Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 46: How do you explain the existence of God to unbelievers?

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Show 46: How do you explain the existence of God to unbelievers? · The Uncensored Catholic

1:00
Hey, y'all, welcome to today's show. Today, let's continue with a
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little bit of I guess you would say basic apologetics, the essentially the argument
1:11
that there is a God. And I know, you know, as faithful
1:15
Catholics. Maybe um, well, maybe you grew up Christian you know,
1:21
maybe you grew up in a religious household and you never even questioned it.
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I suppose to extent I did, though I had a very large question of
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what was the right religion. You know, I believed in Jesus Christ,
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I believe in Christianity. But you know, I grew up in a very
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liberal time with liberal teachers, and they basically said that all religions were equal
1:48
and had the same outcome. What's not actually true When you actually study those
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religions, you find out that they're all actually quite different. I mean quite
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different. I mean, just take Buddhism for instance. I was had student
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of Buddhism for several years, meditated daily. Well, yeah, I mean
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I was back when I was like, you know, late teens, early
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twenties, and I was really studying traditional Chinese medicine. This is your first
2:19
time listening to the show. You may not know that I'm an herbalist and
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a convert to Catholicism. Well, at that point in time, while I
2:25
still believed in Jesus, I was reading tons of Buddhist literature, doing Zen,
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meditation, practicing kung fu, chigungg and tai Chi chuan, and really
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very into you all that. And even in this in just Buddhism, Indian
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Buddhism, where the religion actually originates, is like almost entirely different than Chinese
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or Japanese or Tibetan Buddhism or the Buddhism of Thailand. Totally different almost religions.
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One will say, you know, the Buddha was a man and essentially
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a philosopher. Another will say he was a god incarnate and they will worship
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him as a god. Two people can call themselves Buddhists and have entirely different
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concepts of the religion that shares the same name. If you're a Zen Buddhists
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that was highly influenced by Taoism in China, you're focused really more on nature
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and detachment, philosophy, meditation. You may not have a concept of a
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deity whatsoever. If you're Tibetan Buddhists Buddhists, you may have thirty or fifty
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gods, because Buddhism was heavily influenced by the Tibetan tradition. If you are
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Japanese, it may have been heavily influenced by Shinto and may have a lot
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to do with ancestry and respect for elders and all that. You know.
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Generally speaking, um well, I mean probably more than generally speaking, I
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would say Buddhism has been a positive influence in the world. The the Buddha
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himself, Shakamuni, whatever his name was, he began as a Hindu,
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and Hinduism is even more varied. Depending on where you come from an Indian
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such, it can be incredibly different, um you. It can be a
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very peaceful religion, m very again a positive influence, charitable and generous.
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Or it can be quite warlike your your gods that you're focused on, maybe
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um, you know, very violent. It can be very sexual in cases,
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you know. So you could say that Buddhism is an improvement upon more
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primitive Hinduism, although modern Hinduism many of them are very good people. I'm
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not trying to wander too far astray here. I'm just going to say that
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depending on your background and how you were raised, your idea of who and
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what God is in your relationship too, said, God can be very different,
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extremely different, even if you're in the same supposed religion. And I
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mean we look at Protestantism versus Catholicism and we have to acknowledge that our theology
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can be extremely different between denominations. Now, as Catholics, we believe that
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we have a revealed religion, certainly given to the Jews through Moses and then
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clarified, perfected, brought to its height through God incarnate Jesus Christ, who
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taught through his apostles and gave the guarantee of infallible teaching on issues of morals
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and doctrine to his church. So because we believe Jesus is God, we
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believe our church is right. And you know, other people of other denominations,
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if they're Christian, of other religions generally review that claim as arrogance because
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they do not believe that Jesus Christ is truly God, that he was truly
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man and truly God and is one of the three members of the Trinity begotten
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before all time. That's a big challenge to get to that point where you
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can get someone from another religion or sometimes even more difficult to find commonality in
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your own. Honestly, I have often had better discussions, debates, and
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mutual understanding with non Christians, with atheists, Agnostics, Jewish Jews, certainly
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Buddhists. Never met a Buddhist I didn't like. Actually, there they generally
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tend to be really great people with a great sense of humor. We just
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differ on our idea of God. And you know, maybe well, according
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to the Blessed Virgin, married people are going to begin to come to Christianity
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and understanding of Christianity before the end times. So you know, when people
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are freaking out and saying the ends coming, this is the end times.
