Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Lately, I feel like there has been a major assault on the objective truth. We hear phrases like “alternative facts,” or “truth isn’t truth!” Politicians and the media put so much spin on the truth, that we feel like we are spiraling out of orbit! No longer do we know who, or what, to believe. Whatever happened to everyone having a clear understanding of objective truth based upon facts? The Old Testament attests that God is  the source of all truth . His Word is truth. His Law is truth…Since God is ‘true,’ the members of his people are called to live in the truth.  1 Subjective Truth vs. Objective Truth Apparently, we are living in some sort of truth. It’s subjective truth, rather than objective truth. Subjective truth is when we choose to believe what we want to believe because it is convenient for us. We discard some facts, because they don’t fit our preconceived notions. When we embrace subjective truth, we... Read more...

Today, in the United States, we celebrate our independence from Britain. The whole basis for the Revolutionary War was for a desire to be a free and independent nation in the New World. As Americans, we wanted to chart our own course. We wanted the freedom to make our own decisions; our own mistakes. Yet, what we really wanted was authentic freedom, which is different from a freedom that allows us to do whatever we want. Gaudium et spes  defines authentic freedom as follows: Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our contemporaries make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and rightly to be sure. Often, however, they foster it perversely as a license for doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part, authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image within man. For God has willed that man remain ‘under the control of his own decisions,’ so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfect

Are you doing things that you prefer would never see the light of day? Things that might bring you shame? Or, do you live the truth, and walk in the light of Christ; where your deeds are worthy of God’s praise? “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God” (John 3:21).   If you live with shame, then I invite you to live the truth. Come bask in the light of Christ. I invite you to change your ways. Choose to Live the Truth When you do the right thing, with good intentions, then your deeds are good and clearly done in service to the Lord. God has given each one of us a conscience. This conscience informs us of right from wrong. It’s amazing how our consciences speak to us. It’s as if God hard-wired each of us with a rule book, and that rule book is called God’s Natural Law. When we listen to our consciences, we receive error-free advice from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, we disregard what our consciences tell us. When this

Finding stone tools isn't remarkable. Folks have been making, and occasionally losing, tools for a long time. Scientists think folks upgraded their tech to deal with a changing climate. Or maybe someone else who had done so moved in.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

We still don't know exactly how birds got their wings. Literally and figuratively. But we're learning more about when and how they started. Scientists in Europe and China found fossils of birds that lived roughly 120,000,000 years ago. Other scientists found genes with some 'feather' instructions in alligators. That's old news. What's new is that one team coaxed alligator embryo scales into growing as something like very simple feathers. Part of a simple feather, anyway. I'll be talking about those birds, alligator feathers, and why discovering something new doesn't upset me. Also a chimp, the French Revolution something Benjamin Franklin said and evolution.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Scientists figure a comet started breaking up about 12,800 years back. Nothing unusual there. Many comets break up while they're this close to our sun. This time Earth got in the way before the fragments spread out much. Fire rained from the sky, consuming forest and meadow alike. Sounds a bit like Genesis 19:1 , now that I think of it. Except we didn't start building cities until a few millennia later. Or maybe we haven't found our first cities yet. And that's another topic or two.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Folks in the United Kingdom may be changing their rules for wood and coal fires. Or maybe not. It depends on whether their rules match Europe's. Volkswagen paid researchers to mistreat monkeys and people. Or maybe not. We know the research happened. It's complicated, a bunch of folks are upset, and I'll get back to that. Fireplaces, outdoor grills, and coal-burning furnaces aren't basically bad. Neither is learning how stuff in the air affects animals. And us. But having smoky fires upwind of our neighbors isn't a good idea. Neither is mistreating critters. Or people. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Which came first? The butterfly or the flower? And how did flowers happen at all? The question hasn't been answered yet, not quite. But scientists are closer to finding answers. Meanwhile, wondering whether chickens or eggs came first gives philosophers something to do. Aristotle came up with an answer. So did Anaximander, who figured thunder and lightning were natural events: not evidence of divine anger issues. I'll talk about those two, beetles, and Orlando Ferguson's flat Earth map. Also butterflies, flowers and why I think pursuing truth and seeking God work together. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

As a Theology professor, who teaches morality, at the undergraduate level, I can no longer remain silent. I perceive a real hunger for moral clarity, in our society, given the grave number of immoral acts emanating from our halls of government, here in the United States. A Moral Act Let’s start with a definition of a moral act, so that we are all on the same page. A moral act has three components: a deliberated choice, moral content and it’s personal. So, as an example, let’s take a tweet on Twitter. It is a deliberate choice to tweet. When the content of the tweet uses demeaning language aimed at another person, it has moral content, because the dignity of another individual is at stake. When that tweet attacks the personal character of another individual, it’s definitely personal. Read more...

