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| Not Jesus Christ |
One of the most common misunderstandings of Christianity is that it demands belief without reason—“blind faith.” This is “fideism.” For Catholics, it is heresy.
Martin Luther is to blame for this. He wrote, among other things, that “Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has.” Please don’t ask me to defend him on this. Martin Luther is not the final authority for Christianity. Not even most Protestants agree with him on this.
Pope Pius X, in order to stamp out this “modernist” heresy, required all clergy to affirm that “God... can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason... his existence can be demonstrated...” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says “human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and light of attaining a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God.” No “faith,” in the sense of a belief in something in the absence of reason or evidence, is required of Catholics. If you in fact believe in anything without reason or evidence, you are a heretic. “Faith in God” means trust in God, not the mere conviction that he exists.
Related to this first misunderstanding is the odd assumption by many that there is no proof of God’s existence. Some will even go so far as to say there is “no evidence” for God. As a matter of plain fact, there are dozens of well-known philosophical proofs of God’s existence. Some of them are given in brief here. Over the history of Western philosophy, there is probably nothing else demonstrated with more certainty than the existence of God--including the existence of the physical world, or the existence of you.
The next common misunderstanding of Christianity is that it holds that all non-Christians (or all non-members of each given denomination) will go to hell. Apparently some Southern Baptists do believe this—I believe the idea comes from Calvin. I leave it to them to defend their claim. For Catholics, however, if you believe whatever you believe sincerely, and you have made every effort to seek the truth, you cannot be faulted. Of course, there is a heavy presupposition that this will lead you to Catholicism. Given that Catholicism is truth, and truth is readily accessible to human reason, it is a strange thing to be sincerely seeking the truth and not to arrive at it. This is referred to as “invincible ignorance.”
The next common misunderstanding is that Christians worship a different God than Muslims. God is, according to the Oxford dictionary “the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.” By definition, there cannot be more than one supreme being. Webster’s has: “the perfect and all-powerful spirit or being that is worshipped … as the one who created and rules the universe.” There can be, by definition, only one perfect, all-powerful being. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “God is unique; there is only one God: The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance, and essence.” Therefore, there can be no question of choosing God A over God B to be your God; the notion is nonsensical. God is by definition unique. The most that might be said is that Muslims and Christians have a somewhat different understanding of God.
The next common misunderstanding is that Christians worship a “sky father.” Lord knows where this came from: perhaps from Freud. It is true that God is sometimes depicted, as in the creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, as an old man in a cloud. But one visit to a Catholic Church would prove that this is not the most common representation of the divine. That would be the image of Jesus, a youngish Jewish man. This is the way in which God chose to reveal himself to us, in the incarnation. The two other standard depictions, as the Father and as the Holy Spirit, are a good deal less common. In the case of God the Father, of course, the clouds are purely metaphoric; no Christian believes he lives in the sky, any more than they believe he is their literal father.
Martin Luther is to blame for this. He wrote, among other things, that “Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has.” Please don’t ask me to defend him on this. Martin Luther is not the final authority for Christianity. Not even most Protestants agree with him on this.
Pope Pius X, in order to stamp out this “modernist” heresy, required all clergy to affirm that “God... can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason... his existence can be demonstrated...” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says “human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and light of attaining a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God.” No “faith,” in the sense of a belief in something in the absence of reason or evidence, is required of Catholics. If you in fact believe in anything without reason or evidence, you are a heretic. “Faith in God” means trust in God, not the mere conviction that he exists.
Related to this first misunderstanding is the odd assumption by many that there is no proof of God’s existence. Some will even go so far as to say there is “no evidence” for God. As a matter of plain fact, there are dozens of well-known philosophical proofs of God’s existence. Some of them are given in brief here. Over the history of Western philosophy, there is probably nothing else demonstrated with more certainty than the existence of God--including the existence of the physical world, or the existence of you.
The next common misunderstanding of Christianity is that it holds that all non-Christians (or all non-members of each given denomination) will go to hell. Apparently some Southern Baptists do believe this—I believe the idea comes from Calvin. I leave it to them to defend their claim. For Catholics, however, if you believe whatever you believe sincerely, and you have made every effort to seek the truth, you cannot be faulted. Of course, there is a heavy presupposition that this will lead you to Catholicism. Given that Catholicism is truth, and truth is readily accessible to human reason, it is a strange thing to be sincerely seeking the truth and not to arrive at it. This is referred to as “invincible ignorance.”
The next common misunderstanding is that Christians worship a different God than Muslims. God is, according to the Oxford dictionary “the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.” By definition, there cannot be more than one supreme being. Webster’s has: “the perfect and all-powerful spirit or being that is worshipped … as the one who created and rules the universe.” There can be, by definition, only one perfect, all-powerful being. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “God is unique; there is only one God: The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance, and essence.” Therefore, there can be no question of choosing God A over God B to be your God; the notion is nonsensical. God is by definition unique. The most that might be said is that Muslims and Christians have a somewhat different understanding of God.
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| Michelangelo's idea of God the Father. |
The next common misunderstanding is that Christians worship a “sky father.” Lord knows where this came from: perhaps from Freud. It is true that God is sometimes depicted, as in the creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, as an old man in a cloud. But one visit to a Catholic Church would prove that this is not the most common representation of the divine. That would be the image of Jesus, a youngish Jewish man. This is the way in which God chose to reveal himself to us, in the incarnation. The two other standard depictions, as the Father and as the Holy Spirit, are a good deal less common. In the case of God the Father, of course, the clouds are purely metaphoric; no Christian believes he lives in the sky, any more than they believe he is their literal father.
The next common misunderstanding is that Christians think that sin is all about sex. This is pure projection on the part of pagans. No, Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden was not sex. No, the Immaculate Conception does not mean being born without sex.
One wonders how so many can get the teachings of Christianity so wrong. It is hard to believe it is not deliberate misrepresentation.
One wonders how so many can get the teachings of Christianity so wrong. It is hard to believe it is not deliberate misrepresentation.
4 comments:
You are indeed correct about misconception. Some of the drivel I read about your god and his/her message is adulterated, true. But a "philosophically" proved god is much, much diffrent from the (it isn't a cloud father or whatever you said,)Sky Daddy the fundies are always speaking of. In the US the fundies get the sound bites. Philosophical god isn't as good as an actual father god as they tout ad nauseum. All I can say is, makes no never mind to me. I stand absolutely as steadfast in my non belief as you are resolute in yours, but I did enjoy your "voice of reason in this column.
Philosophy proves God's existence and tells us some things about his nature, but this is very different than from having a real personal relationship with God. That it cannot give us.
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