DOES THE EXISTENCE OF SUPERMAN PROVE THAT THERE IS A GOD?

So the story is that Superman comes from another planet.  Now I realize that his parents sent him as a baby when their own planet was being destroyed.  But think about it - would his parents send him to a planet where life was taken too lightly - where, if a baby were found in a field and the poor family was concerned about having another mouth to feed they might readily throw the child in the trash - or maybe eat it?

I would guess not.  I would guess they would choose planet that thinks along their same lines - whose ideas of right and wrong would be fairly similar to their own.  The Rockafellers don’t send send their kids to live with Crypts.  

Just as amazing as it is that everyone in the universe (according to Hollywood) speaks English at least as a second language, mostly the idea of right and wrong remain fairly standard (at least for the good guys.)  Assuming that we accept the legend of super heroes, especially those the likes of Superman, or of the morality of the universe (which is why you can have something like a Star Fleet or Jedi), that would mean that we accept that there are universal notions of right and wrong.

If there are universal notions of right and wrong, that means there is sense in the very fabric of the cosmos - that it is not a meaningless accident.  You can study the universe and understand a little better how we are to live and what we should and should not do.

Of course, that means admitting that there is some sort of intelligence in the universe.  People of faith, in sometimes different ways, call that intelligence God.

And, of course, that assumes Superman is real.  

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: THINK NOTHING OF IT

Dei Verbum paragraphs 5 & 6

Forget about converting anybody.  You aint gonna do it.

 

So stop worrying about it.

 

The Holy Spirit does the converting.  You may be a tool that the Holy Spirit uses so keep at it!  Trust God to work.

 

Funny thing that: You may have all kinds of tricks in your bag that you wish to employ to convert someone and it will be something you might consider so completely inconsequential that actually does it.  It’s like trying to figure out an Ipad for the first time.  You just keep punching it until suddenly something works right.  You might not even know what it was (as was the case with me) but it worked.

 

God is.  From Him came everything and all things will return to Him.  We can fight it, but it is the way of all being.  God desires you, reveals Himself to you, entices you with His love and glory as He wishes to bring you home where you have a place to be loved and belong. 

 

I think one of the most brilliant things God did was to give Himself the formal name, “Father.”  Think about it: when a baby is born, it pretty much knows “Mom.”  He just spent nine months of 24/7 with her.  All of a sudden then there is this hairy being that wants to hold and feed and play with him.  We may have an innate idea of “Dad,” but you’ve got to get to know him.  The way you do this is by spending time with him, conversing and communicating, and growing in love.

 

We also have to get to know The Father.  We get to know Him too by spending time with Him, talking (praying) with Him, and spending time with Him.  That innate idea that He exists in the first place is the movement of the Holy Spirit within us – that grace already at work to bring us to know Him.  These burning coals of the Holy Spirit need to be fanned to grow to a flame.  This comes by way of paying attention to them, and having them fed by His self-revelation so that it grows to a mighty flame.    

 

There is a joke that goes like this:

 

The pastor of a parish went before the altar in the church, knelt down, and began to pray, “Lord, have mercy on me.  I am nothing in your sight.”

 

The parochial vicar observing his pastor and being impressed knelt down next to him and also began to pray, “Lord, you are everything.  I place myself at your feet.  I am nothing in your presence.”

 

The janitor seeing the two clerics set down his mop, walked over to the sanctuary step and knelt down next to the priests and also began to pray, “Lord my God, only in you do I live and move and have my being.  You are all.  Have mercy on me since without you, I am nothing.”

 

The parochial vicar, on seeing this, elbowed the pastor and whispered out of the side of his mouth, “Look who thinks he’s nothing.”

 

(insert laugh here)

 

God is completely other.  Some would say supernatural.  There is an argument to be made (not all agree) that God is the natural and we the supernatural since we are only held in being by His will – but I digress.  In any event, God and we are completely other – kind of like the matter/antimatter in the 1960s Star Trek series.  But that does not make God unknowable.  Through His inspiration and revelation, and through human reason, we can come to know Him if we choose. 

