Dr. Peter Kreeft: "Seeking and Responding to Truth"

so this year is doing double duty as the second annual lecture in catholic studies a new series we started last year with duncan story that focuses on the intersection of the catholic faith thought in culture before we begin i would like to give special thanks to the generosity of Catholic studies donors who made this event possible as well as mark Postma the director of Religious Education at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church who in concert with Aquinas was able to bring our featured speaker dr. Peter Craig to town we're all pretty excited about that the Catholic Studies program would like to tell you just a bit about this before we get started if it's due to use it the program aims to to quote john paul ii share the culture we aim to do that with the acquaintance community through an academic mitre in catholic studies a semester enrollment program which should be up and running thanks fall and programming such as this and the growth and success of Catholic studies depends on the support of students alumni faculty and all who recognize that as did pope john paul ii the catholic higher education was born ex corde ecclesia that is from the heart of the church and so if you believe in the value of a Catholic liberal arts education please personally consider supporting Catholic studies at acquaintance and there's plenty of information about the Catholic Studies program on the back table along with the Peter craziest books and I put the information very close to his books to make sure you can see my information while you're in a rush to take a look at those important well as recorded in the Gospel according to st. Matthew when Jesus asked his disciples who do people say that the Son of Man is after myriad answers from among his disciples Saint Peter spoke up and said you were the Messiah the Son of the Living God Jesus responded to this by saying blessed are You Simon son of Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my heavenly father how different was this declaration this truth claimed from that later when the conscious pilot standing before Pilate being questioned by him as to his identity Jesus said for this I was born and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth facts did befuddled highly could only matter what is truth was was this a question was this maybe a declaration of surrender on pilots hearted admission a man's inability even to know the truth or maybe a mockery of the idea that something called truth exists and is even though the title of today's lecture is speaking seeking and responding to the truth this theme is an appropriate one not least because this is the week at acquaintance college where we celebrate our school's patron saint and namesake a tireless seeker after truth if ever there was one the truth also is an important thing because what Benedict Pope Benedict the 16th is called the dictatorship of relativism that being one of the hallmarks really of our time the only shared belief though by many is the truth that there is such a thing is relative in so since a mission statement of this college calls on students to pursue the truth I can think of no better topic for today and I can also think of no better person to speak to us on this topic the dr. Peter Craig professor Craig is professor of philosophy at Boston College and at the King's College in New York City he's also a regular contributor to several Christian publications and very white demand as a speaker at conferences and is the author of over 55 books and for all I know maybe since last night he's written the new it's very very impressive output and I think I recently his first novel as well and so ladies and gentlemen it's my pleasure to introduce to you dr. Peter Craig [Applause] I'm a philosopher there are two kinds of philosophers one kind takes clear things and makes them more muddled you've probably had those kinda class and then there's the kind that takes muddled things and makes it more clear Socrates is the first great philosopher and there are two different takes that students have on top raise some think he's the first kind of philosopher some think he's the second well I have two great models among philosophers one of Socrates who is the beginning and the other is Thomas Aquinas who is the end and I think both of them are the second kind both of them take model things and make them quite clear and that's what I'm going to try to do today the topic I've been set and I like it when you tell me what to talk about because you've done half my work for me you've got the question out oh I have to do with you the answer getting the question out is much more difficult and much more precious to know people think and finding answers is much easier or available than most people think tonight so you've done half my work for me and giving you my question all right here's my question here's my topic the honest search for truth and our docile response so I'd like to define each of the five important words in that topic what is honesty what is a search what is truth what is docility and what is a response and in defining these terms I'd like to say something more than the dictionary the engineer is very useful book but it's boring so I'd like to avoid putting you to sleep it's too early in the date of that so I'd like to focus my definitions on avoiding some sort of error that maybe you're making one of my favorite philosophers is only obtained who says that multiple philosophy isn't worth doing because it doesn't make a difference it just to gain the play with words he tells the story of himself and to other philosophers who went on a walking trip and they were sitting down on a bench and watching two squirrels chase each other around the tree and each squirrel was just as fast as the other squirrel any squirrel kept moving neither one ever stopped and they kept moving in different directions so each four was always on one side of tree and the other squirrels on the other side of the trade floss where a sec does Oscar be notice those squirrels yes I have a question each squirrel circum emulates the trick correct circumambulate Smith walks around yes does each squirrel also circumambulate the other squirrel no of course not that's it's lost for bait because in order for ages Archangel a B B must be stationary not so sista lobster a in a double star system the stars that circle around each other and yet they never stop moving so those squirrels are like double stars that selves in philosopher big circumambulation is a transitive not an intransitive relationship wrong you idiots a philosopher in a and they went on like this for 30 minutes after the argument descended more and more into logical technicalities the end of the argument was as Henry James was just sitting there and watching said that each philosopher stomped off in opposite directions calling his opponent a hopeless bumbling idiot and promising never revoked move again and William James says I think I have just witnessed most of the degree of Western philosophy William James immense common sense like Socrates and like Christ and I like to imitate examples like that so I'll try to give you definitions that don't just even words like much of those your Western philosophy not all of it much of it James says a thing is meaningless unless it makes a difference a difference to your experience a difference to your life he gives two examples he says I'm agnostic and I don't know whether there's life after death or not and I don't know whether there's God or not I don't go with this free will or not but I know those are three awfully important questions that make an enormous difference oh I keep thinking about them but a question like our time and space objectively real or they only in our consciousness that he says it's not a question I can make any sense out of because whether I say yes or no I know I'm going to have to eat my lunch after I eat my breakfast so it's something like any difference so I'll try to say something will make a difference first honesty everybody praises honesty but in our society we're afraid of anything that's fanatical fanatic is the it is our society's new F word especially it was preceded by the word religious but I maintain that if honesty is not phonetic honesty it's not honest honesty honesty has to be an absolute it has to be not simply something you do on some occasions in some circumstances but a thing that you absolutely must do on all occasions and on all circumstances there's not many absolutes left ours is a rather relativistic society but even a relativistic usually admits that you must always be honest very seldom do you get anybody praising deliberate dishonesty for instance somebody who says there are no moral absolutes more elevated whatever you make up ask them do you think anything is ever right or wrong for absolutely everybody and they say no everybody's different well what about this do you think it's ever right for any individual to deliberately disobey his or her own conscience your conscience may tell me different things than mine but your conscience tells you to PEX and my conscience tells you to do not X we each have to follow our conscience don't we oh yes well as an antelope how many excellent left there are some there are a lot of very good things that are not quite absolutes contest for instance kindness is extremely important without it you can't be wholly human but there are times when you shouldn't be kind