G.K . Chesterton The Apostle of Common Sense - The Universe and Other Little Things

perhaps we are in Eden still it is only our eyes that have changed where are you going in there what for I have some business what's the matter can't you admit what you're doing I really want to go in there do you yeah actually I do but why why don't you tell us just share why do you want to go in there why do you need to know come on admit it just admit it okay okay I admit it I'm going in there to sign a contract because I bought a house a house you're buying a house don't you know what you're doing don't you know what these builders are trying to do the builders are draining the swamp the swamp that's right don't you know that that swamp is the only habitat in three states for the gluten II slug then what the good nice lager don't you know what they're doing they're gonna upset the ecological balance of Mother Earth and why just to build a few houses that's why with all due respect to the slug my husband and I also need a place to live we need a new house because we're going to have a baby what is the proper attitude towards the earth before we answer that question let's ask a bigger question what is the proper attitude towards the universe GK Chesterton says that we can only take a sample of the universe and that sample even if it be a handful of dust we'll always assert the magic of itself and a hint of the magic of all things the proper attitude towards the universe is astonishment it is also the natural attitude in fact Chesterton says astonishment at the universe is not mysticism but a transcendental common sense why are we astonished at the universe not because it's big that's not a good enough reason in fact that's no reason at all if something needs sighs in order to be significant it means that it really isn't significant the largeness of the universe doesn't even really mean anything because the universe is unique there's no other universes to compare it to it may seem large to us but then so does an elephant seem large to us but the reason we like elephants is not because they're large but because they're cute they have that irresistible elephantine appeal they're slow and they're thoughtful and they can do interesting things with their noses Chesterton says he likes the universe not because its vast but because it's cozy it's just the right size Chesterton finds that he's rather fond of the universe when were fond of something we often address it in the diminutive and there's a certain charm and sweetness and good humor in calling an elephant by the name of tiny and there's no reason why we cannot address this dear thing the universe in the diminutive Chesterton says he's often done just that in the universe didn't seem to mind science says Chesterton boasts of the distance of its stars of the terrific remoteness of the things of which it has to speak but poetry and religion always insist upon the proximity the almost menacing closeness of the things with which they are concerned it is the thing closest to us that is most mysterious we may scale the heavens and find new stars innumerable but there is still the one star we have not found that one on which we were born the earth is that strange undiscovered star on which we were born the earth like the universe can also be appreciated for its smallness it can be loaned because it's cozy it's just the right size and Chesterton says the way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost that is how we should love this little thing the earth there is a term to describe loving what is small and fragile the reverence for what is weak about the things that cling in corners the term is chivalry sounds romantic but romance is the root of religions as Chesterton and the root of the word romance is Rome and Chesterton says the deepest reality of life is illustrated best in the old romance of chivalry merrily sent forth by an authority that is good by King Arthur or a fairy godmother into a world that is wonderful that contains dangers and temptations like dragons and wizards he sent upon a quest or trial but as he is judged by the same authority that sent him forth that is the story at the heart of all healthy life in literature and it is quite true that people who are healthy and sometimes act on it without arguing it out but if they do argue without they will find it implies certain dogmas is that there is a design but it is a benevolent design but that it does allow a free will and makes the good a matter of choice there are those who think they can hold that healthy romance forever merely by being healthy and without holding any of the dogmas that justify but they are more and more finding out their mistake when they are asked to state what they really don't believe about life they become desperately vague and they have now reached the point where it is not only more and more difficult to state agreed but even more and more difficult to tell the story while we're on this subject of chivalry and appreciating things in their smallness rescuing wonderful things from terrible things I really should take the opportunity to point out that this fits right in with Chesterton social and economic ideas known as distributism and that among the small things that we should be protecting our family-owned businesses and for that matter of families I should take the opportunity to point this out but I'm not going to instead I'm going to come back to earth what should be our relationship with the earth what exactly should be our relationship with nature this is a very important question and most people unfortunately answer it wrong and answering this question wrong is what throws the whole environmental movement out of whack G K Chesterton however gives us the right answer to that question he explains that nature is not our mother nature is our sister because we both have the same father we can be proud of her beauty we can laugh at her and love her and watch out for her but she has no authority over us to talk of the purpose of nature is to make a vain attempt to avoid being anthropomorphic nearly by being feminist it is believing in a goddess because you are too skeptical to believe in a god this is why Chesterton maintains that what some of us call nature the wiser of us call creation nature cannot have a purpose only creation can have a purpose so to Chesterton argues that creation is a work of art in which case there must be an artist he also says it's a story in which case there must be a storyteller if the earth is just an accident if nature is nothing but a drift and a Darwinian drift at that then we face one of two conclusions neither of which is very savory but both of which are already evident in the modern world human morality in a godless mechanical universe leads to one of two extremes either to a mindless humanitarianism or a heartless anti humanitarianism either the natural world must absolutely dominate us and we serve it or we must absolutely dominate the natural world and it merely serves us in the one case as Chesterton will reach the point where more and more we must keep our hands off everything not ride horses not pick flowers not disturb the sleep of birds even by coughing the ultimate apotheosis would appear to be that of a man sitting quite still not daring to stir for fear of disturbing a fly nor to eat for fear of encoding a microbe and under this scenario he points out there is no ability even to debate these things because we also must not disturb a man's mind even by argument on the other hand he says we