tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44193614042821243242024-03-28T14:51:44.903-04:00The True PhilosophyAn Exposition of the Catholic Christian Universe Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-14457434052383147432024-01-21T08:02:00.000-05:002024-01-21T08:02:50.682-05:00The Nature of Material Beings<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Nature of Material Beings</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">By Jim J. McCrea</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The traditional Catholic stance on material beings is known as the *hylomorphic doctrine* This states that all physical things consist of prime matter combined with substantial form.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now this has been dismissed in the modern world as antiquated and medieval in light of modern scientific knowledge. This modern scientific knowledge demonstrates that physical things have subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, and often consist of systems.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We can address this objection by </span><span style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a style="animation-name: none !important; color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;">updating the hylomorphic doctrine to take into account modern science. With this, we can start off by saying that matter is a thing's parts, whereas form is the arrangement, distribution and interconnectivity of those parts in three dimensional space. With this, form is something deeper than mere shape.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For example consider a computer. The matter of a computer is its chips of memory, central processor, etc. - and its form is how they are put together. But matter and form have several levels in this. Consider an element of the matter (or part) of a computer: its processor. That processor itself has matter and form. The matter of it is the individual transistors that constitute it (and other things), and its form is the connection and arrangement of all those transistors (with the other things).</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now each transistor has matter and form. Its matter is the silicon, phosphorous, and boron atoms, etc. and its form is how they are arranged and connected in the atomic lattice. We can go deeper and deeper. Atoms consist of electrons, protons, and neutrons, and protons and neutrons consist of quarks.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What if there are more undiscovered levels deeper? What is at the bottom? That would be *prime matter.* What is prime matter? Prime matter is *mere* existence - it merely exists and nothing else. If it were not mere existence and had some attribute in addition to that, it would need form to explain that attribute, which would also have matter, so it would not be at the bottom.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now prime matter cannot exist on its own. If prime matter is mere existence, there is nothing that is mere existence on its own. It must always be combined with some form to constitute a real physical thing. For it to be real, it must have some attribute. Prime matter is substratum, not a being in itself.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Prime matter cannot be discovered in a particle accelerator for it is not a physical reality that can be scientifically analyzed, but is a *metaphysical* principle. Form itself is a metaphysical principle, for the physical sciences only investigates the matter of things, and what is immediately adjacent to particular items of matter (form is often modeled mathematically, but that model is not the same as the form. The map is not the territory) Form bespeaks of intelligibility which is a transcendental principle. It is a holistic reality that can only be grasped by an intellect.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">With this, to ultimately explain physical reality we require metaphysics.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">--------</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p>Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-50302735895122577222022-04-14T09:30:00.001-04:002022-04-17T16:46:40.624-04:00The Metaphysical Intuition of Being<div style="text-align: left;"> </div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>The Metaphysical Intuition of Being</span><br /><span><br /></span><span>By Jim J. McCrea</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Metaphysics is the science of being as such. It is the study of being in its mo</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">st abstract and general features. It investigates what is common to all being, and studies the major categories of being (I am not talking about New Age metaphysics here, which is something else).</span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">A correct metaphysics is vital for the Church and society because bad philosophy, held by most people today, is at the root of all their problems. Good philosophy is the corrective to that. Now it may be affirmed that the problem with society is the falling away from Christianity - that so many people do not have the Faith.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, the Faith cannot take root in a mind that has erroneous ideas about reality. For example, if one holds that God is the universe, it would not make sense that God would come into a sinful world to save it; if one thinks that the only meaningful truth is that which can be detected by the senses and investigated by scientific instruments (with its mathematical methods), that would exclude God or anything else spiritual.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now the pinnacle of philosophy is *metaphysics,* which we have stated is the science of being as such. This reformation of thought in the public does not necessitate that the general public understand metaphysics, but that only certain key players do. These players, in strategic positions, would influence many other intellectuals and philosophers in particular fields (such as ethics, politics, and education), and be an enlightener and corrective of their thought. These intellectuals and philosophers would in turn, by their talks and publications, influence the general public in the truth of things. When people in general have truth, and they embrace it, goodness and then religion flourishes.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now back to metaphysics. What is the basic ability of mind that makes metaphysics possible for the metaphysician? It is the *metaphysical intuition of being* (or the intuition of being as such). The metaphysical intuition of being is the ability to see the essence of being itself; to know what it means to be an *IS.* This is not merely the perception of phenomena, which everyone is capable of, but is the ability to perceive being as being with the intellect. This is not a technique or a form of analysis but is a simple and direct seeing by the mind. It is absolutely simple; superhumanly simple. And it is this metaphysical intuition of being that is essential to the metaphysician.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most philosophers do not have the metaphysical intuition of being. And this is evident when they attempt to understand the nature of being or reality in its deepest aspects. Without the metaphysical intuition of being, in attempting to analyze being, the philosopher goes down a rabbit hole and gets entangled in numerous paradoxes and difficulties without resolution. Many philosophical errors and difficulties have occurred in the history of philosophy because of this. For example, Kant claimed that we cannot know things in themselves but only their impressions on our senses and on our minds. For example, for Kant, when we see a telephone, we are not viewing a being called a telephone but merely a sense impression called a telephone. But the metaphysical intuition of being would have corrected this in Kant if he were able to perceive the "beingness" of the telephone.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">The metaphysical intuition of being is the core habit of the metaphysician because the process of metaphysics is simply an action of grasping one intuition after another, linked by logical inferences. What one is intuiting, in the process of doing metaphysics, is being with its properties. For example, the metaphysician, by observing reality, can see that being has transcendental properties of unity, truth, goodness, and beauty. These belong to all beings in their *integrity.* These transcendental properties of being are so much a part of all integral beings that they are literally other names for being.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Now the metaphysician, if he is successful, is able to communicate his intuitions about being to other minds, by a craft and the "magic" of word use - that is, transfer his intuitions to another. In this way, the proper understanding of reality, which comes from a correct metaphysics, when it is made widespread, can foster goodness in society and a mind-set that is open to the Gospel.</span><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><div><div id="m_4029175172891005570gmail-m_-7515640154985133745gmail-jsc_c_5" style="padding: 4px 16px;"><div style="display: flex;"><div style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: left;"><span dir="auto" style="display: block; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><div style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">** When I say being in its integrity I am talking about good beings. Evil is simply the absence of what is due in something. Evil is a fact, but it is not a being.</span></div></div></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yj6qo"></div><div class="adL"></div><div class="adL"><div style="border-radius: 0px 0px 8px 8px; overflow: hidden;"><div><div style="color: #1c1e21;"><div><div><div style="display: flex; line-height: 1.3333; margin: 0px 16px; padding: 10px 0px;"><div style="display: flex; overflow: hidden;"><span aria-label="See who reacted to this" role="toolbar"><span id="m_4029175172891005570gmail-m_-7515640154985133745gmail-jsc_c_8" style="display: flex; padding-left: 4px;"><span style="border-radius: 11px; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 18px; width: 18px;"><span style="border-radius: 9px; display: inline-block; height: 18px; width: 18px;"><span style="display: inherit; height: inherit; max-height: inherit; max-width: inherit; min-height: inherit; min-width: inherit; width: inherit;"><div aria-label="Like: 1 person" role="button" style="border-radius: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-flex; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div></span></span></span></span></span></div></div></div><div style="margin-left: 12px; margin-right: 12px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; padding: 4px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; padding: 6px 2px;"><div aria-label="Send this to friends or post it on your timeline." role="button" style="border-radius: inherit; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-flex; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit;"><div style="border-radius: 4px; opacity: 0;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 4px;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></div></div></div></div></div>Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-68340658518996120052022-04-14T09:19:00.000-04:002022-04-14T09:19:27.665-04:00The Heresy of Uniformitarianism<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The Heresy of Uniformitarianism</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">By Jim J. McCrea</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Uniformitarianism states that all things always have and always will operate according to the same laws and principles.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>Mainstream science sees all things through the lens of u</span><span>niformitarianism. This is the basis of all evolution, both biological and cosmic. Space exploration that studies the nature of planets is based upon this as they attempt to understand why the planets are the way they are due to supposed billions of years of formation.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>We have to understand that u</span><span>niformitarianism is a philosophical supposition rather than an empirically derived finding. It is through this supposition that much mainstream science operates.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><span>Uniformitarianism</span><span> is also a very powerful conditioning of the human mind as it attempts to understand the events of every day life. It is supposed by the human mind, not illuminated by divine grace, that things will continue the way they are indefinitely: that if there is a deterioration in life, that it will continue, and the same financial principles will continue to operate, seeing catastrophe as the end game in certain circumstances. </span></span><span>Despair and suicide are often the result of foreseeing catastrophe. This is based upon the supposition that laws, principles, and trajectories must of necessity head in the same direction at all times. There may be a lack of faith in divine intervention and the fact that God is in control and always provides for those who trust Him.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><span>Many Catholics are absolutely certain that the Catholic Church is wrong in many of Her teachings, and that happiness and safety can only come from defying them. For example, t</span></span><span>he widespread use of contraceptives, even among Catholics who know Church teaching, is based on faith in uniformitarianism, as the couple surmises their physical strength, financial, material, and medical situations, and presume that they will always continue as before, leading to a crash unless they contracept. Much abortion is based upon the same thing - the idea that a disaster is inevitable unless the baby is aborted.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>The heresy of u</span><span>niformitarianism can also be the basis of people not having the courage to act or speak out against what is wrong because they see due to the current political climate, doing so will result in disaster for themselves. Such belief in </span><span>u</span><span>niformitarianism is contrary to belief in divine providence and power.