No, the hole of the non-spiritual is filled with darkness, the “off” button, due to guilt and anger. The “on” button for God’s light is always there as well. 
Wendy,
What’s your religious background?
Are “Catholic philosophers” different than the brown paper bag type? How so?
They’re admirers and promoters of giants like Aquinas, Augustine and Pascal. 
Mostly Brethern with a bit of Methodist. Nothing strict, more helter-skelter. However, my adult travels with God hooked me up with many denominations, even the Amish.
I am affected, softened, by being in sacred places, churches, and sometimes the hymns bring me to tears. I find churches highlight my guilt in and of themselves without any scripture. And I prefer being alone in a church sanctuary communing with God, as opposed to rubbing shoulders. I find that God speaks to me and directs me, clearly, when I am not distracted by others and day-to-day life.
Have you always been Catholic?
Nice! I bought a dog from an Amish Farm in 2015. It was interesting.
I was lapsed from the Church for 15 years after reading that atheist propaganda; Nietszche, Camus, etc.
I came back in 2016 after reading Pascal and Augustine.
Wendy and “free” lol spirit, can a circle jerk consist of just two people? 
This is the religion forum, not the science forum, or the atheism forum.
Also you are insulting members many times.
For these reasons i may ban you for a day.
or just issue a warning.
FreeSpirit1983
So, just what is a “spiritual hole” to you, FreeSpirit1983? Can you please describe it, experience wise.
FreeSpirit1983
So then, is it possible that there is bias there toward the above three from Catholic philosophers? Can there be something like the halo effect going on which can sully the waters?
The more that I see of Mankind, the more I prefer my dog.
Blaise Pascal
lol I would have loved to have been there when he said that.
And Pascal wrote about the God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man.
He was wrong about that too.
Perhaps they should try reading some philosophers instead?
It would be interesting to have a discussion about the philosophy of religion. I don’t expect such a discussion to occur at this message board.
The three main arguments for god are the Cosmological Argument, the Ontological Argument, and the Teleological Argument.
Unfortunately for the theist, all these arguments, the best arguments that the theist has, fail.
From what I have read, Thomas Aquinas had integrated medieval Christian faith with ancient Greek philosophy by following the long established Platonist intellectual tradition of putting the wisdom of divine truth above the always derived power of human reason. In 1277 a few years after his death crucial features of Thomas’s integration of Aristotelian philosophy and Christian theology were condemned by Steven Tempier the Bishop of Paris.
That condemnation signaled the advent of what was eventually to seem like a fundamental fork in the road for scholars. Either staying with the church the pathway of faith where reason is firmly situated underneath dogmatic fades and ecclesiastical authority or follow philosophy the fearless and independent pathway of reason which had no interest in doctrine or ecclesial authority.
Subsequently, the autonomy of philosophy from theology became the defining reality given to secular modernity. The Franciscans Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, he of the famous razor, were pivotal in the development of secular modernity.
Have you ever studied Aquinas?
I’ve barely scratched the surface.
He wrote thousands of pages. One could study him for a lifetime
I’ve studied him. But not formally or exhaustively.
From what I understand Thomas believed the divine wisdom and valid human reason could not contradict one another because truth is a unity. When Aristotle’s philosophy appeared to contradict the Bible or the teachings of the church Aquinas either pointed out that the contradiction was not in fact real or showed where Aristotle was wrong by appeal to other intellectual authorities such as logic and/or the orthodox interpretation of the Bible.
Aquinas’ theology was a culmination of the tradition of Christian Neoplatonic metaphysics which envisioned reality itself as multi-layered and composed of different orders of being nested within one another all nested within God. Duns Scotus departed from this tradition with his notion of the univocity of being.
FreeSpirit1983
Well, perhaps it may not be as it was some years ago but I still find your above statement to be profoundly irresponsible.
Obviously, you have a high regard for priests. But they are human and many of them are still or were nothing more than slithering snakes hiding out under rocks waiting to destroy childrens’ lives. Do you really believe that they have died out or that some are not capable of “slipping into” the church and becoming priests? Do you believe that church law or state law would stop them or would fight their urges. I don’t think so!
If people do not remain vigilant, monsters can rear their ugly heads again at some point - or if they are made to automatically believe ludicrous statements like yours above.
FreeSpirit, If you have children or grandchildren, would you let a priest who you do not know (or even one who you “believe” you know) alone with them without any supervision?
bostonglobe.com/2021/09/07/ … behind-it/
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,”
George Santayana
Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Winston Churchill
I haven’t followed most of this thread, it is so ludicrous. Did he really say that the Catholic Church is one of the safest places for children today? 
I think I’d rather entrust them to the Taliban.
Yes.
Priests are no more likely to abuse than other men. Less than 5%.
A public school teacher is more likely to abuse children.
“According to the best available data (which is pretty good, coming from a comprehensive report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004, as well as several other studies), 4 percent of Catholic priests in the U.S. sexually victimized minors during the past half century. No evidence has been published at this time which states this number is higher than clergy from other religious traditions. The 4 percent figure appears lower than school teachers during the same time frame, and certainly less than offenders in the general population of men.”