Books.

Sadly, I've fallen behind on my reading. My work is partly to blame. Unfortunately, I am one of those individuals who must spend eight (and sometimes 16) hours a day -excepting weekends- working at a job I am not crazy about. Some of you might be saying that I should be thankful I have a job during the Obama recession, but that is a subject for another day.

Another reason I haven't spent as much of my free time reading as I think I should can be placed upon my love of the Internet...... too much time going over the news......too much time reading my favorite (and not so favorite) blogs.

For what it's worth, I'm posting a list of what I'm currently reading along with a list of what I'll be reading next.

1) The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Âme): The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux [Kindle Edition]
This particular Kindle edition is free. If you don't have a Kindle, you can get Kindle for PC - also free.

2) Rick Santorum's It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good. I blogged on that earlier.

3) If Protestantism is True by Devon Rose. (also on Kindle).
I discovered this book via a book review at The Impractical Catholic.

I had originally thought of posting a list of the books I have on Kindle. I'm not going to do that now. There are beaucoup books that can be downloaded for no charge available for Kindle. I've downloaded nearly eighty already.....impossible to say when I'll dive into that library.

Another Misguided Atheist.

The Foxnews story of atheist A.C.Grayling's new book, The Good Book: A Humanist Bible, lead me to do a Google search on the British philosopher. The search produced an opinion piece by Grayling at The Richard Dawkins Foundation website entitled God and Disaster.

Written in response to the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the earlier earthquake in Christchurch in New Zealand, Grayling's argument against the existence of God can be summed up quite simply - the fact that bad things happen (like earthquakes and such) people die and life is not a bowl of cherries proves that there is no God. Grayling contends that if there is a God, It (Grayling can't bring himself to refer to God as He - or even She) is either powerless or uncaring.

According to Grayling's "logic", the world is not perfect in his eyes, so there is not - and never has been - a creator.

What would be the point of creating a universe where nothing happens? Would would be the point of creating a world where a handful of creatures live in eternal, blissful happiness?

If God had created a world where no one dies, it would certainly be pointless for we humans to reproduce.

In Grayling's world, there would be no hunger because an all caring, all powerful God would provide us with all our needs and wants. Seriously? God might just as well have created creatures that don't get hunger in the first place. If God were to provide us with all our desires, what would be the point of desiring anything?

The fact that God does not do things the way Grayling would like things to be does not prove that God does not exist. It merely proves that, if there is a God, He doesn't do things the way Grayling likes.

Everyone Has Their Say.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Catholic blogosphere has been abuzz over recent activities of the Rock Star formerly known as Father John Corapi.

Everyone has had their say:
The CMR brothers-
LarryD-
Lisa Graas-
Jimmy Akin- to name just a few.

RealCatholic TV's recent video is more about the reaction of the Catholic bloggers rather than Corapi himself.

I certainly don't want to come across as someone like this guy, but I am a bit taken aback by Mark Shea's comments on the Corapi/Black Sheep Dog situation. After a post saying we should all stop obsessing over Corapi, Shea has continued to write about him.

Yesterday, Shea had this gaping hole in Fr. Corapi's story. Very interesting post. But (there's always a but) I have no way of knowing the truth about Corapi's military record; it hardly seems relevant to what's going on now.

Another problem I have with Shea's handling of the issue is his decision to disable comments on his Corapi posts. It reminds me of Neal Boortz' refusal to allow callers to discuss abortion.

Late-night update:
Sadly,this latest Mark Shea posting doesn't change my opinion.

Dave Knows Cool.

When questioned about the perception that Obama was no longer 'cool', the ultimate King of Koolness himself, David Axelrod assures Obama's admirers that "It's Cool To Be An Obama Supporter".

Yeah, I'm so sure.

Eye Roll.

An Update.

My copy of Rick Santorum's book, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, arrived Thursday......faster than I expected, considering I ordered the book online Saturday (6-11-11).

I've read just a small portion of it. I won't delve into it until I finish reading St. Therese of Lisieux' L'histoire d'une âme (The Story of a Soul) on my Kindle.

As I mentioned on an earlier post [Santorum.] I picked up my hardcover copy of Santorum's book from Amazon.com for just $1.96 plus $3.99 shipping. As I write this, the lowest price has gone up to $3.00 plus shipping. (My copy actually came from The Book Fair). I guess I bought their last copy. I can't imagine my blog post generating a sudden increase in the number of purchases of Santorum's book.

If you're really hard up for cash and $6.99 is a bit much, you can get a used copy for only 1¢ plus $3.99 shipping.