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>The martyrs were a powerful witness against u</span><span>niformitarianism. Often the tortures inflicted by the oppressors far exceed natural human tolerance. But God gives the martyr the grace to understand that his usual human weaknesses will not be operative when the trial comes, and no matter what is inflicted he will be able to endure it. This is why, when the trial comes, the martyr must pray fervently and trustingly for strength. For this strength is normally granted in response to prayer.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The entire Bible is a testimony against uniformitarianism, as time and time again the normal laws of nature were suspended to bring about a desired outcome, from the Creation, to the myriad of miracles in it, to the Resurrection of Christ. That is why it is recommended that you read the Bible, or as they say "get the Word into you." That powerfully deprograms the mind of uniformitarianism. This deprogramming expels fear and builds trust in God.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-72625577795478147972018-08-09T15:34:00.001-04:002018-08-09T15:34:39.619-04:00Believers in Logos vs. Believers in Flux<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Believers in Logos vs. Believers in Flux</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Those who believe in logos believe in the fixed essences of things: the essence of a cat, a dog, a tree, a house, and the essence of male and female.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Those who believe in flux, hold things differently. They believe that all reality is simply a stream of phenomena that impacts the senses. Thus reality is a flux or a flow. They deny fixed essences.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There is a vast difference of moral beliefs between the adherents of logos and that of flux. With those who believe in logos, fixed essences of things means that there is objective good and evil, and objective truth and falsehood, as good is that which facilitates the proper essences of things and evil is that which violates them. These are the *traditionalists.* With those who believe in flux, morality is relative and changing and depends upon circumstances. Their judgment of the good is based not the integrity of things in their essences, but on the pleasure or the pain that a given stream of phenomena gives them. Of course they have a dictum that one should not do something if it harms someone else, but that is only because harming someone else can bring blowback and pain to oneself. These latter are the *progressives.*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We can see this concretely in what believers in logos vs. believers in flux adhere to in the realm of morality. The believers in logos hold to traditional morality, because traditional morality honors the essences of things - particularly the essences of man, woman, and God. The believers in flux hold to things such as sex outside of marriage, gay marriage, freedom for abortion, doctor assisted suicide, gender fluidity, etc. We can give some examples of why this is so. As believers in flux, they tend to think that that which impacts the senses most strongly has the most reality and that which brings the most pleasure has the most goodness. As a result, believers in flux in the Catholic Church (the modernists) wish to dispense with the discipline of priestly celibacy (because the great pleasure of sex is considered a great good), and also at the same time ignore abortion as a problem (because the unborn have little impact on the senses, being hidden in the mother's womb, so it is considered that they have little reality). But believers in logos hold that a thing is what it is, independent of its impact on us, and it is reason guided by supernatural faith (divine reason) that must judge the goodness or evil of that which is presented to our senses. And this goodness or evil, is determined by whether something facilitates or violates the proper essence of a thing (particularly the essence of the human person).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Believers in flux most often do not believe in the existence of the traditional God (transcendent, infinite, and almighty). This is because they hold that the flux is simply a given and do not enquire into its ultimate cause (they may enquire into causes, but only in how one element of phenomena relates to another, in isolated bits, not its ultimate underlying cause). As a result, they reject the metaphysical principles of identity, non-contradiction, and sufficient reason (after all, they do not want pesky rules of reality getting in the way of what they desire in life and their liberty of mind). But believer in logos hold that if there is an intelligible essence, there must be an ultimate intelligent cause for that. Only the believers in logos properly use their reason.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To hold to flux ultimately tends to hell, because flux without logos is simply chaos (it is just a stream of phenomena without an ultimate underlying order to it). But to hold to logos is to tend to heaven because logos is ultimate order, and heaven is supreme order and harmony.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Logos (capital 'L') is Jesus Christ, who gave us the law through His Catholic Church. He is the right order of the universe. He is the ultimate reason and logic of reality. He is the form of the true, the good, and the beautiful. Only in accepting Him and doing His will, as taught by the authentic Magisterium of the Catholic Church, do we find salvation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Those who believe in flux might believe in Jesus, but it is a Jesus of flux (fuzzy feel goods), not Jesus the Logos.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span> </span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-61580807761270118562015-05-31T16:06:00.000-04:002015-05-31T16:08:37.142-04:00Reflection for Trinity Sunday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Reflection for Trinity Sunday</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">---------------------</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Although the Trinity is a mystery, I would not say that it is true that there is no way we can know how three persons can exist in one God. The key is given by the early Church Fathers. According to them, the persons are distinguished by their relations of origin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The only difference between the Father and the Son is that the Father begets and the Son is begotten. In all other respects they are the same. This is unlike human fatherhood in which there are a whole host of differences between father and son besides the fact that the father begets his son. God is absolute simplicity in that He has no composition of parts or attributes. In the Trinity, Father and Son have this absolute simplicity in distinction in simply that one is the Father and the other is the Son (they are not physical bodies related by space and position which would introduce complexity). Similarly, the only difference between the Holy Spirit and the Father and the Son is that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and not the other way around.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">As a result, the persons are distinguished not by what they are but by where they come from. What they are is one and the same, therefore, they are one God. But there is a real distinction in their relations which are the individual persons. When the Father begets the Son, He is not generating another thing or another being (or another substance), but is generating His own being in the relation of being begotten. Similarly, when the Holy Spirit proceeds it is not another being proceeding, but is the same being in the relation of proceeding. God is one being in three relations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">When I was younger, I strained to understand how three persons can exist in one God. My Father (unfamiliar with the explanation of the Church Fathers), said that only in heaven will we know how that is possible. I thought we were being asked to accept a contradiction. Many years ago I first read the explanation in St. Augustine's "The Trinity." It was a huge "Ah Ha" moment for me. It was Gregory of Nyssa who first came up with the explanation shortly before St. Augustine. From what I read, he received it in private revelation from the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Apostle. It seems as if the explanation is too simple and profound for man to come up with unaided.</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-49095404876920799712014-12-23T19:52:00.004-05:002014-12-23T19:52:51.866-05:00Four Principles of Providence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Four Principles of Providence<br /> ------------------------------------<br /><br /><br /><br /> Taken from<br /> Holy Abandonment<br /> By: Dom Vitalis Lehodey<br /> -------------------------------<br /><br /><br /> The Lord tells us by the Prophet Isaias that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and that as the heavens are exalted above the earth so are His ways above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts (Is. 55, 8-9). Hence it comes about that Providence is very often misunderstood by the man of weak faith and imperfect mortification. We now proceed to specify four immediate causes of such misunderstandings.<br /><br /> 1. Providence remains in the shadow so as to give us the opportunity and the merit of exercising our faith, whereas we want to see. God hides Himself behind secondary causes; the more these become manifest, the less does He appear. Without Him they can do nothing, they could not even exist. We know this well enough. And nevertheless, instead of ascending to Him, we make the mistake of confining our attention to the external phenomenon, agreeable or otherwise, and more or less enveloped in mystery. He does not enlighten us as to the particular end He pursues, the paths whereby He is conducting us thither, or the way already traversed. And we, far from putting blind confidence in Him, are anxious for this knowledge, and almost venture to ask Him for explanations. Would a little child be impatient to know where its mother is taking it, or why she chooses one road rather than another? Does not the patient go so far as to entrust his health, his life, the integrity of his members, to his physician or surgeon? This latter is only a man, but we have confidence in him on account of his devotion to his science and his professional skill. Should we not, then, impose infinitely more confidence in God, the almighty Physician, the incomparable Saviour? But at least when all is dark around us and we know not where we are, how we should welcome a ray of light! Ah, if we had even the assurance that this is in truth the operation of grace, and that so far all goes well! As a rule, however, it is only when the Divine Artist has completed His work that we are in a position to appreciate it. God wills us to be content with pure faith and, putting our trust in Him, to preserve our hearts in peace, despite the enveloping darkness. And this is the first cause of our misunderstandings.<br /><br /> 2. Providence has views very different from ours regarding both the end to be pursued and the means of attaining it. So long as we have not entirely renounced the spirit of the world, we desire to discover a heaven here below, or at least a path of roses conducting us to paradise. Therefore we become unduly attached to the esteem of good people, to the love of our relatives and friends, to the consolations of piety, to tranquility of soul, etc. Therefore also we feel such a repugnance for humiliations, contradictions, sicknesses, and trials of every description. Consolation and success seem to us, at least in some degree, the reward of virtue; aridity and adversity the chastisement of vice. We are astonished when we behold the sinner often prospering in this life, and the just man undone. God, on the other hand, has no intention of giving us a heaven on earth; He desires that we should merit our heaven, and as beautiful a one as possible. If the sinner is obstinately determined to ruin himself for eternity, it is necessary that he should receive in time the recompense of whatever little good he may do. With regard to the elect, their reward is reserved for them in paradise. Meanwhile, the essential thing is that they be purified and sanctified ever more and more, and made richer and richer in merits. Tribulation serves admirably as a means to these ends. God, therefore, deaf to everything but the voice of His austere and wise affection, labours to reproduce in us Jesus crucified, so that hereafter we may reign with Jesus glorified. Who does not know the Beatitudes enumerated by the Divine Master? The cross, accordingly, is the present He most willingly offers to His friends. "Look at My whole life, full of suffering," He said to St. Theresa the Elder, "and be persuaded that they whom My Father loves most dearly shall receive from Him the heaviest crosses. The measure of His love is also the measure of the suffering He sends. How could I better prove My affection for you than by desiring for you that which I desired for Myself?" Language supremely wise, yet how little understood! Here we have the second cause of our misunderstandings.<br /><br /> 3. Providence smites us severely, and poor nature complains. Our passions boil over, our pride seduces us, our wills allow themselves to be carried away. Grievously wounded by sin, we resemble one afflicted by a gangrened member. We realise clearly enough that nothing but an amputation can save us. Yet we have not the courage to carry out the operation ourselves. Therefore God, Whose love has no weakness in it, determines to render us this painful service. As a consequence, He sends us these unforeseen difficulties, this destitution, this contempt, these humiliations, this loss of external goods, this illness which is wasting our strength. All are the instruments wherewith He binds and squeezes the diseased member, strikes on the sound part, wounds and cuts to the quick. Nature cries out in pain. But God pays no heed, because this severe treatment is necessary for our cure and the preservation of our lives. Those tribulations which come to us from outside are sent as a remedy for the evil within us: to restrain our liberty that is so apt to wander, and to bridle the passions that carry us away. We have here the reason why God permits obstacles to our designs to appear from every quarter, why He ordains that our employments should be so full of troubles, that we can never enjoy the peace we so long for, that our superiors are so often opposed to our desires. This also explains why our nature is subject to so many infirmities, why our occupations are so tiresome, why men seem so unjust and so annoyingly variable in temper. We have to endure assaults on every side from a thousand different opponents, so that our wills, only too free, being thus exercised, harassed, and exhausted, may at last detach themselves from themselves, and for the future have no other desire except to be conformed to the will of God. But our wills refuse so to die to themselves, and this is the third cause of our misunderstandings.