I congratulate you on your long arduous journey to Catholicism. I’ve just found you thru my association with PITT, due to two grandaughters with homosexual and transgender issues, from your article on Autogyenphilia. I look forward to reading your other writings. I’m 74 and was baptized Catholic at 6 when my Dad came back after wandering in the religion desert for several years. I am fortunate to have remained faithful to Jesus all these years but it is truly a struggle. My children and even my wife of 52 years have fallen away to various degrees but I would have no purpose in life if it wasn’t for my faith in Christ. I have a graduate degree in electrical engineering and long ago realized the folly of looking at science as some kind of reality. It really doesn’t exist only the scientific method exist as a valuable tool for attempting to understand a universe created for us that is understandable only because God made it so. So call established Science is only the current acceptable model of system behavior that allows use to try and understand how things work and manipulate them for our benefit (or sometimes ruin as is the case for weapons). Quantum Physics is a mathematical analog that is useful for predicting material behavior but is full of mathematical tweaks to adjust it to fit anomalies that we see by our measurements. A guy on a plane asked me once if atoms were really like little planetary systems and I said I really don’t know if that’s how matter is configured but that the model gives me enough low error predictability that I can use it to build a lot of cool stuff. To believe that matter consists of electrons, proton , quarks etc. requires more faith than believing in God. We use all sorts of models in engineering to analyze behaviors because we still haven’t been able to create a single model that works in all cases.
Anyway, I don’t know who all you have studied for your conversion to Catholicism but you are certainly on the correct path and so far I totally concur with your view points on this a many other topics
Keep up the good work and may our Lord bless and keep you and your family.
Ray we need to connect you with Bishop Robert Barron and with Jimmy Akin someday, they’re both great and I think both of them would enjoy meeting you and you would enjoy meeting them. 🙂
Wow Ray that was a deep essay to read with my breakdast coffee. I agree that, that is the essence of God that the atheists maintain is delusional because they can't see the margins and contain it for
" inspection" in a material box they can save for later. Understanding that it won't fit with scientific reality puts it in the realm of faith. I'm not so sure " childish notions of God" is the way to describe it. Children are more in touch with God and their spiritual side than adults are. I think it's a cynical fear of being mislead that develops as they become adults that holds them in a materialistic, narrow world view that shuts out any sense of spirituality that they may previously have had. I have found with people though that when faced with a personal crisis that they panic and search for God as they realise what they are facing is bigger than they are so there must be more.
I congratulate you on your long arduous journey to Catholicism. I’ve just found you thru my association with PITT, due to two grandaughters with homosexual and transgender issues, from your article on Autogyenphilia. I look forward to reading your other writings. I’m 74 and was baptized Catholic at 6 when my Dad came back after wandering in the religion desert for several years. I am fortunate to have remained faithful to Jesus all these years but it is truly a struggle. My children and even my wife of 52 years have fallen away to various degrees but I would have no purpose in life if it wasn’t for my faith in Christ. I have a graduate degree in electrical engineering and long ago realized the folly of looking at science as some kind of reality. It really doesn’t exist only the scientific method exist as a valuable tool for attempting to understand a universe created for us that is understandable only because God made it so. So call established Science is only the current acceptable model of system behavior that allows use to try and understand how things work and manipulate them for our benefit (or sometimes ruin as is the case for weapons). Quantum Physics is a mathematical analog that is useful for predicting material behavior but is full of mathematical tweaks to adjust it to fit anomalies that we see by our measurements. A guy on a plane asked me once if atoms were really like little planetary systems and I said I really don’t know if that’s how matter is configured but that the model gives me enough low error predictability that I can use it to build a lot of cool stuff. To believe that matter consists of electrons, proton , quarks etc. requires more faith than believing in God. We use all sorts of models in engineering to analyze behaviors because we still haven’t been able to create a single model that works in all cases.
Anyway, I don’t know who all you have studied for your conversion to Catholicism but you are certainly on the correct path and so far I totally concur with your view points on this a many other topics
Keep up the good work and may our Lord bless and keep you and your family.
Thank you and God bless 🙏
Bishop Barron has a great critique of New Atheism here: https://youtu.be/Xe5kVw9JsYI?feature=shared
Ray we need to connect you with Bishop Robert Barron and with Jimmy Akin someday, they’re both great and I think both of them would enjoy meeting you and you would enjoy meeting them. 🙂
I would be honored! I am huge fans of them both!
Wow Ray that was a deep essay to read with my breakdast coffee. I agree that, that is the essence of God that the atheists maintain is delusional because they can't see the margins and contain it for
" inspection" in a material box they can save for later. Understanding that it won't fit with scientific reality puts it in the realm of faith. I'm not so sure " childish notions of God" is the way to describe it. Children are more in touch with God and their spiritual side than adults are. I think it's a cynical fear of being mislead that develops as they become adults that holds them in a materialistic, narrow world view that shuts out any sense of spirituality that they may previously have had. I have found with people though that when faced with a personal crisis that they panic and search for God as they realise what they are facing is bigger than they are so there must be more.