What’s the point? Without God the only point of human goodness must be utilitarian."
ReplyDeleteWithout God the only purpose of human goodness is other people.
The author is correct in his critique of utilitarianism, but he seems unaware of other moral resources available to atheists: Kantian ethics and humanism.
ReplyDeleteA Kantian would say that being a person of integrity is worth seeking for its own sake, that virtue is its own reward.
A humanist would say that humans are indeed of inherent value, but for reasons that exclude the supernatural.
No, the specific goodness which Christians can attain consists of the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and charity. There is also the help that grace gives us to live a life of virtue. Whether and to what extent we make use of that help is another matter.