Does your worldview cripple you?

WATCH THE VIDEO🎬

This video, Nobody Stands Nowhere, gives attention to what it is that makes us hold the view of the world around us that we do. This blog has several posts that question the filters or blinkers that affect the mind's eye. The focus here has often been on the rigorist materialism of scientists in particular, preventing them from appreciating the richness of reality, but any individual can have an imprisoned mindset when they do not take control of the manner in which society is influencing their thoughts, words and actions, and so relationships with others and ultimately with God.

The Germans have contributed two useful terms relating to the nature of what affects a person's or society's worldview. The first is Zeitgeist, which is referring to the "spirit of the age". Whatever period of history we live in, people have a way of thinking that is partly inherited but which also evolves according to the cultural forces of the time, for example, prosperity and a wish for pleasure-seeking might deaden the concept of self-discipline.

The second term is Weltanschauung, which is "world view". Philosophers have had a lot of fun with the term but the central notion is that we are historically conditioned and have to be very wary about what we hold to be true.

For those with a serious approach to their belief  in God and the Church, these concepts are well-recognised. Paul, writing in 2 Corinthians 3:15, states: "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God". 

Further, the Church has seen the need to strenuously teach about the need for proper formation of one's conscience, accepting what is noble as fundamental rather than the crudity that is often thrown at us in the name of  culture. Paul says in Romans 12:2 

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

This is the way Christians, and all people of goodwill, are urged to develop a spiritual view, which helps them to understand the world around them in a God-inspired way:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable  - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things (Paul to the Philippians 4:8); and: 

Are there any of you who are wise and understanding? You are to prove it by your good life, by your good deeds performed with humility and wisdom. But if in your heart you are jealous, bitter, and selfish, don't sin against the truth by boasting of your wisdom. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven; it belongs to the world, it is unspiritual and demonic. Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is also disorder and every kind of evil. But the wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle, and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy. And goodness is the harvest that is produced from the seeds the peacemakers plant in peace (James 3:13-18).

To develop an accurate worldview, which becomes the North Star in our life, first we must deliberately attend to our own experience as to the reality of the world and the nature of our existence in human society; second, we prudently accept rules of life that are biblical but are also universal such as "Do to others as you would have them do to you"; third, we take advice from those who show a wisdom that may pit them against the rest of society, as well as learning from the best of world literature and through other proven cultural activity; finally, and importantly, we give ourselves a chance to listen to God's guidance. 

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Catholics must save themselves from hell!

A bored and meaningless life - detail of Romans during the Decadence. Couture 1847

Forbes magazine used the words "American tragedy" in the headline on one of its stories about the death of Tony Hsieh, aged 46, in November last year. That he died in distressing circumstances despite his "enjoy life" mantra definitely marks a tragic end to an insightful individual. Here's one of his evaluations of the world we live in:

I thought about how easily we are all brainwashed by our society and culture to stop thinking and assume by default that more money equals more success and more happiness, when ultimately happiness is really just about enjoying life.

His internet company had "a zany work culture that became a case study of how to build an effective and empathetic company that prioritized the happiness of employees and customers", according to Forbes, and his "best-selling gospel" on his management style was named Delivering Happiness.

Hsieh was wise enough to scream alarm at the mass brainwashing that individuals and businesses try in pursuit of self-interest, or that society as a whole conducts through mass media, social media and technology - remember, "the medium is the massage". The message is often whatever is fashionable among society's elite in academia, media and politics, picked up by the masses and accepted as the nature of things, the way things are. Parents are often surprised at the way their very young children express disturbing views they have somehow absorbed simply because those ideas are abroad in the community. An American example of how subtle but impactful the brainwashing can be is given in the "Non-binary Jesus" TikTok linked to on this blog a few days ago. 

Everyone must take stock of where society's brainwashing is leading them as an individual and together. Unfortunately, Hsieh saw the problem but his typically American view of how to achieve happiness undermined the true solution to society's predicament. He needed to know that true happiness did not come from partying or increased amounts of nitrous oxide. Early on, a friend should have enlightened him to the meaning of Augustine's “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” In that way, such a friend could have rescued Hsieh from deepening mental instability.

What has this got to do with Catholics? First, Catholics are part of the brainwashed population.  Secondly, and linked to the first, Catholics, because of misunderstood Church teachings, often accept that no one will go to hell, because:  God is love - He won't let anyone go to hell; as long as we live reasonably good lives all will be well; our conscience is on a par with the Church's teaching authority in understanding what is right and wrong;  if I am happy, then that is what is right and good because God wants me to be happy. Prominent, too, is the "science tells me all I need to know" fiction. Finally, there's the "who has the right to tell me how to live?" mentality.

Yes, belief in God often remains, but not in how He wants us to live. His way, though it delivers peace and final satisfaction, is too hard a road to tread for all those with flaccid spiritual muscles, a grave lack of knowledge, and desires warped by society.  

What is so serious about all the above beliefs, absorbed so willingly, is that they set the individual on the wrong moral path, putting them in danger of going to hell (in Church teaching it is mostly regarded as a place as well as a state). Crucially, there're no escape roads in this high-stakes journey. A person is either with God or against God; arriving in heaven or hell - Catholics included. 

