Catholic Answers Live

Questions Covered:

17:00 – When is the ideal age for a woman to conceive a child?

19:42 – Should Christians see adoption of frozen embryos as a noble thing to do?

24:44 – If someone is terminally ill and certain to die in a short amount of time, why is it morally wrong to terminate their own lives?

33:10 – I’ll be entering the medical field soon. What do I do if a patient starts requesting physician assisted suicide?

46:33 – What is the difference between embryonic adoption and children being adopted?

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Questions Covered:

2:58 – Jimmy, huge fan of your work, your terminal intellect and towering beard. Or maybe I got that backwards. If we, in the eschaton are given our infallible bodies and the new Jerusalem in essence becomes our planet krypton… can you postulate on what we will do in the eschaton? Saints are generals in God’s army etc? But what will our missions be? Will we go and evangelize the universe of fallen creatures? If so, will Christ have to incarnate on that world to save them or will we as we have been “made Gods” or is that a blasphemous thing? If we do hypothetically have to incarnate for them, would our infallible bodies change to the alien form we incarnate for thus we become aliens only until we go to the next world? Or if only Christ can do the incarnating / saving would be or are there already millions of incarnations of Christ and his form in heaven adjusted to whatever creature he’s interacting with?

13:45 – Why did Humans take so long to be advanced just recently with agriculture, medicine, economy, infrastructure etc. What were they doing for 200,000 years!?

18:10 – With admission by the USA of ufos, what do we think about extraterrestrial beings—souls, evangelizing, origin, etc

20:15 – I think about the doctrine of Divine simplicity and the afterlife. If God is not made of any parts, what are we going to see when in heaven? Or what is he going to reveal to us if he is so simple.

23:30 – I heard that Lucifer’s rebellion was that God revealed the Incarnation of the Son, for which he refused to serve a man.

Does that mean it wasn’t revealed that God is Trinitarian? I’m assuming that because God is omnipresent, the Son is God and is man.

28:28 – What are your thoughts on spontaneous human combustion? Is there evidence it’s happened, and what would be a possible explanation for it?

34:07 – What evidence is there that humans matured earlier in life in Christ’s time?

38:45 – What would the moral implications be of joining an expedition to colonize Mars or other planet, knowing that there would not be access to any sacraments indefinitely.

42:40 – If Christ made a visit to all continents together with Joseph, Mary, and the apostles (just like a Papal visit) before He was crucified, would the world have become Christians?

46:31 – Did Jesus have opinions? Such as having a favorite food or favorite color? Would these be the results of random biology and environment as He grew up?

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Questions Covered:

04:00 – Was it certain or contingent that Adam and Eve would fall or that the angels would fall? 

14:42 – Suppose Middle-Earth really existed. Could God become incarnate as a man, an elf, a dwarf, and a hobbit all at the same time? If yes, could man, elf, dwarf, and hobbit Jesus interact with each other and maybe all go  

17:03 – I am a bit of a survivalist nut and I am always preparing for the collapse of civilization. I was just wondering, if there was a nuclear war or really any kind of catastrophe that would trigger a societal collapse, and the chaos was so widespread that most of the bishops and all of the cardinals were killed, how would the new pope be elected? Could the surviving bishops (who I would imagine would not be cardinals because most likely they’d all be remote rural bishops) elect the new Pope? 

23:34 – When the Magi came, do you think it made the Holy Family wealthy? Enough to travel and stay in Egypt, provide for a 3-year ministry of 13 plus, and for the care of his beloved mother Mary until the Dormition?

28:43 – Where does the idea of toll booths come from, and why didn’t it make its way into the Western church?

42:30 – Are the laws of logic and thought — identity, non-contradiction, and excluded middle — true of all *possible* universes, or only of ours? Would multiverse theories or alternate dimensions modify these rules? And do the laws *certainly* apply even here, or could one argue that maybe an extreme form of Scotistic “haecceity” versus “quiddity” means that maybe they don’t?

49:23 – Why is most lunch meat round when bread is mostly square?

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Questions Covered:

01:43 – What’s a good response to someone who insists that believers don’t need a hierarchy? 

04:38 – When Jesus was baptized by JTB, did John hear God say that Jesus was his son? If so, why did John ask Jesus if he was the Messiah in Luke 7? 

11:16 – Soul sleep. I’ve read everything on Catholic Answers including your own article Jimmy Akin. Recent rebuttal to Luke 15 was this refers to “angels but not saints as they are dead until raised” or in the Transfiguration, these were mere “visions.” 

20:21 – Our Bishop interprets Paenitemini in such a way that we are required to abstain from gravies and soups made from meat in the Fridays of Lent. 

28:40 – How does God answer our prayers? How do Mt 21:22 and Mk 11:24 come into play? 