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Now, we're not there yet. I mean, technically we've been in the
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end times since the Crucifixion. But if it's gonna the world's not going to
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end to all Jews and Muslims convert to Christianity and all Protestants return to the
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Catholic Church, as the Blessed Mother has implied, at least since at some
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points said more explicitly on various aspects of that, we're nowhere near. We're
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nowhere. So finding dialogue and common humanity is certainly a first step. Reasoned
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conversation, respectful debate absolutely essential, And as I was saying, oftentimes I
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found more responsive and respectful debate opponents, if you wouldn't want to put it
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that way, or conversance among non Christians than among Protestants. I mean,
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Protestantism is by definition a protest against Catholicism. For a Protestant to be Protestant,
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if the are in any way educated about the beliefs of their denomination,
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is to be in absolute and stark opposition to Catholicism. And not all Protestants
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are. Many are very ecumenical people and they don't see a problem with Catholics.
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That's great, but their denomination was founded by someone who does or who
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did, And the more educated they are actually on their doctrine and beliefs,
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the more strident and oftentimes almost violent. I mean I have literally had what
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should have been well meaning, respectful conversations with Protestants, and of course that's
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who I am. I'm very respectful, I'm very calm, I'm very friendly,
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and something goes over them that's almost demonic, and I mean they're like
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literally ready to fight you, and I mean women in your face, screaming
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men getting ready to punch you out. You know, I'm a big guy,
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a big old hill billy six foot four, two hundred twenty pounds lean.
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I do not worry about myself in a physical confrontation. Also carry a
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hunting knife and oftentimes a pistol. I mean the you know, I'm a
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whole Billiam Southern. That's what we do. Doesn't bother me. But I
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can definitely understand why women, older people the handicap. Anyone who's a little
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frail or smaller frame than I am would shy away from having debates with non
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Catholics. I think it's very good, though, to learn the logical arguments
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that can open that door, and oftentimes it is much easier with non Christians.
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That's a shame. That is. If there's any anything that is evidence
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of the Satanic influence in the division of the Church during the so called Protestant
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Reformation, it is that the Body of Christ has been divided. As Saint
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Paul said again that divisions in the church crucify our Lord again and are the
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fruit the product of the devil. Jesus is prayed that all Christians be one
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of one mind, perfect unity, no divisions. He certainly did not,
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and nothing in the Bible says he wanted fifty thousand Protestant denominations, each of
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whom disagree with each other, and all of whom disagree with the Catholic Church.
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We're going to have to figure out a way to establish unity. We're
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going to have to if we're going to accomplish the Great Commission and bring all
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the world into Christianity. It has to be one body. And that means,
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as uncomfortable as it often may be, and it can be scary uncomfortable.
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Yeah, I was down in a town just across the line in South
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Carolina, used to be incredibly prominent cotton farming area, small, you know,
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as idyllic, little Antebellum towns, And I was, man, I
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kind of fell in love with the place I was. I could live here.
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It's right on the big River fishings fan Taskic, not too far from
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the coast. There's one house or self in the whole town. And it
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was it was a beauty. I mean, I think built about eighteen fifty,
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not at grand house price on it was great. So, I mean
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it was remarkably affordable I had to go take a look at it, and
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the owner was away. I got hold of the owner, finally got the
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number and called and she said, well, why do you want to move
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here? And I said, with such a beautiful town all this, and
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I happen to know that in the next town over there's a great Catholic church
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with one of the best priests I've ever encountered. And I will tell you
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the name of this town. That's Heartsful, South Carolina. And if you
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can't make it a mass someday pull up marry Mother of God Church and Heartsfull
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South Carolina. His name is Father Dan. Father of Dan is amazing.