you shouldn't be kind to your teenager when he's asking you for permission to do drugs justice is terribly important but unless we go beyond justice we're never going to solve the problem of war refusing the Arabs they're not going to stop killing each other until they forgive each other because they both have justice on their side so there are very important things there aren't absolutes but honesty is now there's three kinds of honesty different dimensions OSD and at least two of them actually and the third one is sort of absolutely because honesty is a relationship honesty is my thinking about something or somebody so there's always myself as the one who can be honest or dishonest and then there was something else about which I think or to my speak or or whom I'm trying to and that somebody else could be other people or it could be myself or it could be God now you obviously have to be honest with God you're a fool if you're not God simply light and if you're dishonest with light you're in darkness my best it says in the confessions if I could take all these three books to a desert island I think would be the Bible's that some of they like to get the confessions even if I would not confess to you the whole book is ready to God what could be hidden in me O Lord from you to whose eyes the deepest depth of man's conscience lies bare I would only be hiding you from myself not myself from you try to hide from God and you'll find that you succeed in hiding God from yourself God's like the Sun try to run away from the Sun to run into your own shadow but the Sun will be shining all right god this truth itself saved that be honest with them if you are then you'll be honest with yourself like Joe as distinct from the three friends they were nice they were proper they were Orthodox they they didn't commit any heresies they just kept saying what the rest of the Bible says about God and they were gone free fenders but they were not honest with themselves they were not suffering coke was they didn't recognize that and the reason jokes speeches were approved by God even though they're full of confusion and rebellion and the species of the three friends were not approved by God even though they were full of correctness was that Joe was honest with God and therefore himself and therefore job always talked to God not just about him if you had teenage kids who when you are discussing problems in their presence what should we do with Suzy Oh what shall we do with George hey mom hey Dad I'm here hello well done because sort of like that we're talking about him all the time if he's not here he's here don't do that don't talk to him his words were wild by his own confession but it was utterly honest because he practiced the presence of God through friends didn't they practice the absence of God so total honesty with God is the key to total honesty with yourself now total honesty with yourself I think is the key to total honesty with others because if you lie to others if you deceive to others that's always because there's something about yourself you don't want them to know so you're hiding from yourself and that's why you're hiding from others now I said honesty is or should be fanatical should be absolute should be unlimited I know that's true with God and I know that you're with yourself in a sense there are social games that we play with others where we expect others to hide so I won't go so far as to say that you should always tell the truth to other people all the time under all circumstances if a lady says to me am i fat should I be honest well that depends on who she is Thomas Merton wonderfully summarised all of you with good and evil in two sentences he said we are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God substitute the word honesty for peace and you've had another prophetic truth the reason we're not honest with others is that we're not honest with ourselves that's harder and the reason we're not honest with ourselves is that we're not honest with God that's harder truth is not scary if you know that you better read The Chronicles of Narnia and get vanilla as one who is good but scary he's a lion second word search what is it to search for something well a search could be a search or something you can use with like food or a search for something that would use you like truth when you search for food you search for something you can fill your stomach with so your fuller afterwards you you put that Apple into your stomach and it digests the Apple and it becomes you it's not an Apple anymore but when you search for truth it's the other way around you search for truth so that you can change truth doesn't change like an apple you change when you enter the hole of truth and the light of truth shines on you you look different but it doesn't so it's the opposite kind of search from the search for physical things which you want to change it's also got to be there for a humble search the only way you can enter the temple of truth is on your knees you can't control it like a control apple you're the prodigal son coming home there's always the kind of repentance in truth I repent of my ignorance but at the same time it's got to be passionate and idealistic it can't be warming and smarmy and swarmy and like oh and nothing truth is a king and you're invited to enter into the throne room of the King and that's a tremendous passion philosophy literally means the love of wisdom not just the search for wisdom searches a is a weak word like the word respect love is a passionate work Jesus says seek and you shall find implying that if you don't see people find if you don't love the truth you have to find it Pascal says it's Ponce's that when truth came into the world he didn't reveal himself as clearly as people wanted utter his truth in parables he knew that most people would go away and not understand them he knew that they would most of them not accept him as the Messiah why did he do that why didn't he clearly correct all their errors why if the church has been full of controversy over thousand years didn't he head that off at the pass and say well here's a solution to justification by faith and here's the solution to 3s initiative I will here's the my answered infant baptism and then we'd all agree he could have done that why didn't he do that well as a number of reasons though Pascal says here's the reason he wanted to give us just enough light not too much because if he gave you too much you'd have no free will you have no free will about two and two or four you have no free will whether or not to see the Sun at noon on a bright day in the desert but you do have free will if you're Romeo about courting Juliet you like to move you have to love her you have to say something and do something so he said Pascal God gave us enough truth so that all he can we'll find him and some little truth that those who don't see can won't fight it against their will that's how much he respects our free will we all get what we want we want the truth you will get it free don't we woman so would that be passionate but we're also gonna be humble it's easy to be one of those two passionate people are often imperious and humble people are often weak wrong misunderstanding both the humble and passionate search for truth at the same time like Jesus was was published man who ever lived and yet the most imperious man who ever lived with his flames that combination of of gentleness on the one hand and manliness on the other hand do you find that any other human being in history you find people who are sweet gentle like Jesus but they're not strong and manly and kinky and imperious and you find these strong kingly and arias people but they're not a gentle of Jesus so we have to be like Jesus in our search for truth we have to be gentlemen even women there have to be like a man and men there have to be like a woman because each has a kind of strength and the other doesn't have and even bottling women's bodies outlast men but then at more upper body strength they can swing your arm stronger so each has a unique strength but that human strength has to be coupled with the humility the generalist that's been drinking he's just how to do it all right so what about search now comes the key word truth why are we looking for when we're looking for truth well I think there are three fundamentally different levels here of what we need my truth and therefore three different kinds of research the first level most obvious level is truth means knowing what is old Aristotle master of common sense said that most questions in philosophy are hard to answer but this one's very easy what is truth that's one of the easiest questions to answer we all know what it is here's my definition of truth and then he comes up with a classic definition of truth notice that every single word in this definition has only one syllable women if one says of what is that it is or of what is not that it is not then he speaks the truth but if one says of what is that it is not or if he says of what is not that it is that he does not take the truth it's not wonderful truth means telling it like it is in truth is the correspondence of your thought in your speech to objective reality that assumes two things that there is objective reality that were not living in the matrix and that we can know that we're not just in Plato's cave those are two assumptions that all saying you would be make and all philosophers accepts of the Sophists used to make but not anymore I can't say