I have long thought that a comprehensive understanding of Catholicism requires at least some basic knowledge of the Old Testament and Judaism. This is as true in Christology as in any other aspect of theology. In this essay, I want to examine one such connection between the Old and New Testaments: the teaching that Jesus Christ is the new Adam. To do so, I need to discuss biblical typology. Typology Biblical typology refers to when a person, event, or thing... Read more
A strong case can be made that politics has replaced baseball as America’s pastime. Regardless of where one lives or whom one interacts with, politics seems to have infected the lives of almost everyone. At the same time, there has been a noticeable decline in religiosity in American life. This is, in my view, not a coincidence. In this paper, I want to question this obsession over politics and suggest that politics, divorced from religion and faith, has led to... Read more
One of the most persistent fallacies of our time is the genetic fallacy. More specifically, the problem is an appeal to an illegitimate authority. How often are the political or religious opinions of celebrities considered expert? In a similar vein, should a biologist be considered an expert on philosophy and theology? In this paper, I will discuss The God Delusion, a book written by a self-proclaimed “expert,” Richard Dawkins. Who Is Richard Dawkins? Richard Dawkins is an Oxford-educated evolutionary biologist... Read more
This paper, the final of three essays on Christian apologetics, shifts the focus to presuppositional apologetics, a unique approach that sets it apart from classical and evidential apologetics. As previously stated, apologetics seeks to explain and justify religious doctrine. It shows the reasonableness of faith and doctrine in the face of the objections offered by atheists and non-Christians. I will begin by reviewing the history of presuppositional apologetics and its proponents. Finally, I will examine the method used by this... Read more
The following paper is the second of three on Catholic and Christian apologetics. Having previously discussed classical apologetics, I turn to the method called evidential apologetics. As indicated in part one, apologetics is a religious discipline concerned with offering an intellectual defense related to religion and faith. For the most part, evidential apologetics is a response to the rise of deism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Eschewing revelation for reason, deism envisioned a universe created by God but then... Read more
As Catholics, we should “be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” (1 Peter 3:15). How can this be done? Enter apologetics. Because the word apologetics sounds very similar to the word apology, it may seem that Catholics are to express regret or remorse for their faith. This could not be farther from the truth. Apologetics is the English translation of the Greek word apología, which means to give a systemic... Read more
Imagine a father sending his son to a far-off place, knowing that the son would be tortured and killed. Making matters even worse, this was done to satisfy justice for a crime the son did not commit. Does such a scenario constitute child abuse? Obviously, other factors would have to be evaluated, such as the age of the son and the circumstances surrounding the event. Nevertheless, such an event does seem to be questionable at best. What exactly does the... Read more
I want to open this article on the compatibility of faith and science by quoting two very different viewpoints: “Science must destroy religion.” While this quote may seem to have been uttered by a college freshman looking for shock value, it is actually the title of an essay by Dr. Sam Harris, a neuroscientist and “philosopher.” The second quote comes from the famed French microbiologist Louis Pasteur, “A bit of science distances one from God, but much science nears one... Read more
Arguably, the most difficult challenge facing philosophy, theology, and religion is the problem of evil. The problem can be framed in different ways, depending on the purpose of the discussion. For example, one can argue that the existence of evil militates against the existence of God. “If one of two contraries be infinite, the other would be altogether destroyed. But the word “God” means that He is infinite goodness. If, therefore, God existed, there would be no evil discoverable, but... Read more
“I do not know what happens after the physical brain dies…I do not think anyone does know.” – Sam Harris, atheist. The mystery of death, or more accurately, the mystery of what, if anything, happens upon the death of a living being, has beguiled human beings since the advent of humanity. Do living things pass to another life, or do they simply cease to exist? In this paper, I will examine what the Bible and the Catholic tradition have to... Read more
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