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He you may remember him from e WTN. He was the priest at the
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was a shrine of the Maco Conception. He was the big divine mercy guy.
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He's the one where you could turn it on every day, and he
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was the priest that would tell you about the divine mercy chaplet and a great
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homilist. I mean he well, let me just kind of go off on
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a tangent here. Father Dan is so amazing. Okay. He was married.
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He had a wife and daughter and they died. I don't know if
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it's a car crash. I don't know what it was. I don't think
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he's ever explained exactly how they died. But his daughter was maybe three,
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and his wife was a very great person of faith, and she's really the
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one that her influences the reason he's a priest. He was granted several visions.
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He got to see his wife and daughter in heaven. He got to
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speak to him, hug them, kiss them. They showed him around.
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They told him, you know, he had this mission to do on earth.
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He meant the blessed Virgin Mary. He saw Jesus, and when he
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saw he fell flat on his face and can only look at Jesus's feet if
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you want to see. If you want to listen to probably the best homily
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you're going to hear in any Catholic church in America on a Sunday morning,
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listen to Father Dan at Marymother of God Church in Heartsfull, South Carolina.
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They do live streaming and you can back it up. It's on YouTube.
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Fantastic. So anyway, I told this lady, you know, I'd really
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look forward to going to this church, which is only fifteen miles from here,
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and she said, do not move here. Do not move here,
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she said, this town, and she said, this is why I'm living.
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I'm Catholic. This is why I'm leaving. I am Catholic. She
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said. They seem to be really nice people, but the q klux Klan
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is very big here. The Masonic Order is very big here. And when
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they find out you're Catholic, they'll knock on your door to tell you you're
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going to Hell. And that's about the nicest thing they're going to say to
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you. And you'll be lucky if you aren't run off the road and killed
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or they burn your house down. So yeah, anti Catholicism is very very
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real, very very real, and still incredibly dangerous. Now, on the
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other hand, I've been having a very nice conversation, a respectful debate with
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a very nice, beautiful lady from Taiwan who's an atheist. And while I
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don't seem to be budging her in her position, she's not said that,
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you know, not a single offensive word. She asked me a question.
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I answer the question. I asked her a question. She answers the question.
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We've gotten into Pascal as we Pascal whatever, as we talked about yesterday,
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We've talked about Pascal's wager, which is I think such a fascinating point
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of history. You know, what was his name, Blaze Pascal, I
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think was. He was a great man. He was one of the greatest
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philosophers and scientists of the seventeen hundreds, who was a mathematician and a physicist.
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Huge influence on Louis Pasteur the curies, big influence on Albert Einstein.
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Pascal is one of the ones. He was a theologian, and he's a
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man who came to that deep understanding of faith of God in theology through science.
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One of the greatest philosophers of all times, and one of his almost
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like lighthearted, off handed comments has been one of the most influential statements in
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convincing scientists, especially who know exactly who Pascal was, to begin to explore
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whether God exists or not. Einstein, for instance, was an atheist who
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became a believer in God. I don't know what denomination, if any,
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he ever ended up in. Through physics, through understanding the nature of energy,
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he realized that by the you know, is basic level, everything in
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the universe is energy, energy that cannot be created or destroyed by any known
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laws of science. Understandable by man. Therefore, whatever created this energy that
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comprises everything had to have been created by something outside of time and space,
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outside of the limits of humankind, a God. Then you can get into
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more of the you know, characteristics of God. You know, I've mentioned
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before that a God that could do that is complete within himself, needing nothing.
