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Doubting Thomas Catholicism



With all the yammerings we hear from all sorts of people both for and against religions, I am often asked by students if I am religious or ascribe to any religious beliefs. Often, some of them ask me this because I talk frequently about evolutionary theory in my courses, and for many the Theory of Evolution is a bit controversial.

Well, I am strongly Roman Catholic. It is a faith I ascribe to for two major reasons... one is familial and the other is philosophical. The familial aspect stems from my desire to be part of a larger family of people who share similar beliefs. I can attend Mass at any Catholic Church world wide, and even though there will be differences, I will feel I have found a home. This sense of a larger community, a larger "family" in which I belong is very special to me. The philosophical aspect stems from my philosophy of life. In studying a large array of different religions (and atheism and agnostic philosophies), I feel the teachings, ideals, and especially peace and social justice philosophies are those that seem most in keeping with how I view life.

I tend to feel that I and my wife and kids should strive to work hard to be helpful in our lives, that we should always work to treat everyone with kindness and respect. I also feel that strenuous effort to "do good" is something I hold dear. And for me, I feel the philosophical underpinnings of the Roman Catholic faith best mesh with my own ideas.

Now, before people stomp around in my comments section and rant about how awful and corrupt and pedophilic the Church is, let me state a few things for clarification:

1. The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is not a perfect institution. No institution nor person is perfect. There are people who do bad things in the RCC just like there are people who do bad things in other faiths and people who are atheiests or agnostics who also do bad things. A faith or philosophy does not prevent some members who ascribe to it from being "bad". Human nature is such that there will always be people who do wrong things in EVERY walk of life. So, ranting on about the "evil of Catholicism" is not really a valuable response here.

2. While I hold a faith of Catholicism, I am also very interested and appreciative of other faiths and philosophies as well. I enjoy hearing and learning about other's own ideas.

3. I firmly believe in seperation of Church and State. I believe the rules and guidelines of the Roman Cathoic faith should be ascribed to and followed by ME and the members of MY FAMILY. But, I feel society as a whole NEED NOT follow those tennets of RCC. A larger society of people must create its sets of rules and regulations based upon what is right for that society as a whole... taking into account all members of the society.

4. Do I believe in God? Yes. Can I "prove" God? No. Does that mean I can and do sometimes have doubts? Yes, of course. As a scientist, I *know* that any sort of faith issue is BEYOND the scope of being able to be proven or disproven using science. But here is the KEY POINT.... whether God exists or not, it does not change my core beliefs of how I *should* live my life.

5. For me, I see absolutely NO CONFLICT with my faith and my belief in the validity of the scientific ideas expressed in Darwin's Theory of Evolution. I view the Theory of Evolution as our best scientific understanding of our origins, and I see no conflict with my faith or philosophy.

For me, the way I strive to live my life aligns very well with the philosophies of the RCC.

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