<br /><br /> 4. Providence sometimes employs means which disconcert us. The judgments of God are incomprehensible. We can neither penetrate their motives nor recognise the ways whereby He chooses to bring them to effect. "God begins by annihilating those whom He entrusts with any enterprise. Death is the ordinary way by which He leads to life. Nobody understands the road on which he is travelling." Neither do we understand how the divine action will turn to the advantage of souls. It seems to us not seldom to tend in the opposite way. But let us adore the sovereign wisdom which has disposed all things most perfectly. Let us be convinced that even what appear to be obstacles shall serve it as means, and that from the evils it permits it will be able to draw the good it has invariably in view, viz., the glory of God through the progress of the Church and the salvation and sanctification of souls.<br /><br /> Consequently, if we look at the question in the light of God we shall be forced to the conclusion that very often in this world what are called evils are not really such, nor is everything good which appears so to us. There are failures wherewith Providence blesses us, and there are successes which it sends us in punishment of our faults. <br /><br /> Of the countless examples on record, let us cite just a few. God promised to make Abraham the father of a great people, and that all nations should be blest in his seed. And then He commanded him to immolate the son through whom this promise would have to be fulfilled! Had He forgotten His word? Certainly not. But He willed to put to the test the faith of His servant, designing at the proper moment to stay his hand. He purposes to make the kingdom of the Pharaos subject to Joseph, and begins by abandoning him to the malice of his brethren. The poor boy was thrown into a well, led into Egypt, sold as a slave, then languished many years in prison. His career seemed to be ruined beyond hope. And yet it was through this series of calamities that God conducted him to his glorious destiny. Gideon was miraculously chosen to deliver his country from the yoke of the Madianites. He assembled a hastily levied army, which scarcely amounted to a fourth of the opposing force. But instead of increasing the numbers, the Lord dismissed nearly all. He retained only three hundred, and arming these with trumpets and lamps in earthen pitchers, He led them forth to what seemed more likely to be a butchery than a battle. And yet with this unpromising host He won for His people an astonishing and decisive victory. But let us leave the Old Testament.<br /><br /> After the triumph on Palm Sunday, Our Lord was betrayed, arrested, abandoned, denied, judged, condemned, buffeted, scourged, crucified, robbed of His reputation. Was it thus God the Father secured to His Son the nations of the earth as His inheritance? Hell was triumphant and all seemed lost. Nevertheless, it was precisely through this apparent defeat that Christ victoriously achieved our salvation. Again, He chose what was weak to confound the strong. With a dozen fishermen, ignorant and unknown, He went forth to conquer the world. They could do nothing of themselves, but He was with them. During three centuries He permitted His Church to be exposed to violent persecution, which indeed, according to the prophetic word, shall never wholly cease; but so far from being destroyed by the rage of her enemies, she was rather invigorated. The blood of martyrs has always been the seed of Christians, and it is so still, even in our own times. In vain the impiety of philosophers and the sophistries of heresiarchs endeavoured to extinguish the lights of heaven: their efforts only served to render the faith more definite and luminous. The kings and nations of the earth raged "against the Lord and against His Christ" (Acts 4:26), Who neverthelesss was their real support; but in His own good time the Son of the Carpenter, the Galilean, always victorious, has brought His persecutors down to the dust and cited their souls to His judgment seat. Whilst a never-ceasing succession of revolutions shake and convulse the world, the cross alone remains standing, luminous and indestructible, above the ruins of thrones and empires.<br /><br /> There are still other means, unlikely means, which God chooses to save a people, or to stir the multitudes, or to establish religious institutes. He once exercised in this way wonderful mercy in favour of the kingdom of France: in order to save it from total and imminent ruin, He raised up, not powerful armies, but an innocent child, a poor shepherdess, and it was by means of this feeble instrument He delivered Orleans, and brought the king in triumph to Rheims, where he was to be crowned. In quite recent times, He aroused whole nations by the voice of the Cure of Ars, a humble country priest, with but little resources apart from his sanctity.<br /><br /><br /><br />---------------------------</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-37583352037837269612014-09-30T15:07:00.000-04:002014-09-30T15:07:59.010-04:00Reconciling Man's Free Will with God's Sovereignty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">God's sovereignty means that God is omnipotent and has control over every detail of creation and does in fact control every detail of creation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Now Calvinism generally claims that this rules out man's free will, for if man were free to decide this or that, it would take away from God's controlling power since it would be a human being deciding in a given situation rather than God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Is there a way to reconcile the free will of man with God's sovereignty so that there is no conflict between the two, in which a human being can decide a given thing yet God is in total control?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">I would say yes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">One thing that we have to know is that God is not simply another being along side of us (much greater than us of course) in a kind of competition with us, in the flow of time with us, where one player takes away from the action of the other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Rather, God is the infinite ground of being itself - the sheer act of being - outside of time - from which all other beings derive their own existence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">God being outside of time is crucial to this. He is present to all times and to all things of all time, all at once. Everything in existence, for all time, is simply "now" for Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Another thing that is necessary to this thesis of reconciling man's free will with God's sovereignty is a given idea of His omniscience. This goes beyond God knowing all things that are actual. It is God knowing all that is possible - that is, knowing all that could possibly happen or exist, and all that would happen under all possible circumstances.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Of course God knows the free-will choices of all creatures for all time, but one of the deepest mysteries of God's omniscience, that theologians discuss, is that God knows how a given rational creature (created personal being) would choose even if a situation that would elicit a choice were not presented to that creature, and even how any creature that could possibly exist but was not created would choose in any given situation. For example, God would have known that Satan would have rebelled even if Satan were not created. For Satan's fall is part of the *concept* of Satan that exists even if he never had real existence. And God knows the concepts of all possible beings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Now with God knowing all possible choices of all creatures, for all time, in all possible situations, this allows Him to bring into existence a history of creation down to the finest detail, without Him first having to create anything to find out what would happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">His will to make things happen precedes anything happening at all (not in the order of time, but logically).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Out of all the infinite possibilities with its infinite branchings, God selects one logically consistent possibility and gives it real existence (logically consistent mean that a given created possibility does not have an event and its contradictory, such as an angel falling and not falling at the same time).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The free will choices of all possible creatures under all possible circumstances forms the "possibility" space that God has to work with. He selects one self consistent possibility, out of all, and brings it into reality, so that a particular universe and history are created. Another constraint is that that universe must be consistent with God's goodness. He would not have allowed a possible history to come into existence that has gratuitous evil to inflict His creatures. All evil that any creature experiences, in the reality He has brought into being, has a place in God's plan and is consistent with His love, justice, and mercy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">With this, it is not true that a creature makes a choice and then God responds with an afterthought. The creature only makes the choice because God selected that possible history with that choice in it with a view to what would be the consequence of that choice (because the consequence is part of that possible history) - not that God wills or causes the sin directly, for sin comes from the creature alone, but God *permits* the sin because that possibility (out of all) that He brought into existence includes the sin within it. Although God sees all possible sins of all creatures for all possible times, He is not the creator of the sins themselves and strictly forbids them as they are offences against Him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">We have to digress here for a moment and discuss whether God causes evil or brings evil into people's lives. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The book: </span><a href="http://www.olrl.org/snt_docs/trustful/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em> </em>(by<span class="med reg"> Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure and St. Claude de la Colombiere) holds that although God does not will sin, He does will the evils (apart from the act of sin itself) that flow from that sin, and is responsible for bringing them into people's lives with a view to the good that God wishes to bring about.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="med reg" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">From this perspective, although God does not will the sin itself (which is defined as a pure choice in the will), He does will the troubles and the tragedies that flow from that sin. This is because God takes an infinitely long view of that possible history that He has brought into actuality (seeing it before-hand). That possible history which contains the sin and the trouble or tragedy also contains the good that will come about in the long run as a result of that trouble or tragedy. Everything that God does is a function of His infinite knowledge and His infinite goodness, and any possible history that He could have brought into existence is compatible with His infinite knowledge and goodness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">It can be argued that if a thing occurs and God only responds as an afterthought, that God's plan could be destroyed or at least severely degraded. That would defeat His omnipotence and sovereignty. We can see that many things that depended upon a certain exercise of free will of creatures were necessary to God's plan. We know that in the time of test of the angels that Michael the Archangel was necessary to lead the good angels to God and salvation as Satan lead other angels to rebellion against God and to hell. And we also know how essential St. Michael is in defending us on earth against Satan and his infernal hoards. The system of St. Thomas Aquinas (died 1274) is a necessary undergirding of all sound philosophy and theology in the Catholic Church today. On the other hand, it was necessary that others choose wrongly for God's plan to be fulfilled. For example, the betrayal of Judas and the cowardice of Pilate were necessary to bring Jesus to the Cross so that He could redeem the world. But what if Michael fell along with Lucifer and what if St. Thomas succumbed to that woman that his brothers sent to tempt him? What if Judas choose to be faithful to the Lord or Pilate choose to exercise courage in refusing to condemn a man whom he knew was innocent? God choose the history out of all possibilities with those particular players (St. Michael, St. Thomas, Judas, and Pilate) and which included the free will actions that they executed which included the good that would flow from them afterwards.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Calvinists claim that God predestines people to heaven or hell. They are right, but not in the way they think. The Church rejects *positive* predestination to hell - it rejects that a person is determined to hell by God and that he could not have chosen otherwise. I would hold that a proper understanding of predestination means that God sees all the journeys of all possible creatures in all possible worlds to their final end, and that God then selects the particular history out of the infinite possibilities which includes all the paths of all the rational creatures contained in that particular history. This would not be predestination to hell in the sense condemned by the Church, because if a given human's path is to hell, it is necessary that that path include his freely chosen mortal sin and his refusal of repentance before death.