Introduction to Philosophy¶
Wonder¶
When was the last time that you heard or expressed wonder to the degree that Bryzgalov, an absolute unit, did in that video? In this particularly unique period in human history where we can access information at our demand, I think that this wonder is too easily overlooked if not outright lost. What a dang shame that we have lost this almost childlike ability to wonder which is most certainly and uniquely human.
So why am I writing about hockey players wondering about the universe? Well, because I truly believe that the universe is an awe filled mystery and I want to instill in you the same wonder that I myself had lost. The same wonder that, once rediscovered, impelled me to pursue answers to questions both ordinary and ultimate. Make no mistake friend of my intentions. I want you to not only wonder and honestly seek answers (let’s call this truth for now), but to also follow where that leads, with a healthy amount of humility and honesty.
My favorite literary example of truth seeking at the moment comes from the “The Sirens of Titan”. Where the main character, under excruciating physical pain, incrementally wrote down all that he knew to be true. It is a most fitting parallel for what I am trying to inspire you to do, which is to pursue truth whatever the cost. It is this pursuit of truth that I have been engaged in for the past few years of my life, as you well know.
And I want to share with you this approach and its resulting fruits that have enriched my life and helped me get through its highs and lows. I know what you’re thinking. How the heck can we start from a Flyers goalie to faith in Jesus Christ and his Church? The answer is, very carefully…
Let’s talk about a very particular issue that I ran across in my seeking. It is important to speak about for two reasons. It is a direct roadblock to the pursuit that I am advocating, and it gives an example on how to evalulate claims. Since in this pursuit you will be evaluating many claims other than this one. How many times have you heard the following declarative sentence? “Scientific knowledge is the only true type of knowledge, and already has or soon will explain all things”. Does this ring true to you? Before I learned how to evaluate claims through the rules of inference it certainly did for me. I accepted this (at least implicitly), lets call it, doctrine.
So, to the declaration of “scientism” above. I will ask you a couple of questions in the hopes that they show the issues with the claim.
Does that statement represent scientific knowledge? Formulated another way, was that statement produced by the scientific method? If your answer is yes, then I’m really bummed out. If your answer is no, then I congratulate you! For you have just opened up your worldview to the laws of rational reflection. The laws of inference and argument structure. The laws of logic. And my own claim is that learning how to do this will not only help you to become a better human being, we are the rational animal after all, but will also help you to evaluate the claims of the Gospel.
A quick aside, I truly don’t have an answer at the moment as to why I like many others did not learn the laws of logic in our schooling. Which would be learning how to learn, as it were. The things that I am compiling here for this project, will assist with this so that we can flourish as humans and find Christ. These are all of the materials that I have used step by step to build up an entire worldview that ends (or maybe begins) in believing the historicity of the Resurrection of Christ among other revealed truths. Which only opened up to me in a fuller sense after I learned how to learn. Let me reiterate that it is my intention to hopefully give you a clear path to the Gospel and not merely study philosophy for its own sake. Although the latter is still certainly a worthy pursuit.
In case you need even more persuasion let’s not forget that there is someone who strongly implied a connection between believing earthly natural things and heavenly supernatural things. In other words, understanding the natural world via rational reflection will then lay the foundation for you to pursue Christ and listen to what he has revealed. These natural things we will put under the domain of philosophy. These supernatural things we will put under the domain of theology. And when taken together they form an overall worldview that is very clearly, systematically, and consistently expressed in Catholicism. And this is my hope for you friend. That you come to the truth of the Gospel which is made known to us and the world by the Catholic Church. So that you can have the confidence of living a life with Christ.
To end this section I’ll give you another instance of wonder that I think you’ll identify with. The wonder over how strange it is to even be alive. To be something rather than nothing.
And when we meet on a cloud. I’ll be laughing out loud. I’ll be laughing with everyone I see. Can’t believe. How strange it is to be anything at all.
Disillusionment¶
The disillusionments that we meet with here on earth are permitted precisely in order to direct our thoughts more and more to this supreme beauty and impel us to love it.
—Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
It is quite possible that you are not ready to walk the path starting with wonder that leads to Christ. Everyone is so unique but I can say that from my own experience my disposition before stumbling upon the path that we discussed was closer to disillusionment. Almost like I was out of mana. And it is mainly through this avenue that I found the need to ask ultimate questions, which led me onto the path above. Although the path to wonder and disillusionment are the avenues that got me to this point, there are certainly others. And what I want you to know is that if you seek the reason or cause for whatever experiences that you have in life and keep following that then you are on the right path.
Life can be tough even if you have all of the things that the world tells you will make you happy. It can sometimes seem like the things that we are doing can be quite pointless. And I’ve come to learn that the answer to that pointlessness isn’t what the world tells us we need. Which seems to be some sort of mixture of medication, entertainment, and other novel experiences. Why is it that we humans always seem to attempt to mitigate the symptoms and not fully treat the root cause of our issues? What if the root of our manifest issues are spiritual? What if modernity missed the mark in its understanding of the human person? What if the answer to disillusionment is to not be illusioned in the first place at all? What if the answer was and is Christ? Is this wishful thinking on my part? Maybe. But do feelings have any bearing on whether something is true or not? Most certainly not. Why did I just ask seven question in a row? Because I’m an engineer trying to communicate. Which I hope you will forgive, after all I’ve got a positive message, sometimes I get can’t get it out.
Let me be blunt. The pursuit of truth isn’t easy. It isn’t filled with good feelings and happy fun times all the time. And the most difficult truths are the moral ones that require you to give up vice and embrace virtue, my current struggle. But like any good adventure you have to grind, go on quests, and meet fellow adventurers along the way. But the experience gained and the potential reward is too great to dissuade you from starting. The reward of having friendship with God. If you are willing to give this a shot then keep going brother.
Next Steps¶
Alright where do we go from here? One word for you, logic!
Notes¶
My approach to communicating information is to use everything available that I find to be true. Whether that comes from fiction authors, Catholic saints, or secular musicians. If I only restricted myself to impeccable perfect people then I don’t think I could ever quote anyone.