Let's go to an expert on this. I want to call Ralph Martin, the American Catholic seminary professor and author of two books on evangelisation  (the sharing of the good news of God who reveals Himself), and on how the devil works to trap a person into accepting as their own, a belief system that, in reality, pits that person against God. Let's note here that there's nothing heroic to be a rebel in the devil's cause, as it flows simply from weakness and a spirit of decadence, though the devil may dress up such a belief system to make it appeal on the basis of its being a dramatic personal stand against all that is wrong.   

Ralph Martin says this, referring to Acts 4:12:

Peter says there is no salvation through anyone else nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved. This is an uncomfortable text for many people in our culture today but let's not explain it away. Rather we have to understand it and stick with it.

Martin delves into the Vatican II synod document on the Church called Lumen Gentium: Light of the Nations (1964), and particularly section 16, addressing first the issue of "practical universalism":

The way I would describe it was that many of our  fellow Catholics have drifted into a mentality  where this is how they look at the world today:  broad and wide is the way that leads to heaven  and almost everybody's going that way; narrow is  the door that leads to hell and hardly anybody's going that way. Of course, hopefully most  of you know what's wrong with this picture - it's directly the opposite of what Jesus himself  says. In Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14, Jesus says broad and wide is the way that leads to  destruction and many are traveling that way; narrow is the door that leads to heaven. It's a difficult road and few there are who are finding it.

We know this isn't how God wants it to be. We know  from first Thessalonians chapter 2 that God wills the whole human race to be saved and come to  a knowledge of the truth. We also know there needs to be a response to the grace God gives to  people for their salvation. 

Here are Martin's words of warning for Catholics, many of whom have the false understanding as above:

 It's easy to drift into the kingdom of God and it's really hard to choose to go to hell and that's just not what either the gospel says or the Church actually teaches.

What the Church teaches on who is to be saved starts with what has been handed down from the beginning and preserved by the teaching authority given to the Church by Christ:

Go into the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whosoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:16);

and

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit" (John 3:5).

Therefore, we have two principles relating to who enters heaven to be face-to-face with God for ever. Lumen Gentium #14 states that the Church is necessary for salvation because of Christ's precept that all people should enter the Church (Mark 16:16) and because of the effectiveness  of the Church’s means of grace for imparting and sustaining an authentically Christian life (Jn 3:5 and cf  Abbott note to #47).

Lumen Gentium #14 makes very clear statements that should worry Catholics of the refusenik or the sliding kind:

Basing itself upon sacred Scripture and tradition, [the synod] teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation (#14).

Whosoever knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by God through Jesus Christ, would refuse to enter her or to refuse to remain in her could not be saved (#14).

They are not saved, however, who, though they are part of the body of the Church, do not persevere in charity [meaning love for the visible structure]. ...If they fail to respond to that grace [from Christ through the Church] in thought, word, and deed, not only will they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged (Luke 12:48) (#14).

Despite this very direct language of the Vatican II fathers, confusion quickly spread among Catholics over the teaching as to salvation especially of those who did not have any or only partial understanding of the Church's role in serving the good news of Christ. For this reason, Martin wrote his books to clarify matters, writing in urgency as well as sadness given the extreme danger of those following the way of the world instead of the way of the Lord.

He points out that some of the confusion over salvation starts through ignoring the stipulation as to who is to be saved given in a key statement of Vatican II:

Here's what Lumen Gentium 16 says, "Those who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his Church but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and moved by grace try in their  actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience, these too may achieve eternal salvation."

From this statement we can discern three conditions for the salvation of those who do not belong to the Catholic Church: 

First is that ignorance about Christ and the Church is not of a deliberate neglect of developing knowledge of that kind. 

Second is that a person responds to the promptings of their heart whenever they discern that they are drawn to sources of information about God, or what is good, what is true and what is beautiful. 

Third is that they respond to the grace of God by following their conscience on how to live.

Martin explains each, with a message for Catholics who do not take care of their religious belief: 

The first [condition] is inculpable ignorance: people who, not because of their own fault, have not heard the gospel. 

Now that implies it is possible to be culpably ignorant of the gospel. 

Some of us have the common experience, for example, of inviting a friend to hear a talk. Say Scott Hahn comes to town or even Bishop Barron comes to town and we want a fallen away Catholic or lukewarm Catholic to come and hear more about the beauties of the faith and how great it is to be a Catholic, and they say no. ... Sometimes people know what they are going to hear and they don't want to challenge their worldview; they don't want to have to confront even sin or darkness or deception in their life.

Therefore, Catholics who do not give proper regard to their spiritual health are putting their salvation in jeopardy. Theirs is blameworthy ignorance.

Another example Martin gives is with people who verbally express their hatred for Christianity. One example I can think of is the person who has had some association with Christianity in the past, but has lately accepted in effect, or has begun to lead, a promiscuous lifestyle themselves and so give into the temptation, because the may need to have an abortion, to excoriate the Church for upholding the dignity of the unborn as human from conception.

