Good will to all men? Not from the grumpy atheists! (Thank God not all atheists are grumpy but there sure seems to be a lot of them)
Why is it that so many in the atheist community cannot bring themselves to get past their anger whenever they engage in discussions? The language of many of their contributions in public debate is laced with invective and dripping with sarcasm and bile. There are exceptions of course, but they tend to fall more into the category of being the 'exception that proves the rule' when compared to the hostility of many of today's atheist posters. Comment offered by the theists in the public square is often depicted as being 'malicious' or 'venomous' and intended to enslave the 'feeble minded and weak' by those who post. Nothing could be further from the truth. Venom is something that is oriented to death. Christians are oriented in a 180 degree different direction. We speak not to the culture of death that grips our world but rather for the culture of life and light which ends with the gift of eternal life. For example, the Catholic Church in its hum...
"We use the words “really, truly, and substantially” to describe Christ’s presence in the Holy Eucharist in order to distinguish Our Lord’s teaching from that of mere men who falsely teach that the Holy Eucharist is only a sign or figure of Christ, or that He is present only by His power." Thomas Aquinas used the word "substantially" because,through Aristotle's metaphysics,Aquinas understood how God could be "really and truly" present in the bread and the wine.In other words he was not using the term "substantially" to differentiate one claim about God from another...he and Aristotle used this term to denote being in it's mode as "substance"(e.g. primary substance as the hylomorphic compound of form and matter) rather than being in its mode as attribute,quality or "accident," as the philosophers called it. Every part of the bread and wine retains it's attribute as such and God's substantial presence remains only for as long as the appearance of the bread and wine remain.In a world so predominantly prepared to find it's sought after good on the surface of reality it should be no wonder that anything not tangible can be of no value or importance.I believe though that if we commit ourselves to opening up to the real presence of truth and beauty in others who may appear ugly and false,we both get to experience that which transcends our comprehension.
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