Catholic Teens - December 14, 2004

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:39:44 -0600, pwxsevere wrote
> Today is the Feast of St. John of the Cross. He lived in the
> 1500's. A couple of neat things about him...he sought to live a
> holy life and actually reform his religious community. They didn't
> like him for that, and actually locked him up for a long time---even
> trying to kill him at one point. Yet, they weren't successful and
> he eventually escaped. A neat thing happened, God brought another
> holy lady into John's life, St. Theresa of Avila, who was trying to
> do the same thing in her own community. Together they were able to
> help each other against the difficulties that they were
> encountering. Imagine that, having a friend who is a saint! When
> you strive to do God's work, He has a way of helping you out :-)
> And bringing awesome people into your life. :-)
>
> Remember how we went through how we could Prove that God existed?
> One of the arguments was the "Argument from Design"--for example
> when you see a watch, you don't just wonder that it magically came
> together...someone had to design it. I came across an article that
> I've included below, of a professor who was an atheist(didn't
> believe in God) who just realized the same thing I taught you guys
> back in the fall. You just learned it about 60 years earlier then
> he did :-)
>
> God bless you all!
> Phil
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Prominent Atheist "Discovers" Aquinas' Proof for the Existence of "a
> god" Only 750 years behind the times
>
> December 13, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Professor Antony Flew, a
> leading proponent of atheism and defender of Darwinian Evolution,
> has re-invented the philosophical wheel and announced that he has
> come to believe in God, or more precisely, in the existence of a god,
> based on evidence of creation. Flew told the Associated Press in an
> interview that he has concluded that some sort of intelligence or
> first cause must have created the universe.
>
> Flew said of his newly discovered god, that it was the god of deism,
> an Enlightenment notion of a divine "watchmaker" who, after creating
> the universe and winding it up and setting it going, had nothing
> further to do with it. "It could be a person in the sense of a being
> that has intelligence and a purpose, I suppose," said Flew.
>
> Flew spent several years at Toronto's York University after retiring
> from full time professorships in England in 1982. His Deism has been
> growing for the last several months. He wrote in the August-
> September issue of Britain's Philosophy Now magazine, "It has become
> inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a
> naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism."
>
> Flew's explanation, that a god, or divine intelligence of some kind
> must exist because of the existence of extremely complex biological
> systems such as the DNA molecule, leaves him just over 700 years
> behind the times.
>
> St Thomas Aquinas, in his book for beginners, the Summa Theologica,
> called Flew's "discovery" the "Argument from Design," and added four
> more logical proofs for the existence of God. Most modern
> philosophers, firmly wedded to the materialist philosophies
> originating in the 18th century, instead of refuting or attempting to
> disprove St. Thomas' proofs, have simply ignored them.
>
> Flew has written about his 'conversion' in a new edition of his 1966
> book, "God and Philosophy," to be published next year by Prometheus
> Books. He said, "My whole life has been guided by the principle of
> Plato's Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads."
>
> To read St. Thomas Aquinas Five Proofs:
> http://www.newadvent.org/summa/100203.htm
>
> hw

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you
wish." --Mother Teresa