anything about that alright so the first meaning of truth is knowing what is or correct thought it's true if I say this is a book it's not sure if I say this is a giraffe why because it is a book and it's not a giraffe all right that's that's thought truth truth in your thought in your speech that reveals your thought the second kind of truth that most people don't think about much anymore at least most philosophers don't but the Houston if you read someone like the - or saint anselm or san agustin or Plato or Aristotle you'll find that the metaphor the analogy to the image that they always use for truth northern ale other is light truth is like light now white almost a thing it's not something abstract my first definition of truth is a very abstract it's a relationship of correspondence between the thought and a thing ladies almost the same not quite a thing it's happened to lumen AIDS all things and illuminate your eyes so that you can see things but it's it comes to you like black liquid gold and that's their vision of truth truth enables you to see now that words see is an analogy when you talk about understanding you don't mean external seeing lying people can see inside but seeing with your mind is very much like seeing with your eye you just open your eye and if the light comes and you see it's immediate it's direct that's not the first kind of truth the first time in truth is is thinking it's a process by which you move from ignorance into knowledge in steps your reasoning your way to it inductively or deductive li this therefore that but the second time of truth is just the seeing that is the end of the process of the first guide you moved from here to there in order to get there and enjoy it and getting there and enjoy it means meaning seeing and understanding and bathing your your mind in it so in that second sense of truth it's not just the object of thought it's the object of love and appreciation and contemplation truth is something to be loved as light is something to be loved if that sounds a little this to goal it is you get that morning play-doh - of course as both because everything then there's a third and well before I go into them you know a limited time here I keep forgetting a lot of earth where time counts third kind of truth does a Hebrew word for MF eme th and it's a quality of a person God has it all the time God is faithful and true it's a personality quality its quality not just of a relationship between the mind and things and it's not even just something like light but it's it's personal you can you can totally trust God his promises always come true in real history and his supreme promise is the promise of the Messiah and he comes true and then he comes in and says I am the truth all other great teachers in history say I teach the truth no one of them ever said I am the truth jesus said that John in his gospel the most philosophical book of the Bible identifies him with a locust that was a word very familiar to anybody who bring philosophy it was a word for truth but truth in a deeper sense than just correct correspondence of your thought in reality truth in the sense of light but not just any kind of light but ultimately the ultimate truth the ultimate law that governs the whole cosmos the mind of God 3 phosphors didn't agree as to whether there was a single supreme god that they did agrees and for this office that there was a single supreme mind or truth or a ball or logos the meaning of everything that's what they were looking for so anybody with a philosophical education started to read John's Gospel he would realize from the very first verse that John was claiming to be or to reveal the secret philosophy the truth that all philosophers were looking at and then came to the shop the truth became flesh that's a shock but John also says in chapter 1 verse 9 that this love us this divine mind enlightens every one who comes into the world lightens every single point back as Christians minds but all Minds when a theist discovers that e equals mc-squared that atheist is enlightened by Jesus Christ although he doesn't know it that's why it's st. Paul when he preached into the philosophers and Athens start a discernment by saying I notice that you're very religious you've got all these altars dedicated to different gods and I was thinking but not saying at this point you're fools are worshipping idols and then he says one of these gods intrigues me you have a temple or a rather an altar to the unknown God every older had a statue on it but they are no God it was that you I don't know what it would look like this was without the false merge this was the gun that Socrates believed it the god that was searched for but not found and then he said the guy you are already worshipping now I will declare you the Greek language makes that very clear because there's two ways to express the present tense of a verb in Greek one called the ARS tense means it's a one-shot deal like I slap you in the face the other each of the present progressive tense means you do it continually or virtually like I breathe and this is the virtual sense the god you are now already worshiping it's a very ecumenical statement these pagan idolaters who in their ignorance were worshipping many gods but also worshiping the one true God well they didn't claim to know their own go enough to be honest Pulis ain't good for you you're on the road you're sneaking that's the first step you've done step one great he's learned that from some previous lesson one see ok now you're ready for lesson 2 find here he is that's what Christianity says to the whole world whether it's the world a philosophy or the world of science or the world of art or the world of politics or the world of family whole human action is they search for some order some truth some meaning some fulfillment some perfection that we know we don't have we're illumined by that light in different ways the rainbow light it's got a lot of colors in it but it all comes from the same Sun and we're trying to get from here there we're trying to follow the Sun beam back to the Sun we can't do it on our own because if we look at the Sun we go blind but the Sun came down here and became a man and said Here I am and now you can find me because I found you and that's what all the great Christian philosophy starting with Justin Barnard and then invested and Aquinas and all the great ones have said that was best the foundation of Christian philosophy it's also foundation of Christian history and Christian art this this romeo-juliet love meeting between the human part which is searching for ultimate truth and Gaza which comes down and it means that searches for dramatic story looked at you in history from that point of view as a cosmic Romeo and Juliet love story keep in mind the basic plot while with all the little details and it'll be twice as exciting the search for truth and our response are what kind of response docile response docile must docile me we ordinarily think it means to change that's up for these comes from OTO which means to teach in teaching q42 stupid we thought a computer does not think because the computer is docile you can fold the mute or you can tell allies they don't believe anything it's like a mobile library it's like a big efficient blackboard its passive all the activity comes from you program it but if you weren't mind is different than that human mind is teachable because it's not passive it's not sheepish it has a heart and a will and it wants the truth and only when it wants the truth we'll find it it's receptive yes that's what docile needs its receptive once once the light shines you don't generate it receive it so in that sense we're all spiritually women we don't impregnate God he predicts us and the mind is like a womb and it wants a baby and God says here and if we're open he comes in and if we're open we receive and then the rubber your Juliet magic happens and we find truth but our heart is fundamentally to be teachable docile receptive now to be receptive is that to be passive a different play baseball try to crank the attacher do you just just put the lid there and let the ball go into it no it's an art to catch that ball it's male children it's nonsense to think that a woman is simply somebody who lies down there takes it no to receive is just as active as to to give now God is always pictured as male in the Bible and some people think that's just a projection of cultural chauvinism and of course drizzle on a cultural hill show the visit of the past but I don't think that's just the projection because that's divine revelation and God doesn't use junk so I think that's a reflection from a from below I think that's a reflection of the fact that to God all souls are women and he wants to impregnate us we can't impregnate him so if you're cold got her implicitly you've got a different religion different kind of God but when God doesn't feed you the truth it's not like a syringe and you're under anesthetic it's the food that's offered and it only if you open your mouth do you eat it only if you see will you find in other words you need love you need passion and part that action is the critical don't just be suckered in by anything finally after you discover the truth what you do about it you have to respond how do you respond well by by grasping it here you're hungry you're searching somebody offers you food we've discovered that somebody and that food is time to go out eat it our response although it's active is always in