Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss this 10th Doctor (David Tennant) story that combines post-WWII optimism, the pitfalls of new technology, and shades of Cold War intrigue with an alien and a coronation.
Category: Podcasts
Are There UFOs in Religious Art? (And More Weird Questions!)
In this episode of Catholic Answers Live (May 25, 2018, 2nd hour), Jimmy answers the following questions:
02:33 Why do we associate good with “up” and down with “bad”?
04:11 Why do some Medieval religious paintings look like they have spacemen and UFOs in them?
08:15 Could a priest or the pope bless an entire ocean and make it holy water?
16:24 How can we solve the “Trolley Problem” for self-driving cars? Does it make a difference if the five people who get hit are nuns and the one person who lives is an escaped convict?
23:28 Did Mary or Jesus ever get sick? Could they?
29:00 If we colonize another planet in the future, how would the Church on Earth communicate with Catholic colonists? What would need to be done before sending Catholics to such a colony?
35:40 If strong Artificial Intelligence (AI) is created, would it falsify the Church’s teachings on the soul? How likely is such the development of such intelligence?
45:00 Is it ever okay to lie to a Cyberman?
49:37 Is the multiverse theory at all compatible with Christianity?
The Mysterious Ascension of Jesus (And More! Livestream)
In this live stream, I tackle the following questions:
00:26 What is the fundamental meaning of the Ascension?
01:09 Why did God choose to Ascend (since God isn’t in outer space)?
03:19 Why do we imagine God being “up” from an earthly perspective?
06:45 Why do we associate “up” with good or superior things?
09:48 How does the Ascension help with defending the Resurrection of Jesus?
15:50 Why do we refer to Mary being “Assumed” into heaven rather than “Ascending” to heaven?
18:25 How does the Ascension relate to Elijah going up to heaven?
20:50 Does Eucharistic adoration conflict with the purpose of the Eucharist to be received in Holy Communion?
25:38 Is heaven a place or a state? Is it one or the other or somehow both?
28:27 Is there time in heaven?
Answering an Atheist’s Objection (And More! Livestream)
In this live stream, I tackle the following questions:
00:44 How close are Catholic and Protestant views on justification?
04:08 Why would one want to pray to Mary?
05:20 Could “I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” apply to the Protestant Reformation keeping the Faith alive?
09:25 Does belief in the Real Presence mean a form of Fundamentalism?
14:06 Does the fact the universe is expanding faster undermine the argument for God’s existence based on the Big Bang?
23:41 Are natural disasters due to original sin?
28:38 What should we make of the fact many Old Testament figures were polygamous?
31:39 Does European church art “cover up” the fact Jesus and other biblical figures were Middle Eastern?
37:48 Is embryo adoption ever legitimate?
40:08 Does John 5:18 show that Jesus broke the sabbath?
44:08 How should we respond to claims that the Resurrection of Jesus is based on pagan myths?
Confession, the Conversion of Thomas, and More! (Live Stream)
In this live stream, I tackle the following questions:
00:01 What does the Gospel of John reveal about the sacrament of confession and the conversion of St. Thomas the Apostle?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
12:55 Why do some Protestants believe that the time of miracles ended with the apostles?
18:08 Were Mary Magdalen and Mary of Bethany the same person? If Mary Magdalen was from a rich place, does that mean she couldn’t have been a prostitute?
22:23 How can the practice of priestly celibacy be reconciled with the fact St. Peter was married and St. Paul’s statement that a bishop should be the husband of one wife?
29:04 Why are various passages translated as “sitting at table”? Isn’t that bad English? Shouldn’t it be “sitting at the table”?
31:02 How can we answer Bart Ehrman’s claim that Matthew and Luke contradict each other about Jesus’ early life?
33:14 Did Simon of Cyrene carry Jesus’ cross or just help share some of its weight? Also, what exactly was being carried?
34:43 I find some of St. Faustina’s writings to be strange. Can a private revelation be true overall and contain errors?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: Colin Donovan’s piece on private revelation
38:15 If receiving Communion is a good thing, why can we receive it only twice a day?
41:24 What’s the difference between using natural family planning and using contraception if the goal in both is not to have a baby?
45:51 Why is Christ referred to as the “Word”? What does that mean?
Why Was Jesus Resurrected? (and more! Live stream)
In this live stream, I tackle the following questions:
00:15 Why was Jesus’ resurrected from the dead? What lessons does this event have for us?
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: Catechism of the Catholic Church 651-655
10:58 What are the basic differences between Protestant ideas about the book of Revelation–such as in the Left Behind series–and Catholic views?
