Faith (and Life) vs. Anti-faith (and Death)

Bishop Aquila makes several points upon which I wish to elaborate. The most salient of these is that America is at a crossroads and that, “There is a fork in the road between the culture of life and the culture of death.” I agree and would add that this “fork” in the road has not two but three lanes. When we fail to point out the fallacy that supports the culture of death, we travel a wrong road, the one that subsequently demands a choice between evils. The fallacy needing exposure lies in the contention that the culture of life is based on faith while the culture of death is rooted in reason.

The truth is that the culture of death in all its manifestations also relies on faith. When we pit our Faith against their “reason,” we ignore that essential fact. How can we expose them as worshippers of a false god? The best way may be to wrest the weapon of reason from their grip and wield it skillfully in the battle against them.

C. Edward Collins

I would suggest that Collins is right. Reason becomes itself only in a culture of life. The culture of life is, indeed, the culture of faith which is the culture of self-gift and love. Reason is illuminated by the very being of the believer who has activated himself as going out to the revealing Christ. Reason is truncated as positivist when it only works with sensible perception and abstracts from it. It is being exercised within an "anti-faith" of the cult of the self. It needs to be exposed to the "Being" of the "I" that is self-transcending in the act of Christian faith.

To believe only in the self shuts down the "Being" of the "I." It is the act of faith in reverse and source of darkness for reason. Notice that the turning in of self on self by attachment to things, gadgetry, impurity, etc. renders the subject obtuse to perceiving reality as it is. They are literally eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear. The opposite of the culture of life dynamized by faith is not reason but an anti-faith of turning in on self. RAC