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He could only create due to benevolence. That means God is good and
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God cares. We can go all down that road, and you know,
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that's very surface level. You know, at some point I'm sure will get
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lots more into the details. But Pascal's wager, which is essentially a almost
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a lighthearted, off handed remark. I mean, it's not one of his
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like really complex thought out arguments, and it's so kind of delightfully ironic ironic
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because this kind of informal remark has been one of the most influential statements made
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in the last three four hundred years. And it's his wager is what have
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you got to lose? I'm just gonna paraphrase it. I'm just gonna paraphrase
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it. If you believe in God and he exists, do you have everything
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to gain? Eternity, joy, eternal happiness, you name it right.
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If you believe in God and he doesn't exist, you've lost nothing. If
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you don't believe in God and he exists, you lose everything. And if
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you don't believe in God and he doesn't exists, you've again gained nothing.
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He said it a little more succinctly. But when you think about it,
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there is nothing to be gained by disbelieving in God. There's just eternal nothingness.
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There's just you know, life goes out like a candle. If you
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believe in God and he exists, you gain everything. So it's it would
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you know, for a logical person who's thinking about it. While it may
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not prove the existence of God, it definitely says why would I Why would
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I not want to believe? Why would I go out of my way to
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disbelieve? If it's false? My belief in it being false gives me nothing.
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No one at the end of the day. You know, the dead
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person is not going to be there laughing and saying, oh well, I
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was right. No, if their belief that there is no God, no
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afterlife, no eternity, they've gotten absolutely nothing. I mean, that's you
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know, that's the lump of the call in the stocking. If they're wrong
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and God's real, they can either gain everything or lose everything. I mean,
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if God's real and you don't believe in him, you're looking at eternal
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damnation. If God's real and you believe in him, you're looking at an
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eternal reward. If God's not real, it doesn't matter what you believe.
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So why be an atheist? Why not bet on you know, the sure
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thing, at least bet on what's going to give you a reward, the
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you know, the one way you can get something good out of this life.
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Why not do everything you can to gain that. Well, there's just
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just one actually very logical, even though it's not the most complex argument to
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considerab belief, and that that argument has been so influential on so many thinkers
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since the time of Pascal, where they say, well, you know what,
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maybe I ought to at least look into it. What have I got
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to lose? It's a great starting place when someone says, maybe i'd opened
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my mind to this, Maybe I ought to open my ears, open my
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heart, listen to what this nice person talking to me that seems to actually
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be getting something good out of this has to say. I know, another
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fellow who is I guess agnostic, And well, I think he had been
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an atheist, and I think now he's actually a religious person, come to
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think of it. He just looked at it and said, you know,
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everything I was taught in schools that you know, religion was stupid and Christians
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were evil. And I mean, that is the Marxist doctrine, and that
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is what we're taught in public schools to one extent or another, depending on
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who our teachers are. And he said, but I've known people in my
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life who are like bad alcoholics or drug addicts or criminals, and they become
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Christian. They become better, nicer people. There's got to be something to
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it. I mean, at least it's a philosophy that makes people better people
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and nicer to be around and not as violent and destructive or self destructive.
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And that was his position to open his ears to the existence of the Christian
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God, or at least the validity of the Christian religion as a philosophy.
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And I think over a period of about ten, fifteen, twenty years,
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he eventually ended up believing in God and becoming Christian. But that's the thing.
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We've got to find these simple, rational messages that are self evident.
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What's more self evident than you know? If you flip the coin, you've
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at least got a fifty fifty chance of winning heads I win, right.
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If you never flip the coin, you gain nothing. You can't win.
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That's essentially Pascal's bar in stupid simple terms, or what's easier to explain to
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someone. Look, so and so there was a violent, abusive criminal,
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he's now a religious Christian. Or he was a pathetic drunk and now he's
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a Christian and he's turned his life around. It's been the thing in life
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that saved him from self destruction and hurting people around him. I know a
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lot of people, a lot of people I could point to and say,
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look, you want to see this person before he was a Christian, not
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a good guy. After a Christian, pretty good guy. Isn't it worth
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looking at? Why would you? Why are you so opposed to it?
