I believe genuine paranormal experiences are rare. So of course the Ouija board is a nothingburger most of the time. Nonetheless, I do believe in the paranormal so I don't reject the possibility of something preternatural actually answering a user's invitation for communication. It's like the...
A prudential judgment against the modern application of the death penalty is well and good. The claim that the death penalty is in itself inadmissible contrary to human dignity implies the Church taught error. If the Church taught error then its claim to teaching authority is meaningless. A...
I reject the notion that the death penalty for the most heinous of crimes (where guilt is without doubt) is unethical.
This is where we disagree. I accept the right of a state to put the irredeemable to death. I must stress that my support the death penalty is limited to premediated crimes...
While I have not renounced Catholicism, what I actually believe has become opaque even to myself. The current death penalty teaching is emblematic of one of my main gripes with modern Catholicism. It is not credible to claim immunity from moral error while insisting on blatant reversals of...
In my view, a person who murders fourteen people in a premediated mass shooting has forfeited the right to their life. I have no moral qualm with a society that sends such people to the noose. I reject the notion that a mass shooter covered in innocent blood has an unconditional right to life...
You could argue that to take up smoking as a habit is tantamount to a sinful disregard for one's health.
But I don't think you could credibly argue that any and all use of tobacco is sinful. The occasional cigar may still be bad for you, but that doesn't make its consumption a violation of...
My hope is that if Putin gives the order to use nukes, he would find himself quickly removed (if not dead). How many of the Russian higher ups are willing to die just to save Putin's face?
A lot of self identified Christians have a confused understanding of Christian teaching. It is no surprise that an emotive, fideistic tradition that disparages study would churn out Christians whose beliefs are heterodox, self-contradictory and incoherent. But to be fair to the Evangelicals, I...
A while ago I listened to one of those YouTube past life regression videos. I got comfortable in bed closed my eyes and visualized as the voice instructed. I didn't expect anything to come of it. I undertook the regression as a spur of the moment "Let's see what comes up." kind of thing.
For...
Because if the Baha'i Faith is the religion revealed for this current historical era then it is not unreasonable to ask why the religion has so far failed to covert more than a few million at best in a world of billions and where information flows worldwide instantly.
This is true. In and of itself how many people believe or disbelieve in something has no relation to that thing's veracity. However, if the Baha'i Faith claims to be the faith revealed to supersede both Islam and Christianity then the religion's growth becomes a relevant question. If the Baha'i...
@PureX
This is going nowhere. So this will be my last reply to you.
To claim that the progress of human knowledge is an illusion is nothing less than irrationalism. To claim that our hard won knowledge about the actual workings of our world have no more basis in truth than iron age myth is...
You're arguing against claims I've never made. I did not say the ancient Hebrews were stupid, foolish or dishonest. I've said that their cosmology was wrong and that we do know better about a whole host of things including the shape of the planet and the nature of the physical cosmos beyond it...
As far as I am aware, once you get a few centuries into the Christian era the shape of the Earth ceases to be a serious question in that part of the world. At least among the educated. Possibly because Greek arguments for a spherical Earth became widespread and undeniable.
You can use the word 'earth' to mean ground and in that sense the 'earth' can be flat. I can accept poetic descriptions of the Earth as having foundations and corners and not insist that such language necessitates the belief in a literal flat Earth. But the authors of the Hebrew Bible clearly...
There are two views. According to the gentiles, the sun sets below the Earth and traverses the distance underneath during the course of the night. (And across the sky during the day, obviously). On the other hand, according the the Jewish sages, the sun travels over the opaque firmament (sky)...