Science and Religion, Again

Note: The following is a response to a discussion thread from an earlier post. I apologize for anything which may be unclear, and will happily explain anything which any reader would like explained.

- Charles Martin Cosgriff

Things do not require physical reality to be real. It's a simple as that. Many concepts we use in everyday life - justice, morality, responsibility, even such debatable concepts as libertarian ideals - none of these have a physical reality. Yet by our reason we know many of them to be true. It is intellectually shallow (intellect: another thing without physical reality) to believe that all real things must have a physical side.

When we die our physical selves die, but not our essence as human beings. That admittedly nonphysical part of us, by rational argument, goes on.

The Church does not claim that miracles happen to Her adherents only. I have no idea how you came to believe that.

So the universe could have always existed, but God couldn't. That's little more than selective reasoning. If one could be eternal, why couldn't the other, once we dismiss the error that only the physical is real? Aquinas puts it this way: if the universe (or matter or whatever you wish to call it) has existed for all time, it would be because God desired it to be co-eternal with Him.

I have already conceded that individual Church members, even Popes, may commit sin. Few of us, if any, are perfect in action. But that does not mean that a declaration of truth cannot reflect a truth for all times, places, and people. Murder is always wrong, no matter where you are or who's doing what.

You are confusing scientific reason with philosophical reason. Science of course relies on empiricism. Reason in the second sense relies on logic: does what we're saying make sense? Would an objective reviewer agree that a given line of though makes sense and is thus really reflective of truth? To deny the voracity of that is intellectually dishonest. It is an all too convenient way to dismiss things we may not like as unreal, simply because we do not like them.