I am still here. Expect another few lengthy replies tomorrow or the day after: Islam/Buddhism, Lewis trilemma, bloodthirsty God/substitutionary atonement, auricular confession, scriptural exegesis and authority ... as I said I don't just sit down and write them out, I mull over them, sometimes bring out citations, etc. I am mulling over a bunch of the questions asked above right now. I appreciate everyone's patience and interest.
As far as turk goes I'm not sure if "troll" is even the right word although I haven't encountered him on the forums outside of this thread. He just appears to be one of a great many militant anti-theists/anti-religion types who you run into so frequently on the Internet who get into this certain anti-theistic movement of sorts and reflexively attack religion with a truly fanatical fervour, and who's arguments happen to be (at least on the lower levels of encountering these folks online) almost all clichéd and predictable, even the list of Scriptures that purports to show the God of the Old Testament in a negative light is literally copy and pasted from some such source. I'm fairly convinced that on the Internet at least, there is no arguing with these people, and he's said as much of me above, so he may as well disengage, as will I. I hardly expect that my humble attempts at apologetics in this internet thread will affect a great many conversions of Bluelighters to Catholicism, but I just hope to engage in an honest and intellectually based dialogue that is grounded in something more than just knee jerk reactions of believers towards nonbelievers and the opposite. It's my earnest hope and prayer that I can even begin in my posts here to scratch the surface of the complexities of Catholic thought on these subjects, of which I am only an amateur student, and which literally goes back 2,000 years into the past. Making the discussion be solely about the opinions of people in the present isn't on my agenda for this thread, and although of course as a rebuttal one might say that by posting an "ask
me anything" I am soliciting inquiries as to my opinion -- not really the case. I'm soliciting inquiries as to my attempt at an honest and orthodox understanding of Catholicism. I also, by the way, welcome questions of a more personal sort although I'd have to add the disclaimer ask me (almost) anything on questions of a biographical nature.
I'd also like to add a parenthesis here to say that I hardly occupy a moral high ground. I am a bad Catholic, and a great sinner. I have had in my life serious difficulties with greed, self-centeredness, neglect of obligation to others, pride, addiction, rebellion towards authority, alcohol, heroin, sex, violence, you name it, not to mention the glorification of all of the above, sometimes on this very forum, not to mention lack of faith and spiritual struggle and difficulties, down to this very day. I claim no moral high ground, only to have spent some good deal of time and effort over the past several years in study of the Catholic faith and knowledge in hope and faith that, first and foremost, that it is the Truth; and, on but a secondary level, that I hope and believe it will help me be a better person. It does not go the other way 'round -that is the person-centered, "moralist therapeutic deism" I keep going back to. Catholicism asks us to understand ourselves spiritually not merely as individuals or even individuals in dialogue with God, although there is certainly a place for the dialogue of the individual with God, but as a member of the Church, the "body of Christ," in dialogue with the entirety of the Church, the living, the dead, the visible, hierarchical parts of the Church, and the Church simply defined as believers joined by the sacraments. This is why much of what I am saying will present difficulties for people who are more accustomed to an individualistic spirituality centered upon self and subjective experience and belief.
But for now, a good night, and a very quick one answered
I read Catholics are supposed to do this-True or False?
"Schedules are more exacting for Catholics, whose days are punctuated by no fewer than 7 occasions for prayer. Every evening at ten they must, for example, scan their consciences, read a Psalm, declare 'Into your hands, Lord', sing the Nunc dimittis (Song of Simeon) from the second chapter of the Gospel of St Luke and conclude with a hymn to the mother of Jesus 'Virgin now and always, take pity on us sinners'."
false; this is speaking of the Liturgy of the Hours, a very beautiful spiritual practice that revolves around reading certain prayers and scriptures varying throughut the year at certain fixed times; it is considered to be a pious and spiritually beneficial practice for the laity but is not an obligation on them, but it is an obligation on all clergy and almost all of those in religious life (monks and nuns.)