</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-49380156435475113432014-08-15T17:24:00.000-04:002016-03-28T20:15:52.978-04:00The End of the World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The End of the World</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is a quote from Michael D. Obrien's book: <em>Remembrance of the Future</em>. He affirms the traditional Catholic Christian view that rejects the perfectibility of man - rejecting that man is becoming better and better through a human evolution until perfection is reached in the "Omega Point." - Jim McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Orthodoxy [right believing Christianity] maintains that the <em>eschaton</em>, the culmination of history as a climax of sin and error, will be resolved only by the interjection of the transcendent God intervening in history in an extraordinary manner. By contrast, the new theologians attempt to "immanentise the eschaton," as a purely historical process. In brushing aside consideration of the real meaning of the <em>Book of Revelation</em>, they deny that the New Jerusalem will be given by God after the devastation of the world by human folly. The New Jerusalem of neo-pagan theologians is to be created by man, here and now. This reveals an extremely optimistic view of human nature.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Chesterton, reading the despair in much of modern optimism, frequently argued against pessimism and optimism. They bore no relationship to authentic Christian hope, which must always have the courage to see things as they really are. Christian realism is apocalyptic, for it stands ever waiting and watchful for the hour when the Bridegroom [Jesus] will arrive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From the Catechism of the Catholic Church</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.<span style="color: #663300;"><sup><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM#$UO" name="-UO">573</a></sup></span> The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth<span style="color: #663300;"><sup><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM#$UP" name="-UP">574</a></sup></span> will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. the supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.<span style="color: #663300;"><sup><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM#$UQ" name="-UQ">575</a></sup></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">676 The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgement. the Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,<span style="color: #663300;"><sup><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM#$UR" name="-UR">576</a></sup></span> especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.<span style="color: #663300;"><sup><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM#$US" name="-US">577</a></sup></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.<span style="color: #663300;"><sup><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM#$UT" name="-UT">578</a></sup></span> The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.<span style="color: #663300;"><sup><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM#$UU" name="-UU">579</a></sup></span> God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.<span style="color: #663300;"><sup><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM#$UV" name="-UV">580</a></sup></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Note ** There is a conceit in Western society that holds that man is evolving and that this generation is wiser than generations past, in throwing off traditional religious and moral principles, and as a result man is fulfilling his true potential. But the reality is that he has fallen into a great darkness, with the chastisements of God which are coming which necessarily follow such apostasy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Note ** The rise of satanic evil, such as ISIS, in this present day, belies the idea of the perfectibility of man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">Also see <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/03/one-purpose-of-creation.html" target="_blank">The One Purpose of Creation</a></span></div>
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-63686003030171299992014-07-18T11:43:00.000-04:002016-03-28T20:18:18.725-04:00The Meaning of Art<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Meaning of Art</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Being (or that which exists) has <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/03/transcendental-properties-of-being.html" target="_blank">transcendental properties.</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The transcendental properties of being are so much identified with being, they are literally other names for being.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Some of these are *unity,* *truth,* *goodness,* and *beauty.*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Unity means that a thing, insofar as it has being, is one thing. It is not a disjointed multiplicity. Truth means that it is intelligible. Goodness means that it supplies for the good of other beings. And being as being is beautiful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Any uncoordinated multiplicity, unintelligibility, evil, or ugliness means that something is lacking what it should have. Those things are not other forms of being.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now this idea is connected with proper art.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With proper art we have purposeful "distortions" in form, texture, colour, and so forth, so it does not look like a "realistic" photograph.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Why is this done?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This does not to reduce the perception of the reality of the object, person, or situation, but to enhance it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This purposeful "distortion" in legitimate art enhances one or more of the transcendental properties of being, so these transcendentals shine forth with a brilliance that they would not in a photograph or by looking at it with the plain eyes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With this, the legitimate purpose of art is to, directly or indirectly, glorify God who has the transcendental properties of being to an infinite degree.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">God is infinite unity, truth, goodness, and beauty.</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-27390472640759388602014-07-06T22:57:00.000-04:002014-07-06T22:57:17.629-04:00The Doctrine of the Antichrist<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The Doctrine of the Antichrist</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The doctrine of Antichrist is not so much a set of dogmas that we would find in a religion, but is more a philosophical world-view.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The <em>spirit</em> of Antichrist is now alive and well, as this philosophy has taken hold of much of Western society, to the extent that it constitutes a kind of tyranny.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Several decades past, when traditional Judeo-Christian morality was dominant in Western society concepts had clear meanings. Now, this is no longer the case. It is considered now that one concept bleeds into another - that nothing is stable and certain, and that traditional distinctions no longer hold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">For example, it is considered that there is no solid distinction between polarities such as God and creation, spirit and matter, human and animal, intelligible and sensible, subjective and objective, male and female, marriage and cohabitation, etc.. In the religious sphere it is considered that there is no proper distinction between sacred and secular, supernatural and natural, and priest and laity</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">As far as blurring the distinction between God and creation, it is considered that there is no transcendent God who is radically distinct from creation and almighty over it. That is considered childish, and the "enlightened" stance is to hold that God is nothing but the positive energies exhibited by nature and our own inner power. God is thus to be found within by tapping our interior potentials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">There is no distinction held between body and soul and matter and spirit. Thus, training the body and the neurons is the key to spiritual enlightenment, as spirit is considered nothing but the more subtle workings of matter.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The lack of recognized distinction between human and animal allows animals an exaggerated importance to the detriment of human interests. This is connected with the perceived lack of distinction between the sensible and intelligible, as the cleverness of animals to make associations between various sense objects is considered intelligence, and it is not recognized that humans have a cognitive ability different in kind from animals in their capacity to understand abstract concepts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The lack of recognition between male and female gives rise to the emasculation of males in society and radical feminism. This feeds the tendency to not rightfully recognized homosexuality as a perversion and a deviation, but as a legitimate alternative, as it is seen that a male being drawn to a female is not essential to proper romantic or sexual attraction, but is merely incidental or accidental and such a male could just as properly be attracted to another male.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">In the religious sphere, the lack of recognition between the natural and the supernatural and the secular and the sacred, has dumbed down religious services and Masses in the Catholic Church to simply a party - and human relations, pop psychology, sociology, and political activism are preached instead of sacred doctrine and morals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">This is all done in the name of freedom and progress, as the traditional categories are seen as "static" and "rigid" and as limitations on freedom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">However, true freedom and progress require stable and absolute principles that only the traditional categories can provide - it requires the classical polarities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The necessity for limits and absolutes is explained in Msgr. Pope's article </span><a href="http://blog.adw.org/2014/07/a-4th-of-july-meditation-on-the-paradox-that-freedom-can-only-exist-within-limits/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">here</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">** End Note 1 - it is true that there are subtleties, paradoxes, and ambiguities in things and situations, but these are governed by absolute rules on a higher level.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">** End Note 2 - The obliteration of the traditional polarities is done in the name of freedom. But it is not free. In reality, it is the opposite. It is close and oppressive. </span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-22323000765651753082014-06-28T21:36:00.000-04:002014-06-28T21:36:29.738-04:00Is Your Striving For Perfection Authentic?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Is Your Striving For Perfection Authentic?<br />
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Many Christians strive for perfection, following the teaching of Jesus: "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48).<br />
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But we have to ask ourselves: is our perfection authentic or is it something we merely imagine to be perfection? What is true perfection that is pleasing to God?<br />
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We can ask: is our perfection a help and a consolation to others or is it a burden and a sorrow to others?<br />
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Jim McCrea<br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-83948833611558522732014-06-24T14:20:00.001-04:002016-03-28T20:22:11.443-04:00What is Meant by a "Mystery of the Faith"?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What is Meant by a "Mystery of the Faith"?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the past, priests and catechists talked about "the mysteries of the Faith," which we do not hear discussed much in those terms any more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This phraseology was commonly used when there was a greater sense of the supernatural - a greater sense of transcendence in the Church - and when the Mass evoked the feeling that the liturgy transported us to a higher world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What do we mean by a mystery of the Faith?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There are mysteries such as the Trinity, the union of a human nature with the person of the Son within the Trinity, the Eucharist, the Mass, divine providence, and the coincidence of the justice and the mercy of God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is commonly believed that a mystery means that we have no idea how such a thing can be - that, for example, we cannot know how three persons can exist in one God. However, from a logical perspective, we can know how such can be, as in the Church accepted explanation <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/04/concerning-trinity.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> of how three persons can exist in one God and how Jesus can be God and man at the same time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To accept mysteries of the Faith is not to accept irrationalities (and many unbelievers charge us with that when a mystery of the Faith is misunderstood). We can (in most cases) show that they logically fit together. I propose <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2014/06/how-can-jesus-fit-into-little-host.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> how Jesus can fit into the little host, and I offer my solution <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/03/resolving-evil-in-eternity.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> as to how the existence of evil is compatible with the omnibenevolence and the omnipotence of God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This does not mean that they are not mysteries. There is a very important aspect in which they cannot be grasped by the human mind on this earth. They are knowable in one respect and unknowable in another respect. They are what are termed <em>intelligible mysteries</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They are unknowable in the sense that we cannot know them as they are in themselves. But, at the same time, they are knowable because they can be understood by <em>analogy</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What does this mean?