The Godless Delusion: A Catholic Challenge to Modern Atheism

“The New Atheists came on the contemporary scene with an unprecedented mixture of confidence and scorn. And, sadly, most of the books written in response have conveyed an impression of ad hoc defensiveness. But not this one. The Godless Delusion, by Patrick Madrid and Kenneth Hensley, wages a full-scale frontal assault on the tallest turret of the New Atheists’ stronghold — the claim to moral and rational superiority. With remorseless logic, wit, skill, and boundless, joyful enthusiasm it lays waste that stronghold, routs the enemy, occupies the high ground for Christ their king, and dares anyone to retake it. Books on philosophical apologetics don’t get more exhilarating than this.”

— Ronald K. Tacelli, SJ, professor of philosophy, Boston College, co-author of Handbook of Christian Apologetics

Click the cover to see what others are saying about The Godless Delusion . . .


Coming soon to a bookstore near you, my new book on atheism (co-authored with Kenneth Hensley) is called The Godless Delusion: A Catholic Challenge to Modern Atheism and will be released in the next two weeks. Pre-order your signed copy today.

If you ever shop anywhere, you should watch this

I've seen some odd things at airports and other public places and, like most of the people simulated in this video, my first instinct was to report something suspicious to local security, but almost always, I've just suppressed it and said nothing. Twice that I can think of, however, I was bothered enough that I sheepishly followed through and sought out security to see if what bothered me should be checked out.

One time, I noticed two suspicious-acting young men waiting to board a flight. I suggested to the security folks that they give the pair a closer look, but they rather blandly declined to do anything. Nothing bad happened.

Another time, as I was washing my hands in the men's room and I noticed a 30-ish man dressed in a coat (it was summer and quite warm that day) holding a black canvas gym bag. He had been loitering awhile (not in a Larry Craig kind of way, I should add), and that too stuck out as unusual. Practically everyone in an airport carries some kind of bag, so that in itself was not what caught my eye. Rather, it was the strange, grim look on his face that's hard to describe. In any case, once again, I sheepishly approached a nearby security guard out in the terminal to explain what I had seen.

To my surprise, he said something like, "Yeah, another person reported that guy too, and we're going to go take a look." A minute or two later, three armed policemen and a couple of TSA-types walked into the restroom and questioned him. Whatever it was that they found was problematic enough that they arrested him and led him away in hand-cuffs. I have no idea what happened after that. This video reminded me of those incidents, and I wanted to share it with you.

So . . . .

Commentary below from Joe Larocca:

On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security held a conference call asking the private sector to heighten its level of awareness and report anything suspicious to law enforcement immediately. Since theattempted bombing in Times Square earlier this month, there has been a flurry of alerts sent out from DHS regarding terrorist tactics and threats.

CNN published a story quoting one document saying that “the number and pace of attempted attacks against the United States over the past nine months have surpassed the number of attempts during any other previous one-year period.

According to DHS, businesses have to operate under the premise that other operatives are in the country and could advance plotting with little or no warning.” They also said U.S. officials “lack insights in specific details, timing and intended targets,” but trends indicate terrorists are looking for “smaller, more achievable attacks against easily accessible targets.”

Officials have repeatedly said that terrorists use explosive devices as one of their most common weapons. Unfortunately, criminals don’t have to look far to find out how to make explosive devices: the information is readily available in books and other information sources and the materials needed for an explosive device can be found in many places including variety, hardware and auto supply stores. Explosive devices are highly portable using vehicles and humans as a means of transport. They are easily detonated from remote locations or by suicide bombers.

Conventional bombs have been used to damage and destroy financial, political, social and religious institutions. Attacks have occurred in public places and on city streets with thousands of people around the world injured and killed.

During the call with business leaders, Homeland Security officials requested private sector companies to consider the following points:

• Institute aggressive awareness campaigns.
  
  
• Identify entrance areas where crowds will collect and common traffic choke points exist.
  
  
• Pre-identify primary and secondary evacuation routes.
  
  
• Look at how you asses unattended vehicles in your area.
  
  
• Vary security patrol and surveillance routines.
  
  
• Rely on the people working in your buildings and stores every day. These folks will be more aware of things out of place in their normal environment.
  
  
• Remain alert for potential secondary devices. (In one case, small devices were used to force an evacuation, then larger devices were triggered to kill people.)

Let's review what it is we celebrate on Trinity Sunday

The following few paragraphs are drawn from Frank Sheed's excellent introduction to the Catholic Faith, Theology for Beginners (Servant Books). Sheed had plenty more to say about the subject of the Blessed Trinity, both in this book and in his even more comprehensive Theology and Sanity (Ignatius Press), but this tasty soupçon will get you started.

