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Spiritual or Religious?  Challenge: I consider myself spiritual rather than religious. Why isn’t that enough?  Defense: Because God loves you and wants even better things for you.  When people say they are spiritual rather than religious, they frequently mean that, although they don’t practice a specific religion, they recognize there is more to the world than matter, that it has a spiritual dimension. This is good! But it doesn’t go very far. Wouldn’t it …

A conflict between faith and reason arises only when people use incorrect definitions of these terms. It is true that reason involves the use of the mind to make sense of the world and justify the beliefs we think are true, whereas faith is belief in things unseen. As St. Paul wrote, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:6).   However, faith is not “believing without evidence” or “belief in the absence of evidence” or “believing despite e …

Faith and Reason: Both Come from God Both the truths of faith and truths of reason come ultimately from God, who is the truth. The Catechism, citing the first and second Vatican Councils, puts the point as follows: “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.” …

Cultural Resistance to Revelation The necessity of revelation and of knowing God on his terms is not accepted in our culture today. A story can help illustrate this tension. In our society, for decades bumper stickers have been used as a means of self-declaration. Beyond the popular Christian “fish” bumper sticker, and the reactionary Darwin one, we find all kinds of political, social, and religious statements on the bumpers of people’s cars. They were our original social media “walls” befor …

Engaging with Atheists Through Respectful Dialogue From 2009 to 2011, I traveled the country as a pro-life missionary, engaging students at public universities in dialogue about abortion. I remember one student I met, named Violet, who said that she resented pro-lifers’ “pushing their religion” on her. I said that my case against abortion didn’t rely on religion, but that even if it did, why should that matter? Violet retorted, “Because I’m an atheist! I bet you can’t even give me one good reas …