Skeptical Faith

Google Image I grew up in a deeply religious family, but neither my parents nor my four older siblings were showy about it. My father was a practical sort of guy and rarely, if ever, talked about his faith. But I was impressed as a child that he never went to bed without kneeling to pray, and neither he nor my mother ever missed Sunday mass. My mother was devoted to Mary, and was also a pray-er. She and my Dad made sure we attended church and received the sacraments and sent us to parochial school, and they were obviously eager for us to know right from wrong and to always choose the former. But I don’t remember them ever saying why they were believers, let alone preaching to us. All the recent reports of emptying church pews have brought on a slew of articles about what people believe and why. Many have focused on the “spiritual versus religious” controversy; that is, people – especially young people – who say they’re spiritual but not religious. Self-identify in Four Cat...

Google Image When I worked as a priest among the Aymara-speaking people of Bolivia, it wasn’t unusual when walking to communities high in the mountains to find remnants of pagan worship. Among the most commonly-found items were dried-up llama and alpaca fetuses and small, clay, handmade statues of various gods. We who worked in the parish knew that many of the people who left them there also participated in our masses and other religious functions. It didn’t bother us. The people’s lives were hard and they figured they needed all the help they could get. We also speculated that this confusion of deities was one of the results of the Spanish conquest of the 15 th and 16 th centuries. It included the forced baptism of thousands, maybe millions, of indigenous people. They and their descendants had scant access to religious education, and the term “implied consent” hadn’t been invented. One of our jobs, some of us thought, was to compensate for that by making sure people kne...

Google Image When I was a kid, starting when I was about 8 or 9 years old, I believe, my friends and I used to be gone from our houses for hours without our parents knowing exactly where we were. In the summer, we spent whole mornings or afternoons in a huge nearby park, which had hills and woods with a creek running through it. We would, of course, make sure we were home for meals. The neighborhood was filled with kids, and besides playing sports and games together, we had plenty of disagreements and even some fights. But we almost always worked things out without our parents’ help. These are different times, not necessarily worse times. But nowadays, this kind of independence by children could bring charges of parental neglect. Back then, I think it gave us a good start in life, in resolving our own problems, overcoming obstacles, learning the give and take you need to live with other people. How Resilient Are We? I recently read an article in the magazine “Living C...

Google Image Around this time of year, I grumble about the lights and decorations at the malls and in neighborhoods, about the Christmas music that will have to be endured for more than a month, about the incessant sales that urge us to buy stuff we and the recipients of our gifts don’t need. If I were Pope, I would get together with other Christian leaders and try to change the date of the Christian Christmas, conceding Dec. 25 to the Walmarts, Amazons and Macys. They could proceed with their sales and promotions and we could quietly celebrate the birth of Jesus at another time. Am I the “Grinch who Stole Christmas?” I don’t think so. I dislike this time of the year not because I’m against the joy of Christmas expressed in gift-giving and reunions of family and friends or because I dislike the happiness brought to some of our children. I would like Christmas trees and the decorations if they all went up a few days before Christmas and if they were truly meaningful. To me, it...

Google Image At a recent visit to the house of my son and daughter-in-law near Chicago, my 3-year-old grandson pointed to the bald spot on the back of my head and asked, “Papa, what happened?” “What do you mean?” I asked. “What happened to your hair?” he asked. “It fell out,” I said. “Where is it?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I responded. “Maybe it’s at your house,” he suggested, trying to be helpful. We may see this as “cute,” but it’s a perfectly logical question given his knowledge of the situation. No one would accuse him of being stupid or even ignorant. A 3-year-old, after all, can’t be expected to understand the vagaries of aging. Even we who are experiencing it don’t understand them. Exaggerating the Differences It has often occurred to me how much we exaggerate the differences between us and children. We see the differences as huge. But are they really? We may think of children as naïve and uninformed. Does that mean we’re sophisticated and brilli...

