#11664 Ask Me Anything - Tom Nash

Questions Covered: 19:05 – What would you say to someone who says they can’t get married because they can’t trust anyone? 32:19 – Should I try and talk to a family member who is cohabitating to seek a sacramental marriage? 35:58 – how do you maintain chastity in marriage? I’m going to get married soon and I as a female have recovered from a pornography addiction and he’s struggled as well but we’re both now recovered. 45:00 – What does making love look like after pornography addiction? 47:35 – A lot of people think chastity is just for women. 51:32 – My husband left me. How do I proceed with my life? …

Questions Covered: 23:17 – I’m a recovering sexaholic and have worked with people getting over those addictions and premarital sex. 29:05 – I always hear people’s reasoning for shacking up is to figure out if you’re sexually compatible. 34:15 – My niece shacked up with her boyfriend and had 2 kids. 10 years later they’re battling for custody in court. It seems to be worse for women. 45:11 – How much of this is a result of fathers encouraging their daughters to go out and experience the world? …

Questions Covered: 02:02 – Why does Italy have a “witch” character in their Christmas holiday tradition? 05:10 – Could clairvoyance be a natural ability we don’t yet understand? 13:00 – I have a student that is convinced Maine does not exist. The entire State of Maine! How do we prove its existence aside from taking a trip up north? 17:35 – A podcast on the couple featured in the movie, “The Conjuring”. Are they really Church approved exorcists? Is the movie based real events? It’s right up there with “The Exorcist” as far as scary movies go for me. Love your work Jimmy Akin, on Catholic Answers and Mysterious World. Your knowledge and intelligence amaze me. 21:28 – Elon Musk just unveiled his neurolink program. The idea is to allow human beings to reach the next stage in their evolution, be able to keep up with the singularity, and more importantly keep up with artificial intelligence. Many people are afraid this is ushering in the end times, or is an attack on the authentic Dignity of the human person. Other people think it’s just the next logical step in human evolution or technological evolution. How do we understand this technology and its implications for humanity? Some people have even noted that the language they use is Messianic in its couching, the blind will see, and the lane will walk, etc. 28:46 – Where did the story of the little drummer boy visiting baby Jesus come from? Were drummer boys really a thing back then? Did shepherds use drums to herd sheep? 34:24 – Did they really find Goliath’s body on Golgotha??? 36:10 – After the FINAL JUDGMENT, what purpose does Hell serve? 39:34 – Is it true that the game “Twister” was invented to help Masons practice their handshakes? 41:53 – Would the “just war” doctrine apply for humanity if aliens attacked? Or would we treat them like parasites? 43:50 – Jimmy Akin what about this one? If a UFO piloted by time-traveling aliens with psychic abilities appeared over Vatican City, claiming to have influenced biblical events, how would the Catholic Church verify or contest their claims? 48:07 – God uses the physical, so will God used technology to bring about His kingdom? Such as the resurrection… Will there be technology in heaven? 50:51 – Is it possible to give the Pope a different diocese than that of Rome? What if in the future, the Vatican had to be moved off-world (nuclear war, alien invasion, genocide against Catholics, etc)? 52:41 – When someone passes away, does their guardian angel get transferred to someone else? 53:45 – If you marry a changeling, at what point does her appearance change become adultery. …

Questions Covered: 02:27 – I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian. If I got in a time machine and teleported back to post-schism Catholic Europe (let’s say the 1400’s) would it be a sin for me to receive the sacraments there? Would it then cease to be a sin if I teleported back to anywhere in pre-schism Europe, or post-schism Russia or Greece? Would it be a sin if a modern-day Protestant tried to receive the sacraments? Additionally, would there be any conflicts with a Catholic or Orthodox Christian from our time receiving the sacraments from a medieval priest? 06:13 – On a previous episode you were talking about theophanies and christophanies and how it’s possible that any of the three persons of the Trinity could be incarnate in any event other than Christ’s birth. I assume the angel Jacob fought and the angel in the furnace with the three youths are such examples. However there are also instances where actual angels have been incarnate, such as in the hospitality of Abraham. My first question related to this is, when these theophanies, christophanies, and angels were incarnate, should we assume that they had physical bodies? My second question is can fallen angels become incarnate, and if they can, would they have physical bodies when they do so? 14:42 – Was Genesis written after Jacob’s lifetime? I’m having a conversation with a friend who believes Eve had relations with Satan, stating that the word beguiled in Hebrew means to seduce body and soul. She bore Cain from that union and that’s why Cain isn’t mentioned in the genealogy. She also says that’s why Jesus told the Pharisees they were sons of the Devil. 19:50 – The video game character “Kirby” has a unique power: He has a nearly bottomless stomach, and whenever he consumes an enemy, he temporarily gains their powers in what is called a “copy ability”. If Kirby were to be received into the Catholic Church, what would happen when he eats Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist? 22:21 – I have heard it described that God created all the humans, angels, nature, and all of our world as an author creates characters in a book. God is a creator, and humans are sub-creators. When God created the world, he gave the beings in it various souls, vegetative for plants, sensitive for animals, and rational for humans. When a human author creates a world and a character to inhabit it, let’s say Bilbo Baggins, does that creature have a soul? Does that sub-created world have any eternity? 24:12 – I was watching Capturing Christianity with Fr. Lampert today when a caller asked about a spiritual/demonic attachment to him since living in a house where a woman was murdered by her husband.  It made me think of something horrible.  My mother had an abortion before having me. Could this have caused a spiritual or demonic attachment to me? I also wonder if the dramatic increase in abortion rates has anything to do with the increase in depravity in our culture, spiritually. 32:11 – I have a weird question pertaining to guardian angels and reincarnation reports. Do our guardian angels get transferred to other people when we die? For example, could my guardian angel have guarded another person who died at the same time I was conceived? Is it possible that reincarnation reports could actually be not the memories of the past lives of our souls, but the past assignments of our angels and somehow the knowledge is infused into our minds through our angels guiding and informing us? 35:25 – What do you think an alien grey meat would taste like, and would it a sin to eat one? 37:32 – If DNA haplogroups have proven all humans came from Africa roughly one hundred thousand years ago, why did God not choose an African man to create a Covenant with and likewise not choose to become incarnate with an African as Adam was? Wouldn’t it have been most fitting as Jesus is the…

