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Atheists have been adept at
bolstering their numbers by attempting to affix
themselves to non-religious categories of poll studies.
For example; a statistical study of major religions of
the world ranked by the number of adherents, sets non-religious at about 16% worldwide
(1).
The polls establish that half of that segment are simply non-practicing, while the remaining 8% are comprised of
agnostic, atheist, secular humanists, as well as no
specific religious
preference, "atheists are a small
subset of this grouping". Where an atheist might
endeavor to lead others to consider their category to be
16% - 18% of the general population, it is more
realistically about 3% - 4%. Via several analogous
poll studies, it is evident that a only a fraction of that figure represents those who
truly believe that there cannot be a Supreme Creator
- coupled with the belief that
there is no life after death.
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There appear to be two
rudimentary classifications of nonbelievers, for lack of
conventional designations, we have referred to these groups as
"Contrived Atheists" and "Veritable Atheists". Before debating, it
would be helpful to ascertain which category the contender
represents. Most will fall into the "Contrived Atheist"
classification. These atheists will appear to have an entrenched
hostility towards one, several or all religions (in which they
endeavor to mask or conceal). They
characteristically exhibit an apparent abhorrence towards God in general,
likely resulting from something troublesome that happened in their
lives, which they attributed to God. It is difficult to consider
these people genuine atheists, particularly due to the
perplexity of being angry at something they proclaim not to exist.
Arguing with this form of atheist will likely digress into trading
"one liners" or "barbs of pointed
witticisms", with diminutive results. They can remind you of the
typical axioms; "going in one ear and out the other" or "spinning
your wheels". As, these nonbelievers may only be "jerking
your chain" or "trying to get a rise out of you".
They are very similar
to those who argue that NASA never landed on the moon in the late
60''s and early 70's. Whether the evidence be communication
records, Moon rock samples, photographs, retro-reflectors left on the
lunar surface, testimony, video, etc., all
evidence is completely ignored. "Veritable Atheists" appear to
be a smaller category and seem to take a more level-headed scientific approach. They have
a genuine interest in objective systematic discussion with reason.
Arguing with
these people will seem to be more of a logical discussion than a debate.
When debating with an atheist, it becomes apparent that they do have
some legitimate contentions, particularly with Catholics.
Likewise, we do have some very questionable actions in our history
that can be awkward to defend. It is a foregone conclusion
that atheists will gravitate towards these tough topics.
Regretfully, this has lead some Catholics to become perceptibly
uncharitable while debating. Debating with a knowledgeable
atheist can certainly become arduous, as all the skeletons will be
dragged out of the closet. Subsequently, it would be prudent
to become acquainted with certain targeted segments of history,
particularly regarding events in the past that can be most
vulnerable. The three
major Catholic Inquisitions (Medieval 1148-1230, Spanish 1478-1501 &
Roman 1542-1858) are likely targets. Thousands of people were
brutally tortured to death for anything ranging from doctrinal
disputes, to apposing scientific ideologies, to the general
rebellion of the Church's brutal harshness in those days. Since in
many cases the convicted person's property would be confiscated,
wealthy people seemed to be specifically targeted. For
example, centuries ago, the Catholic Church adopted the
celestial sphere orbs theory developed by Aristotle. In these
celestial models, the stars and planets are carried around by being
embedded in rotating crystal spheres moving around the Earth.
Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Church for
heresy (February 17, 1600) and his writings
forbidden because he believed in the Copernican Heliocentrism theory
by Nicolaus Copernicus, which held that the Earth was spherical and
orbited the Sun. A statue of Bruno was constructed in 1889 at
the site where Bruno was burnt, which
eventually became a place of annual commemoration
by atheists (2,
3). Oddly, some Catholics
opted to sanction the burning of Bruno in several debate
discussions, citing unsupported anti-religious claims that were
likely fabricated to help justify and seal the execution. "Cardinal
Angelo Sodano declared Bruno's death to be a "sad episode". Despite
his regret, he defended Bruno's persecutors, maintaining that the
Inquisitors "had the desire to preserve freedom and promote the
common good and did everything possible to save his life" by trying
to make him recant (4).
