New Apologetics

08/11/2024

07/20/2024

The purpose of this work is create a unified philosophical system to equip professional philosophers and theologians with the tools needed to refute many of the deeply influential errors that define the intellectual climate of our time. We intend that the premises used in developing this reasoning w...

07/20/2024

A REFUTATION OF THE KALĀM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

A new article has been posted at NewApologetics.com:

http://newapologetics.com/a-refutation-of-the-kalam-cosmological-argument

This contribution to the work of counter-apologetics is made strictly in service of intellectual honesty and is not intended to be an argument for atheism in any way. We believe it to be an essential aspect of free and honest inquiry that if some argument can be shown to be faulty, then the fault ought to be exposed without delay or compunction regardless of one’s allegiance to any particular metaphysical conclusions, religious commitments, or fear of adverse polemical consequences. May any flaws in our arguments be quickly and decisively exposed for the sake of the same imperatives.

We offer this criticism as believers in God. In union with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, we unequivocally profess the following:

“By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine Revelation. Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 50)

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07/07/2018

"If you are willing to bear serenely the trial of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter." - St. Therese

07/07/2018

From the archives. It's mega. Read it if you like good things for free.

A DIALOGUE ON THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION AND THE FREEDOM OF A GIFT

NA Admin:
Ask whatever you want, and I will do it if I can.

E. Valentin:
Okay. When you forget serious sins (mortal) in confession, do you have to tell them on your next confession? And should such be fast?!

NA Admin:
What does it mean to you to "have to"?

E. Valentin:
'Should'!

NA Admin:
Consider that whatever is not done in free gift is not of God.

E. Valentin:
Okay!

NA Admin:
Therefore, you will never find an answer to your question in terms of "should" or "have to". You will just find an ever growing riddle to make you sad. Instead, consider this:

"Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world" (John 17: 24)

Now, you are the Father's gift to Jesus. Jesus' desire is that where he is, you also may be - that his glory may be yours. And that you see that he and you are loved as one before the foundation of the world. Such that, as it is true for Mary, this is true for you:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him." (Ephesians 1: 3-4)

E. Valentin:
Great, really!!
It's Beautiful!!!!

NA Admin:
He receives you and your sins as a gift. So that he can give you everything he has. He wants everything of yours. So that you can have everything of his.

E. Valentin:
Great, really. I understand it. Thanks for your words!!

NA Admin:
See your question about your sin as him being eager to receive your gift.
And, knowing this, you decide how quickly you want to give it to him.

E. Valentin:
Yes!! Truly great, really!!!!!

NA Admin:
Thank you for asking and for being here now. If you see him seeing you as a gift, and that he wants to receive your sin and "wasted" time as a gift, then you will not be ensnared by unholy sorrow.

E. Valentin:
Yes. These have given me real peace and love -- to God's real mercy .

NA Admin:
I am equally blessed. Thank you.

E. Valentin:
Thank YOuuuuuUUUUU .

NA Admin:
All the "shoulds" can be destroyed. And replaced with gifts feely given. You are welcome. And the Lord himself will thank you.

E. Valentin:
So-Beautiful, really!!!!! It Says Everything!!

NA Admin:
Ask anything anytime.

06/24/2018

LEVERAGE IN THE PRACTICALS OF HEROIC VIRTUE, IF YOU BELIEVE WHAT ST. PETER WROTE

"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love. If these are yours and increase in abundance, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who lacks them is blind and shortsighted, forgetful of the cleansing of his past sins." (2 Peter 1: 5-9)

According to Saint Peter, if we lack the good works/virtues listed, we're apparently adding yet another layer of disorder in that we've forgotten that our past sins are forgiven:

"Anyone who lacks them is… forgetful of the cleansing of his past sins."

Let's look a little closer, though. We can formally represent what Peter is teaching here as follows:

A = You lack heroic virtue
B = You have forgotten that your sins are forgiven

(1) A -> B ["If you lack heroic virtue, then you have forgotten that your sins are forgiven"... This is a reiteration of "anyone who lacks them (these good works/virtues) is… forgetful of the cleansing of his past sins."]

But (1) is the logical equivalent of:

(2) ~B -> ~A ["If it is not the case that you have forgotten that your sins are forgiven, then it is not the case that you lack heroic virtue." (From 1, by Contraposition)]

So, all we have to do is remember/believe our sins are forgiven, and then we have it all automatically.

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"In logic, contraposition is an inference that says that a conditional statement is logically equivalent to its contrapositive. The contrapositive of the statement has its antecedent and consequent inverted and flipped: the contrapositive of P->Q is thus ~Q->~P. For instance, the proposition 'All cats are mammals' can be restated as the conditional 'If something is a cat, then it is a mammal'. Now, the law says that statement is identical to the contrapositive 'If something is not a mammal, then it is not a cat.'" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraposition

05/10/2018

This is probably the best talk there is on the problem of divine hiddenness. We don't say so because it's us, but we say so because what's said here actually solves the problem. If it doesn't, please say so, and we'll almost certainly agree. That's because if you don't see it, then who are we to tell you otherwise?

The problem of divine hiddenness is a serious problem: "A lot of people want to have a relationship with God, but can’t find him, and many who 'have' a relat...

04/13/2018

Gift is the free offering of what one is and has for the good of another. God is love and love is gift. We human beings are made in the image of God are created to be gift to one another.

"Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, 'that all may be one. . . as we are one' (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” (Guadium et Spes, 24)

Imagine, though, that the thing depicted in the photo happens to be the extent of your possible gift to the world. This is it. It's disappointing, and you are thereby irrevocably allotted a gift potential that tops out at being ugly to yourself without remedy.
But if our gift of self is possibly a disappointment to us because of the way it is inherently, then that entails that a loving and just God does not exist.

