Koan #38: Deceit and the Church

It is a most remarkable phenomenon to listen and read those that are deeply virulent and hateful in their attacks against the Catholic faith and the Church that protects it. Indeed, it is remarkable precisely because the attacks used are so often full of conscious distortions, exaggerations, misunderstandings, distractions, misinformation, half-information, dishonest omissions and at times, out-right and blatant lies; all of which are proven to be verifiably false with just a slight amount of investigative acumen. Yet what this fact raises is an even more fascinating point. For why, if the Catholic faith and its Church are such an easy target to defeat—as its opponents claim—must these distortions, exaggerations and falsehoods be employed? Why, if the Church and its claims and its teachings require no strong effort to crush, cannot the simple, plain and honest truth be employed in the task of doing so? Why is the extra tool of dishonesty used by all, from Unbelievers to Believing Dissenters, if the bare, pure and unadorned truth should suffice to discredit the Church? Perhaps—and an unwilling and unwanted explanation it will be for many—it is because this naked truth does not suffice to defeat the Church and what it teaches. Perhaps it is because if the full truth was actually spoken, it would bring people to the Church rather than push them away from it. And perhaps it is because the truth clings more tightly to the Church, than to any of its opponents. Thus in sum, these facts, if nothing else, show much concerning the “truth” that the opponents of the Church use, but even more, these facts show much concerning the actual Truth surrounding the Church herself.

Koan #22: Arguing with Straw

The creation of arguments from little but straw! It is something that every one of the Catholic Faithful must watch for, and must not commit himself, lest he be hypocritical in his quest to bring truth to others. Yet it is also a thing that is often seen in the arguments presented by Unbelievers for their denial of the divine and by non-Catholics for their denial of the Faith. All of these claim to be putting forth arguments of intellectual rigour and strength, but are often, when inspected closely and exactly, simply making arguments of straw. They subtly twist meanings, definitions, words and phrases in the most inconspicuous of manners in order to fallaciously bolster the effectiveness of their argumentation or they argue against the weakest formulation of the Believer’s argument rather than the strongest one. Thus they argue against illusions rather than reality. Let the Believer, then, be both aware and leery of this truth. And let him assess any argument against the Faith or its Lord slowly, methodically and precisely, for fear that if he does not do so, he may be caught unaware of a hidden and fallacious straw, which if missed, would give the argument more weight than it is due.

Koan #18: Can Protestantism Even Be True

It is incumbent on the Protestant, who claims to hold to Christian truth, to wonder if there truly is truth in Protestantism. For if there can only be one truth of Christian, doctrine, dogma and theology, and with approximately 140 different Protestant denominations in existence, the question of course becomes: which one holds the truth? Are more than one true? Are some partially true? Are any true? And how does the Protestant, ultimately basing his choice on his own interpretation of scripture, in the end know that his choice is true? Even more importantly, how does he ultimately know that his very interpretation is true, especially in light of so many others of the Protestant vein that sincerely believe the opposite? And if Protestants can be so confused about what Christian truth actually is, then how do they square this with the Christian’s knowledge that God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor 14:33)? And if the Church is the bulwark and pillar of truth (1 Tim 3:15), then how can such truth be contained in the contradictions and doctrinal differences of all the various Protestant denominations? Catholics, by contrast, are one in doctrine and teaching, and such problems of division do not exist there. And certainly the Catholic Church, being of one doctrine, is not the author of confusion. And certainly the Catholic Church, being one body, is not divided. And certainly the Catholic Church, being the teacher of one faith, can hold the Christian truth. And thus perhaps the Catholic Church, being as it is of one body, one doctrine, one faith and one truth, is indeed the very Church that Christ founded on earth. It is truly something the every Protestant should contemplate deeply.

Koan #13: Mere Christianity Meagre

It is often commendable and indeed necessary to approach an argumentation for the Christian faith using a tactic and method that employs the idea of “mere” Christianity, as it is often called, and which means the use of common doctrines and theologies that are generally accepted and acceptable by all Christian denominations, rather than denomination specific ones. Yet though as necessary as this may be at times, the Catholic Believer must be wary of employing this strategy too often, for being in possession of the fullness of Christian truth, the Catholic can avoid many of the pitfalls that arise for the theologies, doctrines and beliefs that plaque other Christian denominations but leave Catholicism untouched. Let the Catholic be guarded against this therefore, for mere Christianity is but a shadow compared to the full light of truth, which is what is truly needed to illuminate the dark corners of men’s souls.

Koan #4: "Christianity" Defeated but Catholicism Untouched

While both understandable due to geographical and cultural considerations, yet still strange when considered, is the fact that numerous Unbelievers claim that they have lost their belief due to deficiencies and contradictions within elements of the “Christian” faith as a whole, while at the same time not realizing that what they have done is only discover deficiencies with the theological ideas and doctrines of certain Christian sects. And thus furthermore, they believe they have achieved this personal argumentative success against the totality of what is understood as Christianity without ever having investigated the doctrines, teachings and philosophies of Catholicism, the largest and oldest and original Christian denomination in the world, and yet they still believe that they have defeated Christianity as a whole. But does the boxing contender believe that he has become the champion after only defeating someone who is fifth or sixth in line to the belt, or does he only become champion after have defeated the champion? Of course the latter is true. Why then, do so many Unbelievers act like the former rather than the latter? It is thus a wonder if such an Unbeliever can truly believe that they have defeated Christianity with their partial and denomination specific arguments, or rather should they realize that they only have a right to think that they have defeated Christianity, when they have done nothing of the sort, as Catholicism still stands firm.