Skeptical Faith

Google Image Sophia was 25 years old when she was interviewed for the book, “Young Adult Catholics, Religion in the Culture of Choice” by Dean Hoge et al, a book to which I’ve referred often in these blogs.   “…I think I’m at a point where I think religion is more about spirituality and my own prayers and thoughts,” she said, “and I don’t necessarily have to actually go to Mass or be Catholic to be spiritual.” I must once again ask tolerance of my readers who are not Catholic because this blog is, even more than usual, written from the Catholic perspective. Still, a lot here would apply to people of any, or no, faith. Not For Lack of Faith? I’m returning to the subject of the flight from religion among young people because of a recent article in the National Catholic Reporter called “A Church to Believe In.” The subtitle is, “Young adults are leaving Catholic parishes, but not for lack of faith.” The article refers to various surveys that find that young Cat...

Google Image Somewhere in my formal education, I learned the importance of critical thinking. I believe it was in high school, taught by priests, but I know I already had an idea about it in elementary school, taught by nuns. I never felt coerced to believe anything, and I recall challenging the nuns and priests throughout my years in school – including the priests who taught me in the seminary. Many of them weren’t happy about it, but there were never any dire consequences. Am I saying that I wasn’t influenced by my teachers and the faith that I inherited from my parents? Of course I was. But everybody has to try to make objective judgments about what they’ve been taught, heard and seen. Usually, that’s done incrementally during one’s life.   “Critical thinking” is usually thought of as a quality of science and scientists, not religious people. But I don’t quite see it that way. Scientists are also products of their backgrounds and upbringing and the influences of the...

Scholarship Students with Assumption Parish Delegation We huffed and puffed climbing the steep path up a scruffy mountain, over orange to watermelon-sized rocks and the big tree roots protruding between them. It was hot, and the sweat was starting to drip from all the usual places. After about 20 minutes, we arrived where Salvador, a 20-year old who is only in his second year of high school, lives with an unmarried older brother. Only out of respect can you call it a “house.” It’s square with four corrugated metal walls and a roof of the same material – not the best for a humid climate with temperatures that are nearly always over 90 degrees. It has one room furnished with two neatly-made beds. The floor is of packed dirt. It has electricity, as evidenced by the single bulb hanging from the ceiling, but no plumbing. There is no apparent outdoor latrine. A hundred yards or so above Salvador’s house is that of his parents, who live with two daughters. The house is similar ...

Google Image David Brooks, the famous columnist for the New York Times who often appears as a commentator on TV news shows, recently wrote a column called “The Benedict Option.” An apparently non-practicing Jew, Brooks often writes about faith, usually in a way that suggests that, like many of us, he is searching for God. Anyway, Brooks writes about his friend, Rod Dreher, whose new book, “The Benedict Option,” is already “the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade.” According to Wikipedia, Dreher is senior editor at The American Conservative and is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio and other media . Raised a Methodist, he converted to Catholicism in 1993 and to Eastern Orthodoxy in 2006 after writing about the sex-abuse scandals among Catholic clergy. Dreher, writes Brooks, says it’s futile to keep fighting the culture war, because it’s over, presumably meaning that anti-religious forces have won. Instead, believers should follow t...