#11969 Weird Questions - Jimmy Akin

Catholic Answers Live

Questions Covered: 02:22 – I heard this as an argument against the body and soul being distinct and advocating strict materialism, i.e. it’s all in the brain: If we consider that memories, emotions, reasoning, consciousness, personality, etc. are distinct from the body in the senses of sight, sound, smell, touch, taste then what accounts for the changes that occur when drinking alcohol or taking drugs for a temporary effect, or the habitual use of psychedelic drugs which cause a permanent effect? A spiritual soul should be unaffected by the chemical changes in the brain, but since behavior is changed passively from ingestion in this and not by an active decision, doesn’t that prove materialism and disprove a spiritual soul? 13:26 – I have asked multiple priest and exorcists about “perfect possession “and have yet to have anyone give me an answer. I have read about this characterization of complete possession of a person by Fr. Malachi, Martin, as well as a few other exorcists, but no thorough definition or had any current exorcist or priest confirm that perfect possession is true and possible. Could you please expand on this? It seems in these crazy times perfect possession would explain a lot of what we see in the church at large and the world. Example, people openly and flagrantly in the state of mortal sin able to go to mass, receive the sacraments, come into contact with holy objects, receive communion etc., without any adverse reaction or manifestations towards these holy things. I am hopeful and humbly asking that you will answer with clarity about perfect possession 22:25 – If aliens made of anti-matter showed up and wanted to become Catholic, how would we accomplish this when the sacraments like baptism, ordination, and the Eucharist involve contact with matter? 31:30 – Which, if any, pagan gods are real? 34:46 – Did Neanderthals have immortal souls? 44:02 – Why does time seem to go by faster as we get older? 47:26 – How tiny can the Blessed Sacrament be? Many years ago I once asked a priest to clean the paten better because I noticed some particles of the consecrated bread remained on it. He answered that my problem was that I believe that Jesus is present on each of those tiny crumbs. I was very indignant. I like a verse in a Corpus Christi hymn that mentions that Jesus is really present on each of the small pieces of the consecrated bread broken. Now, recently I was reflecting on that indignant moment, saying to myself well, Jesus is present as tiny as a molecule, atoms, fundamental particles or strings, if they exists… until I said wait a minute… at some point on those levels one cannot distinguish bread. There is even a theory that says that all the electrons of the universe are the same thing. So I think the limit is not scientific but philosophical: Jesus is present up to the point when one can still perceive the attributes of bread. But then… maybe that priest was not that wrong at all… Mr. Akin, is Jesus present in the crumbs and if so to which level of smallness? …