“A Deeper Ground”?
We’ve taken liberal Catholic Fr. Ron Rolheiser to task many times in this section. Frankly, it’s like shooting ducks in a barrel. But no one has called us “condescending” or “arrogant” for doing so. But when we take on neoconservative Catholics, we’re (sometimes) called “condescending” and “arrogant” — with “smarty pants” being another favorite. All we can figure is that certain people don’t like their neocon icons to be raked over the coals.
So we’ll play it safe (in this New Oxford Note) by raking Fr. Ron over the coals — once again. This should be popular with everyone.
In his column in Catholic San Francisco (Oct. 7, 2005), Ron opens with this: “Can you prove that God exists? Some of the greatest philosophers believed that it can be done. Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Leibnitz, Spinoza, Hartshorne, among others, all tried to do it” (italics added).
He mentions Aquinas and Intelligent Design. But Ron doesn’t seem to be persuaded. Says Ron: “What’s to be said about these ‘proofs’? Do they prove anything?”
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Turgenev captures an authentic truth in his work: Boys who do not respect their fathers' authority will respect no authority at all.