the second place is we're not first the second if you don't like that well that temptation comes straight from the devil that's the only scene you can imagine a perfect angel committing God creates Lucifer's greatest of the Angels and he doesn't have any leads he doesn't have any temptations no muss no greed why would the devil possibly prevail only one reason God's number one he's number two and that's pride I want to be number two pride isn't essentially competitive pride is not just taking proper pride in what you are what you do God want to do that we want you to love your neighbor as yourself therefore you want you to love yourself as your neighbor but I don't want to be number two I want the number one I want you to be number two that's bad stuff right the Dangerfield says when you're looking out for number one you're probably the step out number two think about it so we're number two and our role is to respond to say thank you gratitude is a fundamental moral prerequisite for wisdom you can't appreciate truth unless you are a grateful person one of the wisest men I ever note on an ARS Clark wise old Jesuit philosopher I'd say he's one of the greatest philosophers of modern times in his 80s waited to bed all by himself just to talk to Tibetan Buddhist monks and gather from heaven some of their wisdom and he told me he didn't think that much of their theoretical wisdom but he thought a lot of very highly of their practical wisdom they were very holy and he asked them question he said what what do you think our religions are very different but they're both old religions so what's the most important religious attitude what's the starting point for anybody wants to be religious either Buddhist or Christian or anything else what's the fundamental human religious attitude the single most important religious value and the monk said I'll answer that question only if you do too put it down a piece of paper don't show me I'll put it down on a piece of paper and I will show you and I'll ask three of my other box to do the same thing and then we'll compare our fine answers it's the uploads they are so they did that five of them wrote a word down single word on a piece of paper then they unfold with a piece of the paper this is not a joke or this is a literally true story and father Clark said amazingly they all had exactly the same word written down amongst all no English words was gratitude that's right we found then he said now gratitude for what will you mate or gratitude for existence itself gratitude for everything Clark said yes that's what I mean - now if you don't believe in God to whom are you grateful when you are grateful for everything and the monk said we really don't know well they're quite very much like those Greek stances and they do the same poll and if they're really grateful that they are very far along on the mobile search for truth and if we properly show them the truth I think don't it didn't extend now I've defined the basic terms in my title are there alternatives to this honest search for truth yep unfortunately there are alternatives so you have to know the bad roads in order to keep all fulfilled as well as knowing the good road in order to keep on it so let me give you some of the alternatives to the honest search for truth that you should avoid this is true whoever you are whether you are an academic or non-academic and whatever field you're in first of all you can search for something else above truth which I would say is dishonesty I think there's only one honest reason why anybody ever should believe anything at all it's because it's true I think if two people appear I'm not sure of this but I think that when two people here at God's judgement seat and one of them is is a Christian an Orthodox Christian believes everything God is revealed but he doesn't really care about it and the reason he believes it is not because it's true because it makes him feel good or because it makes him responsible or something else another person who's an agnostic who doesn't believe but his honest and searches for truth and doesn't believe in God because ethically the truth doesn't believe in Christianity his best believe it's true God books those two people and says you don't need a lot of purgatory but you question you need more courage or in this pagan if you'd enjoyed lesson 1 you learn less than two three four five six which can be we could hit mark lesson one you're not searching for truth above everything else you believed what I've revealed not because it was true but because you liked it you on the other hand mr. agnostic but you didn't want to be an agnostic you wish you could believe the truth but you just couldn't believe it well you're mistaken sorry need some in theology lessons but you learned less than one word for you you're honest you disbelieved in make because you believed the truth some really did believe in me and your fake Christian you did believe in me but you didn't believe in truth and therefore you didn't really believe in me now nobody knows how the Last Judgment is going to go but that's like yes and I think we all agree with that the problem James again he says the two kinds of people tough minded and tender minded and the temper minded want something more than truth and the tough minded want truth above everything else including pleasure contentment life itself even happiness even morality he says other to such different types of people that when they argue with each other eventually they say we just don't understand each other well my homies wrong I hope we're all tough minded I suspect that we deep down are because here there's two things that three things everybody wants number one we want the truth number two we want happiness number three we want goodness we want to be good we want other things too we won't be bad too we want to be good everybody's got these you know the angel of the devil whispering in one ear in the other ear every that angel be good and be happy and be true now remember how happy you were and how good you were when you were three years old and it was December 24th foot because you believe in Santa Claus belief in Santa Claus made you very very good and very very happy how come you don't believe in Santa Claus anymore oh I'm sorry did I destroy somebody's faith there is no Santa Claus I'm sorry why don't you just compel your mind to believe in Santa Claus it'll make you very happy and very good you want rhythm you know it isn't true meanwhile tough-minded you are how honest you are good for you now let's apply that to everything else don't search for anything else even goodness it's not true I'm not saying truth is more important to goodness truth is like the root and goodness is like the fruit and the fruit is more beautiful than the root but you can't get that fruit without the room because if you don't love truth and you won't find true goodness you'll find fake goodness and if you don't love truth you will find true happiness you'll find fake happiness so you can't substitute anything for truth there's no alternative to a group you can't produce it from that premises the room all right that's one alternative to the auto search for truth searching for something else above truth second there's a dishonest search for truth you could search for truth for the wrong reason the great line multi-coated from TS Eliot's plague murder in the cathedral where thomas a becket is tempted to be a martyr of pride and he says the last temptation is the greatest reason to do the right thing for the wrong reason motive is terribly important so a dishonest search for truth would be a search for truth for the wrong motive my Gustin talks about that too he says talking about Christ claiming to be the truth but people still hating it he says why does truth call forth hatred why is your servant treated as an enemy by those to whom he preaches the truth if everyone loves happiness and happiness is joy in the truth significant happiness joy in the truth or true joy everybody wants it and he gives it so why do people hate him his answer because they love truth in such a way that those who love some other things want that thing to be the truth and precisely because they do not wish to be deceived are unwilling to be convinced that they are deceived thus they hate the truth for the sake of that other thing which they love because they take it for the truth they love the truth when it enlightens them but they hate truth when it accuses them because they do not wish to be deceived but they do wish to deceive even themselves therefore they love the truth when it reveals itself but they hate it when it reveals them thus shall the truth reward them as they deserve those we not wish to be revealed by truth truth will reveal and unmask against their will but it will not reveal itself to them thus thus even thus does the human mind blind and ill-behaved desire to keep itself concealed yet desire that nothing should be concealed from itself but the contrary happens to it it cannot lie hidden from truth only truth from it why you gustas great he writes that way Wow unpack that they have a lifetime all right second alternative to honest search for truth then is a dishonest search for truth and what version of that might be a pragmatic search for truth a truth that we can use and manipulate somehow we have to search for truth for the sake of truth not for the sake of anything beyond it oh if I find the truth here I can be rich and powerful and effective and well known