Author Archives | Stan Williams

Stan Williams - who has written 56 posts on Catholic Exchange.


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Natural Law Dramatized on National TV

Posted on 29 May 2009

Something quite amazing is playing out before us on national television that shows the wisdom of Catholic teaching such as Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life). In spite of all the horrific pro-death, anti-life, anti-family decisions made by…

The Logic of Revival and Faith Formation

Posted on 20 November 2008

The 2008 political campaign season, including both the presidential campaign and the many state ballot initiatives, provided numerous examples of how dialogue, reason, clear thinking and all the other virtues of a healthy democratic-republic were largely set aside. At most…

Trying to Fly with One Wing, Part 26: The Classification of Things

Posted on 24 October 2008

Some years ago a Christian friend and I found ourselves discussing angels. My friend talked as if he had just returned from heaven and his first Angel Conference. To substantiate his claims of how angels are involved in our lives,…

Trying to Fly with One Wing, Part 25: Thirteen Principles of Discovering the Truth

Posted on 25 September 2008

Hopefully you’ve had the privilege of hearing and seeing the Abbott and Costello comedy routine “Who’s on First” [Footnote 1]. In it, Costello has been offered a baseball contract to play for the New York Yankees, and Abbott is offered…

Trying to Fly with One Wing, Part 24: Ambiguity and Eucharistic Instruction

Posted on 28 August 2008

Recently, I wrote about how the linguistic fallacy called ambiguity contributed to the 1839 martyrdom of John Williams — one of my ancestors, and a pioneering missionary to Polynesia. I also related how the religious instruction we often get…

Trying to Fly with One Wing, Part 23: Why Logic Doesn’t Always Work

Posted on 07 August 2008

I suppose it was because it was the 1960s. That might have been the reason. College and university students around the country were up in arms, literally. There were sit-ins, break-ins, love-ins, and shoot-outs. Trustees, administrators, police, and sometimes the…

Trying to Fly with One Wing, Part 22: Question-Begging Definitions

Posted on 24 July 2008

When I came into Catholicism, a number of non-Christians and Protestant Christians asked me: “How could a good Christian like you ever become a Catholic?” It was a classic case of the fallacy we’re going to examine in this chapter.…

Trying to Fly with One Wing, Part 21: Ambiguity, the Eucharist, and Cannibalism

Posted on 10 July 2008

On November 20, 1839, John Williams, my ancestor and one of the early pioneering missionaries to Polynesia, crawled down the side of the London Missionary Society’s sailing ship Camden, and with two colleagues rowed a skiff toward the beach at…

Trying to Fly with One Wing, Part 20: Question Begging and Leading Questions

Posted on 12 June 2008

“But Dad! You’re not listening,” my teenage daughter wailed. A crying woman has never been something I can understand or deal with easily. If I tell her to stop crying and think rationally about the question, I’m being “insensitive.” If…

Trying to Fly with One Wing, Part 19: Science & Theology: Partners in Truth

Posted on 15 May 2008

Ben Stein’s documentary, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed, questions the truth-seeking motivation of some in the scientific community who attempt to debunk the overwhelming evidence of intelligent design in the observable universe. Everywhere you look, from sub-atomic particles, to the far…

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