The quandary of Sodano's contrite
account is that the Earth actually
is spherical and does orbit the sun. Giordano Bruno’s
jaw was clamped shut with an iron gag that pierced his tongue
with iron spikes. He was then paraded through the streets of Rome,
stripped of his clothes and burned at the stake wearing the tongue
piercing gag. Notwithstanding that Jesus told several self
righteous Pharisees attempting to execute a woman caught in the
act of adultery: "Let
he who is without sin cast the first stone"
(John 8:01). How did the Church digress so far from
Scripture?
The Inquisitions from two very
contrasting perspectives
The next
Copernican target was the famous astronomer Galileo
Galilei, who was threatened to be burned at the stake
and shown the torture devices (including the recovered tongue piercing gag) used on Giordano Bruno. He was
compelled to sign a document supporting the celestial sphere theory
and denouncing the Heliocentrism theory. In 1642, the great
astronomer Galileo died in custody. Another example would be a
Pomponio Alerio, a young Civil Law Student who in 1556 was slowly
boiled to death in oil in for believing that men are capable do good
works of their own merit. The Church taught that no man could do
anything good without God's help. In Pomponio's case, the Church
offered the hospitality of strangling him before boiling him in oil
if he recanted, which he refused.
There are more recent
examples of religious mistreatment. From the 1950's to
the 1970's, the Catholic Church in Australia forced over 150,000
women to adopt their newborn babies against their will (5,
6,
7). On the premise of
rehabilitating young girls, the Magdalene Laundries began in Ireland
in 1767, expanding throughout Europe, Britain, Canada and the United
States, and lasting to as recently as 1996. The 2002 movie "The Magdalene Sisters"
was a dramatizing film that followed the true story of a 15 year old
girl who was forcibly raped. When a young girl became pregnant out of
wedlock in Ireland, including circumstances of compulsory rape, the baby was forcibly
sent off to adoption and the girl was sent to many years of
mandatory
labor at a Magdalene Laundromat. Life there was cruel, these young girls were
forced to scrub clothes all day. Some young girl inmates reported
years of sexual abuse by several aggressive lesbian nuns. "The
Magdalene Sisters is a 2002 film written and directed by Peter Mullan,
portraying how these poor teenage girls were sent to Magdalene Asylums
intended for women who
were labeled as "fallen" by their families or society. These
detention centers were maintained by individual
religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. Peter Mullan has remarked that the film was initially made because victims
of Magdalene Asylums had received no closure in the form of
recognition, compensation, or apology, and many remained lifelong
devout Catholics. Former Magdalene inmate Mary-Jo McDonagh told
Mullan that the reality of the Magdalene Asylums was much worse
than depicted in the film." Which is difficult to imagine, as the
abuse in the film is quite shocking. Although the religious
orders refuse to disclose how many young girls were
institutionalized in the Magdalene Asylums, estimates are about
thirty thousand. In 2009, the bodies of 133 girls worked to death
were found in unmarked graves at one Magdalene Asylum site (8,
9,
10). The film "Magdalene
Sisters" can be watched in its entirety in ten parts on YouTube
[Warning: part 5 contains female nudity from 5min-48sec to 8min-37sec] (11).
Many of these
fanatical behaviors may be attributed to the resulting countless Christian
splinter groups who eventually chose to gaff themselves off from the Apostolic Successorship of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. It is
also likely that several of these actions
alienated other people who chose to abandon the Christian faith, and quite
possibly any faith altogether. In September of 1999, one
of the greatest and most loved Popes, John Paul II, took the noble
action of issuing a formal apology for all the mistakes committed by
some Catholics in the last 2,000 years of the Church's history,
including the trial of Galileo (12,
13).
