RC consecrated man James Stone founds Biltrix with Fr. James Smith LC and Fr. José LaBoy LC

What do you get when you mix a Regnum Christi consecrated man with a philosophy PhD together with two Legionary priests?

“You get a new spin on the Church’s 21st century’s mission to proclaim the faith boldly and with reasoned audacity,” said RC consecrated James Stone.

In November, 2012 James got together with Fr. Jason Smith LC and Fr. José LaBoy LC to start a website and blog called Biltrix.

“Woe to Me” if I Do Not Use the Internet

James said he, Fr. Jose and Fr. Jason “are confidently and thoughtfully engaging today’s culture with the light of the Gospel” by using the Internet and social media.

“If Saint Paul were alive today, he might have said, ‘Woe to me if I do not preach on the Internet!’ After all, even the Pope is doing it and he’s telling us to do the same,” said James. “We’ve decided to take him up on the invitation to feed as many souls as possible with ongoing catechesis, spiritual insights, and rational arguments for our Christian beliefs.”

The three men say Biltrix offers “cultural apologetics

	Biltrix website and blog offers cultural apologetics

for the New Evangelization.”

Their initiative aims “to bring truth and meaning to cultural discourse where issues are often blurred by the absurd,” said James.  “We don’t want to focus entirely on the negative, but are enthusiastically seeking out the positive to counteract apathy and cynicism with balanced optimism and joyful hope.

“We’re putting our philosophy and theology degrees to work for a practical purpose: to evangelize, inform, defend, and respond within today’s cultural debate,” he said. “In a nutshell, we are creating cultural awareness to bring about cultural conversion.”

Pointing Out the Missing Point

The word “Biltrix” was coined by the medieval philosopher and logician Boethius of Dacia as an example of a meaningless word.

“The term Biltrix means ‘to point out the missing point,’” said James. The Biltrix initiators plan to do this with their website/blog by focusing “on the essentials, carefully analyzing what is being said, and uncovering what is not being said.” 

“If you don’t understand what terms (within an argument) mean, you can’t say whether they are being used correctly, let alone whether or not the sentence in which they appear is even true,” said James.

He uses the example of the “black hole” that is thought to exist at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy.

“In theory, a black hole is

	Fr. Jason Smith LC.

nothing but a collapsed star whose density is so great that not even light can escape its gravitational pull.  In theory, one of these black holes resides at the heart of our galaxy.” For argument’s sake, James gives this black hole the name “Biltrix.”

“No one has ever seen this Biltrix, yet some scientists have inferred its existence from the effects they have observed within the Milky Way and various unexplained phenomena throughout the universe. It is now commonly held as a fact that black hole’s exist, based on the authority of scholarly science. Yet, are we 100% certain that Biltrix (the black hole at the center of our universe) exists? Has it ever been scientifically verified? Can it be verified?”

“Based on the strong scientific evidence for black holes, most people nowadays would say that it is absurd to deny their existence.

“Yet what about the existence of God?” James points out. “What about the rights of the unborn child? What about the absolute dignity of the human person or the freedom of the will?”

James explained that many scientists today, such as Richard Dawkins, Steven Hawking, and a host of others, claim in the name of science that these things do not exist because they cannot be scientifically verified.

“These scientists refuse to admit that science should not be issuing claims for things that do not fall under the scope of physical science,” he said. “Nor should they indoctrinate the minds of our young generations about the non-existence of God

	Fr. José LaBoy LC

or the illusion of free will, in the name of science, within the walls of the college classroom. Yet this is exactly what they do. They use the authority of science to promote ideas that are thoroughly unscientific, to the detriment of our faith and our Christian culture.

“There’s your biltrix (missing point) for today.”

Filtering the Vast Amount of Information

Besides showing what is missing from cultural arguments, Biltrix helps Christians filter through the enormous amount of information online.

“Finding information is easy, but finding the right information is not,” said James. “Biltrix offers Christians relevant articles on cultural, philosophical, social and ethical issues written from a faith-based perspective.

“We are always on the lookout for stories to present them from the perspective of right-reason in accord with the precepts of natural law,” he said.  “And, if necessary, we take the ‘spin’ off of them.”

Biltrix also challenges those who attack the Catholic Church, the dignity of human life and Christian morality.  “Such attacks abound on the Internet today,” said James. “Biltrix aims to provide the antidote to these attacks by warning its readers and educating them.

“If left unchallenged, false claims will only be repeated, leading more and more souls into error,” he said. “In the spirit of Gospel charity, we are obliged to respond to error with truth. If Christians don’t speak out in defense of truth, who will?”

“God gave us the power of human reason to seek truth, and that is why we must use this gift to rebuke even the most well-intentioned fallacy, for the sake of justice, love, and truth,” said James.

Biltrix founders urge you to visit their website, www.biltrix.com, or find them on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/Biltrix), or follow them on Twitter at @BiltrixNation (http://twitter.com/BiltrixNation).