Did Pope Francis Really Say All Atheists are Redeemed?

Yesterday, the Internet buzzed about some recent remarks from Pope Francis. A headline at Huffington Post read: "Pope Francis Says Atheists Who Do Good Are Redeemed, Not Just Catholics". A similar Reddit article became yesterday's second most-shared piece. But was the headline right? Did the Pope really suggest that all atheists are redeemed? And if so, is this a shift in Catholic teaching? To answer those questions we must first note the Gospel passage Pope Francis preached on when he... Read More

Why We Should Be Cautious Using the Big Bang Argument

Since it was proposed by Fr. Georges Lemaître, the Big Bang has been common in discussions of the existence of God. The reasons are obvious. The Big Bang looks like a plausible beginning for the physical universe. Things that begin need causes. The beginning of the physical universe would need a cause, which would seem to lie outside the physical universe. This coheres well with the Christian claim that God is a non-physical being who created the physical universe. The argument has been... Read More

Atheism, Evidence, and the “God-of-the-Gaps”

Many atheists say that all arguments for the existence of God are just fallacious “God-of-the-gaps” reasoning. They claim that any evidence offered for the existence of God, such as the beginning, contingency, and fine-tuning of the universe, are nothing more than appeals to ignorance. These arguments are supposedly on par with primitive explanations of natural events (such as lightning) that erroneously included God as a direct cause. Modern arguments for theism are likewise lampooned... Read More

Atheists, We Need Your Help!

Since launching Strange Notions last week, we've been keeping close tabs on the feedback. And it's been excellent. We've heard from hundreds of people through email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, the Contact Form, and more, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. However, among the negative reactions, the most common critique was that Strange Notions doesn't feature enough atheist contributors. Atheists do have an equal platform in the comment boxes—in fact we've had more... Read More

Pope Francis on Atheism

Before he was elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio spent fourteen years as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina. During that time he built a strong friendship with Abraham Skorka, an Argentinian rabbi and biophysicist. Together they promoted interreligious dialogue on faith and reason, seeking to build bridges among Catholicism, Judaism, and the world at large. Last month, Image Books released the English translation of On Heaven and Earth, originally published in Argentina... Read More

Why I Loved to Listen to Christopher Hitchens

I have, over the years, playfully accused some of my atheist interlocutors of being “secret Herods.” The biblical Herod arrested John the Baptist but nevertheless took pleasure in listening to John preach from his prison cell. So, I’ve suggested, the atheists who come to my website and comment so acerbically and so frequently on my internet videos are, despite themselves, secretly seeking out the things of God. I will confess to having a certain Herod syndrome in reverse in regard... 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

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

Are You Smarter Than an Atheist?

Are you smarter than an atheist? I am, at least according to a quiz put out by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life. The quiz has 32 questions, of which atheists in America got an average of 20.9 questions right. American Jews got 20.5, American Mormons 20.3, American Protestants 16.0, and American Catholics 14.7. I got all of them, but that’s nothing special since this is the field I work in professionally. I’m expected to know my own field. Give me a comparable quiz on another... Read More

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