In the Image of Man? Part 3

“In a world without God, everything is permitted" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

Parts 1 and 2 briefly discussed atheist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach’s contention that God and religion are merely human inventions. His ideas would greatly influence those of Karl Marx (“religion is the opium of the people”) and Friedrich Nietzsche (“God is dead”), forerunners of two ideologies both atheistic and brutal, Communism and Nazism. In his book Reason to Believe, Dr. Scott Hahn reasoned that “it was Feuerbach who made Stalin and Hitler possible, because he assured them that they acted in the absence of God”. Tyrants like Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot believed that God, the source of all morals, does not exist, and so there was nothing left to hold them back from perpetrating the worst of acts except the limits of their own power. They asked: Genocide is wrong? Says who? 

Those who deny the existence of God ultimately renounce that of morality. They believe that whatever they do in this life will have no repercussions in the next - because to them, the afterlife does not exist! If this was true, then it means anyone can do anything in life, even the most heinous crimes, without fear of God’s judgment after death. Can you imagine the consequence if people with penchant for violence buy into such delusions? We shouldn’t have a hard time, for not too long ago, the world has witnessed it happen. As Dr. Hahn suggests, we only need to read “the history of the wars and genocide of the atheist regimes of the 20th century: Nazi Germany, Communist China and Cambodia, and the Soviet Union” to remember the result of such a horrific thought turn into reality.

Quote of the Dei (# 1)

“In the end, for all eternity, you and I will be in heaven or hell...period!” 

- Fr. John Corapi

In the Image of Man? Part 2

As noted in Part I, philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach believed that God and religion are human inventions, created to serve as a form of wish fulfillment. For instance, according to him, Christianity‘s belief in eternal life was invented to deal with man’s fear of death.

From a Christian’s perspective, Feuerbach’s logic is simply in error. Christians fear something worse than the death of the body, and that is the damnation of the soul. And while it’s true that Christians hope for eternal life in heaven, the same faith demands their belief in the everlasting fires of hell.

Does it make sense for man, in order to take away fear of something, invent something else more fearful? As author Dinesh D’Souza observed: “Wish fulfillment can explain heaven, but it cannot explain hell.”

Don’t Believe Your Desires When They Say, “After This, I’ll Be Satisfied” (by Bo Sanchez)

The wife said to the husband, “This Christmas, let’s give more practical gifts to one another, like socks and a diamond ring.” – Anonymous

I love retelling my experience in Grade Four, when the inevitable “passage of manhood” happened in school: A few classmates of mine started wearing long pants. Suddenly, they looked so mature, so grown up, so guwapo (handsome) – while all of us who wore the uniform khaki shorts were so totoy (childish).  So I pressed Mom to buy me a pair, but she kept on saying, “Later, Bo.” The following year, I was in Grade Five, I was the only one wearing shorts. It was humiliating. In Grade Six, I was the only guy wearing a bikini. That’s what my classmates called my shorts as I had already outgrown them.

Believe me, I have never again been so sexy in my life.

Finally, on graduation day, I wept with pure joy when Mom gave me my very own pair of pants. Oh, I didn’t care if the fold at the bottom of each leg was 12 inches long, even reaching up to my knees. (“So that I can adjust them as you get taller,” my mother explained.) To me, they were the most beautiful pair of long pants in the world.

But ironically, after a while, the thrill faded away. Because I started wanting to wear jeans.

“Mom, everyone has at least one pair!” I pleaded.

When she bought me one after a few years of begging, I soared to cloud nine and romped off in them like a prince. I thought my happiness would never end, until my high school classmates told me that their jeans were Levi’s and mine were Ludy’s.

But to this day, wearing Ludy’s has been my happy lifestyle.

In fact, people ask me, “Why do you have so few desires in your life now?” The answer comes from my bikini experience: I’ve realized that all human desire never quits on you. We just keep on wanting more and more stuff. Nothing ever satisfies.

Never believe your desires when they say, “After this, I’ll be satisfied.”

Reference/s:
Sanchez, Bo. SIMPLIFY and Live the Good Life. Shepherd’s Voice Publications, Inc.

In the Image of Man? Part 1

Student: “If God didn’t exist, we’d invent Him anyway. And we did. What do you say to that?”
Dr. Scott Hahn: “I say, if God did exist, we’d invent atheism anyway. And we did.”

Dr. Hahn narrates this exchange with his student in his book, Reasons to Believe. He tells us that the student’s argument was originally made by philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. For Feuerbach, God and religion were invented to fulfill man’s desires and needs (read more about this on parts 2 and 3).

Dr. Hahn proceeded to remind his student that Christians believe in, and worship a God who is not only Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, but is also All-Holy and commands man to be perfectly holy as well; a God who knows our most innermost thoughts and desires, and can see clearly everything that we do even in the darkest of places (“There’s no place to run and hide from Him, no place where we might secretly indulge a favorite vice”). Dr. Hahn’s point is that if man had really tried to invent a god, we’d probably invent one who is more “congenial to our whims”. Perhaps one who’d give Moses a single commandment instead of ten? Or how about one who would not include “thou shalt not commit adultery” on the list? In other words, if man had really tried to invent a god, we’d surely never invent one such as the Christian God.

Question of the Dei (# 1): How many Gods are there?

In his book “The Faith Explained”, Fr. Leo Trese states:

“…there can be but one God. To speak of two (or more) supreme beings would be a contradiction. The very word “supreme” means “above all others.” If there were two equally powerful gods side by side, then neither of them would be supreme. Neither would have the infinite power which God by his nature must have. The “infinite” power of the one would cancel out the “infinite” power of the other. “

He concluded by quoting St. Athanasius: “To speak of several equally powerful gods is like speaking of several equally powerless gods.”

The Greatest Conceivable Being

St. Anselm was an Italian philosopher who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. He is best known for his “Ontological Argument” for the existence of God, which is based purely on reason. It goes like this:

1. St. Anselm defines God as “that than which nothing greater can be conceived” or “The Greatest Conceivable Being”. Theist and atheist alike would generally accept this as a valid definition.
2. If one says that “The Greatest Conceivable Being” exists only in the mind, then it is NOT a valid statement since one could conceive of a greater being: “The Greatest Conceivable Being” that exists in reality.
3. Therefore, God or “The Greatest Conceivable Being”, by definition, exists in reality.

"The fool has said in his heart: There is no God" -  Psalm 13:1

Reference/s:
D’Souza, Dinesh (2008). What’s So Great about Christianity. Kaveri Printer Pvt. Ltd.
Woods, Thomas E., Jr. (2005). How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Regnery Publishing, Inc.