MONDAY DIARY: ALMOST EXCRUCIATINGLY TRUE STORIES: YET ANOTHER REASON TO WEAR ONE'S COLLAR IN PUBLIC

The most remarkable thing happened this past Saturday night; too remarkable to make into a cartoon.  Fr. Pfeiffer and I went to go see a play in downtown Cleveland and when the play finished, we found ourselves in one of the very scenes of the play, unstaged, out on the street.

 

To get the incident, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the pertinent parts of the play.  It was a staged production of C. S. Lewis’s book, “The Great Divorce.”  The story is a Dante-esque journey of a bus load of people from hell getting the chance to see heaven and even stay there if they chose so, but who ultimately chose to stay in hell.  One man feels that his rights were violated by the mercy of heaven, a woman cannot let go of her control of others, one wants fame more than glory, one wants her version of love rather than God’s, and the list goes on.  In the end, these people chose hell as a favored place to be.

 

When the play let out, it was apparent that at least one other play had ended at the same time and so I suggested that we go across the street and get coffee and desert while we waited for the traffic to thin out.  We debated the play and the points made and then headed out.

 

Crossing the street there was a young man, (mid-twenties?) who turned to us and said, “Are you two priests?” 

 

“Yes,” I replied, and took off my glove and extended a hand.  “Hello, my name is Father Valencheck.”

 

He recoiled as if I were handing him a snake.  “No way!” he said, turned and kept on his way to the other side of the street.

 

Things such as this happen occasionally.  It is the sometimes blessing/sometimes curse of wearing one’s collar in public.  One learns to let it roll off.

 

As we gained the sidewalk however the young man turned back toward us and said, “You guys know, of course, there is no God.”

 

“Actually, I don’t quite know that at all.” I responded.

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.  There is no God.  I know it.”

 

“And I would respond that there is one.  And I know Him.”

 

“You know what I believe?  Science.  Facts.  Not stories in a book.  Not people walking on water.  Not having to do good works that a God tells me I have to do to get into heaven.  It’s all silly.”

 

I will give this much to the young man.  He may have been willing to throw out comments such as this, but he was also willing to engage and have a conversation.  Many, if not most people like to throw a comment-bomb and run it seems.  I admire him that he would be willing to have a debate in the middle of the sidewalk in downtown Cleveland, late on a cold, cold night.

 

Everything in the objections-to-faith-including-the-kitchen-sink arsenal was hauled out and thrown at us.  It was like a game of dodge ball but instead of the two of us playing against one person, he was like a team against two!  Question from left field, point from the right, beaming ball right between the eyes.

 

The most interesting part of the conversation for me was toward the end.  “How do you determine the good?”

 

“We, each of us, get to decide for ourselves.” 

 

Fr. Pfeiffer, “And what if I thought it was right to take your life?”

 

Young man: “That would be wrong.”

 

Me:  “Good.  Then how is it determined that your good is better than mine?”

 

Young man:  “Look, if a guy killed five people robbing a bank, how could you say that that was right?”

 

“The crook would think it just fine.  He would have money he never had before and if not caught might have a lot more stuff than he did before.”

 

Eventually we got to this point: there is no ultimate good, no truth (unsubstantiated by facts) and no real purpose or point to life.  It is simply what you make of it and decide that it is.  And when death comes, its game over – end of existence.

 

“That being said,” added the young man, “You have to admit that religion is what causes all the wars and violence in the world.  Religion is what is wrong.”

 

“I would have to strongly disagree with you.  As a matter of fact, I would say quite the opposite in most cases.”

 

“It is religion that breads hatred,” he countered, “and violence.”

 

“And yet,” I replied, “when we were crossing the street, which of us took off his glove, extended a hand, said good evening and introduced himself, and who refused?”

