Author: Austin McCollum

Book Review: Living Buddha, Living Christ

A friend of mine claimed there are parallels between Jesus Christ and Buddha. He referred to the  1995 book Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh as the foundations for the statement. Taking into consideration my knowledge of Christ, my limited understanding of Buddha as well as my conversation with my friend, I don’t doubt there are certain similarities between Christ and Buddha, but I do doubt the prominence and significance of these … Read the rest

The Gnostic Gospels

In order to understand the gnostic gospels, we must understand what Gnosticism is. As a preface, most of the resources are Catholic due to the Catholic Church having a catalog of history on Gnosticism during the first few centuries. Gnosticism, a word from the Greek word gnosis, meaning knowledge, began possibly before the time of Christ. Gnostics viewed themselves as “those who know.” Early Gnostics believed all matter is inherently evil and due to this, they believe … Read the rest

Psychedelics to meet God??

One of my friends who identifies as “spiritual” sent me this link to an article called “This is Your Priest on Drugs,” published May 19, 2025. Prior to this, I held the belief that one can have genuine spiritual experiences while under the influence of psychedelics, with a caveat that the user may not know who or what exactly is interacting with them.

In Catholicism, we believe in the Holy Trinity, our God, as the one … Read the rest

Welcome

Welcome to Ask, Seek, and Knock. Up until a few years ago, I was an atheist believing all religions were made up explanations that we no longer need since we have science. At one point, one of my Christian friends started speaking to me about a family situation. He described the spiritual warfare he saw his family members under, which was intriguing for me. I had always heard of Christians denying anything exists outside of their God, however he … Read the rest