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A Religion of Impossibilities?

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Google Image Pigs Fly. People walk on walls. Catfish play the trumpet. All among things that are impossible, most would agree. Then there are the theoretical or apparent impossibilities. World Peace. Democrats and Republicans seeing eye to eye. TV shows with no advertising or fees. And then, the really heavy stuff that people of faith profess. Jesus’ resurrection, humanity’s eternal destiny, God becoming a human. Many people would place these in the same category as flying pigs. I wouldn’t. Isaiah Takes the Cake? The Judeo-Christian tradition has a long history of believing in apparent impossibilities. Perhaps the prophet Isaiah takes the cake. Yearning for a new king in the idealized tradition of King David, the prophet engages in a bit of poetry. “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.” (Actually, I’ve seen videos of lions lying down...
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Figuring the Odds

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Google Image Many of you, when studying physics or math, may recall learning about Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, philosopher, physicist and theologian who lived from 1623 to 1662. Pascal came up with a way of looking at “the God question” that is now called “Pascal’s Wager.” It basically argues that belief in God involves a high-stakes gamble. Paraphrasing, here’s how Pascal describes the gamble, according to Wikipedia.      ·   God is, or God isn’t. Reason can’t decide between the two.      ·   You play a game … where heads or tails turns up.      ·   You must wager. It’s not optional.      ·   Weighing the gain and the loss in wagering that God is, estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing      ·   There is here an infinity of a happy life to gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite....
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God: Busy Elsewhere?

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Google image In "Darkest Hour," a Netflix movie about Second World-War England, Winston Churchill – the frumpish prime minister who rallied his country to resist the Nazis – told King George VI: “My father was like God. Busy elsewhere.” One of my recent blogs was about the necessity of showing up – at the job, in the family, in prayer. So, what about the importance of God “showing up?” For many, God’s silence clinches their rejection of faith. God is missing in action, they say, and there’s no way to get around it. If he/she exists, you’d hear from him/her. So, learn to live without God and you’ll be much happier. Generally Happier Problem is that opinion polls don’t support the latter statement. For many years, they have shown that believers are generally happier than non-believers. But why is faith required? Why would God design things in a way that requires human beings to  believe  instead of  knowing   God directly ? Why require an intellectual and emoti...
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The Benefits of Thankfulness

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Google Image This blog, as they say in show biz, is partly an encore performance; that is, it’s partly from a Thanksgiving blog I wrote in 2016. (Hey, the blog is free!) Every year I’m amazed that in a country like ours, which is so wrapped up in the material, so much into “conspicuous consumption,” so enamored of people who amass wealth and fame, we still celebrate a holiday like Thanksgiving. I’m not sure about the extent to which Americans are conscious of its meaning, but it’s admirable that we have a holiday to recall how much we have to be grateful for. More Tuned In Growing up in a different culture, my wife, Amparo, is perhaps more tuned in to Thanksgiving than I am. It’s become a bit ho-hum for me, but she so appreciates the fact that a day is set aside to be grateful. She reminded me that this blog would be published on Thanksgiving and gave me ideas for this post. Here’s a sample. We teach our children to say, “thank you,” not just to be polite but to learn the impor...
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Religion, “Pure and Undefiled”

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Google Image Pardon me if I’ve told this story before. On one of my trips to rural El Salvador with fellow parishioners from Iowa, I was walking down a dirt road - probably on the way to visit the family of one of the high school scholarship recipients our parish supported - and heard someone talking in a small corn field next to the road. I turned to see a woman, looking to be about 55 years-old, digging around a corn plant and talking to somebody I couldn’t see. I came nearer the woman and still couldn’t see who she was talking to. Finally, she looked in my direction and we exchanged greetings. Probably a little too boldly, I told her I couldn’t see who she was talking to and asked where that person was. “Oh,” she said, “I was talking to the corn.” That piqued my interest, but I didn’t have to ask. “I often talk to the corn while I’m working,” she said, “because there’s nobody else to talk to.” Open and Kind She was open and kind, and we engaged in a 10-minute conversation. S...
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Showing Up

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Google Image If you go out to dinner much, you’ll notice that the service – even at the restaurants you like best – can be spotty. Often it’s not that the server is bad, but that there doesn’t seem to be enough of them. Although I find myself empathizing more with the servers than the management, I do wonder how frustrating it would be for managers when employees don’t show up. Showing up - at work, at home, when loved ones need our help, when people down on their luck need our help, and in prayer - is half the battle. You may not think “showing up” in prayer is particularly important, but I believe – and many spiritual writers believe – it's essential. Everything Else Negotiable “There is no bad way to pray,” writes Ronald Rolheiser, a Catholic priest and writer, in his little book, Prayer: Our Deepest Longing , “and there is no one starting point for prayer. You have to show up for prayer and you have to show up regularly. Everything else is negotiable and respects your uni...
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Resistance to Religion: Thoughtfulness or Trendiness?

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Google Image I suppose many of us believe that people who don’t see things our way are merely influenced by others, the culture, trends, etc., and don’t think for themselves. That’s usually a fallacy, but I can’t shake the idea that it’s true of many people today, especially the young, concerning religion. Many who have abandoned religion, I believe, are more influenced by cultural changes than by thoughtful consideration. Don’t get me wrong. Many people who have rejected religion and belief do so because they have thoughtfully, and often painfully, examined the issues. But I believe many have not, dismissing religion because they feel that it provides no benefit. Even the Purchase of a Car? How many study the issue of faith as much as they examine other decisions in their lives – their political affiliation, their job or spousal choice or even their purchase of a car? And as for the question of whether the abandonment of religion is good for society, I can only ask, “How’s th...
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