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My Wife and I are Atheists, but Our Daughter Wants to be Baptised Catholic
The Guardian (UK) ^ | 1/14/14 | James Harrington

Posted on 01/14/2014 8:25:45 PM PST by marshmallow

I'm proud of my daughter, but I can't deny that she stopped us in our religiously disinterested, bleeding-heart liberal tracks

For decades, god and religion have played no part in my life. I was baptised as a baby, but didn't make it as far as first communion. That may officially make me a Catholic in the broadest sense, but if it does, I'm one who's not so much "lapsed" as "stalled before I started".

Apart from morning assemblies and weekly hymn practices at primary school, followed by a couple of years of religious education classes at comprehensive (which I dropped as soon as exam options allowed), I have barely considered my immortal soul, much less the direction it may be heading when I die.

Over the years, when I bothered to think about it at all, I came to the conclusion that I prefer the scientific theory of life and the universe to the spiritual one. I'm most likely an atheist, but one leaning to the agnostic side of the spectrum. I know I'm a sceptic, in the true sense of the word. Or shallow. One of the two.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; General Discusssion; Skeptics/Seekers
KEYWORDS: catholic; faithandphilosophy; jamesharrington; romancatholicism
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To: ifinnegan

I always think these Guardian CiF stories are made up. They are always too glib, too perfect, too pat. This fits right in the mold.


41 posted on 01/14/2014 11:49:31 PM PST by miss marmelstein (Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: PGR88

They NEED to believe that people who believe in God necessarily oppose science — that science and religion are mutually exclusive. It makes them feel superior, because a lot of science is provable. Therefore, they’re clearly right and obviously intelligent — and believers in God are clearly wrong and laughably stupid.


42 posted on 01/14/2014 11:51:48 PM PST by informavoracious (Open your eyes, people!)
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To: babygene
The parents have no basis in truth, they are "fools." (Ps. 14:1)

So they don't have anything to teach their child. (Dt. 6:7)

Their sin is visited on the next generation. (Ex. 20:5)

. Pray that someone who knows the gospel will tell them all God's plan for them:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

And

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith –and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

43 posted on 01/15/2014 12:14:11 AM PST by kinsman redeemer (The real enemy seeks to devour what is good.)
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To: OldNavyVet

Funny that Darwin steals his ‘breathed’ metaphor straight from Genesis 2:7 and John 20:22.


44 posted on 01/15/2014 1:18:44 AM PST by rwilson99 (Please tell me how the words "shall not perish and have everlasting life" would NOT apply to Mary.)
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To: marshmallow

God Bless the daugther. May she become a bright shinning light for her parents.


45 posted on 01/15/2014 2:58:47 AM PST by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
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To: marshmallow
...prefer the scientific theory of life and the universe to the spiritual one...

I'm curious. Where does the author believe there is a conflict?

46 posted on 01/15/2014 3:44:46 AM PST by kidd
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To: marshmallow

sounds like this lapsed cradle Catholic is innately leary of atheism and covers the options with “the God of Spinoza”


47 posted on 01/15/2014 4:05:44 AM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: Alex Murphy

Oh, yes I do.


48 posted on 01/15/2014 4:39:09 AM PST by vladimir998
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To: ifinnegan
Actually, there is a scientific theory for life in the Universe. In fact there is more than one, but at least one which seems most plausible. BUT that theory (Panspermia) still does not exclude the very real Hand of The Creator in forming the Universe and the system by which Panspermia happens. Chandra Wickramasinghe has an excellent, detailed video available on Youtube explaining the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5lFeW1FWfo
49 posted on 01/15/2014 4:49:45 AM PST by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: marshmallow

Irresistible grace. It doesn’t matter who your parents are, if you are elect you will believe.


50 posted on 01/15/2014 4:56:02 AM PST by circlecity
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To: 353FMG

I wonder about that at our own. It’s VERY diverse, hardly stereotypical. Makes me concerned some parents aren’t that Christian.


51 posted on 01/15/2014 5:05:58 AM PST by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
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To: Salvation

Most service books indicate when to sit stand and kneel, too.


52 posted on 01/15/2014 5:08:04 AM PST by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
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To: marshmallow

Sounds like the child has more brains than her parents— sort of reminds me of the story of William Murray the son of that now dead (done in by her own kind) atheist Madalyn Murray-OHair.


53 posted on 01/15/2014 6:27:33 AM PST by StonyBurk (ring)
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To: marshmallow

Good for your daughter.


54 posted on 01/15/2014 7:43:34 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: House Atreides
John Rooney: There are only murderers in this room! Michael! Open your eyes! This is the life we chose, the life we lead. And there is only one guarantee: none of us will see heaven.

Michael Sullivan: Michael(his son) could.

--The Road to Perdition

55 posted on 01/15/2014 8:04:09 AM PST by mc5cents (Pray for America)
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To: marshmallow

The parents did the right thing. They let an educated kid make a decision for themselves after they experienced enough life to make that decision. They didn’t brainwash their child.

Bring on the flames but admit something to yourself. Every Christian on this probably holds a poor view of Islam. especially the stories of kids being brainwashed by the faith, having to memorize the Koran etc...

If Islam didn’t do that, instead let kids alone to make a choice themselves at say age 16 to 18...how many Muslims would be in this world? I admit it’s not quite the same with Christianity but its the same. If kids weren’t indoctrinated at an early age, told to fear the lord and fera for their eternal souls etc...we’d have waaay less people at church. Fact.

personally I’m atheist. If my kids choose to join a church when they’re older, so be it. At least they will have arrived at that decision through no biased influence.


56 posted on 01/15/2014 8:04:55 AM PST by strider44
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To: Fai Mao

‘Leap of Faith’ by Kimberly Bradley.


57 posted on 01/15/2014 8:13:24 AM PST by pbear8 (the Lord is my light and my salvation)
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To: ifinnegan; rwilson99
“...life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one...”

Today's scientific instruments tell us, according to page 284 of Steve Jones "Darwin's Ghost" that ...

About a thousand genes are shared by every organism, however simple or complicated. Although their common ancestor must have lived more than a billion years ago, their shared structure can still be glimpsed. It shows how the grand plan of life has been modified through the course of evolution."

58 posted on 01/15/2014 8:22:02 AM PST by OldNavyVet (Robert's revenge lies in our getting rid of Democrat control in House, Senate and Preisdent.)
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To: marshmallow
...I came to the conclusion that I prefer the scientific theory of life and the universe to the spiritual one.

And they differ how?

59 posted on 01/15/2014 8:35:55 AM PST by onedoug
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To: OldNavyVet

I am impressed that the Sex Pistol’s guitarist knows so much about molecular biology.

Still, he’s not quite correct in his description. The thousand or so genes are not shared in that they are not the same but are orthologs. They vary greatly from each other among species and throughout phyla. The gene products share the greatest conservation of structure among these thousand or so genes and retain among themselves properties of primary, secondary and tertiary structure and often retain function over the continuum of “simple” to “complicated” organisms.

These observations hardly are a “theory of life and the universe”.


60 posted on 01/15/2014 8:39:50 AM PST by ifinnegan
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