 

At that, he broke out with a great smile, he shoulders relaxed, and he extended his hand.  “Sorry about that.  I think I needed to vent and you were here.” 

 

We learned then that his name was Mike and he turned out to be quite a likable fellow.  We parted on friendly terms and Fr. Pfeiffer could not resist turning back to him and saying, “Good night and God bless!” to which he threw up his hands and with a big smile shot back, “No, no no!”

THE JOY OF THE ETERNAL REMEMBERER

This too shall pass.

Though used by medieval Persian poets before her, in Jewish folklore, and Abraham Lincoln before her, this is one of the pearls of wisdom my mother instilled in me.  Although the same holds true for good times, she usually drug out this handy phase when things were not going so well.  Feeling down in the dumps about a girl?  This too shall pass.  Experiencing troubles?  This too shall pass.  Acne?  This too shall pass.

 

The fact is, we exist in this world for a flash of time as absurdly as a May Fly that lives for a day and dies.  Our trials will pass; our joys will pass; and ultimately we will pass.  Are you depressed about this?  That, too, shall pass one way or the other.

 

But right there is the joy of being a Christian.  It doesn’t matter.  We weren’t made for this world.  And when things are going well we have someone to thank and be joyful with.  When things are bad, we have someone to cry out to for help (or be angry at.)  When we need hope we have someone to Whom to look, when we are a lone we have someone to call upon, when things seem to be meaningless, we have Him to look to give even the most mundane aspects of our lives incredible and significant meaning.

 

If there is no God, I can only thank fate or luck, which is to say, there is consciousness to thank.  (Even if there is a person to thank, what luck they were there.)  When things are bad, there is nobody to blame but myself and no help to cry out to.  There is a gamble that things might get better, but there is no hope beyond luck, gumption, and surviving.  When life seems meaningless, it is because it is; we live, we die, and so will, ultimately, the world with nobody to remember it.  The only good in life is the pursuit of happiness which when pursued directly is not ultimately satisfactory.  (This is why you cannot joke with an atheist about death on his death bed.  There is nothing hopeful about it.)

 

I look at this gravestone from a local grave yard.  It is very interesting from a historical point of view.  The deceased did a lot of good and accomplished some amazing things.  If there is no God, I find this gravestone exceedingly sad.  Considering how old the universe is, in a flash this stone will disintegrate and not even the casual passerby with a camera walking his dog in the cemetery will ever even know he existed.  The only joy the man it describes experienced was the feeling of doing good with the thought that in the future someone might be happy because of his works.  He’s not even sure anybody will remember him.

 

But if there is a God, what incredible significance the information on the stone is!  Our efforts are not gas in the wind, but everlasting monuments even if this stone is not.  That our joy will echo in eternity.  That there is a consciousness, a Person, with Whom and in Whom we will know and celebrate after our time here is over and that these actions may lead others to share in this joy for which we were made.  Therefore picking up a used gum wrapper in the park is not a good deed that may or may not be noticed by anybody, but may stretch through eternity if it is done in love.

 

There are those that point to God as a crutch and a fantasy to get through the rough points of life.  I believe evidence points otherwise.  But even if it turns out to be false, having dealt with the dying who believe and of those who don’t, I would rather believe and be wrong than not believe and be right – to die in some amount of hope and joy rather than the heavy burden of passing into non-existence and meaninglessness. 

WHAT DOES BOSTON TELL US ABOUT OURSELVES?

I will admit to having a difficult time processing the events associated with the Boston Marathon tragedy.  It feels as though something will be revealed pointing toward the whole thing being a terrible mistake, but I know that this is not the case.

