Are ghosts real? Can the souls of the dead appear to the living? And what should you do if you think your house is haunted?

In this episode of Crash Course Catholicism, we explore what the Catholic Church teaches about ghosts, spirits, and the supernatural. We consider whether souls from heaven, hell, or purgatory can appear to the living, how to approach claims of hauntings, and why the Church strongly warns against attempting to communicate with the dead through occult practices.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What happens to souls after death
• Whether ghosts and hauntings are compatible with Catholic teaching
• What St Thomas Aquinas says about ghosts
• Three possible kinds of ghosts
• The difference between praying to saints and attempting to summon spirits
• Why the Catholic Church condemns séances, divination, and occult practices
• What to do if you think your house is haunted

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This podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links:

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Is Halloween a pagan festival or a Christian celebration? And is it okay for Catholics to dress up, go trick-or-treating, and celebrate Halloween?

In this episode of Crash Course Catholicism, we explore the history and origins of Halloween, its connections to All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, and what the Catholic Church teaches about celebrating Halloween today.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The Christian origins of Halloween
• The history of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day
• How the pagan festival of Samhain influenced Halloween
• Where trick-or-treating, costumes, and jack-o'-lanterns came from
• Whether Halloween is inherently pagan or evil
• What the Catholic Church teaches about witchcraft, divination, and occult practices
• Whether Catholics can dress up as witches, ghosts, or monsters
• The importance of remembering death, judgement, heaven, and hell
• How Catholic families can celebrate Halloween without embracing its more problematic aspects

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

This podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links:

Donate via PayPal: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2⁠⁠⁠

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Has the universe always existed, or did it have a beginning? And if it began to exist, what caused it?

In this video, we explore the Kalam Cosmological Argument for the existence of God. The Kalam philosophical argument has its roots in medieval Islamic theology, and was popularised in recent years by philosopher William Lane Craig.

The Kalam argument begins with a simple claim: whatever begins to exist has a cause. But can we prove that the universe actually began to exist? And if it did, does that necessarily point towards God?

In this episode, we discuss:

• Whether science and the Big Bang theory point towards a beginning of the universe
• The difference between potential and actual infinity
• Why an infinite past might be impossible
• Hilbert's Hotel and the paradoxes of infinity
• Why Thomas Aquinas disagreed that reason alone could prove the universe had a beginning
• Whether a multiverse or cyclic universe could explain our existence
• Why the Kalam argument points towards a cause beyond the physical universe

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This podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links:

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What is the meaning of your life? And how is that meaning revealed through your body?

In this episode, we continue our deep dive into St John Paul II's Theology of the Body, exploring one of its most important concepts: the spousal (or nuptial) meaning of the body.

Drawing on the creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis, John Paul II explains that our very existence is a gift from God, and that our bodies reveal something profound about our purpose: we are created to love and be loved, to give ourselves freely to others, and to receive others as a gift.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why God created us
• Why creation is a gift
• The spousal or nuptial meaning of the body
• How masculinity and femininity reveal our calling to love and communion
• Why sexual union involves the whole person, body and soul
• Why self-gift isn't limited to marriage
• The difference between loving someone and using them
• Why freedom, self-mastery, and self-control are essential to authentic love
• How giving and receiving love leads us towards true happiness
• How we can live out the spousal meaning of the body in everyday relationships

At the heart of John Paul II's Theology of the Body is a beautiful truth: we discover the meaning of our existence through love. Whether married, single, or celibate, every human person is called to become a gift to others.

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

This podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links:

Donate via PayPal: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2⁠⁠⁠

Support on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest⁠⁠⁠

Contact: ⁠⁠⁠www.caitlinwest.com⁠

Why does nature behave in such consistent and purposeful ways? And can this tell us anything about the existence of God?

In this final episode of our series on St Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways, we explore his Fifth Way, commonly known as the Teleological Argument.

Aquinas observes that things in nature consistently act towards particular ends, even when they have no intelligence or understanding of those ends themselves. From plants growing towards sunlight to the regular laws governing the natural world, Aquinas asks a deeper question: why is nature directed towards intelligible outcomes in the first place?

