Knowledge Better Than Confusion

The need for sound knowledge of the faith, and how Blessed Newman is a good guide When we are faced with with disappointments and setbacks, questions with no answers, pain that seems to have no meaning, with the truly inexplicable … what then? The search for answers to the unanswerable, for meaning in our lives, […]

The Expanding Universe

In the Catholic worldview there is simply no room for conflict between faith and science, between belief and reason. In fact, the very proposition that “faith is in conflict with science” makes about as much sense as saying that “gardening is in conflict with lunch”. Different, yet complementary domains with a common goal – no […]

Thinking Clearly: Humility and Scientific Inquiry

Scientific progress can be heady stuff – exciting, invigorating, even intoxicating, in a certain fashion. Imagine realizing some fundamental insights into the beginning of cosmos, as did Fr. Georges Lemaître with the Big Bang theory? Or perhaps peering inside the invisible world within a cell, as envisioned within this fascinating and beautiful animation?

Scientific Knowledge, Scientific Methods

With Blessed Newman we ought to take a balanced, rational approach to knowledge. For scientific questions about the material world we primarily rely upon science and scientific methods. When the questions turn to the meaning of life and the supernatural, we confidently rely upon religious knowledge and methods.

Easter and the Supernatural

Easter … for most any Christian Easter is a central event of the faith. Indeed as a Catholic goes deeper, we often begin to appreciate that most sublime yet shortest of the seasons, the Triduum – the three days – Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday. Full of meaning, replete with echoes of Heaven, showing the way for our lives, all centering around the death and … Resurrection … of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, our Lord.

Yet for those who are skeptics, who have either never shared any Christian faith, or who have drifted – or even ran – away, Easter is little more than overstuffed bellies, candy drenched bunnies and magical thinking … for these friends and family, could the whole mythos of Easter ever be anything more?

The True, the Good, and the Beautiful … Part 1

I really appreciate almost everything I’ve learned via engineering – first through a couple of degrees, then by plying the trade for quite some time. Disciplined thinking, careful questioning of (most – but more on that in a moment) presuppositions, and perhaps the confidence to know when to quickly gather what you know, then project […]