What's Wrong...and/or Right...with the Catholic Church

Rapid Response for MONDAY, January 7, 2013

NEITHER WHAT'S RIGHT NOR WHAT'S WRONG...BUT PERHAPS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EVANGELIZATION.

Perhaps I have been too dismissive when calling Atheists "certifiable" or "crazy", with only partial tongue-in-cheek. Published in the NYTimes Sunday, Jan 6, SRp7, is a long article written by self-proclaimed atheist Susan Jacoby entitled The Blessings of Atheism". Offered consciously or otherwise as an "APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA", it seems to base at least some atheists' position on a disappointment with...and even anger toward...a supposed God who allows such terrible things to beset good people. And it rejects the "free will" argument that believing persons usually use to explain this matter.
In this piece, well worth reading in its entirety, Ms. Jacoby makes two important points regarding the value of atheism: 1) "We do want our fellow citizens to respect our deeply held conviction that the absence of an afterlife lends a greater, not a lesser, moral importance to our actions on earth"; 2) regarding terrible events like Newtown, "Whether you are religious or non-religious, may you find solace in the knowledge that the suffering is ours, but that those we love suffer no more."
Not conclusive regarding whether there is a God and an after-life - which is of course
a gift of Faith. But impressive.

GS