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9. Christmas vs. the Atheists

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Friday, January 02, 2009 4:36 AM Comments (0)

For each of the 12 days of Christmas, I’ll review and fill out one of the12 Ways of Christmas”  … 

In November 2007, a Register editorial counted down Six Myths of Atheism.

Myth 1: Atheists are more logical than believers. (But the reverse is also untrue.)
Myth 2: The burden of proof is on the religious. (Not in an ordered cosmos, it’s not.)
Myth 3: Science makes God obsolete. (No more than knowing what’s in a casserole makes the cook obsolete.)
Myth 4: Science is a reliable guide for us. (Sure. Until the next discovery changes it.)
Myth 5: Religion and science are incompatible. (Religious people and scientific people — now, that’s another matter.)
Myth 6: Religion has led to violent intolerance. (Atheism’s Mt. Everest of body bags in the 20th century dwarfs everything religious people have done for millennia.)

Yesterday, I mentioned how modest God is. Today, I have to say the opposite: He makes himself unmistakably known, leaving little room for atheism.

It’s the Register editorial’s “ninth way of Christmas”: “9. God makes himself clear. But there’s a paradox here. At the same time that God acts quietly and subtly, he doesn’t leave us in darkness and confusion. For those willing to see them, all the signs were there: The star, the angels, the virgin with child. He still shows himself to us, if we take the time to look.”

— Tom Hoopes

Filed under 12 ways of christmas, weekend commentary

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About Tom Hoopes

Tom  Hoopes
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Tom Hoopes is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., where he teaches in the Journalism and Mass Communications department. He has written for the Register for more than 20 years and was its executive editor for 10. His writing has appeared in First Things’ First Thoughts, National Review Online, Crisis, Our Sunday Visitor, Inside Catholic and Columbia. He has served as press secretary for the Chairman of the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee. He and his wife, April, were editorial co-directors of Faith & Family magazine for 5 years. They have eight children.

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