might unconsciously evolve along the opposite development the one described by Nietzsche where everything is used up for our pleasure with Superman crushing Superman in one tower of tyrants until the universe is smashed up for fun here is Chesterton over a hundred years ago predicting the two extremes that we see today in the environmental debate one side going overboard saying that the earth must not be touched that any human action is a blemish on the beautiful skin of Mother Nature that the natural world would be perfect if there were just no people in it and the other side sneering and snarling and singing pulled out another log on the fire you know that we can all have whatever we want as much as we want whenever we want it for as long as we want it nature's a bottomless well a bottomless oil well Chesterton's solution to these two extremes sounds suspiciously like common sense he suggests that maybe we should have some balanced proper proportion or his words a certain amount of restraint and respect combined with a certain amount of energy and mastery if our life is ever really as beautiful as a fairy tale we shall have to remember that all the beauty of a fairy tale lies in this that the prince has a wonder which stops just short of being fear if he is afraid of the giant there is an end of him but also if he is not astonished the giant there is an end of the fairy tale the whole point depends upon his being at once humble enough to wonder and haughty enough to defy so our attitude to the giant of the world must not merely be increasing delicacy or increasing contempt it must be one particular proportion of the tool which is exactly right we must have in us enough reverence to all things outside us to make us tread fearfully on the grass we must also have enough disdain for things outside us to make us on occasion spit at the Stars yet these two things if we are to be good or happy must be combined we're not in any combination but in one particular combination the perfect happiness of men on the earth if it ever comes will not be a flattened solid thing like the satisfaction of animals there it will be an exact in perilous balance like that of a desperate romance men must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them 100 years after Chesterton wrote these words another writer came along who echoes Chesterton's thoughts exactly the believer recognizes the wonderful result of God's creative activity which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs material or otherwise while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation if this vision is lost we end up either considering nature and untouchable taboo or on the contrary abusing it neither attitude is consonant with the Christian vision of nature as the fruit of God's creation who wrote those words Pope Benedict the sixteenth in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate a the world doesn't understand the earth the problem is not that we neglect science but that we neglect God the world doesn't understand the earth because the world has forgotten God the earth is not even earth without heaven as a landscape is not a landscape without the sky and in a universe without God there is not enough room for man in a universe without God there is not enough room for man this is an amazing insight from Chesterton and it explains one of the most baffling things about the environmental movement which is it's strange hatred of people the idea that humans are the enemy of the earth and must be prevented from inhabiting it especially those humans who are not quite yet born Chesterton points out that everyone holding this philosophy ought really to apologize for being alive again Pope Benedict's encyclical reflects Chesterton's ideas and addresses this strange inconsistency among the environmentalists if there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death if human conception gestation and birth are made artificial if human embryos are sacrificed to research the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and along with it that of environmental ecology it is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves this is why Chesterton could say very prophetically among the cosmic Creed's Catholicism is the only one that is entirely on the side of life the environmentalists are trying to restore paradise but the problem is sinned which causes them to miss the point of what they are doing the denial of sin leaves them with a very disturbing idea of morality a certain sort of humanitarianism or horror of cruelty is almost the only form of morality left among some of the modern moralists there is scarcely anything else they will consent to call a sin unless it be a sin against the hunted wolf or a crushed cockroach but Chesterton avoids the other extreme as well no it is not that the world is a relation that we throw it away it is exactly when the whole world of stars is a jewel like the jewels we have lost that we remember the price and we look up in this dim thicket and see the price which was the death of God sin is the problem that destroys the earth all creation groans under the fall Chesterton with his mystical vision shows us that the earth the Stars the whole universe is a precious jewel that has been bought with a price and that price is the death of God and he says that the only way to return to the Garden of Eden is the way of the Cross in all his writings in all of his debates Chesterton is always trying to correct what he calls the stale trick of taking things for granted because it is not even taking them for granted it's taking them without gratitude and that is emphatically not granted the universe is not astonishing if we are not here to be astonished at it it isn't any good for anything unless there's someone to appreciate it we defile God's creation when we do not appreciate it when we do not see that it is good when we do not put things in their right order when we listen to the snake sin has brought disorder into creation sin has removed us from paradise Chesterton says the point of the story of Satan is not that he revolted against being in hell but that he revolted against being in heaven and the point about Adam is not that he was discontented with the conditions of the earth but that he was discontented with the conditions of the earthly paradise he who has gone back to the beginning and seen everything is quaint and new we'll always see things in their right order the one depending on the other in degree of purpose and importance the poker for the fire and the fire for the man and the man for the glory of God our dependence is not on the earth our dependence is on God we can thank God for the earth as we thank him for all his good things we take care of the earth not because we love the earth but because we love God who created the earth and we love our neighbor who shares the earth with us we work to make sure that the air is clean that the waters are not polluted because we love our neighbor and that includes our neighbors who have not yet been born I'm Dale Alquist please join us again for the apostle of common sense and please support the American Chesterton Society help us make common sense more common

Channel: Holy Khan

Views: 10,407

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Keywords: G.K. chesteron, The Apostle of Common Sense, environmentalism, capitalism, Rerum Novarum, Common sense, Dale Ahlquist, Nietzsche, universe

Id: isnKqiuZ7Dk

Length: 23min 16sec (1396 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 18 2011