2008 June archive at Being Frank

Archive for June, 2008

Jun

The God Delusion?

By eyeWitness 71 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Last Tuesday night I went to the debate between Dr William Craig, (a world renowned Christian apologist who was touring New Zealand this week) and the atheist, humanist leader of the Rationalist Society. It was held at the impressive new Auckland University business school.

The thought provoking debate brought faith in God alive in a scientific and rational manner. Dr Craig articulately presented well thought out and rational arguments for God’s existence. A highly educated man, it seemed he had a convincing answer for every question the audience could throw at him, as well as every argument the other esteemed and eloquent Doctor debating him could think of.

I was a little disappointed the atheist doctor (I’m sorry I cannot remember his name) could not present better rebuttal to Dr Craig’s arguments. He didn’t really argue on the debate topic of proving God does not exist.

Although atheist, his main sentiment appeared to be that we cannot know whether there is a God or not, or know his nature if there is such a God. Accordingly, we may as well not waste our time thinking about such useless things. Instead we should worry about all the problems in the world such as starvation and wars, many caused by fighting about religion.

He further argued we have no objective meaning as human beings. We will die and that is the end of our meaningless existence. However, in the context of overall meaningless, we are able to create our own purpose and meaning. He seemed eager for the audience to realise that atheists are not evil people, and do have morals, but our moral fibre is merely developed through a mutual need humans have to depend on each over for their survival and comfort.

Doctor Craig, having a doctorate in cosmology, argued that it is scientifically and rationally necessary that there is a God. It is impossible that something be created out of nothing. It is interesting how many top scientists start believing in a God when they realise how intricately complex human existence is.

Furthermore, there can be no objective moral standards or right and wrong if there is no God. Yet we all have consciences and feel guilt. He also said the early Christians had no need of scientific proof because they had a personal relationship with God. We, as Christians, know God exists because we have personal experience of him in our lives. Many people have seen healings through prayer and other things only explained by God in our lives. He also made many other convincing arguments, and made the atheist position appear quite unreasoned I thought. However, I am no substitute for hearing the words from Dr Craig’s own mouth.

It was heartening to see there is a strong interest in debating and thinking about God among students and the hundreds of others who attended. The debate was originally scheduled for a small lecture room but was moved to a large lecture theatre due to huge interest. Then Auckland University had to set up four more live feeds from other packed lecture rooms nearby for the overflow of people.

What arguments for and against a God struck others? Or why do you believe in a God?

Doctor Craig concluded that you are perfectly within your rational and intellectual rights to believe in God. Mere Christianity by C S Lewis (also author of the Narnia series) is a good book for those struggling with the initial question of “is there a God’.

On the subject of faith and reason it is worth noting famous Roman Catholic academics include:

Nicolaus Copernicus – a priest (in astronomy)
Blaise Pascal (a lay apologist) in mathematics
Gregor Mendel ( a monk) in genetics.
Louis Pasteur in biology
Antoine Lavoisier in chemistry
John von Neumann in computer science
Enrico Fermi and Erwin Schrodinger in physics.

Jun

Intellectual Follies of the self-professed Intellectual Elite

By Filia Day 12 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Until yesterday I was set to post on Obama and his horrendous anti-life position, which puts Hillary to shame, especially considering all the media attention on life issues at the moment, both at home and abroad. Instead I will post this article sent to me by a friend.

This week I have decided to post on another rather disturbing article I found when I opened my AUS union newsletter entitled “High IQ Atheism?”. The article explains that Professor Richard Lynn (University of Ulster) has just completed a paper which argues that there is a strong correlation between high IQ and a lack of religious belief. Basically, what he was saying in his controversial paper is that there are less people who hold religious beliefs among intellectual elites. Among his citation includes a 1990s survey, which found that only 7 percent of members of the America Academy of Sciences believe in God (while the national average was 68.9 %). In his paper, Professor Lynn asks, “Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have also shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God.”

Now it one thing to state that less intellectuals believe in God but it’s entirely another to attribute this result to higher IQs. I, for one, have several problems with his little study – as an educationalist, as an academic and as a Catholic.

Firstly, (and I know this all to well) the academic environment is not a pleasant one if you have any belief in God at all. Furthermore, if you’re a Catholic then you should prepare yourself to undergo some serious flack – I worked in the history department and for the medical and health sciences and in both situations, at times, I have felt that my faith was vigorously under attack – both intellectually and even when casually socialising with colleagues. I can understand that if one was not that well formed then it would be easy to get sucked in to many of the errors that seem to pop up in every single discipline. I mean look at the rubbish academics treat as Gospel truth – the last 500 years of philosophy has total screwed up the minds of many good people.