In this episode, we discuss:

- What the word "teleological" means

- Why Aquinas thinks nature acts towards particular ends

- Whether the laws of nature are enough to explain this apparent directedness

- Aquinas' famous analogy of the arrow and the archer

- Why natural things can act according to their own properties without being intelligent

- How Aquinas argues from this directedness to an ultimate intelligence

This episode concludes our series exploring St Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways and his philosophical arguments for the existence of God. Across the five arguments, Aquinas begins with different features of the world around us – change, causation, contingency, degrees of perfection, and the directedness of nature – and asks what ultimately explains them.

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

This podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links:

Donate via PayPal: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2⁠⁠⁠

Support on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest⁠⁠⁠

Contact: ⁠⁠⁠www.caitlinwest.com⁠⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/crashcoursecatholicism/⁠

What if needing other people isn't a sign of weakness? What if it's actually part of God's design for the human person?

In this episode, we continue our deep dive into St John Paul II's Theology of the Body. We return to Genesis to explore the creation of Eve and two fundamental experiences of the human person: original unity and original nakedness.

Through Adam and Eve's encounter, John Paul II reveals what it means to be created male and female, why human beings are made for relationship, and how our bodies reveal a deeper calling to love, communion, and self-gift.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why the human person is made for relationship
• Eve as 'helpmate'
• What it means to be created male and female
• John Paul II's concept of "original unity"
• How difference can lead to unity rather than division
• What the body reveals about our capacity for self-gift
• How marriage is an image of the Trinity
• Why the meaning of human existence is connected to love
• What John Paul II means by "original nakedness"
• The difference between looking at someone's body and truly seeing them as a person
• What original unity and nakedness can teach us about our relationships today

John Paul II's reading of Genesis reveals that we aren't made simply to exist alongside one another. We are made to know and be known, to love and be loved, and ultimately to make a gift of ourselves to others.

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

This podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links:

Donate via PayPal: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2⁠⁠⁠

Support on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest⁠⁠⁠

Contact: ⁠⁠⁠www.caitlinwest.com⁠

In this episode, we continue our series on St Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways by exploring his Fourth Way: the Argument from Gradation, or Degree.

This is perhaps the most challenging of Aquinas' Five Ways. Beginning with the observation that things possess qualities like truth and goodness to varying degrees, Aquinas asks what makes these comparisons possible. Ultimately, he argues that these degrees of perfection point towards a reality that possesses maximal truth, goodness, and being.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What Aquinas means by "degrees" of truth and goodness
• Why goodness isn't limited to moral goodness
• How truth and goodness are inseperable from existence
• Why comparing degrees of perfection points towards a maximum
• The difference between possessing a perfection partially and possessing it fundamentally
• Why Aquinas thinks limited or "borrowed" being requires an ultimate source
• Why the source of all being must be the source of everything else that exists

This episode is part of our series exploring St Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways and the classical philosophical arguments for the existence of God.

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

This podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links:

Donate via PayPal: ⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2⁠⁠

Support on Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest⁠⁠

Contact: ⁠⁠www.caitlinwest.com⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/crashcoursecatholicism/⁠

Who are you when you strip everything else away? Before your job, your relationships, your achievements, and your possessions, what makes you you?

JPII argues that the question "Who am I?" is one of the most fundamental human questions. Through his experience of original solitude, Adam discovers that he is not just another animal, or a passive part of Creation. He is something else: a child of God.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why Jesus points us to Genesis to understand the true meaning of marriage and human sexuality
• What it means to be created in the image of God
• What the original human experience was like, prior to the Fall
• What John Paul II means by "original solitude"
• How Adam discovers his uniqueness among the rest of creation
• Why the question "Who am I?" is fundamental to human experience
• Why the world can't give us our identity
• Why our relationship with God is our first and fundamental relationship
• What original solitude can teach us about identity, silence, and prayer today

This episode is part of our series exploring St John Paul II's Theology of the Body. In the next episode, we'll continue through Genesis and explore the other two fundamental experiences of original man: original unity and original nakedness.

SUPPORT THE PODCAST

This podcast relies 100% on the generosity of viewers. If you have found these episodes helpful and would like to support the future of Crash Course Catholicism, please consider donating via the following links:

Donate via PayPal: ⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6WSCLFHLCDXH2⁠⁠

Support on Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/caitlinwest⁠⁠

Contact: ⁠⁠www.caitlinwest.com⁠