Best catholic books according to Reddit
Reddit mentions of Answering Atheism: How to Make the Case for God with Logic and Charity
Sentiment score: 10
Reddit mentions: 16
We found 16 Reddit mentions of Answering Atheism: How to Make the Case for God with Logic and Charity. Here are the top ones.
Specs:
| Height | 7.93 Inches |
| Length | 5.36 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Weight | 0.85 Pounds |
| Width | 0.94 Inches |
▼ More
#15 of 1,434
I'd recommend the book Answering Atheism as a starting point, as it specifically discusses Scientism (the belief that science answers everything). The Last Superstition is similar but a bit more hard-hitting, which might be something you'd like if you feel like you need to get in a fight with your younger self, in a way. Both books contain many references to further reading that can be done.
For another completely practical suggestion, go sit in at Adoration; it doesn't require that you do anything but sit there.
Read Answering Atheism by Trent Horn or the Q&A section of WLC's website.
There are two (or more) aspects to "proving God exists" - you could prove His existence intellectually and still not feel Him, if you know what I mean.
Books that deal mainly with the intellectual arguments abound, from the Summa contra Gentiles to The Last Superstition or Answering Atheism.
But that doesn't directly address the emotional side; for that I'd recommend things like going to Adoration and just sitting there, and reading books such as The Confessions (this is a good introduction).
I can relate to your story in some ways, as I was raised Catholic, then became agnostic during high school and university. I came back to the Catholic Church after the positive witness of my family and friends, and having an encounter with Christ in my second year of college.
After that personal experience in prayer I knew that Jesus was real, but I still had a lot of unanswered questions about Catholicism, as well as no intellectual foundation to undergird my newfound faith in Christ. So I devoured a couple of good Catechisms, and over time, studied philosophical, Christian and Catholic apologetics to get solid answers to the questions and doubts that anyone with critical thinking skills will have. I am now a Catholic priest.
Here are some resources I would suggest:
If you are coming from an atheist background I think you should start with some more foundational material before checking out the Bible. The Catholic Church is the sole keeper of the complete truth that has been revealed by God to humanity.
However, like other truths, new conclusions can build upon previous knowledge. Just like modern mathematics has built upon Gauss and Newton and Pythagoras etc. If you did not understand geometry it would be difficult to understand calculus. If you just started reading about calculus but had no concept of finding the area of a rectangle you might not understand calculus or assume you are being expected to just accept calculus as true using "blind faith". In the same way, God has revealed to us that we should not murder people (10 commandments), and the Church was able to build upon that foundation the conclusion that abortion is a sin since it is ultimately the killing of an innocent human (murder). If however, you just read somewhere that the Church opposes abortion but had no knowledge of the 10 commandments you might not understand why that conclusion was made and instead assume it is just some arbitrary religious teaching.
The foundation you need to first establish is that God exists, and this can be known (in the same way you can know 1+1=2) through reason. Even Aristotle was able to know this. The most famous proofs of this are St Thomas Aquinas' "5 ways". There are many resources including books and good YouTube videos exploring this topic, I would recommend Answering Atheism as a good start, or if you want to try a college level, more rigorous book, check out Aquinas for Beginners. Check out this quick 17 minute video for a great start.
So that is where I think you should start, and after you convince yourself that atheism is false you should come back here to learn why the Catholic church is God's true church.
To address a few other things. First, the Bible is not a book in the commonly used sense of that word today. The Bible is actually a collection of books written across a wide time range in different genres. So a more accurate question would be: "do I have to take the library 100% literally? The answer is of course no. That does not mean the Bible is not 100% true, it just means that the truth is not 100% conveyed directly via literal interpretation. Some evidence would be this quote from Jesus "If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother...he cannot be My disciple" which seems to be in direct contradiction with the 4th Commandment "Honor thy father and mother". So if the Bible is 100% true, and things that are true cannot lead to contradictions, then at least one of the quotes must have some other meaning than the literal text. So how do we know what is the case here? That is what we have the Catholic Church for, so again when after you convince yourself God exists you should come back here to understand why you should trust the Catholic Church to interpret these questions and more.