 

Equally confusing to me is the nation’s reaction to the bombing.  What does a government do that seems to be wanting to shuck all connection to religion do in the face of such tragedy?  Does its congress close its session with prayer?  Does its president thank priests for opening the doors of their parishes to those who are lost and confused in the affected area?  For that matter, does NPR interview the Episcopal bishop of Boston about the good work the local churches are doing in the wake of the bombing?  For that matter there are all kinds of public displays such as flags flying at half-mast and every event is being dedicated after a moment of prayer to the victims of the Boston bombings from Dancing with the Stars to professional baseball.  What are they doing?

 

If God is taken out of the picture, what do these gestures mean?  If we are simply pausing to remember, or to unite ourselves with the people gathered in Boston, it amounts to not much more than the rally cry, “Remember the Alamo!”  We will not forget because it will not happen again.  We won’t let it.  And part of that is not forgetting.  If there is no God it can result in little more (ultimately) than remembering to send help to those we like and wreak revenge on those we don’t. 

 

But of course, that is not why we ultimately do these things.  Not unanimously, but as a people we are reaching out.  And like the atheist who is in crisis when he is truly thankful and has nobody to thank, what do we do when we pretend not to be “one country under God” and we need somebody to whom we turn?  We could turn to a president, or an armed militia, or the police and cry out, “Save us!  Repay our enemies!  Bring us peace!”  (Is this how the Caesars became deified?)  But can they bring meaning to these events?  Can they bring hope?  When we need consolation, when we need pulled out of ourselves and our fears, when we need something to do, someone to whom we can turn, when we need someplace to go, we drag out God like a neglected parent that only gets a call when we need to borrow money.

 

Or it may be, that at our heart, we are still a nation that believes in God even when we don’t want to.

MOBILE UNIVERSITY

It seems that priesthood brings with it a lot of time spent driving. Tired of talk shows and poor music on the radio, classes from the Great Lecture Series were ordered and they are quite good. The latest one is on the life and writings of C. S. Lewis. I’d forgotten this little formula he used for proof of the existence of God. It is not a bulletproof case but it is worth noting and a fun exercise in logic. I tried to present it here in as short a format as I could for your enjoyment. Apologies in advance for any skips in logic.

1. If I should cut in line in front of a Relativist for the roller coaster at the amusement park, more than likely the Relativist would complain (which well he should).

If we argue we must be appealing to a universal standard of behavior to which we think others should be held accountable. If there is not a universal standard there is nothing more than might makes right and instead of arguing we would best just attempt to beat the snot out of each other. But no, we both make claims to some sort of universal good.

2. But could this be just a natural instinct? Lewis says no (and while very interesting and noteworthy, this could be the weakest link in the argument.) Suppose we have two competing instincts, say one for the self and one for the family. How do we decide which one to go with? He argues that it cannot be yet a third instinct that helps us decide between instincts. It would have no more value than the original two. A squirrel wondering if it should run or take the nut that you are offering eventually lets the stronger instinct win out. But humans debate the value - the worth of each action. So there must be then a third ‘other thing’, a touchstone, a standard that is above the two instincts and helps us decide between them. That is this universal good.

3. So call that “Good” what you will. It can be God or a Superior Being or what have you. There are two choices basically from where this God may come. The Good might be natural, that is, existing in this world or the Good may be from outside of this realm.

If the Good is from this realm, if it is natural or what we call Pantheistic, then the good is of the world or part of the world. The force then is neither good nor bad and we are left with the question once again of finding from where the notion of good comes.

But if there is a good God who transcends this world but communicates with it (Theism), then we have a source of that universal standard, of the good to which we appeal.

4. But how can we say that there is an all-good God when there is so much suffering and injustice in the world? Lewis asks, “How can we know the world is unjust unless we have a just standard?” Therefore there must be a supernatural standard and we call that Good God.

5. Therefore, the most rational explanation for us is what is told to us in Genesis; that the world was made by a good God, but that evil entered into it.

Thank God God exists. It may not be strong enough an argument to convince a steadfast atheist, but if you were wavering and looking for something to hang your hat on, this is pretty cool.