I enthusiastically encourage all Catholics — indeed anybody of any background who wishes to better understand the Catholic Church's doctrine of the Trinity — to read both these books. Reading them, you will discover that, as Sheed put it, "The rewards for persistence are immense."

And for good measure, here is the old Catholic Encyclopedia's compact historical overview of the solemn feast day in honor of the Blessed Trinity:

Trinity Sunday

The first Sunday after Pentecost, instituted to honour the Most Holy Trinity. In the early Church no special Office or day was assigned for the Holy Trinity. When the Arian heresy was spreading the Fathers prepared an Office with canticles, responses, a Preface, and hymns, to be recited on Sundays.

In the Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great (P.L., LXXVIII, 116) there are prayers and the Preface of the Trinity. The Micrologies (P.L., CLI, 1020), written during the pontificate of Gregory VII (Nilles, II, 460), call the Sunday after Pentecost a Dominica vacans, with no special office, but add that in some places they recited the Office of the Holy Trinity composed by Bishop Stephen of Liège (903-20). By others the Office was said on the Sunday before Advent.

Alexander II (1061-1073), not III (Nilles, 1. c.), refused a petition for a special feast on the plea, that such a feast was not customary in the Roman Church which daily honored the Holy Trinity by the Gloria, Patri, etc., but he did not forbid the celebration where it already existed.

John XXII (1316-1334) ordered the feast for the entire Church on the first Sunday after Pentecost. A new Office had been made by the Franciscan John Peckham, Canon of Lyons, later Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1292).

The feast ranked as a double of the second class but was raised to the dignity of a primary of the first class, 24 July 1911, by Pius X (Acta Ap. Sedis, III, 351). The Greeks have no special feast. Since it was after the first great Pentecost that the doctrine of the Trinity was proclaimed to the world, the feast becomingly follows that of Pentecost.

Pope Gregory the Great's Warning About Wicked Shepherds

I read a mainstream media news report this morning about a recent gathering of priests and seminarians in Rome for the purpose of offering "prayers for the victims of clergy abuse and for the healing of the church's wounds from the scandal over its concealment of abuse." This is an exceedingly good thing to do, and I hope it will inspire diocesan bishops everywhere to gather their own presbyterates together and emulate this.

What caught my eye in was that article's reference to a stern warning issued by Pope Gregory the Great (A.D. 540-604) regarding those woeful shepherds (i.e., priests and bishops) who are guilty of "evil living," and acting "perversely." He denounces those who make an outward show of piety and even sanctity and yet are, inwardly, chronically corrupt and perfidious.

We are and should be fervently grateful for the many excellent, dedicated, devout and, in some cases, truly holy priests and bishops with whom we have been blessed by the Lord. I am grateful to Him for them. And yet, as we all know, in recent decades, enormous, pestilential damage has been wreaked upon innumerable souls at the hands of a group of wicked shepherds in the Catholic Church. It is about them that Pope Gregory warns in words that are worthy of our reflection.

THERE ARE SOME ALSO who investigate spiritual precepts with cunning care, but what they penetrate with their understanding they trample on in their lives: all at once they teach the things which, not by practice but by study, they have learned; and what in words they preach, by their manners they impugn.

Whence it comes to pass that when the shepherd walks through steep places, the flock follows to the precipice.

Hence it is that the Lord through the prophet complains of the contemptible knowledge of shepherds, saying, When you yourselves had drunk most pure water, you fouled the residue with your feet; and My sheep fed on that which had been trodden by your feet, and drank that which your feet had fouled Ezekiel 34:18-19.

For indeed the shepherds drink most pure water, when with a right understanding they imbibe the streams of truth. But to foul the same water with their feet is to corrupt the studies of holy meditation by evil living. And verily the sheep drink the water fouled by their feet, when any of those subject to them follow not the words which they hear, but only imitate the bad examples which they see. Thirsting for the things said, but perverted by the works observed, they take in mud with their draughts, as from polluted fountains.

Hence also it is written through the prophet, A snare for the downfall of my people are evil priests (Hosea 5:1; 9:8). Hence again the Lord through the prophet says of the priests, They are made to be for a stumbling-block of iniquity to the house of Israel. For certainly no one does more harm in the Church than one who has the name and rank of sanctity, while he acts perversely. For him, when he transgresses, no one presumes to take to task; and the offense spreads forcibly for example, when out of reverence to his rank the sinner is honored.

But all who are unworthy would fly from the burden of so great guilt, if with the attentive ear of the heart they weighed the sentence of the Truth, Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:6).