and honored and famous and I can do all this stuff with it well it's true you can do other stuff with truth I don't know anything about economics so I'm never going to be rich I don't know enough truth there I don't know much truth about math every great mathematician and if I were I could do a lot of stuff with it true truth gives you power but you shouldn't love truth for the sake of power you should love truth for the sake of truth it's not wrong to want power powers neutral can be used well or ill and it's not wrong to realize that only truth gives you power and therefore it's not wrong to say if I love the truth I will have power this will be a byproduct but you must love truth purely for its own sake first why when you go back to all aerosol master of common sense not a terribly religious or idealistic philosopher but wonderfully common sensical he says three reasons for for seeking truth number one to give your power over the world that's what we today call technology secondly it gives you a power over your own life you can live better that's a ethics and politics thirdly because it expands your mind it makes you a bigger and better person so the first reasoning is if you know the truth you can perfect things out there and build bridges and rocket ships that's important because we live in this world second if you know the truth you can perfect your own behavior and that's even more important because we live in this world but most important to know the truth is to perfect yourself and that's important because we live in this world now that third desire for truth for Jones egg is what we call the liberal desired for truth Aristotle said there are thorough liberal arts which means the search for truth for its own sake and there's the survival arts which means you search for truth as a servant for something else Aristotle infamously society I would agree slavery amazingly and you use that as a metaphor there are subjects that you study that are like servants they're useful but this if a servant is owned by somebody else he exists from the second semester up for his own safety but the master is free well there are master courses both liberal arts courses which are like free in those courses you seek the truth for its own sake and in the other courses you see the truth that's a good using it's on that make your life better to make the world better those are three honorable reasons but the first one is the most honorable and the most practical because the reason seeking the truth for practice in your life is more important than perfecting the material world is it's closer to home your life is closer to you than the external world is for exactly the same reason liberal arts is the most practical little things because it perfects not just your behavior but your very self your mind I think I have a dark suspicion here that the decline of liberal arts education has a lot to do with the sexual revolution here's my suspicion the sexual revolution allowed us to have sex whenever we want without consequences so it allowed us to benefit each other and use each other as means to our own gratification that's lust okay that's kind of dishonest sex because the very meaning of sex is I love you for your sake I'm going out of sight of myself to you I'm not just using you as a means to my own pleasure well if you denied liberal arts education you're having a kind of lustful relationship to truth not for its own sake of the sake of something else the same kind of relationship you can have to each other if there's less instead of love is pragmatic and selfish you don't see that connection that we don't push it but if you do we'll light like a lot another alternative to be honest search for truth is skepticism which says there's no truth and if there is nobody can develop simple skepticism is easily refutable logically do you know that you know nothing is it true there's no truth is it objectively true the truth is not objective is absolutely true that there are no absolutes it always contradicts itself but still it's a comfortable attitude there's two kinds of skeptics comfortable skeptics and uncomfortable skeptics uncomfortable skeptics are honest but confused maybe they would like there to be truth but there isn't then there's comfortable skeptics like Pontius Pilate what is truth truth smooth I don't know the truth therefore I'm not responsible for anything well that's very convenient that's the justices of the Supreme Court with a row trophy Blake their fundamental argument for allowing abortion is nobody knows the truth who knows what human life begins there for okay I think they should be given the punches pilot award they're you know I'm partially opposed but lots of big but you so the bakery let's call it the punches pilot big blood award or the Millstone of the network you know what Jesus said about those who scandalize these little ones something about those stones well a dishonest on a sceptic is a happy skeptic he's glad he doesn't know where pretends he doesn't know so he has a license to do what he pleases always distrust a happy skeptic and always sympathized with an unhappy skeptic because you see motive is deeper than anything and the unhappy skeptic has the motive of a desire for truth but he thinks he can't get it welcome to the desire there but the happy skeptic doesn't desire truth truth to be terrifying to it truth of making responsible true food making guilty maybe our whole moral relativism comes from that because if there's no real objective true morality that nobody is a sinner they're just doing unacceptable behavior or ignorance or something but there's no sin if there's no moral law that's why moral relativism is not just a philosophical error in apparel store salvation because according to Jesus itself you can't be saved unless you do two things repent and believe well how can you repent if there's no such thing as sin and how do you say there is such a thing as sin because there's no objective moral law that defines it then you stand against it's an unfortunately convenient philosophy or as the devil says as you enter hell you'll find that in this place there's no right and wrong you know the song everybody sings as they enter hell it's Frank Sinatra so I did it my way there's an opposite attitude from skepticism which is also an error it's called in popular language dogmatism which is not the right word because document is a good thing I just call it arrogance I know it all right I've got nothing to learn well which is where skepticism or arrogance I don't know they're both they're both devastating arrogance is almost always badly motivated by pride and there's no innocent form of arrogance as there isn't it as a form of skepticism so I'd say that's even worse than skepticism to believe in divinely revealed dogma is absolute truth is not arrogant at all as the opposite of arrogance that's the humbled thing God has spoken I will here but isn't it arrogant for us to claim that there's only one road up the mountain that only our religion is entirely true and all other religions have errors in them isn't that arrogant well if our religion is only a man-made road up the mountain yes it is that's like claiming my art is the only beautiful art or my political system is the only just system but if that road is made by God not by us how can you compare it with all the main main roads however good they are and wouldn't it be arrogant to take a gun throat and say your road to no better than our road so it's just the opposite it's like the Jews claim to be God's chosen people Gentiles often think that's arrogance no it isn't it's humility their astonishing achievements where did it come from themselves that would be arrogance now came from God he just chose us oh that's humble classic should be like two is there why did I choose to reveal this to us not because we deserved it no better than anybody else that's just the way you did it crazy about us that's how Aryans its dog but without Aryans finally the last attitude that's an alternative to be honest search for truth is neither skepticism nor arrogance but just not caring just laziness one of the suddenly seven deadly sins is called slope at India is the flat word for it doesn't mean just physical a sickness doesn't even mean just mental laziness needs moral laziness the refusal to love the good even when it's available refusal to care if you care for the wrong things if you love evil and hate good you're at least caring for something great Saints are often made out of great sinners st. Paul hated Christians and was persecuting and killing them san agustin was the Playboy of the Western world st. Ignatius a professional killer a professional soldier they cared they were passionate people if a car is moving fast in the wrong direction it takes a bit of effort to turn it around 180 degrees but require isn't moving at all it takes even more effort to start it up and turn it around so if somebody is moving in the wrong direction by loving and caring about the wrong things he's at least moving he's caring but somebody who doesn't care very difficult to start up well that's not our typical error is it my being were all too busy and that's why we're so lazy well why are we so busy because we don't have the energy to be quiet and to be assignment and to be receptive and to be contempt if that takes more energy than we've got we're like a flywheel it doesn't make take much energy to keep a flywheel going we've got the momentum I'll prove it to you