33:13 – What is hardness of heart? When it says God hardened pharaohs heart, what did it mean? How does it tie into Judas’s decision? How does it tie into our spiritual growth today? 

40:48 – How can we have a better time converting Muslims? 

46:25 – Hi Jimmy, I recently spoke with an atheist, and he asked me why the Christian God? 

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Questions Covered:

05:25 – If we are not guilty for the sins of our father, then why are we guilty of “original sin”? Follow-up question: If Mary could be born without the stain of original sin then why can’t God afford us the same and let us all start off with a clean slate? Thank you Jimmy. 

13:03 – You may have dealt with this before: would aliens need baptism? 

15:02 – How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? 

16:53 – What was God’s plan if Adam and Eve did not sin?. What does Original Justice really mean? When we say Adam and Eve were not suppose to die, what death are we talking about? 

20:53 – Suppose someone was alone in the woods and knew he was transforming into a zombie (or a cordyceps zombie). And if his zombified self made it back to civilization, it could be a disaster for the species. Could it be morally licit for him to end his own life to prevent this? 

30:57 – Why is it that the Knox and Douay-Rheims Bible Old Testaments only feature 3rd and 4th Kings but not other translations of the Old Testament in other Catholic Bibles? 

34:33 – When someone is canonized as a saint, who decides what attributes will be associated with the images of that saint? St. Peter has his keys. St. Lucy has her eyes. If there is ever a Saint Jimmy, how will your attributes be identified? 

39:18 – Is there anything in tradition as to why Pilate only offers to release either Jesus or Barrabas and not the two thieves crucified next to Jesus? Could they have been gentiles? 

43:10 – When detectives do undercover work does that constitute lying and could it be considered consequentialism?? 

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Open Forum – Questions Covered:

15:59 – Why do we say that we vote on the issues instead of the person? What if a person is morally corrupt?

22:02 – NFP is causing a rift in my marriage. Is there any middle ground for Catholics?

37:12 – How do you defend the privation view of evil?

45:03 – I’m interested in Catholicism. I’ve been convinced that the sabbath is actually Saturday. What’s the argument for the Sunday Sabbath and would it be valid to celebrate the sabbath of Saturday?

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Open Forum Questions Covered:

04:00 – What’s the Church’s teaching on transgenderism?

28:23 – My adult son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He wants to receive communion, but it scares him to come into a church and confess. What can he do?

40:05 – Did Jesus have siblings?

50:38 – I’m a former Mormon. Are Mormon baptisms considered valid in the eyes of the Church?

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Questions Covered

13:41 – Do you think Pontius Pilate went to heaven?

20:42 – How do you recommend talking to someone who is Anti-Catholic?

30:48 – What is the difference between someone’s mind and soul?

35:56 – How can the Catholic church promote reading the Bible more?

42:47 – If two popes have differing opinions/teachings on things, how do you approach that?

47:18 – If God is all knowing, why does it matter what I do? Do you actually have free will?

53:11 – Is the magic 8 ball part of the occult?

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Questions Covered

06:16 – Does Paul teach works-based salvation in Romans?

13:36 – How do we invite Non-Catholic’s to Mass?

22:14 – Can the devil read your thoughts?

29:38 – How do you explain Mary being the Queen of Heaven?

42:17 – As someone who is new to Catholicism, how do you dive deeper into your faith? Why do you have to go to mass on Sunday?

48:30 – Is St. Bridget of Ireland a pagan goddess? What is her history?

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Questions Covered:

04:15 – Is it morally permissible to 3D print religious art and icons? 

19:33 – My question is based on a recent debate a friend and I had: would it technically be okay to wear an upside down cross as a necklace to represent the St. Peter’s cross.  We both love the representation of humility and devotion St. Peter had and the symbolism is amazing. But people assume upside down crosses are satanic.  It could be a conversation starter, but then again it could send an odd message.  So technically two questions: is it okay and would it be prudent? 

22:39 – 

31:59 – This is a 2 part question: 1. Is God actually involved in the creation of every human life? Or just the “chosen ones”? Meaning, maybe some people are created simply as a scientific effect of the procreational act? 2. If He IS involved in the creation of every human life…and so many people do not make it to heaven…. and God is omniscient …wouldn’t that mean that God is knowingly creating people that He knows will go to hell? If that is true, are there any thoughts/ideas on why He would do that? 

39:18 –What was the manna in the desert for? Why did Jesus emphasize that they ate and still died? 

43:17 – Can a priest consecrate something else apart from bread such as an apple? 

48:25 – I would love to ask Cy and Joe a question! I am part of a Christian Facebook group open to all Christian denominations, and recently someone made a comment about St. Paul being a heretic. I was curious if this is a belief of a particular denomination and what the roots of this claim comes from. I have never heard a Christian claim this and wanted to know the argument better. 

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