Secondly, from an educational perspective, IQ tests, as a measure of intelligence, are completely discredited as they lean toward one particular learning style and fail to take into account what is typically called multiple intelligences -strengths in other areas – two of these include moral and spiritual strengths, ironically. I thought this would be common knowledge to a psychologist, as the guy who actually came up with the idea of multiple intelligences resides within Prof. Lynn’s own discipline. Hmm…

Lastly, how can he assume that smarter people are in Universities? Did he even think to go into seminaries or convents where some of the best minds have given up careers to follow Our Lord. No, of course not.

Professor Lynn’s (less than impeccable) research skills act as quite a nice contrast to his thesis- that all academics are intelligent, don’t you think?

Jun

“Inflammable means flammable? What a country.”

By Methuselah's Beard 6 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Well I have to say I’m quite disappointed in New Zealand. How can a country that has so much going for it be filled with so many people with stupid ideas. I’m not just basing this on what The Captain wrote about yesterday, it’s so many other crazy, frustrating, PC garbage that people high up come up with that really makes me want to hit something. It’s almost like we need to make up for our insignificance on the world stage by coming up with staggering and funny polices and ideas to be the world’s first in something, each more wacky than the other. Meanwhile, we can’t even get the small things right.

As evidence, I present the case of the evaporated milk. Now I don’t know about you, but I really do enjoy a bit of jelly with evaporated milk (which comes in cans). I decided to have some with my jelly yesterday and found to my horror that said evaporated milk when opened was a somewhat off-putting yellow colour. On further investigation, I noted the best before date was Jan 2004… Now how does a can of evaporated milk have a best before date 4 years ago but still be sold in the supermarket?? Sort that out before trying to decide your baby’s gender please.

And while we’re on the topic about sorting things out – South Auckland. Please sort yourself out. I’m sure there are plenty of lovely people that live out there, but your image is being tarnished by a small minority. Absolutely appalled by what’s gone on there in the past week, and all the little stuff that probably goes unnoticed by the Press. In the world we live in, it’s seems we have to blame somebody. So whose fault is it? The slap-on-the-wrist justice system? Poor parenting? Societal pressures not conducive to the raising of children? Probably all of the above and more.

I think it’s the fault of whoever decided gangster (sorry gangsta) rap was a good idea. If kids these days were listening to the Beatles or a bit of light gregorian chanting there may still be street gangs out there, but dressed to imitate the Beatles are a but less scary.

Jun

Spoiled for choice

By The Captain 17 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I really feel strongly about our ability to squander and completely stuff up the choices/options we’re given in life.

Example: The Bioethics Council’s recommendation to the government, that IVF patients should be able to select the gender of their babies.

Now I’m not normally prone to dramatics (ahem), but surely this is a seriously concerning indication that we’re headed for hell in a handbasket fairly quickly. I mean, it’s like there aren’t enough issues in the world – or sufferings we’ve brought on ourselves – that we have to go find more reasons to damn humankind for all eternity!

Excuse the dramatics, but this for me comes on the back of a lot of thinking (and raging) I’ve been doing about choices.

The way I see it, those of us in rich countries like New Zealand are given so, so many choices. So, so many options to do good, right, wonderful things.

I’m the first to put my hand up and say I’ve made some hideous ones – and still do, of course – and boy do I feel it when I do. The burden of making the wrong decision, making the wrong choice, can be overwhelming.

But ultimately, it’s a blessing to be able to decide so many things in our lives. It’s a blessing we should be grateful for, right? Instead, what do we keep doing? Finding more and more decisions and choices to take away from Our Lord and attempt to make ourselves.

As if we can be trusted.

A truly sad day.

Jun

This Youth Day thing…

By Tuppence 79 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

“This Youth Day thing…it’s a good thing, yeah?” “Well, yes, of course!” I thought to myself as this lady in my parish choir commented to me. As our conversation continued, I realized the weight of her comment, being that she calls herself â€˜a singing Catholic, not a practicing Catholic’. It occurred to me how powerful World Youth Day could be in terms of renewing the Church in Her mission and presenting a face of renewal to those like my choir buddy.

She told a familiar story of the generation where “the Church changed…” with Vatican II. She was one of those great CYMers (Catholic Youth Movement). She mused “had WYD taken place in my time, my boyfriend at the time and myself would probably have led a group on pilgrimage!”

