For us it is just the opposite.
Anyone have a site on conversions that involved some aspect of internet communication, blogging, evangelization going on online, etc.?
Agreed.
I actually am reading two books that touch on this theme.
One is “A Grain of Wheat”, a collection by theologian Hans Urs von Baltahsar that contains a large selection of short aphorisms. Given to me by and strongly recommend by an eminent Catholic thinker and priest.
The second is “The Risk of Education”, by Luigi Giussani. Given to me by and strongly recommend by an eminent Catholic thinker and layman.
(Msgr. Luigi Giussani was the founder of the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation. At his funeral in February of this year, both John Paul II and then-Cardinal Ratzinger noted how deeply Giussani’s life revolved around education, and indeed much of his life and work can be summarized as a sort of pedagogical method, one that has been having a significant impact on Catholic education at all levels throughout the world. Much of that method is synthesized in Giussani’s small book, THE RISK OF EDUCATION.)
**Joe’s anti-Catholicism, while different, was stronger and more settled. He didn’t understand any Catholic doctrine or apologetics, so he fell into a stereotyped view of Catholics, thinking that they made idols of the pope and Mary, etc. Also, it never really occurred to him to take seriously the idea that Jesus founded one Church. He just assumed the way to pick a church is to find one that fits your personality.**
I think many Protestants think this way.
All very interesting. Especially noting the absence of the usual creationist-evolutionist wrangling. Why? Because the author has set forth the classic unassailable argument: that complexity (or as she puts it “intelligence”) does not arise spontaneously from chaos.
This, I suggest, is a more powerful line of argument to pursue than arguing over missing links & other “details” of evolution. As others on this thread have pointed out, the understanding that design requires a designer is so deeply and profoundly written within each of us that a child intuitively grasps it.
I cannot resist responding to the individual who suggested that evolution on the atomic level is much different (and much more plausible) than the illustration given of finding a calculator on Mars. This argument claims that evolution actually involved a incomprehensibly large number of miniscule developmental steps over an incomprehensibly long period of time. Viewing evolutionary development as lots of very tiny changes supposedly makes it eminently rational and probable.
But this is based on a false assumption, for two reasons. First, “breaking up” the enormity of the “task” into a near-infinite number of individual changes that in themselves may appear to be more likely does not reduce the overall probability that the entire sequence of necessarily-linked events actually took place. You simply cannot theorize about any single developmental change and assert that you have now demonstrated how the entire magnificant and supremely-complex edifice that is the hallmark of all Creation - beginning with the DNA code - came into being.
Secondly, evolutionary probablility theory ignores the truth that only a very limited level of “complexity” can occur through blind chance - and that does not change by simply adding more time and more matter. The classic illustration is that of a roomful of monkeys tapping away at keyboards. The necessary evolutionary assumption is that, given enough monkeys and enough time, eventually they will type out the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
In fact, eons of time will not produce anything of the sort. I would be surprised if the entire collection of monkeys could produce even a comprehensible sentence. This is because a roomful of monkeys is composed of individual monkeys, each of which will unfailingly be unable to produce a significant level of complexity. As one poster put it, no matter how much direct energy in the form of lightning is applied, oceans of “dirty water” cannot spontaneously produce intelligence and living organisms.
An amazing story. Thanks for posting. It does give one hope for family and friends who’ve (seemingly) turned their backs to God.
bump