By the millstone is expressed the round and labor of worldly life, and by the depth of the sea is denoted final damnation.

Whosoever, then, having come to bear the outward show of sanctity, either by word or example destroys others, it had indeed been better for him that earthly deeds in open guise should press him down to death than that sacred offices should point him out to others as imitable in his wrong-doing; because, surely, if he fell alone, the pains of hell would torment him in [a] more tolerable degree (Regula Pastoralis, II).

This may be a first! A Unitarian vs. Catholic debate

Okay, it was really just a call to my most recent "Open Line" radio show (Thursdays from 3:00-5:00 p.m. ET), but it was an energetic exchange. Ben, a pleasant and well-spoken Unitarian Freemason, took the Catholic Church to task for its "divisiveness" on issues such as abortion and homosexuality. We had a friendly but animated 15-minute debate of his opinion. Take a listen and see what you think. (Click the picture to launch the audio.)

From My Department of Redundancy Department

The aggressive liposuction really paid off

This could be anywhere, anytime.

What species of blog-commenter are you?

In part 1 of his "10 Types of Blog Comments," Matt Warner does a good job of accurately describing the common blog-commenter styles. He obviously has spent a good deal of time reading comments on various blogs, because, it seems to me, certain types of commenters seem to gravitate to certain blogs, and while some blogs seem to attract all kinds, I'd say it's more likely that any given blog will tend to attract a concentration of a few of these types as the majority.

For example, after running this little blog of mine (I'm gonna make it shine) since the fall of 2008, I've seen a lot of comments come through (very, very few are not accepted, and that is mainly due to profanity or something else vile).

In my estimation, this blog seems to attract predominately numbers 1, 3, and 5, with 5 being the majority. True, occasionally a 6 or a 7 will drift through the door and cause a ruckus for awhile, but they, like all drifters, don't stick around here for long. I have noticed this to also be true of folks on my FaceBook pages. Anyway, I thought you'd find Matt's analysis interesting and though-provoking. I did!

[courtesy of Fr. Z]

[Snip]

Here are the 10 types of blog commenters:

1) Encouragers - These leave simple, encouraging comments like, “great post!” Or, “wow, this totally changed my life.” But they don’t instigate further conversation or offer anything additional to the post. (FYI - Bloggers love these kinds of comments.)

2) Non-contributors - These are similar to Encouragers, except without the encouragement. Their comments say I was here and I read your post...like, “I also have a fish named Dorothy,” or “Thanks for this post.”

3) Contributors - Contributors usually leave the best blog comments because they offer something new to the conversation. A new perspective. Additional information. A new insight. They are thoughtful. And they can either respectfully agree or disagree with the post. Overall, they contribute to a healthy conversation and they make the blog post more valuable and helpful for other readers.

4) Destitutes - These are people in need. They might be depressed or struggling with something. They just want somebody to talk to. Somebody to listen. Sometimes their comment is on topic, often times it is not. Many times they have serious questions.

5) Slackers - Slackers are people who don’t read the post. They just read the title of the post and then want to say something. So they write it in the combox. They often strongly disagree with you while making your point. Or they soundly defeat a straw man and feel better afterwards. Or they ask things like, “Well what about X?” When the post spent paragraphs 3 and 4 answering precisely that about X.

6) Brawlers - Brawlers love to fight and argue. They aren’t interested in learning, giving the benefit of the doubt or considering that it was just an accident when I spilled my drink on them.

7) Angries - An Angry is somebody who is just angry at something. They often take the form of brawlers, but worse. They don’t even want to argue or fight about it. They just want to express their anger about something. Often times it makes them feel better to bring others down in the process. Their comments are often inappropriate and hurtful. And they usually end up accusing somebody tangentially related to the post of something tangentially related to the topic and then lumping everyone together and concluding that “You people are all a bunch of losers.” They can turn into real trolls too.

8) Posers - Posers pretend like they don’t care about the topic when they really do. Their comment basically says “I don’t care about this, but I still took the time to comment and tell you. That’s how much I really don’t care about this. And now I’m going to get really defensive about something you said…but I really couldn’t care less about it.”

9) Self-promoters - These people range from spammers and link-baiters to honest people just trying to promote something good. But their comment is all about promoting something else, not contributing to the post directly.

10) Aliens - Aliens leave comments that make absolutely no sense at all. It’s like they just landed on the planet Earth and thought they would leave a comment.

The Catholic Church in South Africa wants you to watch this video

And so do I. “Church on the Ball” is a beautifully produced glimpse of the work the Catholic Church has been doing in South Africa, “particularly in the area of HIV-AIDS and human trafficking, against the backdrop of the 2010 Football Worldcup.” Very impressive and encouraging!

