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Class on Journey to Reality Chapter 5 - Personal Truth

Class on Journey to Reality Chapter 5 - Personal Truth

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 Filling all things… Journey to Reality Chapter Five: Sacramental Thinking St John 14: 1-7. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. St. Basil the Great (On the Holy Spirit). We understand the “way” to be the road to perfection, advancing in order step by step through the words of righteousness and the illumination of knowledge, always yearning for that which lies ahead and straining toward the last mile, until we reach that blessed end, the knowledge of God, with which the Lord blesses those who believe in him. For truly our Lord is a good way, a straight road with no confusing forks or turns, leading us directly to the Father. For “no one comes to the Father,” he says, “except through me.” Such is our way up to God through his Son. ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.18. “Modern, westernized people tend to think about the world from the starting point of physicality. The physical world, as we would say, is the primary reality… It is the objective, measurable world on which we can all agree.” Page 50 of 142. The assumption of materialists is that if a thing cannot be measured, then it is unprovable, a matter of opinion, AND of lesser importance. The natural world is everyone’s baseline. Religious or spiritual people have an added category, that of the “supernatural,” but as long as we operate in the material paradigm, these are the things that BY DEFINITION cannot be measured and are thus kind of optional. Belief then becomes a way to stand up and assert that there are some things that are important that cannot be measured directly. “I believe…” is our assertion that there is a supernatural reality and that it is well-ordered and that there are supernatural outcomes that should matter to us: · Forgiveness of sins · Sacramental marriage (vs. an agreement or contract) · Eternal life When we talk about religion, it is often in materialist terms. · What good is it (for health, family, society)? · What does it cost in terms of time and money? · Does its system make sense? E.g. Juridical vs. Therapeutic vs. Holistic Healing But this worldview can only take us so far. It “misses the mark” when it comes to understanding the world and how it works. An irony: the materialist world may allow us to see things objectively, but not truly. I am playing with words here, but it points to the difficulty. Objectivity refers to the quality of being unbiased and fair, making decisions based solely on facts rather than personal feelings or beliefs. It is often considered essential in fields like science and journalism to ensure accurate and impartial reporting or analysis. Objects have attributes that can be measured. As a social scientist, I was taught that we have a poor understanding of something if we cannot put a number to it and that if we took enough measurements, we could explain everything. Omniscience – or godhood – then is a matter of having enough data and the computing power to run the numbers. Omnipotence involves the ability to manipulate everything towards a desired outcome. This is no longer just the stuff of science fiction. This is another one of those areas where claims are being made for technology that should not be made. We can rightly question double-predestination, but what will keep us from doing the same thing as we grow in material understanding and power? A step in the right direction is to recognize that there is a moral dimension to the world. But the problem is that it cannot be measured. Outcomes can be measured, but their values can only be asserted. This is why both secular philosophers like Nichze and religious ones like C.S. Lewis and Fr. Seraphim Rose claim that this kind of worldview leads to nihilism and the assertion of will. Religious and spiritual people who believe in the supernatural will then say that God (or spirit, or Arche) is the solution to this problem. Again, this gets us heading in a good direction, but it usually keeps within the materialist worldview. Again, which system makes sense, agrees with what I prefer, has the best agape meal, and so on. But it really is strange to come at God in this manner. All we are doing is taking the “God of the Gaps” concept and applying to morality and value. ...
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