22:52 Did Jesus die for people that were already in hell before the time of his Crucifixion?
27:18 How is the book of Revelation related to the Mass?
31:19 What does it mean to go to the Father “through” Christ? Do you have to pray to Christ to get a message to the Father or can you pray to the Father directly?
35:05 How does the Catholic view of Christ’s two natures relate to the views proposed by other Christians?
39:00 Was the Old Testament figure Melchizedek the same person as Noah’s son Shem?
43:05 What is the Sacramentary?
44:39 How can we help a Protestant Christian who has committed a mortal sin? Is there a way for him to be forgiven even though he probably won’t convert or go to confession?
53:43 Why does the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) still exist when the Tridentine Latin Mass is more freely available today?
Jesus’ Mysterious Resurrection Appearances (and more! Live Stream)
In this live stream, I tackle the following questions:
00:02 How should we understand the differences in the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ resurrection? Do they contradict each other?
RECOMMENDED ARTICLE: How the Resurrection Narratives Fit Together
18:38 When did incense begin to be used in the liturgy?
20:25 When and in what order were the Gospels written?
RECOMMENDED BOOK: The Gospels for All Christians
RECOMMENDED BOOK: The Case Against Q
35:28 Have you heard of Catholic integralism as a political philosophy and what role will it play in American politics in the future?
37:31 John and Mark seem to indicate Jesus was crucified at different times. How do we explain this?
RECOMMENDED BOOK: A Daily Defense
42:20 Did Pope Francis deny the existence of hell in an interview with an Italian newspaper publisher?
45:10 Why doesn’t Francis more directly contradict what the newspaper publisher says?
46:50 Did you consider becoming an Eastern Catholic when you decided to join the Catholic Church?
52:14 What translation do you generally use for Bible study?
53:32 How common is the idea among scholars that John’s Gospel was written by a “community” rather than a single individual?
RECOMMENDED BOOK: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
Secret Identities in the Gospel of Mark! (And More! Live stream)
In this live stream, I tackle the following questions:
00:01 Why does the Gospel of Mark contain references to people whose identities are mysteriously concealed? Why does Jesus give his disciples unusual commands that let people have plausible deniability? What do we know about the people involved?
18:41 Who was the young man who ran away naked? (It probably wasn’t Mark!)
32:32 How to answer people who say the Gospels were written far too many years after Jesus to be reliable?
36:21 If the earth is 6000 years old, how can we justify dinosaurs?
44:24 Did Jesus mean it literally when he advised the disciples to buy swords? Can we use weapons in self-defense?
46:42 Why do Catholics allow baptism by pouring when some other Christians insist on immersion?
The Mystery of the New Covenant (And More! Live Stream)
In this live stream, I tackle the following questions:
00:01 What is the “New Covenant” that we hear about every week in church?
06:06 Does the doctrine of original sin just make things more complicated? Should we not have it?
09:29 Is it sinful to attend a Mass at an SSPX chapel?
13:09 How to understand Paul’s statements regarding women’s head coverings and women teaching?
17:14 Does Jesus transforming water to wine symbolize the New Covenant replacing the Old?
22:42 Why do some Bible not capitalize divine pronouns (e.g., by referring to God as “he” rather than “He”)?
29:33 Can a Protestant who believes in transubstantiation take Communion in a Catholic Church?
31:34 What is Jimmy’s personal preference on how to receive Communion? (On the tongue? In the hand? Standing? Kneeling?)
34:03 Should we be wary of dangers with the New American Bible?
47:24 How can we explain the sacrifice of the Mass?
What kind of prayers for sports teams are okay? (Weird Wednesday strange questions about faith!)
00:29 Remembering Stephen Hawking on the occasion of his death.
04:53 What kind of prayers for a sports team are appropriate?
12:42 Is it true that a medieval pope had a previous pope dug up and put on trial?
16:14 Have some saints and popes used tobacco?
20:46 If life exists on other planets, did Jesus incarnate there also?
28:18 Today would we keep a beheaded John the Baptist alive with pumps and stuff?
29:50 How much of your body mass can you lose before you lose your soul?
33:14 If a Catholic is eating a hot dog on a ship and crosses into a time zone where abstinence is required, is it a sin to finish the hot dog?
41:22 Could an artificially intelligent and sentient creature be saved? What is required to have a rational soul?
48:32 Throughout the series Black Mirror, a recurring theme is digital duplicates of human consciousness getting treated with cruelty as they are enslaved by and pitted against actual body-and-soul human beings. As Catholics, who are we rooting for? The humans or the AIs?