just spend five minutes today all alone totally quiet be distracted by absolutely nothing but you can do it I think you get the itch I'll bet the energy to quiet down all those diversions and distractions is just too much for you Kierkegaard often wrote something like this if I could prescribe one remedy for all the ills of our modern world I would prescribe silence because even if the Word of God is proclaimed nobody will hear it there's too much noise so first create silence and I think he meant not just silence out there but silence in here last question how important is truth I've defined the term that give it some alternatives to it and that's most of my time taken up already and that's the dull part it's like preparation for painting 90% of painting is preparation that's adult and then the last 10% is putting the code of play out that's interesting so here I hope hope becomes the coat of paint why is this crucial isn't a lot more important than truth control Trump love love is more important the truth the truth can trump love the truth has to come first truth is the root locus the flower truth has to judge love love is not all you need any truth to to distinguish fake love from true love in fact for investment that's distinction between good and evil he says my love is my gravity my love is my weight my love is my destiny I'm or may was Hondros he says my love is my like ponderous thing by anything my weight I'll go where my love goes so all evil is disordered love and all good is rightly ordered love ordered by what truth well isn't kindness and tolerance as important as truth that's terribly important yes of course but Aquinas says the kindest thing you can do the kindest need charity you can do to your neighbor is to help them find the truth he's first because this truth is not just truth number one correctness not just mental knowledge it's like light and ultimately it's a quality of a person it's what God is so it's love that is truth got his love that's why their insolence even happiness can't transcend truth because if you seek for happiness at the expense of truth you will find it and if you forget about happiness and seek for truth for its own sake you'll be happy it's the principle first and second things seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness then all these other things will be added even eternal happiness here's a problem for four clever philosophical theologian suppose you had to tell a lie in order to save a soul they're going to tell a lie to save a soul not in that situation my answer is no I cannot imagine that situation there is no such situation the heaven that you would enter by means of telling a lie isn't the sure heaven of this full of truth that lying is socially relative it's a it's a thing that differs from different context for instance in basketball you need to use something like head fakes that's the rules of the game in a real game you don't tell the truth you conceal it so you win the game and we play these little games with each other is someone so again no he's in conference right now he's right there is a large walked area that's not really a line that's that's that's the accepted rules of game and sometimes people can so violate those rules of the game that they don't deserve the truth you shouldn't tell it to them if you reject you in hiding Jews from the Nazis and you promise to hide the Nazis come to your door they say you got any judgment any Jews hiding here you better not tell those Nazis the truth that would be a lie down the Nazi is the literal factual truth yeah we got Dutch and fulfilling that would violate your solemn promise to the Jews to hide them so there's a lot of social relativity too to interpersonal lying and telling the truth but your personal relationship to truth your love of that truth has to be absolute nothing can trump truth well last question practical question how how can I find this ultimate truth Jesus clear answer is you have to see it seeking usual find that assumes that if you don't seek you won't find so is two kinds of people in the world those who seek and those who don't see among those who seek there are two subdivisions those who have already found and therefore they're happy and those who have not yet found so they're not yet but they will be because if they're seeking to finding but the third class we don't even seek will never find and we'll never be happy well suppose you say yeah I agree with this but I'm on such a weak person with such a weak will yeah I love the truth but when you describe all these alternatives I found myself doing it alone each one I don't seek the truth nearly as passionately as I should goofy hill then you're seeking the truth and you're also seeking the seeking of the truth and you'll find that too because that's true seeking and when Jesus says if you seek you will find I think he means not only if you seek me you will find me but also if you seek the true way to me which is passionate seeking if that's what you were in love with if you want to be a saint you will be there's only one reason why you're not a saint you don't only want to be part if you want to be part of your doesn't and when that part of you that doesn't dies you'll be the same along the way at least never compromised endure anything rather than betraying truth endure uncertainty and or paradox endure confusion endure apparent contradiction I don't see how we can be both free and predestined at the same time well God says we are so accept the truth and do the best you can to reconcile but I don't see how Jesus can be fully defined and perfectly human at the same time well maybe someday you will but even though you don't don't don't reject it Christianity is full of paradoxes so it's life late is both a wave and a particle what did the scientists do about that did they say well I'm not particularly interested in life I'll just say it's history forgiving if they say I like ways better than barnacles lights off particle now it's like we accept all the data and this is very strange and upsetting but we're faithful the truth take it all in we're Catholic universal eat all the food Bobby puts on your plate well God's mommy and she puts plenty of food on everybody's plate by making universe full of all kinds of truths and then he puts a special food on our plate when he reveals himself and that's the church so we've got spinach but where our attitude towards our spinach should pay exactly the same as the rest of the world added to ports their cookies eat all the food Bobby puts on your plate meanwhile also pray pray for light even if you don't understand something even if you're skeptical even if are skeptical about God you still pray hey God I don't know that you're there and I don't know that you're not there but if you are please hear me and if you know everything you know that I really want to know the truth no matter what so please reveal yourself got the one or that prayer his own time in his own way because you've done the most important step even though you may still be an atheist if you pray that prayer you meet it with all your heart you've done step one seek and God promises that step two will come fine I take a long while but he'll come he promises it along the way you also have to know the enemies of truth in you and I think the three biggest ones are pride lust and greed probably the three biggest of the seven deadly sins that's why poverty chastity and obedience are not just for priests and monks they're for all Christians poverty loving your state of poverty instead of greed demanding to be wealthy even intellectually wealthy chastity purity of heart rather than than lust rather than selfish love and obedience rather than pride accepting being number two and then he got to be number one those are trade moral prerequisites for truth truth isn't just an intellectual problem primarily a moral problem Jesus and self said in John's Gospel when the Pharisees were questioning it how can we understand your teaching now how can we understand how we know that it comes from God will you call your father how do we know that Jesus said if your will or to do the will of my father you would understand my teaching and you would know that came from him Shearer was right if your moral life is right very refined to follow because the will is the captain of the Shepherd and the mind is just the navigator and the captain better listen to the navigator because the navigators got the charts and he's the intellectual and he knows where the ship should go so with an absolute authority of the mind but the will is the boss and the wilden's say to the navigator shut up for your charts overboard I don't like it and then the ship will crack up so don't be that kind of finally active obedience in your life can help you to find the truth there's a great scene in the brothers karamazov where father's awesome of the old wise priest who was about to die is counseling a woman of little faith who's lost her faith when she spent a scatterbrain and she said you're the only priest in the world that I respect I've lost my faith and I can't believe in life after death anymore I'm terrified about my middle age now and when I look forward all I see is the flowers at my grave please give me my faith back please prove to me that there is a God and an immortal soul fathers us and says I can't do that what if you can't do it nobody can yes somebody can you can do it what I'm not an intellectual I can't reshoot all those but you're