In his blog post, Patrick Coffin writes about going to an atheist convention to ask publicly ask Richard Dawkins to come on his Catholic radio show as a guest, to discuss his atheism to a large international audience. Dawkins declines.
What really stood out for me in his post is the effect of Jesus on the cross on a roomful of atheists.
Which links back into my last post - Christians, wear your crosses (and the crucifix is far more powerful!)
I'm going to also have to see if the debate between Dawkins and Cardinal George Pell of Australia mentioned in the post, which apparently happened yesterday, (or maybe it's happening today American time) is online somewhere. That should be interesting, to say the least!
Update: Yes, there was a debate. You can read about it and watch it here.
Related links: Crashing an Atheists' Love-In ~ Patrick Coffin
Catholic Answers Live - 2 hour daily radio show hosted by Patrick Coffin
What really stood out for me in his post is the effect of Jesus on the cross on a roomful of atheists.
... At one point, in the context of making fun of the events of Good Friday, one of the Powerpoint images was Jesus on the cross — a shot of Jim Caviezel in the extremity of The Passion of the Christ. Dawkins paused and looked up at it, as did the whole crowd. Time stood still. For one terrible moment, it was like Dawkins’ pants had fallen down. A wave of fake-sounding, nervous guffaws spread throughout the hall. Clearly, the image of the Suffering Servant was kept up on the giant white screen for too long. A bit too much for a bit too long. Dawkins segued to a derisive crack about the sadism of the bloodthirsty Christian deity.
But it was too late. Something had happened in that room. I have no empirical evidence for this observation but there it is. Something happened. Some tiny backfire infiltrated the proceedings.
The sight of the crying, bereft and abandoned Jesus was enough to break the hard heart of a rough Roman soldier on the Day when the real crucifixion went down. God willing, we’ll read of similar breakings, and mendings, in our day.
Which links back into my last post - Christians, wear your crosses (and the crucifix is far more powerful!)
I'm going to also have to see if the debate between Dawkins and Cardinal George Pell of Australia mentioned in the post, which apparently happened yesterday, (or maybe it's happening today American time) is online somewhere. That should be interesting, to say the least!
Update: Yes, there was a debate. You can read about it and watch it here.
Related links: Crashing an Atheists' Love-In ~ Patrick Coffin
Catholic Answers Live - 2 hour daily radio show hosted by Patrick Coffin
DAMN! That's 3 minutes of my life I'll never get back again. What an abosolute twerp this Coffin is.
ReplyDeleteTime stood still No, it kept on going, one second at a time.
Clearly, the image of the Suffering Servant was kept up on the giant white screen for too long.
No, it was a picture of an actor in a lousy movie. No doubt the reaction was more akin to the reaction of viewers to any scene in a horror movie.
I'm going to also have to see if the debate between Dawkins and Cardinal George Pell of Australia mentioned in the post, which apparently happened yesterday, (or maybe it's happening today American time) is online somewhere. That should be interesting, to say the least!
Won by Tony Jones, Dawkins a close second, Pell left eating locusts.
Which links back into my last post - Christians, wear your crosses (and the crucifix is far more powerful!)
Which makes me wonder why the crucifixes, statuary and paintings are so sanitised. Surely your crux should look far more like Jim Caviezel than a burnished piece of gold?
LRO,
ReplyDeleteComing to this blog must be such torture for you - why do it?
It's pretty hard to get all the details of Our Lord's death onto a small piece of metal, and in general, seeing it all of the time would be very difficult.
Lucia Maria, I followed your link to the Pell/Dawkins debate, and it was amusing to read that "why evolution is true" had put the video clip up but hadn't viewed it yet.
ReplyDeleteHe or she is in for a surprise when they do--Greg Sheridan in the Australian described it as Dawkins trying to fight "above his weight class" and he's right. Pell won the debate easily.
KG,
ReplyDeleteCool. I haven't watched it yet, either. Been too distracted by some other debates that I've been involved with in the last couple of days.