Skeptical Faith

Google Image More people, it seems, want to kill themselves. While other causes of death in the U.S. are on the decline, the suicide rate has risen by a quarter, to 13 per 100,000 people in 2014 from 10.5 in 1999, according to an analysis by statistician Sally Curtin and her colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reported recently by National Public Radio. And it's rising for every age group under 75, she says. "I've been losing sleep over this…," says Curtin. "You can't just say it's confined to one age group or another for males and females. Truly at all ages people are at risk for this, and our youngest have some of the highest percent increases." And Curtin points out that in any given year, there are a lot more suicide attempts than there are suicide deaths. "The deaths are but the tip of the iceberg," she says. What the Experts Say Experts ascribe the increase to economic stagnation, whic...

Google Image For just a few minutes, I ask you to suspend any disbelief you may have about Jesus’ resurrection and the gospel accounts about it because I want to write about a gospel reading for this time after Easter that stirs the imagination. I believe it has much to say to people searching for God. The scene is after Jesus’ unbelievably cruel crucifixion and incredible resurrection as described in the Gospel of John. Jesus’ disciples are gathered in a rented or borrowed room, locked “for fear of the Jews.” They had reason to lock the door because the disciples were, after all, close associates of this rabble rouser who challenged the Jewish authorities. They had said he claimed to be a King, making him an enemy to the Romans who occupied and ruled Israel. The disciples were guilty by association. They undoubtedly also felt a great deal of guilt because they all abandoned Jesus when the going got tough. And they felt shame for having done so. When it comes to those feeling...

Malala Yousafzai Google Image Growing up Catholic, I used to read about the saints. That may sound quaint, and perhaps boring. But it wasn’t their piety that attracted me. It was the fact that so many of them overcame huge obstacles and difficulties in their search for God. They were people of their time, stuck with its baggage just as we’re stuck with ours, but motivated by a spirituality that transcended it. They were determined to “do good” and stick to their principles no matter what. To me, they were heroes, people to look up to and emulate. Today, their places are taken by sports figures, TV and movie stars, some of whom are hardly fountains of virtue. There may, in fact, be a cult of “badness,” but I believe most people still honor goodness. Three saints who top my list of favorites for obvious reasons are the apostle Thomas; Thomas Aquinas and Thomas More. The apostle, like me, was a skeptic and doubter, who eventually reconciled with Jesus and the other apos...

Google Image Several weeks ago, I finished watching the documentary series, “Making a Murderer,” on Netflix. Filmed over a 10-year period, it’s an unprecedented real-life thriller about Steven Avery, who was exonerated of a murder by DNA evidence only to be accused and convicted of another. Set in rural Wisconsin, the riveting series “takes viewers inside a high-stakes criminal case where reputation is everything and things are never as they appear,” says a promotional message. Unbelievably for a documentary, it is wildly popular and sparked a nationwide debate about the criminal justice system. Though Avery and his nephew were convicted in the second homicide, the series leaves grave doubts about their guilt. But for me, the show evoked thoughts about an overall issue, the primacy of life. The series was all about life – the lives of the women who were murdered and the lives of Avery and his nephew, who were sentenced to life terms in prison. It was also about th...