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let us look at God as God. God as God is a mystery. In this life, we do not know Him as He is in Himself (except perhaps partially by mystical illumination, not by our natural intellect). But we can know Him by analogy. When we say He is intelligent, knowledgeable, good, loving, powerful, beautiful, etc. we are applying what we experience as intellect, knowledge, goodness, love, and power, etc. to Him by analogy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">How does this work?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With analogy, two things are partly the same and partly different at the same time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let us look at the attribute of goodness that we apply to God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We call both a person good and an automobile good. But they are good in entirely different ways. A person is good for love and an automobile is good for transportation. There is a sameness between them in that they have an identical metaphysical attribute of goodness, but a difference in that the <em>modality</em> or type of goodness is different.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is the same with God. He has an identical metaphysical property of goodness with the person or the automobile, for when we say that God is good we are using a meaningful term. But the modality of God's goodness is infinitely different from the modality of goodness of the person or the car (or anything else we can know on earth). We cannot know that modality in this life. We do not know what God's goodness is in itself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But because of the identity of metaphysical goodness that runs through all things that are good, when we say that God is good we literally and truly apply that attribute to Him. Similarly, when we say that God is intelligent, knowledgeable, powerful, loving, and beautiful, we say what is literally true, even if we cannot know the modality of those attributes in God. We are applying those terms to Him by analogy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is in the analogues that we have literal knowledge of God, but it is in the modalities that He is mystery.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is the same with other teachings of the Faith such as the Trinity and the union of a human nature with a divine nature in Jesus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We say that God is one being in three persons because the persons are distinguished from each other by their <em>relations of origin</em> alone. The Son is distinguished from the Father by the mere fact that He is begotten by the Father. In all other respects they are the same. By extension, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit by the mere fact that He proceeds from the Father and the Son. If the persons are considered in themselves, apart from their relations, they are identical, hence they are one God. However, that analysis uses analogy. With that analogy, we can solve the riddle. But the Trinity is a mystery because we do not know to what the analogues apply in themselves. We do not know the modalities. We do not know the nature of God in itself (as explained above), and we do not know what it means for the Father to generate the Son in itself. But to say that the Father generates the Son is to say what is meaningful, because it is based upon the analogue of "generation" which we can know (the Nicene creed talks about the Son being begotten by the Father as "Light from Light")</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Similarly, Jesus is God and man at the same time because a human body and soul were united to the person of God the Son, so that this body and soul is literally a part of Him (Jesus' body and soul have the person of God the Son instead of a human personhood as we do). In this life, we do not know that in itself. We cannot know, in itself, the union of a human body and soul to God the Son in that that body and soul is literally a part of Him. That is a mystery. But we do have literal knowledge that that is true because we know what "union" is and what "being part of" is. Those are analogues that literally apply to Jesus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The same type of reasoning applies to the Eucharist and the compatibility of the existence of evil with the goodness and power of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This combination of knowability and mystery satisfies two deep needs of the human heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We want our Faith, on one hand, to be logical, rational, and intelligible; but, on the other hand, if reality were strictly confined to what we can know, it would be the most stifling of prisons. Happiness can only come by having something to look up to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">** End note - in heaven, the blessed there will see the modalities of those mysteries, or what they are in themselves, for their consciousness will have an extra dimension. But they will not be completely comprehended. There is a depth of penetration to them that the blessed cannot achieve. Only God can completely understand all things.</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-30124806512329461922014-06-18T22:41:00.000-04:002014-06-18T22:41:09.866-04:00How Can Jesus Fit Into the Little Host?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">How Can Jesus Fit Into the Little Host?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">A mystery of the Catholic Faith is not something we can know nothing about. It is something we cannot know everything about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">It is common to believe that the Trinity is a mystery in the sense that it is humanly impossible to understand how there can be three persons in one God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">This, and this type of view on other mysteries of the Faith, give fodder for unbelievers to charge us with holding absurdities that undermine the rational thought processes of the human mind.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">However, with many mysteries of the faith, it can be rationally explained how such can be so. I give Church accepted explanations </span><a href="http://a-simple-view1.blogspot.ca/2011/04/concerning-trinity.html"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> as to how God can be three persons in one and how Jesus can be fully God and fully man at the same time. This has been understood by theologians in the Church for centuries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">They are still mysteries because there is a depth of penetration into them that the human mind cannot achieve, but we can show that they are fully rational.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Here, I will propose such a type of explanation for the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, the entire Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity exist within the appearances of bread and wine, when that bread and wine have been changed into Jesus, by the priest (as an instrument of the Holy Spirit), at Mass.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">To do this, we must introduce some concepts in metaphysics (the science of being as such).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Consider a material object, such as an automobile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">First of all, it has *matter.* Matter is what something is made of. Then it has *form.* Form is how the matter is constituted to make the thing what it is. A material thing is not merely its parts or its matter. A heap of automobile parts, with all of them present, is not yet an automobile. They must be assembled the right way, thus adding form.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Form is the arrangement, interconnectivity, and distribution of the parts or matter in three dimensional space.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Here we introduce a third component - that is *essence.* With proper form, essence emerges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">When form is added to the parts or the matter of an automobile, it then has an intelligibility or "automobileness," which is its essence, which comes out of the form. As a result, our intellects can judge what it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Then there is a fourth metaphysical component, which is *existence,* which means that it has a reality outside of nothingness rather than being a mere concept or possibility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">So a material thing has a quadrupole of matter, form, essence, and existence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">It is important for the following argument, regarding Jesus in the Eucharist, that form and essence are distinct - they are not one and the same.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Form is a mere mechanical distribution of matter in three dimensional space, while essence is its intelligibility.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">An analogy may help to understand this. Letters on a page are a mere presence or absence of pigment at specific locations on that page. That itself is not meaning, for by itself it is merely spatial arrangement. However, meaning emerges from that in the reading that pattern. There is an intelligibility as to what is being said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Now with the Eucharist, Jesus is fully present in the form of bread - and is fully present in each and every particle broken off (that is why, at Mass, the priest must be careful that when the Host is broken, the particles are not lost, and that is why in the past, when there was proper reverence for the Eucharist, a paten was used to catch the particles when Holy Communion was given).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">How, then, can His Body fit into that tiny appearance of bread?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">We propose here that with Jesus' body, matter, essence, and existence are present, but without form. That is, His distribution in three dimensional space, which would give Him His size and shape, are omitted (by the power of God).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">We are saying here that with matter, essence, and existence, with form missing, a physical being can still be fully what it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Form is constructive of a physical thing (in the ordinary order of things), but is not strictly necessary for its proper constitution. Form is the condition by which essence emerges, but it is essence that makes a thing what it is. God can omit form and sustain essence and a physical being would be perfectly what it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">That is what I propose happens in the Eucharist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The matter, essence, and existence of the Body of Jesus are fully present under the appearances of bread and wine, and thus He is fully and completely present there, and without having form He has the Eucharistic appearances.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">** End note 1 - I define form here in a very specific manner, as a merely mechanical distribution in three dimensional space. Traditional scholastic philosophy has used the term "form" to mean essence. It is important to look at the definition of terms used here for this argument.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">**End note 2 - The quadrupole matter, form, essence, and existence can be used to understand different things in Catholic theology. For example, angels have essence and existence, but not matter and form (therefore, they are pure spirits). God has essence and existence without matter and form, and essence and existence are identical with Him (therefore, God is the infinite spirit).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Also see <a href="http://a-simple-view1.blogspot.ca/2011/04/eucharist-and-metaphysical-being.html">The Eucharist and Metaphysical Being</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The explanation of another paradox: how the existence of evil is compatible with the infinite goodness and omnipotence of God </span><a href="http://a-simple-view1.blogspot.ca/2011/03/resolving-evil-in-eternity.html"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">.</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-67657985128943885152014-06-09T17:23:00.001-04:002016-03-28T20:35:52.703-04:00Why Does God Exist?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Why Does God Exist?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If it is given that <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2014/06/the-existence-and-nature-of-god.html" target="_blank">God's existence can be demonstrated,</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> what accounts for His existence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Philosophers and theologians have said that God is self-existent, for the First Cause of all cannot Himself have a cause. This property of self-existence is known as </span><a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01774b.htm"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">aseity.</span></a><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But on a more fundamental level, what would account for aseity?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I believe that the answer to this is found in the law of <em>identity</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The law of identity is the most fundamental law of thought and reality, and thought and reality simply cannot operate without it. It states that a thing is what it is - A=A. This is not a triviality, but is a profound law when properly understood.