Google Image A public-service TV “commercial” back in the 1970s shows an obviously Native American canoeing a river. Smokestacks shoot particles into the air, forming smog. Garbage floats by. A close-up shows a single tear rolling down the man’s cheek. The announcer says, “People start pollution. People can stop it.” Turns out that the actor, who had played a Native American in numerous movies and TV shows, was actually a second-generation Italian. But that didn’t alter the power of the message. Millions of Americans who saw it thought twice about throwing trash from their car windows or abandoning messy campsites. It was the kind of message needed to move Americans from indifference and apathy to concern about the environment. But it wasn’t nearly enough, and the kind of pollution the commercial targeted isn’t that important in the tragedy-waiting-to-happen that is global warming. The major villains are industrial emissions and exhaust fumes. Relevance? Before going any...

Google Image Growing up Catholic, I heard a lot about “mystery.” No, not the novel or movie that may be a “mystery,” but beliefs that are mysteries. I never particularly liked the term. I always saw it as a subterfuge for a belief that was so obscure it couldn’t be explained, or one that is utterly unbelievable. But as I age, I’m beginning to see that it’s probably the only word you can legitimately use to describe the indescribable. How can you adequately describe God, whose existence is said to be outside time and space, who is in and around everyone and everything, and who stretches from here to beyond the ends of the universe? Those are descriptions that we humans can’t fathom. What’s more, how can you adequately describe faith? It’s said to be a “gift,” but if so, why does God give it to some and not to others? And if it’s a gift, shouldn’t that mean we don’t have to do anything to acquire it or retain it?   Rational but Not Entirely of the Intellect Scriptur...

Google Image After the newspaper I worked for went from being a family-operated business to belonging to a corporate giant, the new company sent in a series of corporate employee relations people to bring employees around to the thinking of their new bosses. Predictably, there was some resistance. Change is seldom easy, especially when you have no input in the change or when reasons for the change – discussed and agreed upon behind closed corporate doors – are inadequately explained. I recall a meeting the new head of ER had with employees, then over 500 strong. “The train is leaving the station,” he said. “You’d better be on it.” The threat was hard to miss. But the question I was left with was about the value of change. Yes, change is inevitable, but not every change. And not all change is beneficial. Should people embrace just any proposed change? Well, yes, the ER head implied, if you want to keep your job! Resist, No Matter What There is no doubt, however, that m...

Google Image One of the blockbuster movies of the summer was “War for the Planet of the Apes,” among dozens of violent movies that appear with alarming regularity at multiplexes around the country. I didn’t see the movie, but I read a review by an Associated Press writer. The movie apparently has some touching moments and the writer praises the fact that the film “manages to surprise and captivate.” Predictably, however, it starts “with a gripping opening battle.” The film is one in a seemingly endless string of “apes” movies. This one probably won’t be the last. While watching a football game recently, I saw commercials for other movies and video games that were even more violent. They dripped with murder, destruction, righteousness and vengeance, promising to plunge the viewer into an orgy of blood and guts. (Any relation between the violence of football and the kind of commercials shown?) Let’s face it, as a nation we’re saturated with violence, in movies, TV, video g...

Google Image At my age, it’s hard to remember being a parent of young children. A recent visit by my son, his spouse and two children, one and three years old, was a reminder. If you’re good at it, as my son and his wife are, you are constantly sacrificing your own time and space for the children, dropping whatever you are doing to tend to their needs. For me, it is close to the kind of love prescribed for all of us in Jewish and Christian traditions, the kind of love I believe is needed for people searching for God. This love isn’t extraordinary, however, because it’s the love that normally exists between parents and children. Indeed, this kind of love is evident among many species of animals. What is extraordinary is this kind of love for people other than family members. So is this going to be one of those syrupy pieces about love, the kind that turns many people off? I hope not. I acknowledge that for many of us, the two “greatest commandments” of the Jewish and Ch...

Google Image I’ve had casual conversations with friends about “intelligence.” What constitutes intelligence? What are its properties? Some say it’s having a great memory. Others that it’s the ability to learn. Besides these, the dictionary says intelligence is “the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment” or “to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (tests).” I believe it’s all of the above, plus the ability to predict outcomes.  People who are successful in horse-race gambling have this kind of intelligence, I suspect. They study a horse and jockey and compare them to other horses and jockeys in the race, track conditions, and other relevant factors. But they also have seen a certain jockey-and-horse combo perform in similar situations and against similar competition and based on their experience, they correctly predict this combo will win, place or show. Other animals have this kind of intelligence, it seems. A crow in a laboratory know...