Saturday, March 06, 2010

Catholicism vs. atheism: the final antithesis?

"[O]ur posterity will tend more and more to a single division into two parts – some relinquishing Christianity entirely, and others returning to the bosom of the Church of Rome."

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835), Bk I, ch. VI.

"Rome and the atheists have gained ... These two shall fight it out -- these two; Protestantism being retained for the base of operations sly by Atheism."

Herman Melville, The Piazza Tales (1876), p. 406.

"I came to the conclusion that there was no medium, in true philosophy, between Atheism and Catholicity, and that a perfectly consistent mind, under those circumstances in which it finds itself here below, must embrace either the one or the other."

The Venerable Cardinal Newman, Apologia, (1883), p. 198.

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7 comments:

  1. Ralph Roister-Doister11:04 PM

    Notice, all of the introductory quotes are pre-V2 in origin. If Newman, Melville and Tocqueville had witnessed the "People of God" Catholi-protestantism of the last forty years of the twentieth century, each might well have decided that the contradistinction was too qualified to be worth making.

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  2. Sheldon9:31 PM

    A sobering point! Good question!

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  3. Unknown6:09 PM

    while it might take much time to prove these insights to be true. we are beginning to see it happen.

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  4. Anonymous5:24 PM

    Stop living in the past - Pre-V2 post V2 - all water down the bridge by now. Why not accept the church as it is today.

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  5. Pertinacious Papist10:05 PM

    "Stop living in the past" says Anonymous. Why not accept things as they are today?

    Simple. As G.K. Chesterton put it, "The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age."

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  6. JohnG.1:59 AM

    I suggest to find out the place where islam stand in the catholicism/atheism fight...
    An idea?

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  7. Dark Horse12:00 PM

    Sure. The Muslims convert to Catholicism or atheism, or they go back to animism and then atheism.

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