realists but you can prove it to yourself by an experiment an experiment experiment in your life love your neighbor as if he is an immortal soul created by God for eternal destiny live as if it were true practice it and if you do that I guarantee that will open the eyes of your soul and you'll see that it's true you have to practice it sometimes before you believe it in order to believe it these are Orthodox call that orthopraxy which they say often comes before orthodoxy to lead to each other nothing wrong with believing it first and then practicing it if you can't do it that way you can do the reverse way that works wonderfully too and I think we all need to learn that reverse way sometimes I just learned a while ago that somewhere in the country life in Michigan who knows the evangelical Protestants and the Roman Catholics got together to protest abortion and they bought that abortion clinic and I got thrown in jail together so they shared this big jail cell for a whole night and the next day they came out and the Catholics went home and asked each EX members of their family have they accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior Protestant started praying the rosary now that's a humanism one very last thing the motive in your search for truth has to be the fundamental motive that will guide your life in absolutely everything that you ever do they need a love of God if you seek his will you will find it he guarantees that if you see something else is no guarantee I think the smartest idea I ever had in my life I had when I was eight years old I remember exactly the time and place it was after church on a Sunday morning we were going home from the six Reformed Church up hailed an Avenue and we're just passing the parsonage on eighth Street and I was I got out of Sunday school went to a Dutch Reformed Church and I guess I was a little confused by the lesson so I asked my father who was an elder in the church was driving I said dad all the stuff that we learned in church it all comes down to one thing doesn't it and I remember vividly he looked at me and said one thing most a lot of things are all true but one thing was a little suspicious rightly so mohit tell me what all comes down to I said well that's only one thing right we we we should ask what God wants and then we should do it and I remember him up you know you're right son you hooked it me over the big smile so I got nice that was three that was always stare at me so I'm passing it on to go now I hope there's going to be a lot of questions because that's always much more interesting than monologue so let there be questions [Applause] oh good question how does the concept of grace fit into the search for truth I remember when I just dude in the Calvin College they told me that Thomas Aquinas was simply a thinly baptized pagan so I figured I better bring Thomas Aquinas and they told me that the Catholics have this two layer theory grace on top nature on the bottom and nature is independent and that's all pagan that's all you an effort and that's all works and then I'm going to also need a top layer like I see on vacation that's grace and that's of course not biblical and I said yeah that's right that's not biblical but I better check out these Catholics I've never be Thomas Aquinas itself so I remember going to library and getting up the sort of theology and looking up his treatise on grace or twelve questions and each one was can you do this or that without grace can you can you seek the truth of that race can you find the truth of that brace can you ask for grace without grace can you recognize that you're back grace without grace can you be saved without grace can you be good word for that grace the answer to every single one of those questions is no no no no no that's a good grief that's Calvinism Thomas Aquinas is the boat Elvis is also a good Catholic and the answer is we can't do anything that breaks you can't exist without breaks you think it deserves to be created who are you before you are nobody so grace created you and grace providentially hold you up every day and grace and saves you so you can't even search for truth but trust plain truth without grace now that's very important to know after you've found some truth so you can give God the credit instead of yourself but it's kind of dangerous thing to know at the start because if you're lazy you'll use that as an excuse for not searching oh it's all grace that means I don't have to do anything but it's a great principle in Catholic theology grace almost always uses nature very rarely will God bypass nature perform a miracle it's like to do it that way he likes to use us so it's the pits it's as a result of grace that I have this passionate in the church Agustin says somewhere in confessions he imagines God saying to it think this in confession I'm used to the soliloquies take heart my son you would not be searching for me unless I first found you so the first search for truth is a bar prolongation of the divine act of grace which turned on that search exactly by the same principle grace turns on nature perfect nature so that the more grace there is in you the freer your will is grace doesn't turn freewill oh if it turns freewill on my claim the more light there is the more you see colors so the more light the more red the warlike the more blue and godlike light and free will is art red and reason is our blue thank you for your lecture you mentioned William James and the pragmatic nature or something I just wonder how it is to be reconciled with loving truth hurts on say Twitter you take whatever truth you find anywhere James isn't so big on this theoretical knowledge of truth for its own sake he lacks that so throw that in but he's right about the truth being utterly practical and should make a difference to your life nobody's got the whole truth except God so I think you have to be an eclectic that's that stifles advice test all things hold fast to everything that is good last year was Darwin's 100 your thoughts are about talented design the reason why I say that because I'm thinking here that we can't get philosophy to look at in nature biological nature that some kind of design in Wow biological of nature the these atheists are doing is is really cutting the legs off from our idea about God and philosophy thing falls apart bird salvations yep that's right that's bad philosophy I don't think intelligent design is good science I think it's the philosophy design doesn't have a color or shape kinetic energy or anything that you can measure in numbers so it's not part of hard science but it's common sense you see all over the place if philosophers have dropped the idea of design or final cone or Kili ology they're hopelessly deprived but that's not an idea that you expect scientists to use science isn't philosophy science is like a laser beam very narrow and therefore it cuts through that little narrow chunk of steel or wherever it is philosophy is like a floodlight is a big picture you'd be both I have no problem at all with evolution on the laser beam level God may well have used natural selection to produce eight bodies and then put the soul in the first mode of a madam but evolution as a philosophical theory it all happened by chance with no divine design that's nonsense and we all deep down know it is if if you can't explain even a little thing like a book by random chance how can you explain the whole universe does anybody believe that it's at all possible that this book just happened because of an explosion in a brick factory well we can rewrite a book that we write universe enough doing design in it if it's a massive but that's that's the common sense and philosophical point a scientific mind watch to count the the syllables in the Balkan that's perfectly alright say what's the chemical property of the ink and that's perfectly alright to but that's that's the laser beam picture they also need picture the whole intelligent design controversy unfortunately has religious people on one side and scientists on the other side and no philosophers in the middle mediating that's what you reiterated for oh that's precisely the kind of papers Jesus had in mind he doesn't he doesn't have to tell us to love good-looking people do that already we have to love bastards like ourselves because that's needed oh yeah he didn't say it's gonna be easy but he's not a hypocrite and he practices we breaches and we build and he has very strange taste in neighbors and in animals we are his modes of transportation into the world and he has such strange taste in both of transportation that he wrote into Jerusalem on a jackass and he keeps doing the same thing with us [Music] or questions yes the idea of gratitude a story my grand my and he refused to allow my granddaughters but I had the opportunity of typing my she was five years old I play to leave her in prayer but I put great so I what are you grateful for she immediately made me jump to I she knew gratitude as God how why she is and very probably God is Providence has deliberately arranged that your grandchildren would have an atheist father because he knew that they were going to be rebels is very tricky but if they had pious Christian parents they would go to the Atheist yes of common sense tomorrow because of common sense is that really something Touche by answer your question is yes that's like the concept of nature it's human nature the unnatural a human being is always somewhat inhuman that's a paradox that's a consequence