Yet, a whole bunch of factors led her to leave the Church “disillusioned and cynical” she said, not least of which, an arrogant and authoritarian (distinguished from authoritative) clergy member stating that she had to join the Planned Giving Programme now that she was flatting.

As I pondered on that truly delightful woman whom I had sat next to at choir practice, I wondered what it would have been like to be her – and to leave the Church so hurt. I wondered how it would be possible – knowing that the Church is the Body of Christ, and keeping close to the heart of Jesus, and of Mary, would make it very difficult to abandon His Church.

I say the above with a firm dose of realism. By virtue of the Church’s vessel being a human one, the Church will constantly be in a state of change, flux and reform – renewal, regrowth, rediscovery. And yet, will remain in essence the same now and forever. There will always be authoritative and arrogant people, not least of which, clergy in the Church. However, as we know, all the authoritative and arrogant, hurtful, sinful, harsh people in the world could not make the Church unholy. With Christ as the head, the spouse, we cannot abandon our dear Holy Church of which we are indelibly marked as members through Baptism…even if we are hurt by those who are endowed with the responsibility to represent the Church.

To return to my â€˜singing Catholic’ friend…after enthusiastically discussing WYD with her, encouraging her to get involved in Days in the Diocese, she offered herself to help out…”I can’t host billets, but if there was anything else I could do…”

What a powerful thing WYD is…Catholics who have walked away from the Church out of frustration, hurt and disillusionment are offering their hands to assist…that in itself is a fruit of WYD – it draws back home those who had long felt to be not at home in the Church.

“People like me,” she went on, “us CYMers…we could do very well to see and be involved in all this WYD stuff…you guys are getting to the bit we’d hoped for, but never reached. We eventually became disillusioned, but you’re so full of hope.”

She may be a â€˜singing Catholic’, but that’s still a Catholic, and I sense that there is a part of her that yearns to experience the Church as she once did – a divine institution of great love, enlivened with the Holy Spirit as it’s soul.

Jun

Media propaganda and tolerant bigots

By The Dumb Ox 25 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Media spin…

The NZ Herald website is currently running an emotional opinion piece that is designed to sway your views, and encourage you to support legalised abortion in NZ.

The story has been published in response to the Right to Life High Court ruling from last week in which a NZ Judge found that there appears to be a lot of abortions happening in NZ which contravene NZ’s abortion laws.

In the story, a 24 year old Auckland woman gives details of the abortion she had last week.

The story provides some small insights into the horror and grave tragedy of abortion with comments like these…

“I find it difficult not to cry as we talk, and keep repeating to her [the social worker at the abortion clinic] that this is a hard decision; she reassures me that it is always a hard decision, but one I am entitled to make.”

“And then I wait, quiet and quietly terrified, until it is my turn to enter the surgery.”

“However, the noise of the suction is loud, the cramps in my stomach are increasingly sore, and the 10 minutes the surgery takes feels like an eternity.

Afterwards, the heat pack on my stomach does little to ease the dull ache and the bleeding is heavy. However, after just an hour I am helped to dress and released…”

“While the physical process is finished, the emotional will not be for a long time, if ever.”

Sadly though, that’s about as close as this story gets to revealing the true nature of abortion and the harm that it causes to women.

This woman never tells the readers if she was given the full facts about the serious psychological and physical risks of abortion, and we are never told whether she was given full and frank information about the baby growing in her womb (presumably she wasn’t given either).

What is most concerning about this story is that it details the very type of illegal abortion that last weeks High Court ruling was all about.

If you read this story you will discover that this woman has no physical health risks, she has no mental health issues, and she openly states that she had her abortion because…

“I don’t believe we could provide for a baby financially or emotionally, let alone give it the stable, loving and positive environment every child deserves to have.

I feel selfish, guilty and sad, but I cannot cope with the prospect of a baby in my life when I’m so young, and so totally unprepared.”

She talks about financial concerns, she talks about the lack of a stable relationship, she talks about being young and she talks about emotional immaturity.

But under NZ law, this means that her abortion was illegal as she had none of the prerequisites that are required for legal abortion in NZ – risk to physical or mental health.

This abortion was an abortion of convenience, where a young couple freely chose to enter into a sexual relationship, but were then not willing to face the responsibilities that are part of having sex with another person.

Tragically, this woman has now been exposed to serious physical and emotional harm and a unborn human being was killed as a result of this.