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Why do you hate it? Well? Marxist hate Communists hate liberals hate Christianity
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because it's a rival ideology to their political ideology. I mean, remember,
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a liberal is a liberal first. Communism is essentially a secular religion. Anything
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that rivals those leafs has to be destroyed. So let's see what a couple
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of questions and answers from radio replies. They probably be far more succinct than
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I am, and we'll wrap this show up. Someone wrote in and asked
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the priest God, what do you mean by the term God? Well,
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that gives to the heart of the matter, right, They answer, God
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as a spiritual, substantial, personal being, infinite and intelligent in will and
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in all perfection, absolutely simple or lacking composition, immutable, happy in himself
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and by himself, and infinitely superior to all that is or can be conceived
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apart from himself. He is incomprehensible in his infinite perfection by all lesser intelligence,
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although knowable as to the fact of his existence as a living creator and
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Lord of heaven and earth, almighty eternal amens, and distinct from all that
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he has created. That is what I mean by God. That's that's a
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fantastic and comprehensive definition. And it isn't it not amazing that so many scientists
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and I mean Einstein comes from mind, different ones have come to perceive this
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being, looking into his creation, the laws of science and realizing, yeah,
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there actually is something out there that far surpasses the human mind and the
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human nature. There's something that created everything that any of himself cannot be created.
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He's eternal, We're finite. That really, any human being, if
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they think about it, should be ablecome to that conclusion. They ask,
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how do you know that God is eternal or always was, is and will
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be the answer, because if God had a beginning than before he began there
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was nothing now, nothing, with nothing to work upon and no faculties with
26:07
which to work, it could never turn its non existence into something. There
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is obviously something, and there can never have been a time when there was
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nothing. God at least must have always existed. And if no one is
26:22
responsible for his beginning, there is no one who could possibly bring his existence
26:26
to an end. He will always be God, who rightly declares himself the
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eternally existent being when he said to Moses, God rightly declared himself the eternally
26:37
existence being when he said, I am who am? Now that's another incredibly
26:41
logical statement. Nothing can create nothing. I mean, everything has to come
26:48
from something in our physical moral world, in the universe as it exists.
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There's a beginning, and there's an end to everything. It is scientifically impossible,
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it's logically impossible, it's philosophically impossible for a void, a nothingness,
27:12
the absence of anything to create something. I mean, that's I guess that's
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about as simple and logical as you can get really. And yeah, if
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you talk with an open minded person who doesn't believe in God and ask them
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if there was a time and there was nothing, no gases to create the
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Big Bang? Right, nothing, nothing existed whatsoever, No protozoa, no
27:48
amiba's, no bacteria, nothing, which science tells us everything that lives as
27:55
a beginning and end, all matter is created by a force outside of itself.
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All energy that we know of can need to be created nor destroyed by
28:07
the laws of science. Yet was created by something else? What was that
28:14
something else? It cannot be nothing because nothing cannot produce something. Something had
28:22
to do the creation, and that in itself is an act of will.
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So now you're talking about an intelligent being. That intelligent being would also have
28:36
the choice not to create, So you're talking about a benevolent being. You
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know, these are very um they're just very simplistic logical concepts. They're very
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plain logical concepts, and that's really what we would call in design, you
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know, I do per culture and such prima cultures as a school of design.
