21 March, 2014

Five Ways Catholics Engage the Culture - U.s. - News - Catholic Online

Five Ways Catholics Engage the Culture - U.s. - News - Catholic Online
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11 comments:

  1. Larry Green21 March, 2014

    I asked in an earlier post if you knowingly implied that a myth is a lie. No response. Is your non response because you don't know how to respond or that you simply don't want to ?

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  2. Fr. Tim Moyle21 March, 2014

    Larry: Sorry. I didn't respond because I've been up to my proverbial ass in work. I also didn't inttrepet your eariler comment correctly. I thought you were asking if the fact that the Quebec government is now.instructing students that all religions were equal.

    There are two defintions to the term myth. In one case it means a traditional story, esp. one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. There are these types of myths in the Bible. However the common definition is: a widely held but false belief. Would I call it a lie? No... I'd call it something that is not true. Not everything that is not true is not necessarily a lie. My concern with the Quebec program is that the students I've spoken with here who are studying it - to a person - have all been using the 2nd definition which leads them to the conclusion that all religions are therefore false.

    I hope this answers your question.

    Fr. Tim

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  3. Larry Green21 March, 2014

    sure does.

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  4. Larry Green21 March, 2014

    BTW do you think perhaps the students you have been talking to have been led to the conclusion that all religions are completely and absolutely false or in fact false?

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  5. Fr. Tim Moyle22 March, 2014

    Larry: It's more subtle than your distiction. As I understand them, it's really an example of strict materialism. Essentially it's a denial of the existence of anything supernatural that's founded upon the premise that only the natural world exists and thus supernatural entities like God does not exist but is only a construct of human imagination and therefore doesn't (and cannot) exist. Put poetically, the only God that exists is man himself.

    So they might hold that Jesus existed but he was a man who was subsequentially deafied by ignorant generations that followed much as King Arthur might be historic but the myth of Camelot is a later false human construction. As a means of wiping religion from the public consciousness, it's both ingeneous and effective. It doesn't deny the historicity of figures like Jesus while vitiating him of any supernatural consequence.

    Fr. Tim

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  6. Larry Green22 March, 2014

    Do you believe that a man named Adam and a woman by the name of Eve- the only two human beings in existence- lived in a bountiful garden with a talking snake is an historical fact?
    Do you believe that Jesus Christ launched himself physically -at a speed to overcome the force of earths gravity-somewhere into outer space, where materially we know that there is no place for Him to go? Do you believe that the miracles performed by Jesus Christ are more factually and materially important than metaphorically and spiritually
    The list goes on and on , from a woman tempting a man to eat an apple to a man building a boat to travel around the world with animals two of a kind till the water began to ' dry up' and land appeared.( Even though those silly scientists tell us that there is the same amount of water on the earth now as there was since the earth was formed (except if the astronauts pee'd on the moon.)There are some people who believe that such accounts are myths and metaphors which are symbols and vessels of a truth that transcend the reality of human comprehension and articulation. There are some people who believe that such accounts are factual and historical events and important for the reason that they are factual and historical. You say the former is an example of strict materialism, a belief that only the natural world exists and a denial of the supernatural. Would it seem odd to you if those people said the same of you?

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  7. Fr. Tim Moyle22 March, 2014

    Larry: Actually I don't believe in Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden... but I do believe that there had to have been a 1st man and woman. I don't believe in Noah... but I do believe that there was a massive (but not earthwide) flood that affected so many people that it became included and used in the scriptures of the OT, the Babylonians, and the Indians of the subcontinent.

    I do believe that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine and was capable of working miracles and ascending into heaven. I have encountered him in my own life so I know him to be real - even though strict materialism says he cannot exist. I also believe that the religious impulse (or belief in a supernatural reality) is ubiquitous among every culture and time which is reflected in a multitude of religions. I simply believe that the fullest expression of that conviction was and is the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ. I also believe that the Church is indeed the creation of Christ even if I know that not everything within it is not of his design but is the result of human pride, sin, and ego. Primary among this corruption is an attempt to force everyone to believe according to its teaching.

    How about you? What do you believe?

    Fr. Tim

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  8. Larry Green22 March, 2014

    why do ypu not post my last response here?

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  9. Larry Green22 March, 2014

    It's okay to say if you find it to disturbing.

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  10. Fr. Tim Moyle22 March, 2014

    Larry: I've posted every comment you offered. I do not know what you are referring to. I've just checked again and there are no unpublished comments. Are you certain you published it and didn't inadvertently cancelled it instead of posting it?

    Fr. Tim

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  11. Larry Green22 March, 2014

    no I know it was sent but anyhow its okay, another time.

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