Most alarmingly of all, this vulnerable woman’s experience (remember this abortion only happened last week) is being used by the NZ Herald as a propaganda tool to try and sway your opinion, and encourage you to oppose the recent High Court ruling, the pro-life philosophy and any attempts to try and protect women and their babies from the brutality of legalised abortion.

Tolerant haters…

Last week the portly Chris Trotter accused anyone who happens to be pro-life of being like the Teleban in an editorial that he wrote for the Dominion Post.

It seems that the the GayNZ website has joined in on the tolerant bigotry, as it is allowing a poster on one of its forums to link to an obscene and hateful YouTube video targeting Ken Orr from Right to Life.

The video touts itself as a message to Ken Orr from the woman of NZ, and in it Twisted Sister’s “We’re not gonna take it” plays in the background as photograph after photograph of women giving the finger is displayed, accompanied by statements such as:

“F**k you”

“You stupid c***t”

And most concerning of all is a photograph of Ken Orr with a gun to his head and the statement below it: “Your sperm isn’t f**ken sacred”

You can watch the video here (be warned: it is pretty foul)

Can you imagine what would happen if you or I produced a video like this that targeted gay lobby groups or pro-abortionists?

This is yet another example of the intolerant bigotry and hate that spews forth from the very groups that claim to be all about tolerance, freedoms and inclusiveness.

These two examples should serve as a warning to any sleeping Christians out there that we are caught up in a war between the powers of darkness and the powers of light, and their two respective cultures – the culture of death and the culture of life.

Make no mistake about it – this isn’t something that you ignore, or hope will away, it is part of your Baptisimal calling to get involved and defend the culture of life from the darkness and evil of the culture of death.

Some good places to start your formation…

Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

Pro-life formation talks available on CD from Family Life International

Jun

Jolly good show

By James the Least 2 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Before getting into the seriousness of my post this week, I thought I’d quickly start with a shameless plug for the 15th Station podcast – Episode 11 was released on June 15. Go and download the free MP3 now if you like…my post will still be here when you come back. :)

I was quite moved earlier this week when I went to one of the Stage Challenge nights here in Auckland. Not just because my little sister was performing in it (although she did very well), but because the way her school performed their topic was…well, it was fantastic! Their topic was AIDS and the message was about how we as a society often look the other way and think the problem is just too big. Or we’ll get up and support it when it’s fashionable, and then drop it when the next fad comes along.

They told the story through the main character – a young New Zealand woman – who is moved to go to Africa and help wherever she can. It’s based on a true story, and my hat (if I was wearing one) definitely goes off to anyone who can claim this type of story as their own – that’s simply amazing! The opening scene of their production is burned into my mind’s eye: to the opening music, a nicely laid out coffin sits in the background with a red ribbon on top and the main character looking on, and a small African child lies dead in the foreground, with no coffin or grave, and an African woman (played by my sister!) weeping and shuddering at the loss of her child. Unbelievably powerful imagery – especially when you consider it was coming from a high school production!

I was really quite moved by it. So mature and deep. And such a contrast to the next school that followed.

The next theme was basically a stereotypical “North Shore party” – i.e. one that gets out of control and the cops have to break it up – and that was it. Seriously. When questioned at the end of the performance as to why they had chosen a theme of “substance abuse and civil disobedience”, the spokesgirl responded with (paraphrased) “we just, like, wanted to deal with issues that, like, we all deal with? On, like, a daily basis and stuff?” Contrast that with the spokeswomen from my sister’s school just ten minutes prior stating “22.3 million people around the world are living with HIV and AIDS and we wanted to deal to the fact that it’s bad enough that they’re dying – it’s worse when it’s because of other people’s ignorance and the stigma associated with this disease.” Night and day in terms of the difference!

Now, some of the more regular readers of Being Frank might be thinking that a story on AIDS and HIV is usually the fare of our very own The Captain, and you’d probably be right – but that’s my whole point in writing this. We/I find it very easy to sit back while others do the hard yards on difficult topics like this, and we/I say “well, good on them for doing it” and secretly thank God that it’s not us/me. So, I just wanted to publicly thank God for people like The Captain and the main character of my sister’s school’s story for the work they do – which is sometimes so incomprehensible to me – and pray that I can find a way to help out more.

I also wanted to congratulate my sister and Carmel College for taking such a hard topic on and dealing with it in such a mature and powerful manner. When I compare what you had to say to some of your peers, and to some of the other unbelievably ridiculous opinions that are spouted in the modern media, I felt even more impressed. Good on you all!