If you are specifically concerned that becoming Catholic means you have to literally believe the universe was created in 6 days I can assure you the short answer is no, you do not need to believe this.
1 more thing Ill add it about the word "faith". A common atheist position is that religions are based on blind faith with no evidence. This is not the Catholic definition of the word. Faith is not about making true/false claims. Evidence is REQUIRED for True/False claims. Now not ALL evidence is in the form of scientific experimentation, but that does not mean the Church requires you to just hold certain things as true on "faith alone" with no evidence. Instead, think of the word confidence. The latin roots are "con" "fide" which means "with faith". So faith has more to do with confidence or trust than true/false certainty. An example might be that we use reason and logic as evidence to know God exists, or historical testimony as evidence Jesus rose from the dead. Then, knowing these things as true, we have faith that the teaching God has revealed are true and in our best interest in things we should do. There is no way to proof scientifically whether or not we should steal something, and if we are even in a situation where we are tempted into doing that we may think that we should do it because we really want to or don't think we will get caught or whatever. Faith means trusting in God's recommendation to not steal things even if we think it would be a good idea or seemingly justify it to ourselves.
I would suggest that you read the book Answering Atheism by Trent Horn.
You mention that you'll always look to reason and logic, and believe in science. The sense I got is that you feel that there's a conflict between faith and reason, between religion and science.
This only true in certain evangelical and fundamental sects. In reality, there is 0 conflict between them, and mainstream Christianity has always thought this. In fact, speaking on the subject of science, Pope John Paul II famously stated, "Truth cannot contradict truth.". It was a Catholic priest that first proposed the theory that would become known as the Big Bang, and a Catholic priest who first developed what we would eventually call the scientific method.
Keep looking, and congratulations on your willingness to listen to God and continuing on your journey. Please feel free to reach out to me in a message if you want any suggestions for reading materials or websites, or if there's any topics that you're interested in or are feeling is an obstacle to accepting or believing in Christ.
God bless.
Edit: added a link.
Well there are many in my experience in Catholicism that live a dry faith, meaning they don't feel fancy feelings rather they know through knowledge and study.
I cannot of course say that my feelings are more valid than another's we're all biased but that would be a terrible thing to say overall. As if someone else's personal feeling are less important than my own. However, I cannot also say that my feelings are no different from a muslim or mormon or any other religious because then it would seem that other religious feel the same as I do, so therefore something must be amiss as if there is a true religion in this world, feelings such as those should under reasoning only happen with that particular one.
I do not deny their feelings or doubt my own so what else do I have up my sleeve.
I'm a Catholic as you can probably tell from my username (also I hope you enjoy your time I reddit since I think you're new?). This means that along with feelings of ecstasy or not, how would I ever believe the Catholic Church to be the one correct religion.
Catholicism is easy to understand at a basic level, but going further reveals a large web of complicated reasoning dating back hundreds even over a thousand years ago.
Honestly I could ramble all day, verring off topic at the slightest thought, but I'll stop here and just give some resources if that may interest you.
The first is New Advent which is a completely free site where you can have access to church documents (in the library) access to the bible in both Greek, Latin and English, a full version of the Summa written by Thomas Aquinas and many other writing of some early Christian figures that helped define many of the beliefs of Christianity in the world of the 1st century and onward.
The second is r/Catholicism, assuming you don't spam (I believe the limit is 3 posts a week) you can ask all the questions you like from people who may correct misunderstandings or give additional resources.
For two book recommendations I recommend The Catechism of the Catholic Church which can found online for free on the Vatican's website keep in the mind it's a very small font or by buying it from Amazon which also offers a kindle version for very cheap and an audiobook if that is more your thing.
The other is (the less subtlety named) Answering Atheism which I've heard many good things about from some friends of mine and folks from r/Catholicism.
I thank you most of all for being polite and courteous and I hope our exchange was educational for both of us. Always feel free to DM me for anything else.
Here are good starts!
Horn's Answering Atheism
Horn's The Case for Catholicism
Pitre's The Case for Jesus
Spitzer's God So Loved the World
Tim O Neill (an honest atheist who puts good history first) on the Church and science, the Inquisition and the Galileo affair
See the following books:
Ed Feser's: The last Superstition
Trent Horn's: Answering Atheism
Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker's: Answering the New Atheism
Shameless plug for one of my favorite books!