Why?

If God is real, and the meaning of our lives is self-gift, then our gift cannot be inherently ugly to us because to allow for that potentiality annihilates the possibility of human destiny and dignity being found in self-offering. Our gift cannot possibly be such that it is inherently a disappointment to us if God is real and gift is the meaning of human life.

Further, if God cannot create us such that our self-offering is a disappointment to us by its very nature, then our gift cannot possibly be a disappointment to *others* whose meaning in life is to receive our offering. If it is part of their God-ordained dignity as human beings, the offering cannot be disappointing as such.

We fear that our gift is unworthy, and we self-withhold.

This means that it is only our self-withholding that potentially disappoints. It is never our gift that does so.

04/13/2018

We can't be wrong if we're on everybody's side, and we can't be wrong by believing their stories such that every single one of them finds a safe home inside ours.

"In my Father's house, there are many mansions." (John 14:2)

Indeed, we can only err by not believing our own story, or by defending against their stories because we somehow believe theirs to be a threat rather than a gift from the Father. If they are possibly a threat, our story is not big enough. If they are possibly a threat, then our story is not God's story.

We must repent before they do (or possibly can), and we will draw them by the fact of allowing ourselves to be drawn by the Father. This is the only way they can be saved through us, and it is the only way we, ourselves, can be saved.

We are not to look at their stories and demand they find a home for ours inside of theirs. This is what we have been doing, though. We have been rejected, and rightly so.

We are not to look at what's missing and demand that it be made whole. This is what we have been doing, though. We have been rejected, and rightly so. This work of "receiving the other" is not their work, but ours.

We have been requiring them to be martyrs for us, when we are the ones who have the call to martyrdom through the Holy Spirit who makes it possible. We have called them to be martyrs for our pride, and we have believed ourselves to be doing it in God's name.

"...in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God." (John 16:2)

We can repent, even if they cannot. Indeed, we must repent before they possibly can, since no one can tell them the Good News if there is no one who believes.

If we believe our own story, we know that it is safe to be our true selves, without reservation, inside of their story. And we know it is safe to suffer and die in their story, or to be mocked and found not worthy of life or of being heard or believed (which we may fear more than death itself). We know it is safe because we know that we will rise again (if we believe our own story).

Our story is the Lord's story, if we believe it. We say we believe he has redeemed us. This means we believe he believes our story, and in believing it, he saves it from destruction.

"[love] believes all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7)

If we believe we are saved, we need only believe (for them) as Christ did for us, and then we will do (through him, with him, and in him) as he did for the whole world. This, too, is part of God's story for us.

"And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.

Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me.

I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” (John 17: 22-26)

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In order that faith and reason be known to converge:

1) If our story is not big enough to contain their stories without negation, then our story is not compatible with the Redemption.

2) Therefore, either our story is big enough to contain their stories without negation, or our story is not compatible with the Redemption. [from 1, Material Implication]

And from a different point of view:

1) If our story is not God's necessarily true story, then our story is not compatible with all the little stories hoping to be made whole.

2) If our story is compatible with all the little stories hoping to be made whole, then our story is God's necessarily true story. [from 1, Contraposition]

04/12/2018

You who are struggling with temptations towards the unseemly... Would you give up your reputation - would you give up your standing in the realm of "the opinions of men" - in order that these temptations finally just go away on their own? Would you be willing to be seen as "the town sinner" in order to be, in cold hard fact, *without* duplicity of heart and to finally live *without* the company of an undying worm of lust? By the best of our lights, there's something of a metaphysical law here.

True love cannot disappoint if God is real and loves us. Therefore any action based on "not disappointing" as its focus is not an act of true love. This type of "deal-making-to-not-disappoint" is a problem, and it may be the only problem.

The solution is not more work, but less. We just need to "stop it". In order to be chaste, we have to be transparently willing to be (at least potentially) falsely accused of all manner of inane lechery, without self-defense. We have to be willing to make no deals "to not disappoint", and we must summarily break all prior deals based on same.

Many will think you selfish, more will think you crazy. Especially those who knew you before. But we cannot serve Mammon (self-forged security, more basic than any money) while also serving anyone else truly. All charity, all true love, comes from God and leads back to God. It is enough to take care of itself, without any external help from cunning. There is no safety in "lying in the weeds".

The Bible tells us, "Love never fails", and "perfect love casts out all fear." If we don't test it, we will never know, regardless of what reason says behind closed doors, or what we say we believe in the open. In any case, we certainly won't be living in light if we are acting in fear of others who claim to have power over us to "turn out the lights" if we don't correspond to their self-ideal.

"Jesus said to [satan] in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test'."

Indeed all power belongs to Almighty God, and we would do well to stand in it. We must witness to those who, because of their own dread fears, have made intimidation and threat "where we live and move and have our being". It is this way largely because they have not yet seen the better thing. Who is there to show them if not us?

And we do this "showing" by simply not playing along. To stand there, with merry eyes twinkling, silently, like Jesus before Herod.

“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven.When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

When we cease action based on "avoiding failure", then we are necessarily eo ipso co-acting with God - acting in union with absolute perfection. It seems fantastical to say, but reason prevails. Even if nobody else believes us.

(1) If it is not absolute perfection acting, then the action is possibly a defense against the possibility of failure. [absolute perfection doesn't fail, so it doesn't have to try to not]

(2) If the action is not possibly a defense against the possibility of failure, then absolute perfection is acting. [1, Contraposition]

04/11/2018

Soon, we will tell the story of why we went silent.