5 Catholic Teachings That Make Sense to Atheists

NC Register ^ | July 25, 2011 | JENNIFER FULWILER

[NYer]

Last week I gave a talk about atheism, and in the Q&A afterward there were a lot of questions about how to share our faith with atheists. I emphasized that the most important thing is simply to pray and work on becoming a saint yourself, so that you can show people Christ rather than just talking about him, but people with atheist friends, family members and coworkers wanted to know more. In the case where you’re chatting with a nonbeliever who is open to hearing your perspective and specifically asks for information about what you believe, how should you proceed?

Obviously there’s no one right answer, but I thought I’d list out some Catholic beliefs that might be good places to start. Though atheists typically see all belief in the supernatural as unreasonable, some doctrines, like the ones below, strike them as less crazy than others. (As I was not able to conduct a worldwide survey of every person who self-identifies as a nonbeliever, I am basing this on personal experience as well as conversations with atheists I know.)

1. Purgatory

Growing up as both an atheist and a nerd in a particularly status-conscious section of the Bible Belt, I was occasionally on the receiving end of unkindness from Christians. When these same people also announced that they were going directly to heaven when they died because they’d accepted Jesus, it didn’t make any sense to me. I knew enough to know that heaven was supposed to be a place of perfect love and peace, so it seemed illogical to say that people could act like jerks until their dying breaths and then walk right on through the pearly gates.

[NYer]

Jennifer Fulwiler is a writer as well as the chaos manager for her growing family, which currently includes five young children. Her writing has been published in over a dozen publications and she has been featured on EWTN television and various national radio networks. She's also a columnist for Envoy magazine and a regular guest on EWTN Radio's SonRise Morning Show. In 2007 she became Catholic after a life of atheism.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/5-catholic-teachings-that-make-sense-to-atheists/#ixzz1U5cuTpEd

[NYer]

PLEASE NOTE - NC Register requires that their posts be excerpted. Please follow the above link to read the entire piece. Please do NOT post the entier article to this thread. Thank you!

[Berlin_Freeper]

Have you noticed that in the Left media such as movies, television and books - they largely ignore God, Jesus and heaven. But they have no problem portraying hell and demons and such themes...?

It’s like that.

[mel]

well, i did like Dark Shadows (hey that ages me) but i am disappointed in all of these dark vampire movies now

[BenKenobi]

The site is not working, can someone post the entire article so we can read the darn thing?

[NYer]

Try this link ...

5 Catholic Teachings That Make Sense to Atheists

[Salvation]

5 Catholic Teachings That Make Sense to Atheists
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[RobbyS]

I have been reading the replies. Why is is that atheists claims to be so, so logical when it is clear that atheist is not a choice between the self-evident and the absurd, but very largely an intellectual construct based on their own psychological needs. The same charge, byt, that they often make against the religious. The only atheist argument that has any force is that argument from evil. But how does atheist deal with this? It surely does not protect them from suffering/make any sense of it. Do they put their faith in humanity? then they will be disappointed? Then it must be in the Fates, and that is a hairy thought, to think of the ladies with their scissors in hand.