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One consequence of this is that if a thing is what it is, it is not necessarily what you think it to be or want it to be. It has a determinant nature independent of the mind. The mind does not create reality but merely recognizes it. Because this truth is not properly acknowledged today, moral relativism is rampant. Wishing that something is right or doing something merely because it feels good is insufficient. For if certain immoral actions are harmful in themselves because they are contrary to human nature, reality will still assert itself and evil consequences will follow (because of the law of identity it is false to say that something is true for me and a different thing is true for you. A thing is either true or it isn't)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another consequence is that a given thing is the same thing no matter what perspective you view it from or at what time you experience it. The ancient philosopher Heraclitus denied this principle in saying that everything was flux and change. His famous saying is: "you cannot step into the same river twice." However, with that human reasoning would become impossible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Human reasoning requires the law of identity. Let us look at a classical syllogism:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">P1: All men are mortal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">P2: Socrates is a man</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">C: Socrates is mortal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We can see that the conclusion follows necessarily from the two premises.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That works because "man" in P1 and P2 have an identity between them (they are exactly the same thing), and "Socrates" in P2 and C have an identity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let us see what happens when identity breaks down. Consider:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">P1: All intelligent beings can do mathematics</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">P2: My dog is intelligent</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">C: My dog can do mathematics</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The syllogism here is not valid because there is an equivocation between "intelligent" in P1 and P2.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In P1, "intelligent" means the ability to think abstract concepts (such as the abstract concept of number); in P2 intelligent means the ability to cleverly respond to cues. The meaning of the same word is different in the two cases, so the principle of identity does not hold.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is important that in order to reason correctly, we delve deeper than the words used in order to reach the underlying identity. Often debates cannot be resolved because the parties involved employ different definitions for the same word. For example, in arguing about freedom, one could define "freedom," on one hand, as the ability to do what one pleases, and on the other (what the I deem to be the correct definition of freedom), the non-hindrance in the pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now how does this relate to God?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What I say is that God is Pure and Absolute Identity - that He is the complete identity of all possible good things and existence itself - that the absolute playing out of A=A=A=A=A ... explains His existence and nature.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here we have God's existence explained in terms of what we can fundamentally intuit as true - the law of identity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With the understanding of God's existence as a fundamental expression of identity, God's classical attributes and effects can be deduced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If He is Pure and Absolute Identity, He is absolutely simple - for everything in Him is absolutely identical. There is no distinction in Him, so that it is not true that one part of Him is not another part of Him (God being a Trinity does not mean that He has parts, as explained <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/04/concerning-trinity.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Containing all that is good, God is the absolute fulfillment of the inhabitants of heaven. He brings supreme and complete happiness. All good things on this earth are but tiny reflections of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Containing all good, He contains all that is true, therefore, He is Pure and Absolute Intelligibility.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He is strictly infinite because He is Unrestricted Identity or Identity Itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We see that the law of identity is an ultimate law of thought and reality (if we are thinking correctly). As it is necessary, it is not a creation of God (as is a physical thing), but it does have its origin in God. God is Being Itself (His name is "I Am" - Exodus 3:14) and all other things are beings in finite modes. When God created, those things have a similarity to His nature, for He can only give what He has. Part of this similarity, necessarily conferred upon created beings, is the principle of identity. That is necessarily conferred because of the nature of being, and does not depend upon God's free choice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If God contains "all," why God does not contain evil is explained <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/03/transcendental-properties-of-being.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">.</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-11777819372351515442014-06-05T19:44:00.000-04:002014-06-05T19:44:09.680-04:00A Wonderful Blurb in Our Parish Bulletin <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">A Wonderful Blurb in Our Parish Bulletin </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Every Rosary increases Mary's power to crush the head of the serpent and to destroy his evil power in the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Join us for the recitation of the Rosary before each daily Mass!</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-788783267561574482014-06-04T20:18:00.000-04:002014-06-04T20:18:33.499-04:00How to Pray Better<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">How to Pray Better</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">To pray better, pray to pray better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Pray that your prayer improves and becomes what it should be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">God is simplicity itself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Jim McCrea</span></div>
Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-60211927181997379972014-06-03T15:26:00.000-04:002014-06-03T16:31:36.241-04:00The Existence and Nature of God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The Existence and Nature of God</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Originally published in the Iron Warrior in 1988 which is the engineering paper of the university of Waterloo</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Republished here with minor modifications</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Many people, both Christians and non-Christians, believe that God's existence must be held on faith alone. The existence of God and His main attributes, however, can be known by reason without the aid of revelation. This is established through a branch of metaphysics known as<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>natural theology.</i></span></span></div>
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<i><br /></i><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The existence and nature of God can be understood from the essence-existence dichotomy, which flows from the nature of being as such. The basic definition of being is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>that which is</i>. The subject<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>that</i> refers to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>essence</i> and the predicate<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>is</i> refers to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>existence</i>. All beings, therefore, are a compound of essence and existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The essence-existence dichotomy is one of the most difficult principles of metaphysics to grasp; an example may help. If a watchmaker is to construct a watch, the essence of the watch or the "watchness" exists in his mind prior to its construction, but that essence does not exist in reality (essence is defined as "<i>what<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>a thing is"). When the watchmaker assembles the watch, he gives existence to the essence or "watchness." (existence is defined as "that a thing<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>is</i>"). Since the "what it is" can precede the "that it is" it can be said that essence and existence are principles that are formally distinct.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Since essence and existence differ, the concept of anything does not imply that it<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>is.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>It can be said that all finite things that exist can possibly not exist. In this, they have what is known as<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>contingency</i>. A further analysis shows that essence has the form of a noun - it denotes "something" - and existence has the form of a verb - it denotes an "act." (we can call it "ising"). Now the act of existence of a contingent being requires a cause, precisely, because it is distinct from its essence. Nothing can be its own cause; therefore, it must have a cause extrinsic to it, and this cause we called God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">How do we avoid the obvious difficulty, which arises from the preceding argument that God Himself would seem to require a cause?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">This difficulty is solved, first, by stating the nature that God must possess. The immediate statement that can be made about Him is that He is self-existent. While essence and existence are distinct in finite beings, the essence of God is His own existence. Since it is the nature of God to exist He is not contingent, but<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>necessary</i>. He cannot possibly not be. This property of necessary existence is known as<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01774b.htm">aseity</a></span><i>.</i> It is His most fundamental attribute and is that from which His other attributes are logically deduced. The question: "why does God exist?" cannot be answered in the conventional manner because it has no meaning in the conventional manner. The identity of God's essence with His existence prevents this. He is the frame of reference against which all hows and whys are known.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">What properties can be deduced from aseity?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">If the essence of God is His own existence, He is Pure Being or Pure Existence, and therefore, must contain everything that being or existence can possibly imply. God, therefore, is necessarily unlimited, perfect, and possesses all positive attributes to an infinite degree. We can also understand, by looking at God's most fundamental attribute of self-existence, that the most fitting name that can be given to Him is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>He Who Is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>(or "I Am" in the first person - the name given in Exodus 3:14).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Two means of knowing God are by <i>negation </i>and <i>analogy. </i>Negation says what He is not and analogy says what He is. Any concept, which in itself, denotes an imperfection of any kind can be denied Him absolutely in negation. Any concept which denotes a perfection, pure and simple, can be attributed to Him, to an infinite degree, by analogy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">First of all, it can be denied that God contains matter because the concept<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>matter</i> necessarily implies passivity and indetermination, which are<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>per se</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>imperfections. It can be denied that He has form because any form is inherently limited by its definition. The simple name of God "He Who Is" rather than "He who is such and such" means that He is a universal principle which transcends all forms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">It can be affirmed that God possesses the attributes of infinite <i>intellect<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>will.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>These are metaphysical perfections because intellect as intellect is the capability of apprehending truth without qualification, and will as will is the capability of being inclined to the good without qualification. Since intellect and will are the prime attributes of personality, we refer to God as<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>He<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>and not it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">It can be said that God is perfectly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>simple -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>that is, He has no composition of parts. This follows from the fact that He is an absolutely primary being. With anything that has composition, that thing must be referred to its parts and the principle of its composition for its explanation. That makes its parts and the principle by which it is composed in some manner prior to that thing. There cannot be anything prior to God, therefore, He cannot have any composition. It can be said that the only thing in God is God. A corollary of that is that the attributes of God are identical with Himself. The very intellect and will of God is God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">God does not exist in space and time because space and time are divisible and God is in no manner divisible. This rules out an anthropomorphic conception of Him, that some people have, that He possesses a human body and human type emotions. The book of Genesis talks about the reminiscence (Gen 8:1) and the regret (Gen 6:6) of God, but because they are metaphysical imperfections they can only be attributed to Him metaphorically (reminiscence is an imperfection because it is the bringing to mind something not thought at the time and regret is an imperfection because it denotes an error in judgment).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">One very important point is that God is not the universe itself, as the pantheists hold. Although He is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>imminent<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>in all things, in that He is infinitely close to them and sustains them in existence from instant to instant with His power, He is also<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>transcendent</i> - that is, He is unique and distinct from the things He sustains. We can understand this from the fact that the objects present to our reason and senses do not have the infinite perfections of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Although human reason can know the existence of God and many of His attributes, this knowledge has limits. We can only extrapolate from what we experience and understand (analogy is a term for intellectual extrapolation). We do not know, in itself, what it is for God to be intelligent, free, or good. This is why we also assign multiple attributes to a Principle that is necessarily one and infinitely simple. The human intellect is not subtle enough to grasp God through a single concept.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">** End note 1 - It says in the book of Genesis that God made man in His own image (Gen 1:26). This in no manner refers to physical likeness. The proper interpretation is that man has a share in the functions of intellect and will of God, which are the attributes of His personhood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">** End note 2 - If God has everything that existence can possibly imply, that would not mean that He also contains evil. This is because evil is not a type of thing or being, but is the absence in something of what would constitute its proper integrity.</span></span></div>
