Conversation of Our Generation

Last week I talked about the Logos or "That which gives order to the universe." We talked about how it was necessary that Truth flows from the Creator God.

Today, we'll talk about the Way- or what Aristotle and Confucius call the Mean. We'll talk about how we can know there is a proper way of acting in the world that can be understood through reason.

The mean is the right course to take that is not too extreme in either direction. It is the walking of a tight rope with disaster on either side. It is the proper ethical response to a given situation.

Just as you can only use the pythagorean theorem on a right-angled triangle, you can only act courageously or piously to a situation that allows you to do so. Acting pious when you should be courageous is not the proper response- and therefore not within the mean.

To be able to act within the mean requires that you understand the situation you're in and know enough to have the proper response to the given situation. One must be educated in the Truth and work with others to test out their reasoning. They must understand the virtues and vices and how to apply them. Plus, one must have practiced virtue to be prepared when a situation arises.

The only limiting factor with this understanding of ethics, that is fairly comprehensive, is that it can only see the value of ethical action through a lifetime. It doesn't account for the ripple through generations- or the echo in eternity.

Helpful links:

Book Review: The Analects And The Doctrine Of The Mean

The Mean: What It Is And Why It Matters

Book Review: Tao Te Ching By Lao Tzu

Last week we talked about God as the Creator and source of life. We established certain pieces of his nature that have to be present to be the supreme being.

This week, we'll discuss more about His nature and the order of the universe that follows from His nature.

God is the creator, and therefore the Logic or Mind, behind the order of the universe. There is a fullness of Truth in God and all truths, however small or incomplete, point to that truth.

People will say that evil is not a thing in itself, but an absence of good. It's a lack or deprivation. Truth, like goodness, is a building up of something towards an ideal. A lack of truth is falsehood. But an incomplete truth is not bad the same as a lack of good because we're born without the ability to truly do evil while also born ignorant.

All truth we know is learned. All good or evil can be in flux throughout our lives.

As we learn, we can measure our understanding of the truth by the results our understanding produces. Because God created the world with an order to it, we can tap into the potential of His creation by coming to know that order better.

We learn truth several ways: observation, experimentation, reasoning, and exploration. We can learn about the physical world and see what metaphysical truth that reflects, and vice versa.

In fact, science comes from this world view: that the universe has a logic to it and can be observed. That it operates with laws and rules to guide it.

But, does this translate to moral truth? I say yes. There are principles to live by that are in accord with the way the world is created. You then apply these principles to the situations you're faced with- which is where the Way comes from.

Need to catch up on the series? Check out Part 1 here.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me." This is a hard thing to understand. How can He be the way to God, Truth Itself, and real Life?

I believe that we have to look at this as a mirror saying. God is the source of Life, the Creator. Through His creation, He conveys Truth about Himself, metaphysical truths expressed through the Logos, the Word, the logic behind the order of the universe.

By understanding God as the source of Life and Truth, a perfect example of all that is good, we can then begin to derive a way of acting that is in accord with our nature in His Image and Likeness.

Jesus is the fulfillment of time, God incarnate, the perfect example of how to act. People around the world struggled to find a way to live virtuously. They looked for the straight and narrow path, or as Aristotle and Confucius would say, "The Mean."

I believe, and will demonstrate, that Jesus showing us how to live led us to a full Truth that leads to the fullness of Life.

Today, we'll begin that discussion with the Life, and its source: God. I want to walk through arguments in favor of a creator and why that creator must be God.

The universe can't have always existed. If that were the case, every possible thing would have had to have happened, which would include the universe itself not existing. Without getting into a discussion of the multiverse, it is clear that anything physical can't be eternal in the way the universe is today. You could argue that something created could be never-ending, however with science today, that is a hard case to make as well.

Everything created is contingent. If you exist (which you do if you're reading this), then you have some cause for your being. Each person comes from 2 parents. Trees come from seeds that came from trees before them. The universe, all known being, is contingent on something else. That means that we fall into the problem above. You can't just have an infinite regress of causes- that's absurd. There has to be one necessary being that created everything. That's God. This argument is true for motion, actuality, and cause, and they're very similar to one another.

There are a few things we can know about God based on this. If God is the uncaused cause, He is at His essence being itself. He simply is. He is also simple, made up of no parts. He needs nothing. Therefore, we can be confident that His creation is out of love. He doesn't need to be loved, entertained, assured of His power. Through His omnipotence, he sustains all of being and gives life.

There's no more Advent season anymore- just Christmas. As soon as Thanksgiving is over, it's the Christmas season, not Advent, that is all across America.

However, I believe we lose a big chunk of what it means to celebrate Christmas by skipping the Advent season.

Reasons we should celebrate Advent:

When we live in fractured and splintered times like we do today, it is more important than ever to have times and traditions that we all hold sacred.

It is important to have things that we share with our neighbors even if we disagree on everything else. There needs to be something that helps us identify with each other. I think Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday.

Here are some of my top reasons I think this is the perfectly unifying holiday.

1. It's uniquely American.

2. It's Christian, but can be adapted for other faiths.

3. A family that eats together, stays together.

This will be a quick episode where I try to capture my basic thoughts on the current impeachment proceedings. I try not to talk too much about the nitty-gritty of politics, but I think that some important ideas to discuss here.

With impeachment hearing going on, I felt like I ought to weigh in and offer my thoughts on where the process is - and where it's likely to go.

Despite trying to move away from the day-to-day politics, I think this is an important enough event to warrant some discussion.