Four Things that Aren’t In-Sync with My Personal Beliefs (Part 2)

1. I’m a believer in the power of science and technology to create a better world.

Personally, I disagree with No. 25 — “Francis Bacon and those who followed in the intellectual current of modernity that he inspired were wrong to believe that man would be redeemed through science. Such an expectation asks too much of science; this kind of hope is deceptive. Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it.”

2. I am a believer that man is a co-creator of God and that part of my mission as a good Christian is to help build a little heaven down here with the help of science and good governance.

Personally, I disagree with No. 30 — “Our contemporary age has developed the hope of creating a perfect world that, thanks to scientific knowledge and to scientifically based politics, seemed to be achievable. Thus Biblical hope in the Kingdom of God has been displaced by hope in the kingdom of man, the hope of a better world which would be the real “Kingdom of God”. This seemed at last to be the great and realistic hope that man needs. It was capable of galvanizing—for a time—all man’s energies. The great objective seemed worthy of full commitment. In the course of time, however, it has become clear that this hope is constantly receding. Above all it has become apparent that this may be a hope for a future generation, but not for me…Hence, while we must always be committed to the improvement of the world, tomorrow’s better world cannot be the proper and sufficient content of our hope.”

3. I believe that it is in our power to overcome and banish suffering. I believe that suffering is not part of God’s plan for us. I believe that those who have caused suffering in the past should be answerable and should pay for their actions.

Personally, I disagree with No.36 — “Indeed, we must do all we can to overcome suffering, but to banish it from the world altogether is not in our power. This is simply because we are unable to shake off our finitude and because none of us is capable of eliminating the power of evil, of sin which, as we plainly see, is a constant source of suffering.”

Personally, I disagree with No. 39 — “Let us say it once again: the capacity to suffer for the sake of the truth is the measure of humanity… To suffer with the other and for others; to suffer for the sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in order to become a person who truly loves—these are fundamental elements of humanity, and to abandon them would destroy man himself.”

Personally, I disagree with No. 42 — “No one and nothing can answer for centuries of suffering.”

Personally, I disagree with No. 37 — “We can try to limit suffering, to fight against it, but we cannot eliminate it…It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.”

4. I believe that we should not be made to feel guilty for wanting material comfort and wealth. There is nothing wrong with having material goals. There is nothing wrong with wanting a good quality of life. There’s nothing wrong with becoming a millionaire. There are many millionaires and billionaires who have become the greatest philanthropists of our time. Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Ted Turner are business tycoons who are now more involved in giving back to the developing world by supporting projects that provide healthcare, education, and other forms of social development.

Personally, I disagree with No. 32 — “We must learn that we cannot ask for the superficial and comfortable things that we desire at this moment—that meagre, misplaced hope that leads us away from God.”

Personally, I disagree with No. 44 — “In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (cf. Lk 16:19-31), Jesus admonishes us through the image of a soul destroyed by arrogance and opulence, who has created an impassable chasm between himself and the poor man; the chasm of being trapped within material pleasures; the chasm of forgetting the other, of incapacity to love, which then becomes a burning and unquenchable thirst.”

Continue on to:
Five statements that need more evidence/discussions (Part 3)

Go back to:
Three things I can personally relate to (Part 1)

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