The IRL is pleased to announce the hiring of Michael Rawls as its full-time Office Coordinator. Today, July 13th is his first day of work.
Michael grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago and is the youngest of four children. He attended Aurora Central Catholic High School where he participated in several sports. Beginning in seventh grade, he worked as a caddy at a local golf course and eventually served as a manager of the junior golf course affiliate during high school and college. Michael attended the College of DuPage before transferring to the University of Notre Dame the spring of his sophomore year.
While at Notre Dame, Michael majored in History and Theology with a concentration in Medieval History. His capstone project examined the diplomacy of the Vatican during World War II. The University offered many opportunities that Michael took advantage of allowing him to grow. He served on Hall Council for his dorm, Morrissey Manor, and helped to found the Notre Dame Catholic Identity Council which seeks to provide a collaborative space for clubs and other organizations at the University with a faith based mission. The Militia of the Immaculata (MI) movement has played an integral role in his life particularly in college. Michael has been a member of the MI for most of his life attending and leading youth camps, young adult groups, as well as, leading the Notre Dame MI group as its president. Michael sought an opportunity where he could continue to grow following his graduation and build upon the formation he received throughout his college years.
The position of IRL Office Coordinator is a tremendous fit for Michael. Having attended several National Meetings, including this past year’s in which he brought 20 other students from the University of Notre Dame, Michael understands the importance of the IRL’s mission. He is edified by the founder, Servant of God Fr. John Hardon S.J., and is committed to carrying on his legacy by working to promote and support the consecrated life.
We welcome Michael as our new Office Coordinator and ask prayers that God will bless him and our efforts to build up the Kingdom through the gift of the consecrated life.
Reasons to Believe in Jesus
Reasons to believe Jesus is alive in a new life with God can be found in quotes from two prominent atheists and a biology textbook.
Thus the passion of man is the reverse of that of Christ, for man loses himself as man in order that God may be born. But the idea of God is contradictory and we lose ourselves in vain. Man is a useless passion. (Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology, New York: Washington Square Press, p. 784)
Among the traditional candidates for comprehensive understanding of the relation of mind to the physical world, I believe the weight of evidence favors some from of neutral monism over the traditional alternatives of materialism, idealism, and dualism. (Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False, location 69 of 1831)
And certain properties of the human brain distinguish our species from all other animals. The human brain is, after all, the only known collection of matter that tries to understand itself. To most biologists, the brain and the mind are one and the same; understand how the brain is organized and how it works, and we’ll understand such mindful functions as abstract thought and feelings. Some philosophers are less comfortable with this mechanistic view of mind, finding Descartes’ concept of a mind-body duality more attractive. (Neil Campbell, Biology, 4th edition, p. 776 )
Sartre speaks of the “passion of man,” not the passion of Christians. He is acknowledging that all religions east and west believe there is a transcendental reality and that perfect fulfillment comes from being united with this reality after we die. He then defines this passion with a reference to Christian doctrine which means he is acknowledging the historical reasons for believing in Jesus. He does not deny God exists. He is only saying the concept of God is contradictory. He then admits that since life ends in the grave, it has no meaning.
From the title of the book, you can see that Nagel understands that humans are embodied sprits and that the humans soul is spiritual. He says, however, that dualism and idealism are “traditional” alternatives to materialism. Dualism and idealism are just bright ideas from Descartes and Berkeley. The traditional alternative to materialism is monism. According to Thomas Aquinas unity is the transcendental property of being. Campbell does not even grasp the concept of monism. The only theories he grasps are dualism and materialism.
If all atheists were like Sartre, it would be an obstacle to faith. An important reason to believe in Jesus is that practically all atheists are like Nagel and Campbell, not like Sartre.
by David Roemer
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