Sunspots come and go in an 11-year cycle. Our sun has acted that way for centuries. With a few exceptions. The sunspot cycle changed about 23 years back. I think we'll learn a great deal by studying what's happening, but at this point scientists aren't quite sure what to make of the new 'normal.' More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Today's Mass is something new, introduced by Pius XI in 1925. We've had it on the last Sunday in Ordinary Time since 1970. Focusing on who and what our Lord is seems like a good way to wrap up the Church calendar. That's how I see it. Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 25:31 - 46 . That's the one starting with "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him...." It's an important part of the Gospels, and not what I'll be talking about today. I'd better explain that. I'm okay with what the Church says about Mass, including how the annual schedule works. I'm not a religious scofflaw, disdaining the laws of God and man. But I don't try to coordinate these 'Sunday' posts with what happens in Mass. I figure it's not a problem, since I'm a Catholic layman — and you're probably not here looking for a homily.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

" Scientists thought ‘Oumuamua was a comet when they spotted it last month. "Follow-up observations showed it was more like an asteroid: and going too fast to be from the solar system. "‘Oumuamua is from interstellar space. It's the first object of its kind we've seen. "What scientists are learning about ‘Oumuamua tells us a bit about other planetary systems, and raises intriguing new questions...." More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I have been reading  The Autobiography of Malcolm X  and I am very impressed with the man. I was interested in reading it after someone mentioned how reading changed his life (I am all about promoting literacy and education.) I learned a lot about how things were during his life and also how things got to be the way they are now. It seems to me that a lot has improved since his time, but a lot is still very much the same. His message to his black brothers was for them to love and respect themselves, do for themselves, and demand justice for themselves–this is hard for me to disagree with. Malcolm is still thought of today as a divisive and angry figure, unlike the inclusive and inspiring Martin Luther King, but there are many things we can learn from the life of Malcolm X. 1. Through self-discipline, Malcolm found freedom. While in prison, his family was trying to get him to follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad–they started by telling him to give up pork and cigarettes and th

He woke, heart racing, breathless, wet with sweat, in the starlit time before dawn. He shuddered when something touched his arm. It was his wife. "Again?" she asked, rolling her belly onto him. Soon she would bear his first child. "Again," he gasped. He waited until his breath came more easily. "The same thing. It was awful." She waited. He would talk soon. Perhaps then he would sleep. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Pharisees and Sadducees had important roles in the Land of Israel for about two centuries by the time our Lord talked about love. They agreed on quite a bit. Maybe more than they realized. But they didn't see assorted political, social, and philosophical points the same way. Pharisees didn't like Helenization, adopting at least some foreign ideas. Sadducees thought Helenization was a generally good idea. But Sadducees thought the written Torah was divine authority's only source. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

We're a lot smarter than flies, which probably helps us swat them. But the insects are very good at being somewhere else when the flyswatter or newspaper hits whatever they were on. I've run into a few reasonable speculations. One was that flies are hypersensitive to air movements, and feel an approaching object. That may be part of the answer. Scientists found another piece to that puzzle recently. "Recently" by my standards, that is. Flies live a whole lot faster than we do. Or, in a fly's eyes, we move in slow motion.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I think truth is important, so do many others. Some see truth in ways that doesn't line up with my views. Sometimes I can respect how they reached their conclusions. But I still think I'm right. Closer to what's true, at any rate. That doesn't make me one of humanity's paragons of candor and acceptance.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

A nation's schools are returning to traditional values. Whether that's good or bad news depends partly on how you see what we've learned since about 1859. I think we've learned more about how the universe works, and that this is good news. We haven't consistently made good use of the knowledge, but that's our problem. We've made good and bad use of everything we've learned, from using fire to writing blogs. Whether it's good or bad depends on us, not fire or the Internet. And that's another topic. Two scientists studied an ichthyosaur that had been used as a wall decoration. What they learned adds to what we're learning about those critters. I think that's worthwhile. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Quite a few parts of the Bible don't talk about forgiveness. But quite a few do, and they're not just in the New Testament. This morning's second reading doesn't mention forgiveness directly, but the verse right after it does. They all say why forgiving is a good idea. It's enlightened self-interest, in the long run.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Augustine, born in 354 in Tagaste, northern Africa. Augustine was the son of Saint Monica, a devout Christian. However, one might say that in Augustine’s youth, he wasn’t one to follow in his mother’s saintly footsteps. In his early adulthood, Augustine had a concubine, who bore him a son; yet they never married. He dabbled is a few heresies such as Manicheanism (rooted in Gnosticism) and Neoplatonism (heavily influenced by the works of Plato). The Conversion of Saint Augustine It was only after moving to Italy, where he took a position in rhetoric, and after meeting Saint Ambrose, that Augustine began to explore the Christian faith. Although Augustine was gifted in rhetoric, he was no match for Saint Ambrose, who evangelized to Augustine on the truths of the faith. In 387, at the age of 33, after experiencing a profound personal crisis, Augustine converted to Christianity, with Saint Ambrose baptizing him. Augustine’s baptism became a...