Posted on 03/22/2014 5:46:52 PM PDT by Diago
While I had doubts about the existence of God before entering college, I considered myself a Christian and checked off the Protestant Methodist box on my application. Still, I had some apprehension in attending Boston College—a religious, Jesuit, Catholic institution. So, it came much to my surprise that nearly as soon as I stepped on campus, my faith in Christianity and God started to wane.
I took both sections of Philosophy of the Person my first year at BC, not because I was interested in the subject, but solely as a means to fulfill the Core curriculum that’s a major part of BC’s Jesuit identity. I hadn’t previously taken a philosophy course, though I quickly came to enjoy the deep and abstract thinking required of the class as a contrast to the quantitative work present in my economics and finance courses.
We read a number of proofs for the existence of God, and as any good intro philosophy class allows, we examined each side of the argument. After both class discussions and my own thinking, I realized I sided more with arguments against God. I recall writing an essay disputing St. Thomas Aquinas’ five proofs of existence, my finishing line reading, “Couldn’t God have left more compelling evidence [for his existence]?” Little did I know this marked an important turning point in my educational journey—it was the first time I seriously considered the distinct possibility that God didn’t exist.
These thoughts continued during a two-semester Religious Quest class my sophomore year that compared Islam and Christianity. It was my first exposure to Islam besides what I’d seen and read in the news, and I also learned extensively about Christianity. Never before had I gained such a detailed perspective on the origins, sects, and traditions of the two religions. The power of community provided by each faith throughout history was immense, and based on their shared teachings of peace and worship, it was easy to see why each has thrived and accumulated millions of members worldwide.
A major point of the class was how similar the religions are, and indeed, they are more similar than I’d have ever thought. But by examining them so closely, I also studied their many differences. And those differences, most historians agree, have contributed to millions of deaths around the world—not only between the two religions (The Crusades), but also due to intra-religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants (30 Years’ War) and Sunni and Shiite Muslims (Iran vs. Saudi Arabia & Iraq).
After a great deal of reflection undertaken both as a requirement inside the classroom and on my own, I came away with two conclusions. One, no higher being would ever tolerate millions of people being killed over the right way to worship him. Two, the differences between each religion made it unlikely that followers of both could be accepted into the same afterlife, meaning that, if there were a God, millions would be left out of eternal life—in my view, an unjust punishment for having the “wrong” belief.
Due to those two required core classes, by the second half of my sophomore year I had enough qualitative reasons for not believing in God. A class I took the following semester supplied me with more technical explanations. I enrolled in evolutionary economics, a course that discussed how humans have developed certain traits through evolution. Evolutionary psychologists believe that sexual selection and preference has shaped much of how we behave today, explaining behaviors such as riskier tendencies in men compared to women, outward displays of fitness to attract mates, and, ultimately, the development of a creative and intelligent human mind.
As one can imagine, the class required intensive reflection on views of human behavior that we’d previously considered to be quite basic. We also expanded our knowledge by reading a number of evolutionary passages, including a section from Richard Dawkins’ book, The Selfish Gene (emphasis on gene). His work, in addition to meticulously explaining how natural selection works down to the genetic level, offered a solid explanation of how life began without a creator.
By the end of the semester, I fully believed evolution as a fact for the first time. Further, as someone who finds the existence of God and evolution mutually exclusive, it was much harder for me to identify with the Christian faith. But I was not yet committed to saying I didn’t believe in God.
That changed the next semester, the first of my junior year. I registered for Philosophy of Existence to fulfill my minor in the subject—a route I would never have pursued had I gone to a different school. We studied a number of existentialist philosophers, some who based their philosophies in religion, and others who didn’t. Two of the latter were Sartre and Nietzsche, known atheist scholars. Sartre wrote that the essence of being human is being free, while Nietzsche famously said, “God is dead … and we have killed him.” They both provided a view of the world in which mankind had created the notion of God.
By the end of the class, and after deep contemplation, I finally realized what I truly believed—there is no God. Both the idea of a higher being, and the many religions of the world, were founded by man to inspire hope and influence human behavior.
Despite entering college as a Christian, two months from now I will graduate this Jesuit, Catholic school as an atheist. Ironically, the basis of that belief was developed in classes I was required to take based on Jesuit values and ideals —the education of the whole person through BC’s core curriculum. The Jesuits don’t teach students what to think. They teach them how to think. Above all else, that’s what college is for. And I’m grateful that I chose BC as the place to learn that.
Editor’s Note: The views presented in this column are those of the author alone and do not represent the views of The Heights.
Trust me, Boston College does not have a good reputation.
