[michelangelodev]

https://www.saintbeluga.org/

I was a YC founder in 2006 and still do software engineering and data science full-time, but on the side I also do Christian apologetics, helping fellow engineers/scientists/mathematicians seek answers to life's deepest questions.

Some cool articles for the HN crowd:

- My interview of Evan O'Dorney, a three-time Putnam Fellow and two-time IMO gold medalist, who converted to Catholic Christianity: https://www.saintbeluga.org/veritas-part-i-conversion-of-a-p...

- In-depth scientific overview of Eucharistic miracles: https://www.saintbeluga.org/eucharistic-miracles-god-under-t...

- Conversion testimony by the Chief Scientist at NASA JPL: https://www.saintbeluga.org/veritas-part-iii-bellows-of-aqui...

[999900000999]

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" Epicurus

[kukkeliskuu]

There are multiple potential answers to this basic riddle in various religions. Are you interested in understanding them?

For example, we can say that while God is omnipotent, he has chosen to create a world with humans who have the possibility of choosing to be good -- your word -- or not -- and grow through this choice. A world cannot exist where the "evil" is prevented, unless you also take away the the agency from humans and this potential for growth.

Much of which we think of as "evil" is actually consequence of things we do. One simple example in modern terms is that we tend to repeat the same unconscious patterns over and over again.

We often do it because we have a trauma maybe from childhood -- that we are not conscious of. If I get a physical trauma, muscles around the traums tend to form a tension to protect the site where we get hurt. These often become chronic even after the wound has healed. We have many such chronic tensions in our body.

Similarly, when we get a physical trauma that is too unbearable for us to process, we create tensions around it that protect us from experiencing it.

These patterns we repeat cause much of our suffering. By becoming more aware of our wounds, they can start healing, and we can start becoming free of such suffering.

Our "work" is to learn about ourselves, to overcome these traumas, and heal our wounds. In such a case the "evil" we see is actually a reflection which is necessary for us to become aware of these things in ourselves.

[thephyber]

Interesting.

I was just considering an app to facilitate the other side of the apologetics argument with an interactive resurrection of IronChariots.org as a native app.

[hello0525]

Love this, great work. Rock on!

[johnpurr]

All conspiracies's enemy is logistics. And yet for these eucharist miracles, the logistics are simple. They all have a clear and obvious point where foul play could be inserted, where the complicit number of people can be brought down to just 1. You may not like this explanation, but it's one people will rightly use to counter it. 'Why would people lie' is a pointless exercise. They would. Each person has a different story, intent, motivation.

Anyway I just read the first one, but I'm aware of these miracles some time ago. I don't think it has outward persuasive powers catholics think they do. It sounds trivial and specific. It's also so clearly some growth to me. You got the wafer, you got contamination, and you put it in a container with water. Of course, then they would find a separate heart tissue to send to the scientists.

(Also unrelated, but it's kinda funny. Catholics would be saying it's the literal body of Christ. And they they dropped it to the floor and went 'well, I can't eat that'.)

[swat535]

> Catholics would be saying it's the literal body of Christ. And they they dropped it to the floor and went 'well, I can't eat that'

When Catholics say this, they mean Transubstantiation.

As in, it retains the accidents (physical/observable properties) of bread and wine, but its substance (what it is) does literally become the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ.

So it might look, feel, and taste like bread and wine, but it is in fact the body of Christ.

So, kind of both..

[michelangelodev]

You're correct that we can't prove the chain of custody for the Eucharistic miracles - this is discussed at the bottom of the article.

In general, there's no airtight "proof" for any miracle, and the best way to determine whether Christianity is true is to live the faith and see what happens. I wrote an article about this:

https://www.saintbeluga.org/the-rosary-the-ultimate-life-hac...