Where Did God Come From?

The problem of something coming from nothing arises out of three kinds of realities which require a cause for their existence. One, realities that have a beginning; two, realities which are conditioned in their existence (dependent for their existence on something else—the fulfillment of other conditions); and three, realities that are conditioned by time. I am restricting my comments here to realities which have a beginning. If you are interested in conditioned realities, read chapter... Read More

Douglas Wilson vs. Christopher Hitchens: A Catholic Perspective

I just finished teaching Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics this semester. This is the tenth year I have taught it, and every time I teach it, I more deeply appreciate its truth and importance. One reason for its importance can be found in the Wilson-Hitchens video that I discuss below. Twenty years ago, I believed what is called divine command theory.1 I had grown up thinking that right and wrong were based on divine commands, and could be known only by knowing divine commands. At that... Read More

Science and Faith: Two Paths of Knowledge

Catholics acknowledge many paths which the human mind can traverse. One of those paths, the one that leads to knowledge of the natural universe, is called natural science, and another, the one that leads to knowledge of God and spiritual realities, is called faith. Both paths can be described as “thinking with assent.” That is, both are the use of reason by which one reaches a conclusion about reality—“thinking.” And both of them involve an assent to truth, an insight about... Read More

How to Find Happiness

We all want to be happy. Every day, in whatever we do, we seek this goal — one that we share with every other person on the planet. But what exactly is happiness? And how can we find it? To discover the answer to these questions, Sonja Lyubomirsky, in her book The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want (Penguin, 2007), examines hundreds of empirical studies. She writes, “Studies show that 50 percent of individual differences in happiness are determined... Read More

God, Obligation, and the Euthyphro Dilemma

NOTE: Dr. Feser's contributions at Strange Notions were originally posted on his own blog, and therefore lose some of their context when reprinted here. Dr. Feser explains why that matters.     Does God have obligations to us? No, He doesn’t. But doesn’t that entail that He could do just any old thing to us? No, it doesn’t. But how can that be? To see how, consider first another, related false dilemma: the famous Euthyphro problem. The Euthyphro dilemma goes like this:... Read More

From Atheism to Catholicism: A Tale of Three Supermen

Neither bird, nor plane...but Superman!   I was born and raised Catholic, but also Supermanian. Some of my earliest memories involve sitting in front of the television, mesmerized by that incredible, flying man of steel. He was invincible, doing good and daring deeds effortlessly and with a smile. Men respected him, women adored him, and he didn’t even want people to know who he really was. I too would come to don a Superman suit, cape and all, to such an extent that my mother’s... Read More

5 Questions on Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis

The announcement that Pope Benedict XVI renounced the papacy on Feb. 28 caused many in the media to revisit one of the major issues of his pontificate: the clergy sexual abuse scandal that dominated the news for nearly a decade in the United States, Australia, and parts of Europe. The record of Pope Benedict XVI has also come under scrutiny, with many in the secular media repeating a discredited clam that the pope had failed to act properly in dealing with the crisis and may even have... Read More

The Alleged Conflict Between Science and Faith (Video)

Physicist and priest Dr. Andrew Pinsent exposes one of the great myths of our time, that science and faith cannot support each other. Father Pinsent is Research Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford University as well as holding a number of theological posts. He has completed research at CERN the world famous research centre in Switzerland and holds doctorates in particle physics and a degree in theology and a doctorate in philososophy. This presentation... Read More

An Attempt to Explain Christianity to Atheists In a Manner That Might Not Freak Them Out

Between being told that Christianity is a system of oppression, a complex way to justify burning with hatred over the existence of gay people, and a general failure of the human intellect, I begin to suspect that few people know why Christians exist at all. This is my attempt to explain why I am a Christian.   Any philosophy that claims that there exists nothing supernatural cannot grant purpose to suffering. If some natural, secular purpose could be granted to the man suffering, then... Read More

Is There Such a Thing as Moral Progress?

One of the questions that comes up from time to time in the blogosphere is the problem of moral progress. It happens in a number of ways. For instance, a favorite trope of the atheist fundamentalist is the “Ha! You call Thomas More a saint? He burnt heretics at the stake!” shout of triumph. (Of course, atheist fundamentalists don’t like to think too hard about the achievements of Stalin or Mao or Pol Pot, and seem uncommonly hurried in their attempts to identify their atheist regimes... Read More

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