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-15954010684487468592014-05-31T16:48:00.000-04:002016-03-28T20:32:59.062-04:00God's Judgments - How Strict? How Lenient?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">God's Judgments - How Strict? How Lenient?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If we confine ourselves to Catholics faithful to the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church (the Magisterium), there is a debate as to how strict or how lenient God's judgments are. There are some who say that the vast majority will be saved and go to heaven, while others say that few are saved.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">People like Fr. Barron and Pope Benedict VXI tend to the former; while people like Michael Voris (of <a href="http://www.churchmilitant.tv/" target="_blank">ChurchMilitant.tv</a>) and Ralph Martin tend to the latter. It is also the opinion of most of the classical saints and Church fathers that few are saved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">How do we resolve this?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What I say is that the proportion of saved to lost is a mystery of predestination that will not be fully known until the General Judgment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Philosophers such as Peter Kreeft have suggested that Jesus saying that few finding the road to salvation and many following the road to damnation (Matthew 7:13-14) means that He is not talking like an accountant but like a loving Father. Even a few lost is many for God's love, and even most saved is few.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But I think the definite message here is to strive to enter the narrow gate and work assiduously for the salvation of others - we must evangelize as if people's salvation is a stake.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jesus did not give us any answers as to proportions so that we will be induced to strive. For if we knew that only a small minority were saved we might give up in despair. And if we knew the vast majority were saved we might become lax. The right attitude is always to strive with our eyes on the finish line (1 Corinthians 9:19-27).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But this brings us to a theoretical theological question: what determines the rigour or leniency of God's judgments?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It would not be something He would arbitrarily decide upon. He does not decide where to set the bar so more or less people are saved depending upon where He decided to set it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At the General Judgment, when we will know everything, we will see that it is in accord with an ultimate logic, that is rooted in the <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/04/are-all-things-determined-by-logic.html" target="_blank">Ultimate Logic</a> who is God Himself - we will then see that it must be that way and not otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In God, there are coincidences of infinite opposites.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">God's judgment then will be the coincidence of infinite rigour and infinite understanding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For more on infinite opposites in God: <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/04/quintessential-divine-attributes.html" target="_blank">Quintessential Divine Attributes</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A longer article describing how God judges is <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2014/03/an-open-letter-to-editor-of-toronto-star.html" target="_blank">here</a> saying that He is infinitely hard on real guilt, but totally understanding with human weakness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">Jim McCrea</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-34467110915643991112014-05-30T16:40:00.001-04:002016-03-28T20:37:49.433-04:00Quantum Mechanics and Christianity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Quantum Mechanics and Christianity</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Quantum Mechanics has what is known as the "uncertainty principle."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With that, at subatomic scales, the position and the momentum of a particle cannot both be known precisely at the same time. The more precise the knowledge of one, the less precise the knowledge of the other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">An analogy may to help understand this if the uncertainty principle worked on macroscopic scales. If you were playing soccer you could know exactly where the ball is, but you would not know how fast it is going - or - you could know how fast it is going, but you would have no idea where it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now this principle works on subatomic scales.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As an example, consider an electron around the nucleus of an atom. In its normal state we know the energy of the electron, but rather than circling in a neat orbit around the nucleus (as we were taught as school children), the position of the electron is uncertain. Rather than being at a given location, as a planet is around the sun, it exists at an unknown location somewhere within a probability cloud around the nucleus. If the atom is probed with another particle, the energy of the electron becomes uncertain, but it appears at a definite random location somewhere within the probability cloud.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now the position that it appears is completely random in that there is no way that the laws of nature can predict it. It has been demonstrated mathematically that there are no hidden variables - that there is nothing happening in a deterministic manner, at a deeper level, that explains where the electron would appear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For the electron to appear out of a probability cloud like that is what is known as the "collapse of the wave function." But even though nothing in nature causes it, there must be something determining that the wave function collapses in one way rather than another.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This something must be outside of space and time, which we call God, since it has been demonstrated that the cause cannot be within the finite laws of nature.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">God causes the wave function to collapse the way it does.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is one manner in which He governs the universe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Something known as "chaos theory" holds that a very small change in initial conditions can produce a huge effect later on. For example, a butterfly flapping its wings can determine whether or not a hurricane develops two weeks later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">God's omnipotence and omniscience, in controlling the collapse of every wave function (as quantum mechanics governs the physical world at subatomic scales), provides the initial impetus' for the resultant macroscopic physical events that He foresees and wishes to bring about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">Also see <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/03/metaphysics-of-chance.html" target="_blank">The Metaphysics of Chance</a></span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-46413750493668277492014-05-28T16:01:00.002-04:002016-03-28T20:43:20.997-04:00The Abhorrence of Liberalism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Abhorrence of Liberalism</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">by Jim J. McCrea</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">*Liberalism,* whether religious or secular, is based upon *self,* in the satisfaction of one's own pride and concupiscence, regardless of the consequences to others, to the Church, or to society. That is why liberalism as an ideology is so abhorrent.<br /><br /><br />Liberalism is fundamentally an atomizing principle in which the unholy Trinity of "me, myself, and I" are at the center of reality.<br /><br />In an "idea" liberal society, there would be as many gods as there are individuals. No common good is recognized to provide cohesion, harmony, and peace.<br /><br />As we can know by merely logical principles, atomization is the disintegration of a thing. Liberalism causes both Church and society to disintegrate (if liberals get along with respect to some project, it is only a manifestation of what is known as *compatible<br />egotisms.* That states that "I will let your pride go so far, if you let my pride go so far." It involved a barter of various types of intellectual and psychological "goods." There is no true love involved)<br /><br /><br />Orthodoxy (right thinking) and traditional values, on the other hand, rest on the primacy of the fundamental metaphysical moment of the "other." Self is transcended to serve that which is other than the self and higher than the self.<br /><br />We can see this in the old style Western ethic where one fulfilled oneself by serving family, neighbor, country, Church, and God. Getting out of oneself in that way made one happy, and made for peace and goodness in society.<br /><br /><br />But the old style ethic has been replaced by a new ethic in which *self* is the center. We can see this on mainstream TV, secular magazines, and men's and woman's magazines. Those are all about satisfying one's appetites and actualizing oneself. The "other" is only a means to that end and not an end it itself.<br /><br />Such a thing is also bolstered in academia in disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology. In the modern secular variants of these disciplines, human action is reduced to fulfilling self (or to serving the species through autonomous instinctive mechanisms brought about by "natural selection"). There is no recognition of the virtue of *integrity* where one does what is good or right, simply because it is good or right.<br /><br />This has resulting in all the terrible problems that have developed in society and the Church over the past 40 years. A total coldness towards neighbor, widespread psychological violence as one tries to build one's ego on the carcasses of another's (which sometimes degenerates into physical violence), is now the norm. It accounts for all the meaninglessness and emptiness that people experience today in a land of material plenty.<br /><br /><br />People today mistakenly believe that they can find happiness where it cannot be found - by having a fundamental self centered orientation (which our culture encourages right now).<br /><br />Only by getting back to the older style values, in getting out of oneself to serve the "other," will happiness, peace, and prosperity return to society.<br /><br /><br />One who looks for their "rights" in the Church, precisely, by bucking Church teaching and discipline, or one who looks for their "rights" in society by demanding contraception, abortion, euthanasia, divorce (divorce outside of real necessity), fornication, alternate sexualities, can only create a hell for themselves in this world which will turn into eternal hell at death (if unrepentant).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />It is simply *impossible* for happiness to emerge with such a selfist ethical orientation.<br /><br />That is not because of arbitrary religious dogma or because of some decree that God has decided on, but because the very laws and design of human nature, when violated, brings of itself disastrous results. It is simply a matter of natural cause and effect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Also see <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/03/priority-of-objectively-important.html" target="_blank">The Priority of the Objectively Important</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/04/dynamics-of-good-and-evil.html" target="_blank">The Dynamics of Good and Evil</a></span></div>