Some years ago, some Villanova people started calling BC “Fredo”, after the half-witted brother of Michael Corleone. What an apt description!!!
If you want to study heresy, or bookmaking (BC has had two major sports gambling scandals over the past 40 years), BC would be your choice.
I grieve for this young man and, his parents. I’m sure they are baffled and heart-sick over what this young man has done.
But, there is always hope for him. If he ever really DID have a relationship with God, God the Holy Spirit will keep after him. Needling him in his spirit. C.S. Lewis speaks of the “Hound of Heaven” who never gives us up.
I have no idea what this young man’s background is, but since he is attending BC, I’m assuming his parents raised him in a Christian home, with a Christian upbringing, and regularly attended church.
My wife and I raised our children in the church, read the Bible with them, prayed with them, explained as best we could the Gospel to them, and, as they grew older, began to train them in preparation for the opposing non-Christian worldviews they were going to be facing in the secular world.
We did the best we could to live out our Christian faith at home and in our dealings with them. However, I would be a liar if I said we didn’t fail in that from time to time, but, I think that is probably true of most Christian parents.
Our kids have turned out well in that they do think for themselves, they have strong work ethics, and they are loving, caring, and generous people.
However, only our oldest stayed committed to his Christian faith. He is now married with two beautiful boys (don’t get me going on grandkids) and he and his Christian wife regularly attend worship at a strong conservative Christian church.
Our daughter and youngest son have both strayed from their once professed beliefs and faith. They are not hostile to God, but, like many young people I’ve worked with who were raised in the church, are quite “indifferent” to God and His kingdom. They seem to be of the mindset that God may exist, probably does exist, but He’s way, way, down on their priority list.
We are heartsick over this and pray continually that they will come back to Christ - that they will see their sin, their need for forgiveness, and His love for them. We thought they understood that, because we did teach them all those things.
But, at some point, your kids will start making decisions about what they believe FOR THEMSELVES. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always come out matching our Christian faith. I wish I could make my faith theirs, but I can’t. My wife and I gave them the truths of the Gospel, we tried to live that Gospel out in our own lives as best we could, but THEY have to receive it on their own. We pray that they will.
I pray that this young man will do the same.
I think ministers (pastors and priests) must include in their preaching and teaching, solid Christian apologetics to address some of the issues this young man brought up.
I was raised in a time when the Bible was generally respected and believed to be God’s Word. That is was trustworthy in spiritual matters as well as in historical matters.
We all know that has not been the case in our nation for several decades. Many people sitting in church may never vocalize some of their questions or doubts because they don’t want to be thought of as being ignorant, or a “problem”, or disrespectful, or whatever.
The point is, many Christians do not know how to gracefully, accurately, and boldly stand for their faith. Many Christians probably harbor “doubts” or questions about God that need answering in their own hearts. Once these things are addressed in their own lives, then I think they will be able to follow Peter’s command for “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
It is slander against the Catholic Church to call Boston College Catholic.
The fact that the bishops tolerate the presence of the Jesuits in their dioceses does make this case harder to make, but fundamentally it changes nothing.
“Come let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlett they shall be white as snow.”
I’ll think about that tomorrow.
This is true. And they are equally convinced that they are deeper thinkers than anyone on earth.
“But doesn’t convince me that Boston College is a fine school which upholds solid Christian teachings.
—
I wasn’t implying that it was——just sharing some info.
I’ve lived very close to B.C. all of my life and remember when it WAS a Catholic institution. No more.
.
Your description of Catholic beliefs is as shallow and twisted as atheists’ belief that Christians think God is an old man with a great white beard.
Some day you might learn something about Catholicism, and then you may or may not accept it—but at least you will no longer embarrass yourself.
Highly educated into stupidity.
Another thing parents can do is access College Connection. This program sponsored by the Serra Club of the United States connects the child going off to college to the Newman Club on campus, thus facilitating a family away from home mentality in the new student.
“By “pathetic,” I mean that they aren’t even plausible, or clever, or troubling, or difficult to see through. They are formulaic, convenient, shallow, and logically incoherent.
I knew a man who survived Auschwitz (unlike most of his family), and lost any faith in God. While I believe in God, I didn’t have any glib answer for him, and I still don’t.”
Why would you be searching for a glib answer?
Any argument short of surviving a holocaust isn’t plausible?
I am not Catholic, far from it - a Southern Baptist, but I would be hesitant to blame all this on Boston College.
We all know this world, our nation itself, no longer tolerates the Bible or a Christian worldview. Institutions of higher learning have been that way much earlier than the general population. Granted, BC is supposed to be a “Christian” college. But, unfortunately, many supposedly “Christian” colleges teach the same falsehoods as the secular institutions.