From the organization's website:

Within a few weeks, 32 national soccer squads will be arriving to prepare for this titanic tournament which has been expected with growing excitement for so long. During a period of 43 days, an estimated 2.7 million local and foreign spectators will view 64 matches live as these are played in 9 cities around the country. Another 20 million fans will be watching the games on big screens at fan parks across the country and up to 3 billion viewers around the world will tune in to the event. And we, as Catholics, need to make our presence felt too, and use the opportunity to be lights of the world and salt of the earth, leaven in the dough. Think of what images Jesus would have utilized to connect with fans through the use of memorable parables based on soccer and sports today!

Let us try to raise public attention on:

• the ethical questions in sports;
• the educational attributes of sports;
• the global responsibility (fair trade, human rights, development cooperation, etc.);
• human rights; integration; combating of racism…

• the promotion of Sunday as Lord’s day
• the prevention of crime and violence…
• Of great concern are the prostitution and human trafficking issues.

South Africa is introducing visa-free travel across southern Africa for the 2010 WC with the purpose of promoting tourism and freer business travel and trade in the region at this time. Relaxing of visa requirements for travel in the SADC region could contribute to potential risks of increased migration that could include trafficking. So let us be vigilant. But let us especially remain positive, and keep the focus on the ideal opportunity the FWC presents to the church to minister through sports.

And so, apart from celebrating World Cup Sunday on the 13th June, explore the opportunity to run:

• parish festivals with sports and football-related events.
• “MiniWorld Cups” with football teams – why not a “Bishop’s cup” in each diocese.
• promote churches as places of silence, rest and prayer as an alternative to the bustle.
• help to distribute the World Cup Catholic prayer pocket booklet as widely as possible.
• and please advertise in your parish newsletters/notice boards and even through a large banner on the roadside, the website www.churchontheball.com

The Catholic motto of the 2006 World Cup in Germany was - “A time to make friends”. Let us encourage Catholics to give the visitors from foreign countries a warm welcome and prove themselves to be considerate hosts. Let us break barriers and build bridges! As for the many nationals from foreign countries residing in SA, they can be a great resource in breaking the language barriers, and assisting in the accommodation and the arranging of “parties” for their fellow-countrymen.

Expected outcomes:

• the Church will hopefully be perceived as a reliable partner who has a special competence and a specific mission.
• press, radio and television will provide some exposure to activities organised by the Church.
• make people aware of the rich common ground between the Church and sports.
• demonstrate that both sports and the Church can be joyful experiences. Many find it difficult to share on the faith and religious level. Sports creates a common bond between people which can lead them to share at faith level.
• grow our communication structures.

Our ultimate goal!? Peace and Justice on earth and happiness in Heaven!

Ke Nako*!

Is the consecrated life "superior" to marriage?

The Catholic Church's answer to this question might surprise you.

I've never forgotten a strange conversation I had about 15 years ago with a Catholic seminarian in Baltimore. He had been tasked with retrieving me from the airport and driving me to the venue where I would be speaking that weekend. Along the way, as we were discussing his course of seminary formation, he said something to the effect that the consecrated life was no better than the married life.

I thought maybe I had misunderstood him and that he was just trying to be thoughtful in not giving me, a married man, the impression that he looked down on marriage. So I asked him to explain more clearly what he meant, and that led to the strangeness.

Turns out he was adamant that the consecrated life was not a higher state, and when I told him that that's not what the Church teaches, his adamancy became pique. He strongly disagreed with that view and I found it strange that he was so vehement in his position. Was this what he had been taught in the seminary? Most probably (remember, this was the mid-90s), although perhaps there was some other reason for his sensitivity to this subject.

In any case, I flashed back to that seminarian and that odd conversation, last Thursday, when, on my "Open Line" radio show, I took a call from a non-Catholic (most likely a Protestant) who wanted to express his reasons for disagreeing with something Pope John Paul II said about the consecrated life being "superior" to the married life. Click the picture or click here to hear the call.

(Also, here are some helpful references for consideration)

St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 7:

"It is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman. Indeed, I wish that everyone were like I am. I should like you to be free from anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord; how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world; how he may please his wife, and he is divided. Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife. If you marry, however, you do not sin, nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries; but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life, and I would like to spare you that" (c.f., Mark 12:18-27; Matt. 19:10-12; 2 Timothy 2:3).