The pedophile priest scandal frequently becomes a poignant target. Adept
atheists are well aware of the of the infamous 1962 Secret Vatican
directive authored by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani (then head of the
Holy Office) which mandated the excommunication of children
victimized by pedophile priests in the event they sought help from
authorities, (as uncovered by CBS News in 2003). Atheists
articulated compelling arguments that this document
was specifically drafted to nurture pedophiles priests and provide
them with sanctuary within the Catholic Church (14,
15,
16). As soon as CBS
News uncovered the 1962 Ottaviani mandate, the Catholic Church
swung into damage control, endeavoring to minimize the directive’s
role and significance. It would be wise to read this document very
carefully, as defenders of this mandate claimed the secrecy is only
to maintain the sanctity of the Confessional. The directive clearly broadens the range and scope to before, after
and outside the Confessional on the very first page "even
apart from confession". The victimized
children needed only to make one confession in their lifetime to be
subject to the adroit legal phrasing. Defensive articles attempting to diminish
the significance of this Ottaviani directive claim that it does not
bar the child victims from making separate charges about the
priest's sexual misconduct. On the contrary, atheists pointed out
that in the event the
injured party declined absolute secrecy (sought protection and/or
justice from the authorities), the directive clearly mandates the
molester victims be excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church
for life. The Ottaviani directive makes this unmistakably
crystal clear throughout the document (17,
18).
This mandate was sent to every
Bishop in the world. We observed one irate Catholic woman
challenging a contending atheist: "Show me evidence of even one
child that was excommunicated for going to the authorities!"
Obviously, it took over forty years of legal battles to even uncover
the secret Ottaviani directive, it would probably take an act of
Congress to dig deeper. Some Catholics have taken the
position that Ottaviani's intent was to protect Church assets from
expensive litigation and keeping awkward misdeeds in house.
Atheists have countered; "only a pedophile would safeguard a
pedophile", which does present a certain logic. If the Church
was seeking to protect its assets, contacting the proper authorities
immediately upon learning of sexual child abuse would have
certainly accomplished that objective (19).
The
Crimen
Sollicitationis Directive reversed Pope Saint Pius V's original
Decree stating "Whoever commits such an execrable crime
(pedophilia), by force of the present law be deprived of every
clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical
benefit, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let
him be immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to
death, as mandated by law as the fitting punishment for laymen who
have sunk into this abyss." Crimen Sollicitationis imposes the
strictest secrecy and orders that an oath of secrecy be taken by the
Church officials appointed to make inquiries and hold a trial. This
secrecy is described as "a secret of the Holy Office". Breaking it
incurs automatic expulsion (excommunication) from the Church,
without any need for a declaration. The oath of secrecy must be
imposed on the accusers and/or denouncers, as well as the accused,
who if s/he breaks it will be automatically expelled by that very
act. The Oath in Formula A is to observe the secret of the Holy
Office.
Crimen
Sollicitationis also nulls the 1917 Code of Canon Law Canon 2359,
§2: "[Clerics in major orders] If they have committed an offense
against the sixth commandment with minors under sixteen years of
age, or been guilty of adultery, rape, bestiality, sodomy, traffic
in vice, or incest with blood relatives or relations by marriage in
the first degree, they shall be suspended, declared infamous,
deprived of every office, benefice, dignity, or position that they
may hold, and in more grievous cases they shall be deposed." If the
Catholic Church adhered to Pope Saint Pius V's Decree and upheld
Canon 2359, §2, there would never have been a pedophile priest
crisis, nor a Priest shortage crisis.
