Of Human Nature

 Of Human Nature: Systemic racism or systemic humanism

Scientist

The Scientist

In 2012, Steven Hawking, who was probably the best-known scientist in the world at the time, weighed
in on the question of God. In his book, The Grand Design, he argued that the universe requires no creator.
I must confess, something in me always tightens when a scientist pontificates about matters properly
philosophical or religious because there is a qualitative difference between science and philosophy. Science seeks after events and objects and phenomena within
the empirically observable and measurable universe, while philosophy and religion seek after ultimate and final causes. Science as such simply cannot adjudicate
questions that lie outside of its proper purview, which is precisely why scientists end up saying a lot of silly
things when they talk about philosophy and religion - Bishop Robert Barton 

The Church teaches (CCC 159) that; "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth." "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are." Then, those who say, follow the Science, should not follow the Doctors of the Church?

Journalist

Journalists are vested on supporting their bosses' narrative, not on uncovering the truth.  Pulitzer Prizes are now given to the best fake news.

The New York Times  'reporting' on misinformation is like Facebook's Zuckerberg denying he meddled in elections,

Like the NYT gladly accepting a Pulitzer Prize for Fake, which is

The NYT doesn't even hide it anymore

NYT Fawns over Taylor Swift

Goes gaga over Lady Gaga

Lamely over Timmy's "average" Joe fashion

Nutty as a fruit cake over Kamala's tan suit.

Goes amazeball over the first 'Black' nominee

Doesn't say if Amara is Indian or Black.

Now is awed at Kamala's Navy Blue suit.

But First #NYT reported Joe Biden was in top shape.

Said the economy was up.

Then they send him out to pasture.

Now they call him a hero

They mock JD Vance as inexperienced & weird

Says Kamala will fix the economy

Now NYT says Kamala Harris leads Trump because of young people.

Now that three former democrats in DJT, JFK Jr & Elon Musk have joined forces, NYT is grasping for straws

Like Stanford University's president Tessier-Lavigne denying he altered images and other research misconduct., which is like
Stanford's University (infamous for its #twoprojects with the federal government to help Big Tech platforms censor what they collectively perceived to be false or misleading information.

#CNN's 'prominent conservative legal scholar' Judge #JMichaelLuttig'

Is like

Government Intelligence, which is like

Government Fast Response which is like

Congressional Ethics Committe

An Oxymoron!

Lawyer

Saint Thomas More, ironically, patron of those in the legal profession, believed no lay ruler has jurisdiction over the Church of Christ. His willingness to die for his belief illustrates the The Belief- Action Gap Index also known as the cognitive dissonance index (C D I) – the gap between the person’s beliefs versus his action – no gap at all in the case of Saint Thomas More.

Lawyers are paid to come up with the best argument money can buy. Not to uncover the truth.  A lawyer will argue that because a wealthy client broke the law - Hunter Biden, Hilary Clinton, et al  - the law must be changed. Explains why the poor are overrepresented in the prison system.

Politician

The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy. - Sowell

Politicians are paid to keep people safe. But instead of trying to solve our problems, they are trying to solve their own problems—of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind. - Sowell

Racism, a Subset of Hatred: The Golden Circle of Hate

Philosopher 

Philosopher or Indoctrinator 

Christian

A permanent temptation is to see Christianity as a beautiful but impossible ideal, a pleasant fantasy that could never take root in the real world.  After all, we say to ourselves: How could we possibly love our enemies, or bless those who curse us? How, in the face of violence, could we possibly turn our cheek? How could we live in utter reliance upon divine providence, trusting that God will take care of us? How could we really embrace a crucified man as the source of salvation?

As G. K. Chesterton famously said, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."

Francis of Assisi vividly reminded his contemporaries, and vividly reminds us, that the Christian ideal CAN be realized. And he showed, furthermore, that the realization of that ideal unleashes enormous transformative power. Though real Christians will always be seen as a little eccentric, they will in time, always prove to be the true center and produce fruit, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. - Bishop Robert Barron


The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried. G. K. Chesterton

Wise guys

Faith & Reason: Augustine's City of God - as described by Bishop Barron 

Faith is not contrary, but rather complementary to
reason. To be sure, this idea is not entirely original with Augustine. In fact, we can get a
hint of it already in Plato’s Phaedo, in the words of Simmias before introducing a major
objection to Socrates’ argument for the immortality of the soul: “I feel myself (and I dare
say that you have the same feeling) how hard or rather impossible is the attainment of
certainty about questions such as these in the present life. And yet I should deem him acoward who did not prove what is said about them to the uttermost, or whose heart failed

him before he had examined them on every side. For he should persevere until he has
achieved one of two things: either he should discover, or be taught the truth about them;
or, if this be impossible, I would have him take the best and most irrefragable of human
theories and let this be the raft upon which he sails through life - not without risk, as I
admit, if he cannot find some word of God which will more surely and safely carry him.”
This is exactly Augustine’s attitude, however, with the enormous difference that he thinks
he has already found that word of God that Plato was merely yearning for. And he thinks
he can think this quite reasonably, based on the fundamental agreement between the God
of Plato and the God of Moses. Thus, Augustine is convinced that so much agreement in
their teachings cannot be mere coincidence: that they both teach the same, one based on
reason, the other based on revelation, shows that true faith and true reason must agree
with each other. For if both proclaim the same truth, then faith cannot contradict reason,
for truth cannot contradict truth only falsity can. Thus, whenever a perceived conflict
emerges then we made a mistake either in our reasonings or in the interpretation of our
principles. Therefore, what we need to do in such a case is recheck our reasonings or
revise our interpretation, both in philosophy and in theology, which is a fundamentally
rational task in both cases. So, this is the idea that after Augustine fundamentally
changed the relationship between faith and reason, i.e., theology and philosophy, at least
for the coming centuries of the Middle Ages: the idea of the necessary concordance
between true faith and well working human reason. This idea then played itself out in
various forms in various rational conflicts throughout the Middle Ages, until it got swept
away by the revolt of reason in the Enlightenment, to leave us with the utterly eclectic
picture we find ourselves facing today, where we have the whole range of possible
attitudes from bigoted fideism to militant atheism. In fact, amidst all the clamor, one
rarely meets nowadays a principled assertion of the necessary concordance of faith and
reason espoused by Augustine.

But Augustine went even further. For him, the necessary concordance between faith and
reason means that faith is needed not only in such things that are beyond reason, but also
in things that reason could quite adequately handle, though not without error. For true
faith also has an illuminative role. It safeguards reason from its failings, which is
especially needed in the corrupt state of human nature after the Fall. So, from this
perspective it should be clear that for Augustine faith has not only the theoretical role
discussed so far, but through this, as a “channel” of divine illumination, it also has a
crucial practical role.
Indeed, for Augustine faith is not a pure theoretical affair, and neither is philosophy. As
he famously proclaims: Nulla est homini causa philosophandi, nisi ut beatus sit – “The
only reason for man to do philosophy is to become happy”. De Civ. 19, 1. But faith is not
just the mere theoretical assent to certain truths, but also a fundamental commitment to
acting on such truths, that are not only believed to be true, but are also believed to be
good to believe. Therefore, if reason illuminated by faith and faith informed by reason
proclaim the same truth about an essentially “value-charged” reality, then this truth
should serve as the frame of reference for our judgments of value, and correspondingly
for our choices and actions.