Friends, welcome to Word on Fire, Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an apostolate dedicated

to the mission of evangelization, using media both old and new to share the faith on every

continent and to facilitate and encounter with Christ and His Church. The efforts of

Word on Fire engage the culture and bring the transformative power of God's Word where

it is most needed. Today we invite you to join Bishop Robert Baron as he preaches

the gospel and shares the warmth and light of Christ with each of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, our second reading for this weekend is one of the most magnificent

biblical reflections on faith and you'll find it in the letter to the Hebrews. Faith, faith,

faith is one of the most counterverted subjects today. You probably know they're the new atheists

who are a very vocal presence on TV and the web and so on. And on a regular basis,

they excoriate faith and people of faith. In fact, on my website, I hear about this almost

every day. How is faith characterized by the new atheists and their friends? Well, as

credulity, superstition, accepting a lot of pre-scientific mumbo jumbo, bronze age mythology,

et cetera, et cetera. In other words, faith is characterized as something sub-rational and

therefore unworthy of mature people. Christopher Hitchens, one of the most prominent of the new

atheists, echoes a manual Kant, the Enlightenment philosopher who said that people should dare to know.

Don't settle for someone else's point of view or accepting strange stories from ancient times.

You dare to know. So Hitchens says time for people of faith to grow up to let go of their

childless preoccupations. If you want to see this on a popular display, look at Bill Mar,

Bill Mar, who is, I think, dramatically overexposed. You see him every place, but it's constantly

bad-mouthing people of faith. And faith is just silly superstition. Well, can I offer this response

first to the new atheists? Some of the great people of faith include St. Paul, St. Augustine,

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