hey luigi


If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
He sends you flowers every spring.
He sends you a sunrise every morning.
Face it, friend - He is crazy about you!

Blame Mother Nature for the disasters Luigi--she is worshipped by the atheists!!

Jose
First you have it back the front. You wrote that you want evidence that proves a miracle didn't happen. Wrong! The burden of proof lies on those who make a claim. It's enough for me to merely say "you say miracles exist? That's fine. Prove they do!" I DON'T have to say no miracles exist. Only that there is no proof. While you're reading Hume you might also try reading J.L.Mackie's "evil and Omnipotence" found in "Philosophy: Basic readings" Nigel Warburton (ed)

Let me say though that I admire your courageous search for truth. Your willingness to challenge your faith is impressive. It NEVER pleasant to have dearly loved beliefs challenged. Yet you are prepared to do this. Well done.

Father.
Allow me to ask you this. Have you EVER considered the merest possibility that you might be wrong? Just the possibility? If you have then perhaps you should discuss the arguments Luigi presents rather than merely dismissing them.

The burden of proof lies on those who make a claim.
You are absolutely right. In fact no miracles are ever officially declared valid by the Church until they have been thoroughly and scrupulously investigated.
But, fair request, I will mention some more major modern miracles. I suppose you have heard about the apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917? These went for six months, on the 13th of each month from May, except in June or July it was on another date because the children were kidnapped. Anyway, in each apparition Mary promised to return the next month. Soon she was promising a big and memorable thing to happen in October.
Few believed what the children were saying- fair enough- and roughly 70,000 people showed up on October 13. These 70,000 people saw the famous "miracle of the Sun" where the sun spun around, changed colours , came plummeting to the Earth, lots of fancy things like that. Even people miles away from the site could see stuff from their homes. What's more, everyone was drenched from heavy rain. Afterwards, all 70,000 were stone dry.

That's not half of it. Amoung various things Mary said were a few promises, prophesies. She prophesied WWII, the assassination attempt of a future Pope (which ended up happening on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima), she promised the conversion of Russia if it was consecrated to her- meaning decline of communism, access to Russia for the Church and Catholic growth etc. She also promised to take two of the children to Heaven quickly, while Lucia- the third child- would have to wait longer. The two children died in an epidemic of flu or tuberculosis or something like that very soon after. Lucia lived until last year, or maybe the year before. Anyway, there were plenty of other things like that from Fatima.
Then there's the stuff at Lourdes, which Father John George mentioned earlier, all encouraged to visit and check it out- also Bernadette, the visionary of Lourdes, is incorrupt and all visitors welcome.
All this is just a fraction. No canonisation of a Saint ever takes place- for the last century or something like that- untill something like 2 miracles occur which are in response to prayers to those particular Saints. Countless books have been published about these. I recomend you find a book called something like "Cures attributed to St Josemaria Escriva" its a good one.

Bosk
you have asked if i have ever considered the possibility of my catholic beliefs being wrong/ may i first ask if you also have questioned the infallibility of your own presuppositions thus avoiding
patronising and trivialising believers--this is not a game of how mny books you may have read by the way or classic comics--we can all present impressive bibliographies in the game of 'scud references' against the opposition!!
re luigi i reponded each time with appropriate evidence[eg lourdes as well as challenges.[including 'argumentum ad hominem' and 'reductio ad absurdum' where needed
re self questioning! i was brought up as a child and young chap in an atheistic secular environment in which the church and teaching were ridiculed constantly--thus i am no stranger to atheists.
in my priestly training i visited each sunday the sydney domain with its gaggle of atheists and ilk sometimes i was surrounded by the rationalist-atheist standover merchants when it seemed i was exposing the shallowness of the atheist/agnostic infallibility
finally my 7 year plus intensive priestly training required reading hordes of literature by non catholic thinkers and philosophers from today and centuries past including a uni course in british linguistic analysis philosophy at australian national uni canberra and then psychology at uni of new south wales--with its then materialistic underpinnings and more questioning of traditional catholicism at manila uni philippines.
finally again after 30 years as a priest[door knocking,'man in the street discussions' and a stint teaching as uni guest lecturing in a materialistic commerce faculty i can assure you i have thought through hard headedly my beliefs--my philosophy lecturer insisted we start philosophy as if we were atheists questioning everything!
in short yes i have given a lot of thought to atheistic/religious challenges and issues.I VALUE MY FREEDOM OF THOUGHT and reject thought police either from stalinist atheistic materialism, cynical agnosticism or any other flavour of the month INFALLIBLE 'ISM'
SORRY FOR TYPOS--BLAME 'STROKE' REHAB!!