Challenges to Faith
Journal
1. Summary
The key idea of this section was to address some of the challenges to having faith, and refuting them. There are four basic responses to the question, “Does God exist?” You can believe he exists (theism), deny he exists (atheism), claim it is impossible to fully answer either way (agnosticism), or not even bother to answer the question (indifference). Atheism was the first challenge talking about both positive atheists (those who have deliberately and consciously chose atheism) and practical atheists (those who claim a religious sect but follow none of the major teachings or practices). Nietzsche was a positive atheist who believed in that the meaning of life is different to each person as is morality. Human beings should to perfect themselves and are motivated by their own personal desires. Hobbes was a practical atheist who believed there is no meaning and the universe is can be completely understood by rational thought. Human beings will never amount to anything more than animals and morality is objective. These were put into comparison by the views of Ignatius Loyola. He believed that the purpose is to love God and morality is objective. Human beings are destined for something great, the Kingdom of God, and need both reason and God’s revelation to understand the world.
After that he talked of the Catholic view of science and how if God created the world, logically no honest, thorough scientific investigation can refute the existence of God. Catholics are open to science and the bible is not to be read literally. We need to take a contextual understanding of the bible believing in only what is necessary to our faith, not the stories themselves. Religion and science exists in three stages: Unreflective Unity, Reflective Disunity, and Reflective Unity. Furthermore there are limitations to the scientific method.
Lastly there is the “Power if Dehumanization” where the media bombards us with messages that suggest the meaning of life is in the consumption and possession of material goods. The media offers us a whole value system based on these goods and our identity is derived from our possessions. The result of the following is idolatry.
2. 2 Key Ideas
1. First I would like to remember that one could find faith in the ordinary. This comes from the Ignatian idea of indifference that states that we are to accept everything that helps us attain our goal of reaching God and reject everything that hinders of from attaining it. We are to seek God in all things because of this, so one can find God in the ordinary.
2. Secondly I would like to remember the Catholic Church’s view on science. The Church and science should never conflict because God created all things including the scientific method. No honest through scientific investigation should conflict with the teachings of God. Catholics are allowed to challenge the current notions of the day. God has given us human reason and it should not conflict with Him. Either the dogma needs to expand or an opinion has been taken as reason. Science and religion can purify each other.
3. Image
4. Reflection
Truthfully I feel that those issues defended by the books are not the ones giving me trouble in faith. I would rather be discussing the views of contrasting religions and discussing if and how both can be true even though different ideas lay in conflict. I know the Catholic Church expresses an open and accepting view toward these other religions and I would like to learn what it actually says.
I realize that often I prejudge people too quickly and often assume the worst in others. The right speech experiment has taught me how often I lie without realizing it and I often wonder how much I am lied to. How does one learn to get over the flaws of human character and learn to accept others and their ideas?