Pope John Paul II , Vita Consecrata, 32:

“As a way of showing forth the Church's holiness, it is to be recognized that the consecrated life, which mirrors Christ's own way of life, has an objective superiority. Precisely for this reason, it is an especially rich manifestation of gospel values and a more complete expression of the Church's purpose, which is the sanctification of humanity. The consecrated life proclaims and in a certain way anticipates the future age, when the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven, already present in its first fruits and in mystery, will be achieved and when the children of the resurrection will take neither wife nor husband, but will be like the angels of God (c.f., Matt. 22:30).”

Pope Pius XII, Sacra Virginitas, 32:

“This doctrine of the excellence of virginity and of celibacy and of their superiority over the married state was, as we have already said, revealed by our divine Redeemer and by the Apostle of the Gentiles; so too, it was solemnly defined as a dogma of divine faith by the holy Council of Trent, and explained in the same way by all the holy Fathers and doctors of the Church.”

Council of Trent:

"If anyone saith that the marriage state is to be preferred before the state of virginity, let him be anathema." [...] "writing to the Corinthians, [Paul] says: I would that all men were even as myself; that is, that all embrace the virtue of continence...A life of continence is to be desired by all.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 916

"The state of the consecrated life is thus one way of experiencing a "more intimate" consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God. In the consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come."

What the hail?

I've experienced hailstorms before, but never anything like this. My advice to folks living in Oklahoma who want to find a silver lining in those dark, hail-laden clouds: Buy stock in companies that manufacture siding, shingles, and windshields.

P.S. I was trying to work in some kind of "Van Hailen" joke, but I couldn't come up with anything. Probably just as well.

Priest sells convent to Muslims for a mosque on a street named for 9-11 hero

Okay, this is galling on a couple different levels. Plot summary: The pastor of a Catholic parish sold the parish convent to an Islamic organization, which plans to turn it into a mosque. The kicker is that the convent happens to be on a street named in honor of . . . get this . . . "FDNY Capt. Martin Egan, 36, who was killed in the terrorist attacks" of September 11th.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The impending sale of an empty, 2 ½ -story convent in Midland Beach owned by St. Margaret Mary’s R.C. Church has neighbors angry and afraid because the purchaser is an Islamic organization they know little about.

Several hundred concerned residents turned out last night for an emergency meeting called by the Midland Beach Civic Association at the Olympia Activity Center, two blocks from the convent site at 555 Greeley Ave.

The association’s president, Yasmin Ammirato, told the gathering that she first learned about the convent sale on May 12. She added that the Rev. Keith Fennessy, pastor, told her at a meeting on May 15 with four representatives of the nonprofit Muslim American Society (MAS), the group set to buy the property, that he had "signed off, and money has been exchanged."

She said that MAS agreed to pay $750,000 for the property, and its plan for the convent’s re-use includes a mosque and community center with after-school programs for children. "There’s a need for a mosque on the East Shore" from South Beach to Midland Beach, she said the representatives told her, citing Muslim Albanian and Turkish residents.

The convent occupies a 100-by-90-foot corner lot, with a current market value of $915,000, according to the city Department of Finance.

Residents in attendance last night were not happy about what they heard. One proposed a petition drive to remove Father Fennessy from his post, and the idea received sustained applause. Another suggested that the civic association consult with an attorney to explore legal options to fight the project. One woman raised a practical concern: "Parking here is already horrendous. How will another community center affect the neighborhood, whether it’s run by an Islamic group or not?"

"This hurts — it was done without even consulting us, on the sneak," said Eugene Reems, 42, a life-long resident whose three children attend the parish elementary school, where his wife, Erin, teaches third grade.

"September 11 left scars on this neighborhood that will last for the rest of our lives," he added, noting that part of the convent fronts Freeborn Street, which was renamed for FDNY Capt. Martin Egan, 36, who was killed in the terrorist attacks.

"We grew up together, and he was a very good friend. Marty was a hero in everyone’s eyes, and this a real slap in the face to his family and everyone who knew him.". . . (continue reading)

My advice to a discouraged young man struggling with an habitual sin

On my "Open Line" radio show last week, a 25 year-old man called to discuss his plight of not being able to overcome a serious sinful habit. In his dejection over his powerlessness to conquer the problem, he had given up and abandoned the Catholic Church and the sacraments, hopeless that he could ever be freed from his enslavement. I did my best to offer him some words of encouragement and advice. (Click the pic to listen.)

This music stirs my soul

Maurice Revel's “Pavane for a Dead Princess,” long a favorite of mine, has a poignant, personal meaning for me. I hope you enjoy it.

Wouldn't it be great to be back in North Platte for ten minutes?

What happened to our country?