Introduction

In an Interest of Full Disclosure


Before I begin and in an effort at full disclosure, I want to say, up front, that I am a Catholic who happens to live in 21st century America. I love the Church and am eternally grateful for the gift of being one of her children. Likewise, I am an unabashed, 100%, card-carrying, VERY AMATEUR Thomist. It is from these two vantage points that I come at the issues discussed in this blog.

Why? I am Catholic because I have come to realize that the Catholic Church contains the fullness of truth about God as revealed in His Son, Jesus, His creation, and His people. The older I get; the more I read and study; the more certain I am in this conclusion.

I am a Thomist (really a baby Thomist) because I find that Thomas Aquinas presents a philosophical and theological view of the universe that rings true based on my common experience as a human being living and existing in this universe. Aquinas is arguably the most important medieval philosopher, and he is still extremely influential in philosophy today. It is not that I don’t find truth in non-Thomist philosophies. It is that I find the most complete, common sensical, logical philosophical understanding of the universe in Thomas Aquinas. Others disagree with me. That’s fine, but this is where I am coming from.

A Brief Roadmap of Where We Will Be Going

As mentioned in the above description of this blog, I will be exploring three main areas: the existence and nature of God; the nature of Man (in particular the existence and immortality of the human soul); and natural law as the basis for ethics/morality. All three concepts are rejected in modern Western culture – no God, no soul, no natural law. In my discussions, I will show not only that these three concepts are reasonable, possible and probable but that they are indeed true. I will show that God does exist. I will show that man does have an immortal soul. And I will show that natural law does indeed exist and is the foundation for ethical and moral behavior. We will address each of these topics in the order they are presented above – God, soul, natural law.

However before we launch into these topics, I feel it necessary to address two items of initial preparation. As a result of our modern Western culture, I feel it is necessary to first outline the basics of a philosophical understanding of the universe – as it comes to us from the ancient Greeks, especially Plato and Aristotle, through the medieval Scholastics, most importantly Thomas Aquinas. For this will form the basis of argument in exploring the main topics of this blog, and unfortunately, such philosophical inquiry is no longer part of modern education.

As part of this philosophical outline, I will address the whole concept of “truth”. As an unfortunate byproduct of our Western relativism and subjectivism, we must first establish that there is objective truth. Then, establish that we can know this truth. And finally, describe how we know something is indeed true.

All right now that we have a map, let’s get underway!