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Expert: - 6/22/2004


Question
Can you direct me to some good arguments or resources regarding whether a person can be moral without the supernatural sanction of religion? I hold that one cannot. Thank you.  

Answer
Jeffrey.. I think that your question might require a bit of clarification. By using the word "religion" do you mean the practices of Catholicism--the rites, the sacraments, and so on? Or do you simply mean the grace, immanence, guidance, and perhaps intervention of the Lord?

The reason I ask is because part of Catholic teaching is that God works through *all* religions whenever truth is present. Now, if we get into the definition of "what is a religion"? as many sociologists and religious studies writers have, we might have to look at the problem again. That is, we might have to reformulate our definitions, questions, and so on..

Feel free to follow up. Very interesting question.

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Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Expertise

I'm a progressive Catholic--not a liberal, conservative nor a single-minded critic of Catholicism. I simply believe that adults in the 21C should use the mind God gave them and not just repeat ancient and medieval modes of thinking.

I can probably help with questions that intelligently and respectfully question those aspects of Catholicism that are not infallible. But if you're looking for someone to vigorously defend or perhaps refute Catholicism as a whole, that's not me. So please ask another expert.

Experience

I run an educational website earthpages.org and know what the web has to offer. I might suggest hyperlinks and/or book titles as I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a considerable personal library.

Publications
Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology
For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

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