Hi, Michael —

There are a lot of very deep questions here and it would require almost a foundational course in apologetics to really answer them thoroughly.

I would suggest a search of the Catholic Answers web site [and/or] the Nazareth Resource Library by Jimmy Akin. I know they've tackled some these issues already and have tracts on some of these topics.

If you can't find anything on these topics, I'll be happy to take them one at a time but let me address the question about God being a being.

God is not a being among beings, hence it would be incorrect calling Him the Supreme Being. That would a grave demotion. God is being or as you put it, God is reality. That's not what I say. That is a Theological Truth. The notion that God is Supreme Being is a by-product of Nominalism which caused all kinds of theological problems within the Western Church.

Yes, God is Sovereign but God doesn't decide what is right and wrong or what is good and evil. Good is good and Evil is evil. God is fundamentally good and the source of all goodness. He created the Universe from absolutely nothing — a concept which is difficult for us to even fathom.

• What is nothing?

So He does not exist within reality but rather is reality.

John

Michael,

You said:

• Is Christianity a means for a few to control the many?

Similar questions can be posed:

• Is atheism a means for a few to control the many?
• Is Islam a means for a few to control the many?
• Is [fill in the blank] a means for a few to control the many?

Such questions suggest a particular kind of mentality. There are folks who think that conspiracies run the world. These questions suggest that there is some clique of people inventing religious ideas in order to manipulate others. Of course no one can prove that such a conspiracy does not exist. The non-existence of anything is very hard to prove.

It's like trying to persuade a solipsist that other people actually exist and are not figments of his imagination. One can't do it: people who trap their minds in a fantasy can't be reasoned out of it because they weren't reasoned into it.

Nevertheless, one can critique the suggestion as basically implausible. You can look at societies historically: which religions have:

• promoted values that augment human freedom and development
• respect for individuals
• concern for the weak
• a linear and non-cyclical view of history
• a sense that people are morally responsible for their actions.

Some of the big religions don't have these intellectual ingredients that promote justice and social charity and human rights.

I think it's almost laughable to suggest that Christian faith makes people easier to govern!

• If you wanted to manipulate masses of people, wouldn't it be logical to promote general skepticism and hedonism, so that people would be motivated by comfort and pleasure rather than any sort of convictions?

— RC

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your note.

I should admit right up front that I don't personally have a lot to offer in this topic area, as it's not something I've studied. That answer I sent was just off-the-cuff, but there are Catholic philosophers who deal with:

• foundational questions about faith and
• its relation to reason, and
• its plausibility, etc.
  
  
• Have you been reading in that field yet?

For your interest, one philosopher who deals with issues of faith and atheism is Peter Kreeft of Boston College; I've had a couple of courses with him and do recommend him.

Here, in a popular-style video, he discusses some of the famous proofs of God advanced by Thomas Aquinas.

• God vs. Atheism: Which is More Rational?

— Richard