"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
A long time favourite of this blog, Msgr. Pope, recently published an article looking at morality from an atheistic perspective. The list of questions at the end of the article are particularly good material to chew over.
I also recently saw this video on the same subject:
Today I wanted to talk about an apologetic strategy I use a lot: asking questions. You see, regardless of the topic, be it abortion, Christianity or Catholicism, there is always the temptation to spend most of your time telling someone what they should believe. People are rarely very receptive to being told. When I’m in that mode, it becomes very easy for me to become pompous and prideful. Questions help prevent this.
Rather than telling someone what they should believe, I find it is generally much more effective to ask the person what they believe and why. This communicates to the other person that you care what they think and you want to know more. Even though you are talking less, you have guiding control over the conversation through the questions that you ask. Not only that, but if you ask questions, it will probably encourage your friend to open up and ask you questions about what you believe. This allows you to follow the advise a wise priest once told me: “It’s best to start giving answers only once they’ve started asking you questions”
I would suggest that the goal is to ask questions which reveal the flaws in that person’s worldview. Once these are revealed, you can then present your own perspective, thereby giving you an opportunity to demonstrate the cohesiveness of your own world view.
“He who asks questions has control”
– Socrates (387 BC)
A while ago, Aggie Catholics put together a great list of questions to ask when you’re evangelizing…
Well this is kinda cool! I had no idea that Hippolytus wrote a refutation of astrology!
A couple of months ago a reader mentioned David Bentley Hart, an Eastern Orthodox Christian philosopher. I’ve been listening to his lectures online and been quite enjoying them:
A while ago we were studying Colossians in Bible study. In preparation for this I downloaded sermons and podcasts on this epistle of Paul to aid me in my study. One such MP3 I downloaded was a sermon series by a Protestant pastor in which he said something that rather shocked me.
During his presentation, he spoke for some time about the apostleship of St. Paul. He then spoke about the replacement of Judas following the Resurrection:
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet… In those days Peter stood up…and said, “Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled…concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry… So one of the men who have accompanied us…must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
And they put forward two…and they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthi′as; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles. – Acts 1:12-26
What shocked me was that, after recounting these events from the Acts of the Apostles, the pastor said that the Apostles made a mistake! He claimed that it was not Matthias who should have been selected, but they should have waited until the conversion of Paul! Wait…what?!
I just finished listening to a conversation between Dr. Scott Sullivan and Dr. Peter Kreeft. Dr. Kreeft has been one of my all-time favourite speakers, philosophers and authors and I recently bought Dr. Sullivan’s course on logic. Their conversation is great and Dr. Kreeft shines as always 🙂
I recently came across the Catholic Contrast video channel. It’s rather good. Here’s their response to the question “Are religious debates pointless?”…