Catholic during the Great Apostasy

Everything has its purpose; every event and action has its specific consequences. Truly, very few things happen by chance. It’s worth remembering that our Lord Jesus Christ pointed this out—when something could be prepared, it was done without relying on miracles or coincidence. He demonstrated this clearly by ordering the donkey to be brought.
After all, when walking along a field path and tripping over a stone, one cannot speak of chance. The stone ended up on the path as a result of an action, such as a passing tractor, and the person walking was tired from work and didn’t lift their feet. Thus, the tripping situation is not random.

Aristotle believed that chance is an event that had a cause but was unintended. Here arises a dilemma: are we aware of the consequences of our actions, or do we thoughtlessly do something without considering the outcomes? More likely yes, if it aligns with our desires. Then we often say it was a coincidence, but analysis shows otherwise—it was intentional action, only with veiled consequences that were not invisible but which we didn’t want to see.
If we flirt with someone—as it’s nicely called today—we cannot later claim it was a coincidence that we started cheating on our wife or husband, and as a result of that infidelity, a child was conceived, which we then kill through abortion. Everything falls apart, marriages collapse. This is not random chance; it’s the consequence of our actions. One could, of course, insist it was unintended, but that’s self-deception, not the truth.
In politics, it’s similar, though we observe a different mechanism. The consequence of our actions—or more precisely, the expectation of change—if we thoughtlessly, driven by emotions, vote the same way for years, swinging from one side to the other, and are surprised that we keep doing the same thing with the same results.

In short, we often act literally thoughtlessly, and later we call the effects coincidence or expect good outcomes.
Aristotle was right that it’s unintended, but one could add that it’s very rarely truly unintended and very often simply thoughtless.
St. Thomas, in his Summa Theologica (e.g., I-II, q. 6, a. 1), discusses the relationship between will, intention, and the consequences of actions. He emphasizes that a person is responsible for their actions to the extent they are conscious and voluntary. Interestingly, Thomas distinguishes between intended and unintended consequences but notes that ignorance or lack of reflection on consequences doesn’t always absolve one of moral responsibility—especially if that ignorance stems from neglect (so-called culpable ignorance). In the context of the flirting, infidelity, and abortion example, St. Thomas might say that a person who undertakes actions leading to sin (e.g., adultery) cannot later hide behind “chance” if they made no effort to foresee the consequences of their actions.
Blaise Pascal, in his Pensées, often highlights human blindness to their own motivations and the consequences of their actions, as well as the necessity of reflecting on life in the light of faith. He wrote: “Man is so unhappy that he gets bored even without any apparent cause for boredom, simply from the disposition of his nature” (Pensées, 131). People deceive themselves, attributing their failures or sins to chance instead of seeing them as the result of their own choices. Pascal adds: “We do not seek things, but the seeking of things; we do not desire to possess them, but to desire them” (Pensées, 135)—this shows how often we act thoughtlessly, driven by impulses, and then blame fate.
From a practical perspective, my example clearly shows what is not chance and what is.
I decided to participate in summoning spirits. Yes, I was very young, invited by a mature, seventeen-year-old, pretty girl compared to me. So I agreed, and it had disastrous consequences in my life. But was it chance? No! On the other hand, I attended religion classes, sometimes even thought about becoming a priest, and knew full well that such things were forbidden. I simply didn’t want to see what would have disastrous consequences, but it certainly cannot be called chance.
If you think your life is governed by chance, it can be said with certainty that the main role in your life is played by the lies you surround yourself with. We shouldn’t habitually believe in chance. Every situation we call chance needs to be analyzed— isn’t it really the result of some of our actions? Pascal might add a spiritual perspective here: “Man is neither angel nor beast, and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel becomes a beast” (Pensées, 358). Thoughtlessness is a sin of neglect, and God sees our intentions.
Why is this so important? Because then we can notice our actions and their consequences. Stop the rush of events that were once set in motion by us as the results of our actions. Knowing the causes, we can try to halt potentially bad outcomes.
Chance could be described using Pascal’s beloved probability calculus, e.g., what’s the likelihood that while digging in the garden, I’ll find a treasure? Aristotle claims it’s the result of unintended action, which is a very limited description of the situation because, considering, for example, the history of the place, one could already determine how likely it was to find a treasure. Mathematics can describe almost everything, except, of course, the workings of Divine Providence, which is an ultimately unpredictable element—“the judgments of God are unfathomable”—but always leads to good. Now I’ll give a very controversial but telling example. If a girl dresses provocatively and walks through a park at night, it cannot be called chance that a criminal attacks her specifically. It will be an unintended consequence of her action, but one that could have been avoided. Several factors overlapped in this situation: the time of day (evening), the perpetrator’s choice of time and place, the victim’s provocative clothing, which caused the perpetrator to notice her. Newspaper headlines might scream: “Another random victim of a rapist,” but was it truly random?
Let’s look closer at this situation, how one decision triggers a chain of consequences, called unintended but so very predictable.
A large, wooded park with a bad reputation, evening, darkness—the choice of route itself carries a high probability of trouble, and provocative clothing makes it almost certain. An attack occurs, the victim is assaulted, which causes trauma, depression in a very short time, and later suicide. Devastated parents watch it all, their mental state deteriorates, and their entire life falls apart. There’s also the victim’s younger sister, who, seeing everything happening around her, turns to drugs, bad company, and ends up in prison for some offenses.
This example isn’t meant to suggest the victim is in any way at fault, not even slightly, but to illustrate the consequences of our actions.
Look how one decision changes everything, and can we really speak of chance in this whole situation?
Of course not!
If the probability of an event can be calculated, we cannot speak of chance. God created this world, so all the laws governing this world must align with Divine laws.
Isn’t this pure, ironclad logic?
Mathematics, in this specific case probability calculus, gives us a concrete answer and the logical consequences of one action.
How many true instances of chance in your life can you find that cannot be explained as the result of your actions and are truly unintended, as Aristotle says?
If you approach the analysis of your life seriously, without any leniency, it might turn out that nothing happened by chance, only self-deception, and true chance is so rare that it only confirms the rule.
The world hates us Christians, just as our Lord Jesus Christ predicted 2,000 years ago. In today’s times, this is very evident—they even forbid us to pray, we are murdered in many places around the world, and there’s a kind of conspiracy of silence. Interestingly, Christians themselves rarely mention it either.
Examples? In Nigeria in 2024, Islamists from Boko Haram and Fulani are killing thousands of Christians—according to Open Doors reports, over 4,000 Christ’s followers died there last year alone. In India, Hindu nationalists regularly attack churches and Christian villages—in the state of Manipur in 2023, dozens of churches were burned, and hundreds lost their lives. In China, the communist government imprisons Christians in “reeducation” camps for merely possessing a Bible. Is this pure chance? Or the result of intentional action?
Pascal wrote: “Truth is so obscured in these times, and falsehood so widespread, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it” (Pensées, 863).
Why does the world hate Christians while tolerating other religions and even, in modern times, exalting them, though it officially supports atheism?
The answer is very simple: the world hates the truth that brings freedom and happiness and doesn’t allow for dictatorships.
Logic is the mother of all sciences and is so deeply aligned with what God has conveyed to us that rejecting logic practically means rejecting Truth.
It was said, “Yes, Yes, or No, No”; everything in between is evil, and it was said that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. It’s clear that evil doesn’t mean 100% blackness but also the grayness between good and evil. Thus, probability calculus, even the slightest indication of bad outcomes, confirms that the premise of our action will produce bad fruit.
We cannot fully believe in God, nor do we believe in logic or mathematics—so what do we believe in?
It’s worth thinking about!