I'm currently listening to Brendan Vogt's Why I Am Catholic. I'm looking for common threads in conversion stories. In the past, I listened to Andrew Klavan's The Great Good Thing which is a similar autobiographical faith journey.
Something they have in common which I think is in many, if not all conversion stories have, is a search for the Truth. Why are we here? What is good and what is evil? Are there such things at all? And so forth.
Here's where my truth and the denial of objective reality and logic come into play.
On second thought, I'll let Samuel T. Cogley, attorney at law, explain.
If you're searching for the Truth, then, you presuppose that the Truth exists. What happens when academics, politicians and the media tell you that everyone has their own truth and truth is relative? Wouldn't you stop looking for Truth because you would assume it wasn't there? In effect, they have hidden its existence and done their best to make sure as few people as possible engage in the search.
Tim has frequently and cogently objected to various elements of the Church. Many of his objections have to do with the flaws of the people running the thing and those trying to be devout. I acknowledge those flaws and they include my own very large ones. If he knew me intimately, he'd know I'm a sinner indeed.
However, I'd like to suggest that the Truth is only partially found in the people of the Church. Instead, it can be reasoned out, which is what I'm trying to do with this blog. To me, the Church is like physics and the people of faith are individual researchers or students. They can misunderstand things, make mistakes on test, do terrible things in their personal lives, but physics is still physics. The Truth is still the Truth.
You may find flaws with the Catechism or with Catholic theology, but you still have to beat it. You can't beat a full house with a pair of 9s. Find me something better. For example, when I take pot shots at those who claim that evolution can derive morality or the physical constants simply happened to be just right, I'm revealing atheism's cards to discover that it's got nothing better than a pair.
Maybe the biggest threat of all is the suggestion that the Truth does not exist and that instead, we each have our own. How far can you get without the guidance of great minds that have gone before us? Why would you read Augustine and Aquinas if your truth was different from theirs? Without giants upon which to stand, what hope do you have of stumbling on what is Real?
I'm only partially in love with that concept, but it's been bouncing around in my head for a while, so I thought I'd put it into electronic words.
I worked with a young guy about twenty years ago who had a BA from Winnipeg U. Some interesting discussions we had but one time on seeing a photo of a 'sculpture' in some big corporation's foyer I said, Look at that piece of rubbish, to which he replied somewhat condescendingly, That's only your opinion. I could concede that I might be wrong but he couldn't envisage that I might be right.It was only many years later I realised he'd been through the public educational indoctrination system.
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