Today’s post is my response to Polly Toynbee’s article in the U.K. newspaper The Guardian, Christmas comes with good cheer. The tragedy is the religious baggage.
By the time I reached my early twenties I had rejected Christianity and identified as an atheist for many of the reasons Ms. Toynbee mentions in this article along with my study of Marxism. However, after a series of unexpected events I decided to embrace Catholicism.
Why would I become Catholic? Was I unaware of the hypocritical Catholic politicians, priests, bishops, and popes? Never mind the abuses that some men and women committed on behalf of the church. Did I willfully ignore all this? Of course not.
Photo by Kenny Eliason from Unsplash.com
I also did not ignore the role that Catholics played in the advancement of Western Civilization. The role of Benedictine monks in the modernization of agriculture across Europe. The role of copyist monks who preserved the ancient works of Greek, Roman, and Arabic philosophers (even ones that were contrary to Christian doctrine). The founding of modern universities. Contributions to the advancement of science, particularly in physics, astronomy, and biology. One notable example is physicist and Catholic priest, Georges Lemaitre, the formulator the Big Bang Theory.