Questions Covered: 17:19 – If the Holy Spirit gives the gift of tongues, how is babbling building up the body of Christ? 23:16 – Why is there a need for confirmation if a baptized child has already received the Holy Spirit? 33:12 – Is Acts 2:1-11 and Jn 20:19-23 the same event of the descent of the Holy Spirit? 36:03 – When did it go from Holy Ghost to Holy Spirit? 41:45 – My priest friend said the charismatic movement is a bad idea. What are your thoughts? 47:41 – How does the Church regard speaking in tongues? And also speaking in tongues in protestant churches? …

Questions Covered: 17:56 – I employ young people. They need to be exposed to something that goes against the culture. 22:41 – I had a daughter who was very involved in the faith and then is now extremely anti-Catholic. It’s exactly the process that you’re talking about. 33:49 – I’ve heard it said that the way the devil attacks our children is through victimhood. 39:10 – How can one defend yourself against these ideologies especially for someone who spends a lot of time alone? …

Questions Covered: 06:14 – Did Mary ever die? Wouldn’t there be a record of that? 10:07 – Why does the Church promote the use of hospice care? It feels like mercy killing. 19:04 – How can a Catholic best explain Pentecost and the birth of the Church to a Protestant? 24:10 – I’m taking a college course and there’s a group of people who are taking the course in not a good direction. How can I as a Catholic be charitable to them while trying to keep us on track? 30:20 – When is typology the legitimate exercise in pattern recognition? 34:47 – What is the great war in heaven mentioned in Rev. 12, going to look like? 40:38 – In relation to the earlier call on hospice. How does Terri Shaivo innocent look from the Catholic perspective? 46:00 – Pope Francis allegedly made a comment saying that homosexuals live the gift of love. Is this true? 49:06 – Do we have to pray aloud to Mary? 50:40 – Does faith/believe or repentance need to be present for baptism to be valid? If it does, how is infant baptism valid? …

Questions Covered: 02:48 – A gym that I want to join does yoga and reiki. Is it ok for me to join even if I wouldn’t partake in those activities? 05:38 – Why does our Lord tell us to pray and ask him for what we want but also tell us to radically surrender to him? This seems contradictory. 10:10 – Regarding your debate alongside Trent on salvation. What are you depending upon when it comes to salvation? 18:38 – Is there biblical proof for different levels of heaven? 23:53 – Regarding the infallibility of the pope. Should we never question what the pope says or does? 29:20 – My friend asked why we pray to saints. How do I reply? 33:03 – How do we find out what is actually Church teaching vs what’s just popular opinion? 35:25 – How can the Catholic Church view Orthodox weddings valid if there is no exchange of vows during the liturgy? 41:22 – What’s the Church’s teaching on if Mary had knowledge of Jesus’ divinity? 44:35 – How does sanctification fit into the conversation of justification? 48:42 – When we talk to Protestants, what should be the approach to a lifelong Protestant vs a convert from Catholicism? 51:06 – Germanus of Constantinople said we did not need any other mediator besides Jesus. What’s the Church’s response to this? …

Questions Covered:  03:08 – Regarding Mary’s bodily death, is it a valid theology opinion or position to take that she did not die but was assumed without dying first, given its not part of the dogma itself?  05:46 – I heard a priest say that even an atheist can get to heaven, is this true?  16:52 – Why does the rosary have ten Hail Marys in a row? Is there a significance to this?  22:28 – Do rights exist or are rights just something that came out of the enlightenment period?   35:13 – Can the verse Act 8:16 and Acts 19:1-6 be used in an argument for the efficacy of Baptism?   44:35 – Is there any connection of “That which dwells” from the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit?  52:47 – Why are the Gospels written in third person?   …

Questions Covered:  04:24 – Is evangelizing through content creation of video games good? 11:52 – I read in a Lutheran book that “the reason the church used to only provide the bread not the blood is because the congregation is not holy enough” can Joe speak to this? 18:38 – What intercessory power do old testament figures hold? Are they the same as saints? (ie: is Moses/Elijah the same as St. Thomas Aquinas?) 20:31 – If purgatory is meant to purify us of our disordered desires, how do indulgences play into that? 30:15 – How do I explain to my friend that the Catholic church does have the fullness of the faith? 34:15 – How are things different for people with autism in the church? Do they have different expectations from the church? 45:45 – What is your take on the widespread phenomenon of Pentecostal miracles driving people away from the Catholic Church? …