DAY 97

CHALLENGE

“The superiority of science to faith is shown by the fact that, in the last few centuries, most discoveries have been made by science, not faith.”

DEFENSE

It is a mistake to assume that a certain field is superior because it is currently experiencing a growth spurt.

Every field of study experiences more and less productive periods, but this does not show one field to be superior to another. To the extent that they reveal truth to us, they are all important, regardless of the rate of new discoveries being made in them.

Further, the fact that a field is presently exper…

DAY 96

CHALLENGE

How could the Virgin Mary be sinless? She’s human like everyone else.

DEFENSE

Despite our state in the present life, being human does not mean being a sinner.

If being human did entail sin, then God would have built sin into human nature, which would make him the author of evil. Instead, human nature was damaged because of the misuse of free will—which is itself a good, as it enables people to freely choose love.

Because human nature does not entail sin, it is possible for humans to be free of sin. Thus Adam and Eve were sinless before the fall of man.

There was a tim…

DAY 95

CHALLENGE

“Jesus is disqualified from being the Messiah since he descends from the last king of Judah, Jeconiah (Matt. 1:12). God judged Jeconiah so that ‘none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and ruling again in Judah’ (Jer. 22:30).”

DEFENSE

There are multiple flaws with this argument. Here are several.

First, Jesus was not descended from David only by the line of Jeconiah. He was also descended through the line of Nathan (Luke 3:31; see Day 85). It may have been questions among some Jews about whether a descendant of only Jeconiah could be th…

DAY 94

CHALLENGE

“Miracles are part of a prescientific worldview. Today we understand that the universe operates by the laws of nature, not miracles.”

DEFENSE

The ancients knew as well as we do that nature obeys particular laws. The idea that there is no room for miracles today reflects a bias against miracles, not real science.

People in the ancient world were more in touch with nature than we are. They knew it behaved according to regular cycles and that things happened in predictable ways. They knew that the sun rises every day, that they could use the motions of the stars at night …

DAY 93

CHALLENGE

“Jesus displayed gratuitous malice when he cursed a fig tree for not having fruit when it wasn’t even the season for figs.”

DEFENSE

Jesus didn’t display gratuitous malice. He was teaching a lesson.

“Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, [Jesus] went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs” (Mark 11:13).

The fig tree was known to produce fruit before putting forth leaves (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16:49). Seeing a fig tree in leaf, Jesus had reason to suppose it had put …

DAY 92

CHALLENGE

“The practice of celibacy is unbiblical. Paul describes forbidding marriage as a ‘doctrine of demons’ (1 Tim. 4:1–3).”

DEFENSE

Celibacy is grounded in Scripture, including the writings of Paul.

Celibacy is the state of being unmarried. This is not the condition most people are called to, but it is for some. In the Latin Church, most ordained ministers are celibate, as are many in Eastern Catholic Churches (CCC 1579–80).

This is a matter of discipline rather than doctrine, and it could change for sufficient reason. However, being unmarried allows clergy to fully consecr…

DAY 91

CHALLENGE

“By allowing Catholics to interpret the six days of Genesis 1 in a symbolic way (CCC 337), the Church sets a dangerous precedent that could undermine the Faith. If this is symbolic, how do you know other things—such as the Resurrection—aren’t?“

DEFENSE

Everyone recognizes that Scripture contains symbolism. It’s a matter of correctly identifying it.

It can be tempting to reflexively classify things in Scripture as literal (or symbolic) to avoid sorting out the difference, but we must under- take this task.

Humans use both literal and symbolic speech, and we constantly…

DAY 90

CHALLENGE

“Genesis 1 is inaccurate. Modern science reveals that the world was created over eons, not six days.”

DEFENSE

Genesis 1 uses symbolic language. “God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine ‘work’” (CCC 337).

The Church acknowledges the value of scientific studies. “The question about the origins of the world and of man has been the object of many scientific studies, which have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the age and dimensions of t…

DAY 89

CHALLENGE

“The Gospels sometimes record the events of Jesus’ ministry in different order and thus contradict one another.”

DEFENSE

These are not contradictions. Ancient authors had the liberty to record events chronologically or non-chronologically.

Even in our modern, time-obsessed world, biographers have liberty to arrange material in non-chronological ways. A biography of Abraham Lincoln might devote a chapter to his thoughts on slavery and race relations rather than breaking this material up and covering it repeatedly throughout a chronological account of his career. Simil…

DAY 88

CHALLENGE

“Abortion is justified in some cases. It may not be a good time for a mother to have a baby. She may be young, still in school, poor, or unmarried. She may have as many children as she can care for, or the child could be a product of rape or incest.”

DEFENSE

These represent good reasons not to have a baby, but they are not good reasons to kill a baby.

Suppose the child were already born. Would any of these reasons be a legitimate reason for the mother to kill her child? A mother cannot kill her newborn because she is young, in school, or unmarried. Neither can she do s…