Perhaps you would find find Trent Horn's Answering Atheism: How to Make the Case for God with Logic and Charity helpful for you. While it's primarily intended for those interested in apologetics, it can also be useful for those who are questioning or drifting such as yourself.
My impression from your post is that, while you want to believe, you are having difficulty dealing with Christianity from a logical perspective as well as answering the questions of those around you. If you want to delve deeper into the rational and logical forms (which are definitely there - Catholicism should never be confused with American fundamentalism), you might look into Aquinas, for example.
When I was searching for God I found Answering Atheism by Trent Horn to be a great resource. It provides logical arguments for the existence of God.
> The main reason why i accuse most religious people of not being able to think critically is because they just accept what is written in their book. The first thing that would need to be done is at least pose the question - hm can i trust this? Where is the basis? Who says that it's not just made up by someone?
>
no Catholics aren't bible alone and they do quite a bit of critical thinking with scripture.
>It is impossible to believe in a god with rational basis unless you say 'just believe, do not question' which obviously is irrational.
here's a good book from more recently: https://www.amazon.com/Answering-Atheism-Make-Logic-Charity/dp/1938983432
But as a beginner you could look at St. Thomas Aquinas's Five Proofs as one of many examples that contradict your preconceived notion of it being irrational.
>I said in another comment that the development of art and of scientific + industrial progress very closely correlated with how much power and influence the church had. You have not yet addressed that clearly the more that religion was enforced the less progress was made and vice versa.
that seems more just according to the secularist/enlignment type of biases that cast religion as the "dark age" and anti reason. Critical thinking as you pointed out does demand the question of looking at your own biases and questioning whether you could be looking at the dominant narrative.
>You can keep saying there are smart catholics that use reason and rationality, but as long as you cannot just answer the most basic questions i see no need to invest more of my time.
We're having a very big conversation via reddit posts, you're demanding me to prove that I am a rational and intelligent view point to justify you taking me seriously. That's really doesn't seem to show being very open to a conversation vs just wanting to support your already established bias. I only just joined in on this conversation and I simply proposed you look at how your own biases play a part in this. I'm not demanding you convert over reddit since it takes far more study and in person conversation is superior, but simply wanted to challenge your anti religious views that you're trying to push.
The Catholic view has been rather fairly in identifying which things in scripture are to be taken as literal vs allegorical. It recognizes that scripture should be approached by recognizing the nuances and genres of writing contained within.
>The part where i said 'the only determining factor in whether and what you believe is where/into what kind of family you are born' comes to mind.
From experience I'm gonna say that's not true. There's plenty of people who grow up without faith who come to the faith, and people who grow up raised Catholic who don't. Even from a secular perspective that seems really weak to assume a singular determining factor for something as complex as that.
>The goal of our species should be to constantly advance our ideas, our systems, to a more perfect state.
where do you get your standards of "progress" or "perfect" seems very much like that basically means "my version of perfection" which seems really arbitrary.
What if the popular narrative becomes something you find abhorrent or immoral? Does society determine what is progress or "outdated?" If a majority of society decides something to be good or "progress" which you find immoral or wrong would you decide you have to change your views in order to "stay relevant"?
Logical explanations: Answering Atheism by Trent Horn
http://answeringatheism.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Answering-Atheism-Make-Logic-Charity/dp/1938983432#
Check out Answering Atheism by Trent Horn Its a good short read that goes over the most common objections to theism. Written pretty recently by a good apologist.
You have the necessary intelligence to discern whether or not God exists, so it's a matter of how you decide to use your gifts. I would recommend this book to start:
Answering Atheism: How to Make the Case for God with Logic and Charity https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938983432/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_MEceAbWWST23R.
When you truly recognize who your Creator is, you will love your children even more. For example, you'll realize that you and your children are made to live FOREVER in Love. In contrast, many atheists teach that it's okay to kill babies as long as it is before the birth canal. People are just lumps of cells. When people don't believe in forever, they make relativistic choices, doing whatever is expedient here and now. History shows that is the path to ruin even here on Earth.