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In debate situations, atheists have attempted to float the
idea that pedophile priests over the years have actually
advanced to higher positions within the Catholic Church
hierarchy, and subsequently drafted internal legal directives,
documents and mandates to insulate and protect themselves from outside litigation. There may be a
certain logic to this supposition. Some praying Mantis
species disguise themselves as flower petals to snare their
victims. It would be reasonable to presume that ingenuitive pedophiles targeted careers as Boy Scout leaders,
Day Care Workers, Priests, etc. Jesus foreseen and
warned us to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing: "Beware of
false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves" (Matthew 7:15). Before
considering taking any defensive posture, we highly recommend
becoming thoroughly familiar with the following site and
Youtube video series: |
Another example that atheists had a field day with is when Bishop
Raymond Boland responded to a newspaper article that stated: "The
death rate of priests from AIDS is at least four times that of the
general population". Boland stated that these AIDS deaths show
that priests are only human. "A large part of the answer is
implicit in the remarkable response to the situation tendered by
Bishop Boland. To aver that a priest shows he is human by dying of
AIDS is to say that it is somehow natural to our human state to
engage in acts of passive consensual sodomy, from which the
resultant infection takes its predictable course" (20).
Boland was later implicated in purportedly lying to his enraged
congregation to protect a pedophile priest working with their
children, in which documents implicated that he was allegedly aware
the priest was a pedophile all along (21,
22).
"And whosoever shall offend one of
these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea"
(Mark 9:42).
The necessary lesson of Judas is a powerful warning in the Gospel,
if a disciple taught directly by Jesus can gravely falter, any other
Church figure under the Pope can also gravely falter. Our
prayers certainly address all the mortified Priests who are in God's
service for all the right reasons, this scandal must have taken a
tremendous toll (23).
Priests are holy people who dedicate their lives to God.
Although it is wise to be cautious, insects have not chosen to
completely abandon all flowers because of the diminutive risk of
landing on one containing a praying mantis mimicking a petal.
It is amazing how much damage can be done by a tiny fraction.
It takes entrepreneurship, time, planning, architects, builders,
carpenters, electricians, plumbers, etc. to build a house. It
only takes one evil person with one match to destroy it.
Unfortunately, those bent on destruction have this innate unfair leverage,
namely; "It is much easier to destroy than to create".
We are deeply grieved and apologize for these unpleasantries, but it is necessary to be
prepared for the most likely criticisms, as not to be caught
off-guard. As Catholics, we question how we could have ever got
to this point, this is where some Private Revelations can help
explain these Institutional breakdowns. Through
a message given on October
13th (the anniversary day of the last
Apparition of the Virgin Mary to the three children of Fatima and
coinciding with the year of the Roe vs. Wade decision that became
responsible for the deaths of over 55 million innocent unborn babies
in the US alone), by Our most Holy Mother to Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa
in Akita, Japan (declared
worthy of belief by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, as well
as the Local Bishop Ito) we are told: "The
work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way
that one will see Cardinals opposing Cardinals, Bishops against
other Bishops. The Priests who venerate Me will be scorned and
opposed by their confreres (other Priests). Churches and altars will
be sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises,
and the demon will press many Priests and consecrated souls to leave
the service of the Lord" (24,
25,
26).
The following is a link to some of the most informative blog debates
on the web. Albeit protracted, it is essential to read them (in
their entirety) if you are considering debating with
atheists:
CatholicTruthScotland.com/Blog/2009/11/The-Grand-Catholic-Truth-Debate
Believers.org/Argue.htm
AtheistNexus.org/profiles/blogs/atheists-trounce-Catholics-in
Infidels.org/Library/modern/Frank_Zindler
It would be helpful to review these blogs very carefully, as the crass
lack of ethics and morals can be a considerable shock when debating
with some atheists, sort of like thrusting a child as pure as new
fallen snow into
a Turkish prison. Although most of the atheists writing on
these blogs seem to be striving to get a rise out of Catholics by
crude sexual comments and viewpoints, others seem to envision a world as portrayed
by Woody Allen in the 1973 futuristic comedy film "Sleeper",
in which everybody has sex with everybody all the time, and no
children. It seems their only motive for existence
is the perfection of complete sexual promiscuousness, and the cure
to all the Earth's dilemmas can only be solved by flying around in
squadrons of airplanes and helicopters sprinkling condoms all over
the world. Many assert that the Catholic Church is killing societies with Aids
because it preaches abstinence. That abortion, condoms and sex
are the answer to everything. Notwithstanding that abstinence
is 100% effective and condoms are only 87% effective at best.