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-52141523767711667942014-05-20T13:41:00.000-04:002016-03-28T20:40:06.941-04:00Obesity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Obesity</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A Short Treatise on the Nature of Being</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The philosophers have held that goodness is a <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/03/transcendental-properties-of-being.html" target="_blank">transcendental property of being.</a></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> That means that being as being is good, so that goodness is simply another name for being.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With that, evil is not another type of being in addition to goodness, but is the absence of being or goodness where it is due.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now obesity can be considered an evil because it is not the due or proper nature of the human body to be that way (not that obese people are evil, but obesity itself is an evil. Most overweight people see that as not a good thing).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now one may object that obesity being an evil is obviously not an absence of being but is an excess of being, so this seems to belie the idea that evil consists of some sort of absence or lack.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But we have to know that being is not merely raw matter. Matter is what a physical thing is made of. It is a common intellectual error today to hold that a thing is nothing but what it is made of. A physical being, however, has a component in addition to matter - that is *form.* Form is how the matter is constituted to give that physical thing its proper nature and integrity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With obesity the lack is not in the matter but is in the form, as the body of the obese lacks proper form. That constitutes the evil of obesity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There is physical evil anywhere where the proper form of a physical thing is lacking that is supposed to give it its integrity and perfection.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">** Endnote - Physical evil is not to be confused with moral evil. Physical evil is simply the state of something physically not being what it is supposed to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Also see <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/04/metaphysics-science-of-being.html" target="_blank">Metaphysics: the Science of Being</a></span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-39758807436827488942014-05-11T13:31:00.002-04:002016-03-28T20:41:14.529-04:00Philosophical Truth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Philosophical Truth</span></span>-------------------------</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By Jim J. McCrea</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Published in the Iron Warrior in 1988, which is the Engineering Paper of the University of Waterloo</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">------------------------------<wbr></wbr>------------------------------<wbr></wbr>------------------------------<wbr></wbr>------------------------------<wbr></wbr>--------------</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Republished with minor modifications.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Purpose of philosophy is to discover the most fundamental aspects of reality. It includes, for example, metaphysics, which is the science of being as being; epistemology, which is the science of knowledge; and ethics which enables us to distinguish right from wrong. Some take the view that it is impossible to discover ultimate truth and the attempt to do so can lead one into an intellectual vacuum. A view, quite popular today, is that there is no objective truth but if you believe something it is true for you that is as far as it goes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I hold, however, that there exists a monolithic truth independent of opinion and furthermore it is within the power of the human intellect to discover some fundamental aspect of it. A full validation of this will not be attempted here, for it is an extremely complex problem which goes far beyond the scope of this article. Some approaches will, however, will be stated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">II.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What are the ultimate constituents of reality and from what can we begin the search for truth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Particle physicists say that we will know the ultimate constituents of reality when the ultimate particle is discovered and the four fundamental forces of nature are unified. Much of today's science is essentially *reductionist.* It attempts to achieve a better understanding of things by reducing them to their most basic components.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This, however, is a necessary but not a sufficient means of investigating material reality. This is because physical being has two aspects - a *material* and a *formal* aspect. To illustrate this we can conduct a thought experiment in which we analyze the essence of an automobile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One can imagine two situations: in the first, there is an assembled automobile with its full complement of parts; in the second, the full compliment of parts is present but lying in a disassembled heap on the ground. Now if the essence of the automobile were simply reducible to its parts we could legitimately call the disassembled heap an automobile, which is absurd. Something in addition to the parts of a material being is needed to give it its being. This additional principle is the *form.* Form is the arrangement or inter-connectivity of the parts, while matter is the parts themselves. Both principles of matter and form are required to compose a material being. Reductionist science gives us an understanding of the material side of physical reality while neglecting the formal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">III.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One means of obtaining a better grasp of the true in philosophy is to understand the false. One means of discerning any philosophically false position is to know that when a certain truth is denied, that truth is implicitly used in the denial. Many philosophers have contradicted themselves in this manner. For example, some have stated that we cannot know that what our senses reveal to us is correct because we do not know how much the messages have been distorted by the senses and the nervous system. The fallacy of that argument is that it implies that we can know some aspect of objective physical reality (namely the senses and the nervous system) to deny that we can know any objective physical reality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If we look at the denial, that the human intellect cannot know truth we can understand the statement to be false because it presents itself as a truth. If the person making the denial applies the principle of skepticism to the denial itself and states that we cannot even be sure of that, two observations can be made. The first observation is that he may be only stating his personal inability to arrive at truth and not necessarily that the human intellect cannot, per se, arrive at truth. The second observation is that he is refuting himself by inconsistency. If he applies a principle of skepticism to his denial he repudiates it because the degree that one is uncertain of a position is the degree that one departs from it. From this we can state the first law of epistemology: that truth exists and the human intellect can know some fundamental aspect of it. This principle is not arrived at through deductive reasoning but carries the evidence of itself within itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">IV.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The search for philosophical truth brings us to the summit of natural knowledge, which is *metaphysics.* That is the science of being qua being, which is achieved at the peak of intellectual abstraction. It is at the summit for two reasons. First, it is the governor of all other sciences, for they must borrow from the principles of metaphysics to operate. Second, it is perfectly free: it borrows principles from no other science. Its principles are most certain and evident within themselves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The ultimate first principle of metaphysics is the law of *identity,* which states that a thing is what it is. This is not a mere tautology but an assertion that, first, all things exist of a determinate nature, and therefore do not necessarily exist the way one thinks or wishes they do, and second, that in any attempt to reduce a thing to something else, one departs from that thing. It can be said that the most accurate description of a thing is that thing itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One of the first corollaries of the law of identity is the law of *non-contradiction,* which states that something cannot both be and not be under the same aspect at the same time. This is also a first principle of logic. Another principle is that of *sufficient reason,* which states that if something exists, happens, or is true it must have a sufficient reason for existing, happening, or being true. Something cannot exist happen, or be true for no reason or without an adequate cause.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is necessary to have a supreme science with principles which are primary and most certain within themselves, because if what Bertrand Russell said is correct, that we can obtain only probable knowledge, one probable truth would depend upon another which would in turn depend upon another, ad infinitum, so that in the end we would not even have probable truth but pure irrationality (for a probable function to be true and intelligible, there must be absolutes that define its parameters). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;">Also see: <a href="http://thetruephilosophy.blogspot.ca/2011/04/metaphysics-science-of-being.html" target="_blank">Metaphysics: the Science of Being</a></span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-44497152568821428672014-04-17T15:45:00.001-04:002014-04-17T15:45:58.724-04:00Holy Thursday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The Mass of Holy Thursday commemorates three things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(1) Institution of the Eucharist (where bread and wine are changed into Jesus' Body and Blood).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(2) Institution of the priesthood (where Jesus gives the ordained priest the power to change bread and wine into Jesus' Body and Blood, so we have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for all time).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">(3) Institution of the new commandment to love (I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another - John 13:34)</span></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Jim McCrea</span><br />
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-77783679969662123942014-04-17T13:22:00.000-04:002014-04-17T13:22:48.160-04:00Purifying Sufferings in Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Purifying Sufferings in Life</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">From the book </span><a href="https://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/Evolution" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The Mystical Evolution</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> by Fr. Arintero:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"All the mortifications and active purgations which we practice would serve us poorly indeed if God did not perfect and complete them with the passive purgations [sufferings that God sends] to which, in His mercy, He subjects us. These passive purgations reach down into the very depth of our soul and there they discover and correct innumerable faults and imperfections which we ourselves would never notice, much less remedy. God mercifully conceals such things from fervent souls so that they will not be overwhelmed or discouraged. He discloses these imperfections only by degrees and in the measure needful to purify souls and subject them to new trials."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"Even in those things which appear to us to be very pure, righteous, and holy, we are guilty of a thousand inadvertent imperfections which we could never discover without some superior light. Much less are we able to correct them, unless some superior power comes to our aid. Since nothing vitiated or stained can be joined to supreme purity, holiness, and justice, without degenerating, smothering, and being repugnant to it, to arrive at perfect union and divine perfection it is necessary that God Himself have a hand in the work of our purification and rehabilitation."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"...At the same time the soul sees itself full of countless faults and imperfections which formerly it did not perceive or which may have seemed to it to be very insignificant, simply because it did not have eyes to see them or because they were small only in comparison with what we term grave faults. Yet in themselves these faults are truly enormous in the presence of infinite holiness and they cannot but impede that union which is so much desired. The soul sees itself filled with personal views and self-interest; and all its intentions, however pure, simple, and sincere they may appear, are unconsciously enveloped in the deceits of self-love."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"The purgations we need most are those which will penetrate to the very depth of the soul and will reach everything within us that is unclean so that the disorder of sin can be entirely removed. These purgations [sufferings of life] must be as varied and as forceful as our evil inclinations are numerous and strong; they must be the more violent and painful as the seriousness and number of our own faults are greater; and they must be so much the more probing and penetrating as the root of evil is the more profound." </span></div>
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419361404282124324.post-28918937508391376752014-04-17T13:17:00.003-04:002014-04-17T13:17:58.068-04:00More of Blessed Henry Suso on the Cross<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">More of Blessed Henry Suso on the Cross</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">"In their many crosses and trials, My friends live happily in the hope of glory. They enjoy peace of heart and tranquility of spirit and in the midst of their afflictions they are happier than the worldly ones with all their pleasures and false peace ... Hear the reason why I tempt them in such a manner ... I dwell in the soul as in a garden of delights and I do not permit it to take pleasure in anything apart from Me and thus become attached to creatures. And because I wish to possess that soul chaste and pure, I encircle it with thorns and entrench it with adversities so that it cannot find rest in base and created things, but it must place all its welfare in the depth of My Divinity ... The reward which I give to these souls for their least suffering is so great that all the hearts in the world taken together would not exhaust it."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">From </span><a href="https://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/Evolution" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Mystical Evolution</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> by Fr. John G. Arintero, O.P. - p. 124.</span></div>
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Jim J. McCreahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04790492811937831878noreply@blogger.com