Philosopher Sam Rocha suggests meaningful dialogue between believers and non-believers

The B.C. Catholic
RICHMOND



A philosopher-musician has a unique insight into how people who believe in God can connect with those who don’t.

Sam Rocha, a UBC assistant professor of philosophy of education, a St. Mark’s College pastoral philosopher, and a recording artist, sums up common ground between Catholics and atheists in one word: doubt.

“Don’t atheists and theists alike share in this universal human condition that we read stories about, that we think deeply about? There’s something really universal, that cuts really deep and cuts through all the superficial distinctions and intellectual histories that gets us into the thing that doubt is.”

Atheists doubt God exists. Rocha describes doubt, for Catholics, in a different way.

“Doubt is something that manifests itself at the level of spirit,” he said. Some Scriptural examples include Israel trudging through the desert for 40 years, Job’s struggles, doubting Thomas, and Mary and Joseph fleeing Herod to protect Jesus.

To illustrate further, he picked up a guitar and played a country gospel song with lyrics including “Through the storm, through the night, / Lead me on to the light. / Take my hand, precious Lord, / Lead me home.”

“We’ve all been through some moment where we’ve felt a kind of gripping sense of doubt,” he said. Faith “isn’t all glory and puppies and rainbows.”

That feeling of uncertainty or of distance from God is nothing new to the Catholic tradition, he continued, speaking at St. Joseph the Worker Parish. It was part two of a three-part lecture series Jan. 11, 18, and 25.

“There’s an entire tradition in Christianity that actually does this exact thing that I’m suggesting.” It was famously described by St. John of the Cross as the dark night of the soul, he said.

“He was trying to point out what seemed to him this obvious spiritual truth: in order to reach something like holiness, one cannot reach it through a series of affirmations. One also has to experience a deep sense of existential darkness.”

Understanding this dark night of the soul, and being unafraid of it, can help Catholics have meaningful, non-argumentative conversations with atheists.

He explained to The B.C. Catholic that his goal in the lecture was to show that though there is a need for apologetics and evangelism, “there’s so much more to the faith than always defending it.”

When atheists claim that God doesn’t exist, “these claims don’t have to be taken as assaults on belief.”

Justin Tse, a Richmond resident, attended the talk. “At the end of the day, we are all persons, engaging each other, and I think that’s a very Catholic sensibility.”

Tse agreed with Rocha that Catholics can encourage atheists to become better people, and in engaging with them, become better people too.

Krish Nayar, an agnostic, also heard Rocha speak. “No one can disprove God, that’s why I’m not an atheist,” he explained. Nayar was impressed by the charitable way a Catholic philosopher could treat atheism.

“He encourages believers not to be worried about the idea of doubt or of atheism as something to be horrified about and something to combat, but something to engage with and learn from,” he said.

Rocha said philosophy requires those Catholics and atheists engaging in it to slow down, and suggested they buy a lunch and get to know each other while they do so.

He gave the final part of his lecture at St. Joseph the Worker Jan. 25 at 7 p.m.