29:03
At its core, we call it an elegant design. An elegant design
29:07
is simple. The more simple the design, the more elegant, the more
29:11
elegant, the more efficient. And many of these theological concepts are so easily
29:19
graspable that, as the Bible would say, they can confound the wise and
29:26
be understood by the simple. I would hope that you never fear looking into
29:34
theology and doctrine and learning apologetics. You know, I think it was also
29:40
Pascal that said, there are two reasons a man would not investigate in the
29:45
God. He is either afraid of losing him or finding him. Do not
29:52
be afraid of losing him. As long as we stay within the teachings of
29:55
the Catholic Church, and we do not believe the lies of communists and other
30:02
schools of atheism, which always seem to somehow come down to communism and dictatorship
30:07
and mass murder. As long as we are not deluded by what do they
30:18
call him, pretty lies, the lies of the devil, We're not going
30:23
to stray far from God if we stick with the teachings of the Catholic Church,
30:27
because it's infallible, guaranteed by Jesus Christ. And the more we learn
30:33
of God even and I am, I mean, you know, Saint Augustine
30:38
was such an immense intellect, and at the end of his studies he compared
30:44
his knowledge of God to a few drops of water compared to the vastness of
30:48
the ocean. And I'm so not on his level. If I can,
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if I can read and learn and defend my faith, so can you.
30:56
And really the whole point of this show is helping you do just that,
31:00
whether it's defending your faith to those like Protestants who attack you, explaining it
31:06
to people who who may be persuaded, or helping you to have a deeper
31:11
understanding as flawed of an instrument as I am. And I certainly am very
31:21
limited in my abilities, limited in my education. In fact, I am
31:26
self taught almost all of this. I'm not a theologian. I didn't go
31:30
to college to study that. I stayed economics in college. I don't have
31:36
a PhD from you know, some major Catholic university. And no, I
31:42
mean, I'm learning on my own. And I think that's sort of The
31:45
benefit of the show is I don't know what I don't know, so when
31:51
I discover it, it's new and exciting to me, and I can explain
31:55
it to you. And it may be a concept you're familiar with, or
31:57
it may be something that you're just finding out. And you know what's more
32:05
infectuous than the zeal of a convert. Whenever I discover something new truth about
32:10
Catholicism, it excites me and I want to share it with you. So
32:15
let's keep doing that, y'all. I tell you, what, if you
32:19
could share this podcast with a friend, I'd really appreciate it. It's growing
32:22
slowly, but well, I don't need to get into the whole business side
32:29
of podcasting. But basically, when you hear an ad on my show,
32:32
I made about a penny, So when you listen to my show, it
32:37
may credit about one or two cents toward my account, and what I pay
32:42
to have the show hosted is a great deal more than that. So it
32:46
also takes a lot of time. I mean, I'm spending a good hour
32:49
hour and a half on this a day between doing it and editing it,
32:52
and I'm glad to do it. I'm not complaining, but if we can
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get that audience up, if you could share this with a friend, any
32:58
of my shows, just share them with a in so I could at least
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make enough to break even and not lose money. Be a lot easier for
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me, Be a whole lot easier for me. And if you would like
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to buy my books, um, you know, I've written eleven books and
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at least three of them are very Catholic. You've got the story of my
33:16
conversion, You've got a history of Christian herbal medicine, which is totally rooted
33:23
in Benedict Wallaford Strabo, who Abbot Walaford Strabo, Saint Hildegarde von Benen,
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Father Nap, and Father Kunzel. You know. Yeah, So if you
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you fins a herbal medicine, or you're like a cookbook, or you want
33:43
to buy some of my Catholic books, I sure appreciate that. But literally
33:46
just passing it on to a friend will at least put a couple of cents
33:51
more into my account and help me cover costs. So probably gonna have to
33:55
bring that up a few times till we build up this audience a little little
34:00
bit more. But I am I'm very grateful of course for all my listeners
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and anytime you have questions, just reach out to me. It's my email
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address because I'm an herbalist, is Southern Appalachian Herbs at gmail dot com.
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Or you can go through my substack which is Judson at Judsoncroll dot com.
34:16
And if you're not a subscriber to my subtech newsletter, please check that out.
34:20
I've got my one for herbalism which is just Judson Carroll and one for
34:23
the show Young Sinster Catholic. Anyway, y'all have a great evening. I'll
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talk with you next time. And it's always in the words of Saint Padre
34:30
Pio, pray, hope and don't worry.