If you had a Russian Roulette pistol that could hold a 100 chamber
cylinder, with 13 bullets in it (87 empty chambers), would you
willingly spin the cylinder, put it in your mouth and pull the
trigger? A "no" answer is abstinence, a "yes" answer is
condoms. It's simple math, what's not to understand?
Furthermore, the false sense of security of condoms leads to
increased sexual encounters, so the hypothetical Russian Roulette
pistol is in your mouth much more often. At some point, the
odds will obviously catch up. Moreover, observe the hostility
and rage directed at any institution that stands in the way of their
Utopian society base purely on sex. They seem to manifest a
sexual addiction, like a drug addict who would lash out against anyone standing in the way of their next fix.
Atheist will continuously try to draw and keep the debate focused
specifically on condoms, (you would think most of them had their
entire stock portfolio invested entirely in condoms). In
debate situations, atheist typically craft countless unrealistic
scenarios to justify condoms, and then ask; "Would the Roman
Catholic Church recommend condoms if that were the case?"
Almost like dealing with a two year old, with the constant "What
ifs". You will also detect a very noticeable hatred towards
God, and begin to realize; "How can anyone have such deep rooted
hatred for something they proclaim doesn't exist?"
Moreover, this rage seems to be similar to "angry child syndrome",
whereas some children attempt to provoke a reaction from the parent
(God) via negative behavior. This can be clearly seen in one
of the above examples,
particularly with the atheist who repeatedly posted the provoking parody
he made up of the Lord's Prayer. When
occasional statements arise similar to; "I would rather be laughing
with my friends in hell, than spend eternity in Heaven crying with
the Saints", it might be considered a Freudian
slip of a belief in an afterlife (27).
Survey: Americans don't know much about religion
MSNBC.MSN.com/id/39392563/ns/US_News
By RACHEL ZOLL /
Associated Press September 28, 2010
A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that
atheists,
agnostics,
Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in
answering questions about major religions, while many respondents
could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.
Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study
didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine
used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body
and blood of Christ.
More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as
the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four
in 10 Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis
and intellectuals in history, was Jewish. The survey released
Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a
broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the
Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in
religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries
in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular
Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented
that Americans still know relatively little about religion.
Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of
difficulty, including whether they could name the Islamic holy book
and the first book of the Bible, or say what century the Mormon
religion was founded. On average, participants in the survey
answered correctly overall for half of the survey questions.
Atheists and agnostics scored highest ,
with an average of 21 correct answers, while Jews and Mormons
followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall
averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score
of about 15. Not surprisingly, those who said they attended
worship at least once a week and considered religion important in
their lives often performed better on the overall survey. However,
level of education was the best predictor of religious knowledge.
The top-performing groups on the survey still came out ahead even
when controlling for how much schooling they had completed. On
questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest, with an
average of about eight correct answers out of 12, followed by white
evangelicals, with an average of just over seven correct answers.
Jews, along with atheists and agnostics, knew the most about other
faiths, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Less than
half of Americans know that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist, and less
than four in 10 know that Vishnu and Shiva are part of Hinduism.
The study also found that many Americans don't understand
constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools. While a
majority know that public school teachers cannot lead classes in
prayer, less than a quarter know that the U.S. Supreme Court has
clearly stated that teachers can read from the Bible as an example
of literature. "Many Americans think the constitutional
restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than they
really are," Pew researchers wrote. The survey of 3,412
people, conducted between May and June of this year, had a margin of
error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, while the margins of
error for individual religious groups was higher.
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