Now, hear me out. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing - IF THEY GIVE THEIR STUDENTS SUFFICIENT TOOLS TO OPPOSE THOSE FALSEHOODS!! But, they don’t!
When I attended seminary, I assumed I would be taught how to answer the world’s false claims regarding God, the Bible, and the Gospel. That was a very naive assumption for I got none of those things at seminary.
Fortunately, I was strong enough in my own faith, and knew of Christian authors and scholars who could counter the heresy I was exposed to. Seminary students would sometimes ask their professors why were they teaching us this stuff - they told us that they wanted us to be prepared for the falsehoods we would face in the real world.
Again, all of that is fine and good, if they then help you find how to counter these falsehoods. But, they really didn’t. They told us they expected us to do that on our own.
I can appreciate working and digging out information on my own, but without guidance and ignorance of resources, just sink or swim - well, the result was that some students sank. On top of that, the faculty didn’t seem to care.
That seminary, and several others, were finally revamped (during the 1980’s) and solid Christian scholars were placed in charge of those institutions (or, at least they were - I don’t know what they are like now).
My point is that many Christian colleges and seminaries do well at teaching their subjects - but, they don’t, for the most part, teach Christian apologetics. Either the faculty are unaware of those resources, or, they really believe the anti-Christian, ungodly stuff that’s being taught as “scholarship” regarding Biblical inerrancy, the integrity of Biblical manuscripts and scholarship, and orthodox Christian doctrine.
You must train students in solid Christian doctrine (what we believe and why we believe it), the absolute integrity of the Biblical manuscripts that we have today and the strong foundation for the inerrancy of Scripture - and, how to counter, be aware of, and how to answer the world’s falsehoods regarding these issues.
I had never heard that one about “Fredo,” but just googled it, and it sure is out there:
https://www.google.com/#q=%22boston+college+%22+fredo
Are you saying that because HE survived, he should be jumping for joy and thanking God?
Anyone who would criticize a Holocaust survivor for losing his faith is a glib, shallow person.
“Are you saying that because HE survived, he should be jumping for joy and thanking God?”
No.
I thought that what Nietsche was saying in his writings is that if there were no God as a higher being whose rules we respected, what rose from mankind to take that place was evil. I thought Nietsche was saying "God is dead" because man killed any positive belief in a greater being by worshiping very ungodlike things. Man can either believe or not believe in a God that inspires good lives. That belief is not dependent on whether or not God exists.
Pascal, an agnostic, turned to God. With his logical mind, he realized that even though he thought the chance of there being a God is slight, even with long odds he didn't want to risk being judged by one whose existence he denied. (paraphrasing)
To this author I would say that there's something out there that's more than us, and that being leaves footprints and whispers, affirmation of its existence. When mankind is too busy banging the war drums and worshipping everything that drowns it out, we miss God's subtle approaches.
That was weird....I just channeled my paper from Philosophy of Religion class in the 1960s.
This is why "science-atheists" make me smile.
Unfortunately, I've yet to meet one who 'gets it.'
I knew a man who survived Auschwitz (unlike most of his family), and lost any faith in God. While I believe in God, I didn’t have any glib answer for him, and I still don’t.”
Why would you be searching for a glib answer?
Any argument short of surviving a holocaust isn’t plausible?
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I think Arthur McGowan is referring to what happens to a person when they have a taste of Hell on Earth; when they see the worst evils being done by human beings to other human beings, and what this does to one’s faith.
It’s the “how could God allow people to do this” argument. A very convincing one for atheists, strangely enough, but one that even affects those strong in their belief of God.
The Nazis knew this. A particularly horrifying example was from no less than Dr. Josef Mengele ( http://www.mengele.dk/witnesses.htm ):
“One morning in July 1944 I spotted my mother among a long line of women moving toward the gas chamber. Mengele called me in and gave me an errand to the crematorium. He knew I would see my mother go to her death. A couple of days later he asked me if I still believed in God.”
It’s very difficult to discuss airy theological concepts with people who have experienced such things. Not that the concepts are incorrect, mind you, just difficult.
I think that’s what Arthur McGowan is hinting at.
Way to go, Stephen. It took you less than a semester to be able to see right through the shallow scholarship of Thomas Aquinas. You can now assume the place as one of the great minds of the 3rd Millenium A.D., er, C.E.
I find Hinduism/pantheism the hardest to argue against. There are arguments, but it's hard to use arguments against a belief that God transcends the true/false dichotomy.
Or solipsism. No one claims to be a solipsist, but most libertine young people act that way.
The rich man in Hades and Lazarus.
Even if someone rises from the dead, some people would not be convinced.
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