Recent Posts…

7 Mistakes You’re Making with Catholic History (and Why Constantine Didn’t Actually Invent the Church)

"Constantine invented the Catholic Church." It’s the ultimate "mic-drop" for people who haven't opened a history book since high school. It’s the "Get Out of Jail Free" card for anyone trying to argue that the early Church was a loose collection of hippie communes until a Roman Emperor decided to turn it into a political […]

Dinosaurs, the Big Bang, and the Church That Nodded Along: A 3-Minute Crash Course in Catholic Science

“The Catholic Church is against science.” That slogan has been running on fumes for a while. Yes, there have been Catholic mistakes, bad arguments, nervous theologians, and at least one famous Galileo-shaped mess. But the popular story, that the Church spent two thousand years hiding from dinosaurs, banning curiosity, and yelling at the Big Bang, […]

Catholic Apologetics 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Arguments That Actually Work

Stop trying to "win" arguments. Seriously. If your goal in Catholic apologetics is to walk away with a metaphorical trophy and a digital "mic drop" while the other person feels like a theological floor mat, you’ve already lost. I’ve been a catechist for over 20 years. I’ve seen every "gotcha" question in the book, from […]

The Big Bang Theory Was a Catholic Priest’s Idea (And Other Science Facts to Ruin a Skeptic’s Day)

"The Church is the enemy of science." It’s the slogan of the modern skeptic, usually shouted from the digital rooftops by someone whose last interaction with physics was a C-minus in high school and a three-hour YouTube marathon of "debunking" videos. It’s a comfortable narrative. It’s clean. It’s convenient. It’s also completely wrong. Yes, and […]

The Islamic Dilemma Simple Flow chart

The Islamic Dilemma: Interactive Walkthrough The Islamic Dilemma: Interactive Walkthrough This interactive HTML page guides you through the “Islamic Dilemma” (also known as the Quranic Dilemma), a logical argument from Christian apologetics challenging Islamic claims about the Bible. It includes points, counterpoints, and refutations. Interact by making choices, clicking to reveal refutations, and testing your […]

Random Posts

The Faces of Hope: Patrick’s Favorite Images of the Popes

Since the election of Pope Francis, Justin has posted several photos of him on Oramus and begged the question of how we cannot automatically love our new pontiff.  I’ve recently found myself wondering the same thing.  As I was gathering material for my last few entries, I found photos of the popes during whose reign […]

Guns and Religion: Catholics, Fire Arms, the Right to Defend Oneself, and the Second Amendment

Over at USCatholic.org, there’s a piece boasting the church’s dedication to completely getting rid of guns from the hands of civilians. The Catholic Church’s position on gun control is not easy to find.  . . . The answer is resoundingly clear: Firearms in the hands of civilians should be strictly limited and eventually completely eliminated. But […]

Why Contraception Is Not Justified By “Unwanted Pregnancies”

As the Conclave was preparing to meet to elect our new pope, the news and Facebook were naturally full of all sorts of challenges and messages.  One stood out in particular to me:  A hope that the new pope would teach that contraception is acceptable in order to prevent “unwanted pregnancies”.  I’ll briefly re-cap an […]

Pope Francis: Year in Review

In a time when the Catholic Church is under seemingly constant attack from a secular world that denounces her as irrelevant and out of touch and that also seems to suffer from internal disconnect, I can think of few people more vital today than Pope Francis. Where credit is due We needed Popes John Paul […]

March 25: The Solemnity of the Annunciation, The Date on Which Jesus (May Have) Died, and… and Tolkien Reading Day?

And somehow, J.R.R. Tolkien—who deliberately scheduled the destruction of the One Ring on this exact date—understood this profound connection better than most modern believers.Today, we’re connecting these threads across faith, history, and fantasy to reveal why March 25th might be the most profound date you’ve never thought twice about. For the early Church, determining the […]

Not FARce From The Truth: 8th-Grade Health Class Squirms Throughout Entire Screening Of ‘Miracle Of Abortion’

The following post from the Onion warranted a re-printing: CANTON, MI—According to sources at Thomas E. Dewey Middle School, all 26 students in Mrs. Flannery’s fifth-period health class squirmed uncomfortably and grimaced in disgust Thursday throughout the screening of a 45-minute educational video titled The Miracle Of Abortion. Sources reported that the film, which uses […]