Hello, Anyone interested in a debate?

[Chas]

Anima, if your argument only concerns this deistic philosophical god, why are you a catholic?

The short answer is that the catholic belief in god incorporates many aspects of both the philosophical god as well as the logic of prominent philosophers (the most influential of which is Aristotle).  Most of the positions of the catholic church follow from Aristotelian logic (as expressed very well by Saint Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologia.  An excellent read I recommend for everyone).  So an educated catholic may follow the logic nearly the entire way to the end point with a little bit of faith required to make the transcendental jump to the the teleological conclusion.

While I understand the desire for explicit direct empirical proof in all things.  It is readily apparent that there is little explicit direct empirical proof for things (to my knowledge such does not exist for anything which is not axiomatic or tautological).  I would consider it hypocritical to accept implicit circumstantial empirical proof (in accordance with the scientific method established by Aristotle of metaphysical deduction supported by implicit circumstantial empirical evidence) in any number of fields of philosophical, scientific and legal studies, but not in terms of theology.

I am not sure this answer will suffice to give explanation.  As I stated before, argument may be made of objective reality, further argument may be made consolidating that reality into a single thing, further argument may even be made as to many of the particulars of that thing.  But argument may not be made to the particular deity of any given religion.  That last step will require faith.

Why is it that Catholics love Aristotle and Aquinas?  They've been dead many centuries and we have moved beyond there limited views.
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