of the fall we say stupid things like oh yes he's he's sinful and he's he's selfish and these lustful and he's proud these aggregate entities indeed greedy but that's just natural well no it's unnatural it's not behavior that fulfills human nature's behavior the choice of the nature similarly the most common views are any idiotic views common sense is uncommon as a result of all and we got recognized that and be realistic and say we can't simply trust ourselves you can't totally distress yourself but you got to be critical with yourself this is your critical with somebody else because this good stuff and bad stuff there's a Jewish legend that God was trying to figure out who he was going to use as the first of his chosen people so he first went to a Greek philosopher and said know thyself because you don't know yourself you don't know me and you can't be my prophet what is man the reef Oscar said man is goodness truth and beauty man is light man is a little God thank you said God don't call me I'll call you Varian chief like Attila the Hun and asked the same question what is man until of the Hun said man is a wolf as a pair of jaws that is a shark and is is a devouring animal is that also gun that's all thank you very much you'll call me I'll call you then he went to earth counties and famine confuse pagan Abraham and said that Abraham I'm interviewing for the job of my first prophet here's the test what is man Abraham said oh god don't ask me that question I'm so confused I don't know I look I look into myself and I see nothing but a battlefield and I see God's on one side of the battlefield and I see beasts and monsters on the other side of the battlefield and they're there they're so confused that I can't tell one from the other and I thought you should be my prophet in other words is a little good in the worst of us and a little bad best of us No your lecture ladies my with a core curriculum a year requirement logic now when I was 17 years in college I never would have selected those and so that at we could take the Olly the residence this Boston College have such a curriculum they certainly do Boston College is one of the four percent of American universities that still has philosophy as a requirement and it's one of the 1% that has two semesters of it as a requirement yep V City is still barely Catholic it's got a great philosophy bar now there are there are 24 full-time professors and 24 n jumping friends it's a lot of response requirement America we have over 400 philosophy majors which is twice as much as anybody else second as dr. day 200 and of the 24 20 our practicing Catholics so it's a good department academically great too I'm not sure Oh what do said today as long as truth is like God where is our risen Christ and the Holy Spirit then I can follow you know what you what you're saying as long as true is our prison you know Jesus um one thing that's always profound and difficult thing I said the other stuff is easy yeah but one of the things that I am really interested in right now is like the relationship between the late Fred Rogers who is Presbyterian and a Calvinist and the Catholic writer Henry Allen and I like hearing what I'm hearing today about some of them just the good talking about how you know Aquinas can be a good Calvinist and how maybe you know you look at at Calvin as being a protesting Catholic who you know thought real well but there's a nice a nice relationship that is named okay I tell this that's a thing I'd like to I'd like to one thing see you know happen more it's not many pads up the same mountain somebody's writing somebody's wrong I don't know anybody it was both a Calvinist in good standing and a Catholic of good standing at the same time because Calvinism is a protest movement which defines itself by rejecting certain Catholic doctrines so you can't both reject and accept the same thing at the same time you can say Thank You Calvin for your emphasis on the sovereignty of God we need that Thank You Calvin for your insight into predestination it's profoundly true Thank You Calvin for your moral seriousness we should imitate you there but you can't say Thank You Calvin for your rejection of the church as the of Babylon and being Catholic it's an either/or I'd like though when I clean now about Calvinism Catholic to being friend obeyed friends absolutely men talking would be tassel early and and not trying like for me I love now the caramel on okay I just love the player so happy but though it's been a different term lights are different you know why you love them because they love Jesus so much yeah and you do feel yeah so you recognize spiritual sisters there yeah and that is more and more a new humanism than sitting around the conference table and discussing doctrine it's that's essential but it's got to start by loving each other because if you don't do that of the awful fallen and that is happening now not that much progress isn't made theologically humanism put an enormous amount of human progress as they've made 50 years when I was a kid almost all Calvinist Oh Catholics going to hell and all Catholics all Calvinists are going to hell and the bad vast majority of both sides say extensive particulars error we were wrong repent of that as the enormous progress instead of blocking off each other's heads in the name of Christ and then we jump into hell we're now listening to each other with love and respect that's the enormous progress is my understanding that Christ what before associating with the marginalized he came for opening suitors and yet I had always thought but liar you can tell that they are reflect by the righteousness or parent righteousness of their light prosperity and the marginal lives now are not alike that's a whole non Calvinist believe that's a lie I never met a Calvinist to believe that if you practice the work ethic and therefore a bridge that proved that you were one of God's elected we're going to heaven I never heard a CalPERS to believe in and yet all about Cal was say oh that's how an ism it's that it's the religious excuse for capitalism I'm sorry that's why we're told that it may be that's was true in Europe it's certainly not true in America that's a perversion tough is not that stupid he was libeled well it's better than atheist a deist is by definition somebody who believes in at least a God was absent if not a God is present nature and nature's God who created the universe and designed it alright that's a start that's a thick slice of God go thicker into the sandwich there's even better meat inside should on that based on statistics the virus going they just was more spiritual well that's heresy that's Gnosticism that was the most popularity in the early church and the most destructive although these people might not agree with the Fawcett behind it Gnosticism is essentially the idea that what God wants of a whole is that you should be more spiritual that is less material less concerned with the body and matter and more inward and more spiritual that sounds good at first but when you come to think of it it's not only heresy but it's horribly destructive because according to Bible the most the most evil being in all of existence is purely spiritual he's both Satan on the other hand all of matter is good according to God himself and created it it's a good good good we can't blame matter for any of our sins if it's into the flesh because corpses don't sit they've got matter if they don't going to sold so all sin comes from the soul up through the body so I'm sorry they're wrong and their motive is also usually wrong I think because if your spiritual instead of religious that almost always is for one reason you don't like the church's morality you don't like a moral law to be imposed upon you against your will and condemn you as a sinner if you disobey but if your spiritual then you're like the artist and your artworks go up to heaven and done smiles and you create incense from your soul and it fills the nostrils of receptive heaven and there's no one well that's a very comfortable religion because all the kicks and none of the inconveniences but that's not the reality reality always has hard corners there's always a right road in a rural road and all the sincerity in the world and all the spirituality in the world will not get you to the Pacific Ocean if you walk east however sincere you are and no spirituality and good intention in the world will never get you to an odd number simply by adding up even numbers no matter how far you go so the physical world has hard edges and the mental world had has hard edges why shouldn't the world of God have hard edges if it's real so there's a wrong and right those who prefer spirituality to religion don't believe that so that's it that's faith so I'm not terribly upset by that because it's so silly and so flaky betting at last it can take a lot of people down and harm a lot of souls yes but it's it's not that the strong force that's going to be a formidable opponent to Christianity is your church it's not the last thank you [Applause] thank you all for coming don't forget to check out the table on the way back and I'm not sure if you'll be around for a brief discussion Pat and thanks again happy afternoon

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Keywords: Aquinas College, lecture, catholic studies, Peter Kreeft, St. Thomas Aquinas Week, education, liberal arts, speakers

Id: Yq4A0vf4eeI

Length: 96min 25sec (5785 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2010