Martin has advice on how to deal with such a person - love them:

We're never going to win anybody to Christ if we don't really love them and have a concern for their well-being. Maybe they're inculpably ignorant of Christianity but maybe they know exactly who Christ is and exactly what he teaches and they hate him and hate the Church.

This is becoming quite a common viewpoint in our culture. Our culture is quickly becoming not just post-Christian but anti-Christian and it is, I think, demonically inspired hatred for Christ in his Church. We can't presume that people who say they hate Christianity are inculpably ignorant.  Only God knows somebody's culpability but we should be very concerned for everybody's salvation and not presume that everything’s okay.

Therefore, a person's choice of the wide road, the road that is socially engineered through cultural brainwashing, one that is personally attractive because it seems so easy, is also putting their salvation in jeopardy. A Catholic friend must try to guide that person through their slough of falsehood.

Martin continues:

The second condition is that people who are inculpably ignorant of the gospel are seeking God with a sincere heart.

One of the things that Jesus said in Matthew 24 was that when he returns people are going to be buying and selling, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage right up to the last day, just like it was in Noah’s day.... Jesus isn't saying that because evil was so great the flood destroyed them. He talked about the condition of people and their indifference. They're going on with business as usual concerned only with the things of this world, yet the Lord expects people to want to know who he is and to sincerely seek him.  

What's the basis for this? Romans chapter 1 say God has revealed himself to everybody on the face of the earth and that everybody, by looking at the creation, can deduce that there's a creator and needs to have a desire to know what the will of the Creator is, what the purpose is for creating us and what human life is all about.

We need to be sincerely seeking God, wanting to know who he is. Obviously, ...there's a lot of people who aren't sincerely seeking God, who are indifferent just as Jesus talks about in Matthew 24.

Matthew chapter 24 largely deals with Christ's second coming, and concludes with the parable of the absent master and the servant left in charge who is wicked and beats his underlings and turns to the company of drunkards: "The master will come on a day when he does not expect...He will cut [this servant] to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth". Jesus paints a gruesome picture of  punishment for a reason. It is not apocalyptic hyperbole. 

The third condition is, moved by grace, a person tries in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience.

Now our conscience has been called “the aboriginal vicar of Christ”, meaning that when we respond to what our conscience is telling us as to what is right or wrong we're responding to Christ himself.

[But] conscience can often be corrupted. We can have bad consciences and what our conscience is telling us isn't the voice of Christ. We can rationalize our behavior; we can be brainwashed [as by the mentality of society around us and by customs within a family]. In so many ways our conscience can't be a reliable guide to the truth. Therefore, we need to recover our true conscience.

We recover our conscience, that is, form our conscience afresh, by prudently using the data of experience, applying the advice of competent people and whatever can be gained by educating ourselves from reliable sources, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, as the Catechism the Catholic Church says. 

 A complicating factor in all this is “we're living in a culture where, more and more, nobody's responsible, everybody's sincerely doing what they think is right, which isn't the case at all". Martin says:

One of the things that the catechism says in section 1860 is no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law which are written in [everyone’s] conscience. … Every-body knows that in some way, before maybe their conscience has been deformed, that it’s wrong to kill people, that it's wrong to steal, it's wrong to commit adultery.

Scripture is telling us, and the Church is telling us in Lumen Gentium 16, it's wrong not to be seeking God. So these are pretty stiff requirements, and it’s not to be presumed that everybody who doesn't know Christ is cooperating with the mysterious grace he gives to be known even when his name is not known.  

Through our experience of love or truth or beauty we can be receiving grace from Christ and if we yield to that grace we can have salvation affected in our life. ...There isn't a middle stage of participating in salvation - we're either saved or not saved, and so these rays of light, these aspects of truth that we find in religious philosophies or other religions can be a doorway for us to receive grace and light that God is giving us.

But there's an important footnote in Lumen Gentium 16 and it refers to the letter of the Holy Office to the Archbishop of Boston concerning the Father Feeney case, and what that basically says is not just any kind of metaphysical faith "Oh yeah, I believe in God" that saves us; it's not just any kind of good will and principles of morality that saves us, but what saves us is a response to grace.

There needs to be supernatural faith, faith that's born in us by saying yes to a light that God's giving us, which implies in it a surrender to the one who has enlightened us. So it’s a surrender to God, which births supernatural faith in our soul. We also need to have supernatural charity. Without supernatural faith or supernatural charity we can't be saved. 

Again, Catholics who have thrown the riches of the Church on to a scrapheap in their lives, while maintaining that they're okay because they still believe there is a God, need to reconsider, as Martin points out:

So it isn't just "Oh yeah, I believe in God" but it's a personal response to a light that we're receiving. We may not know where it's coming from, we may not know the name of Jesus, but we're saying yes to something deep in our soul that God is giving us that does take away original sin, or it can.  

Lumen Gentium 16's last three sentences are our guide for understanding how we are to stay on the right path with a properly formed conscience:

"But very often, deceived by the evil one, human beings have become foolish in their thinking and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped the creature rather than the creator (Romans 1:21, 25) or else living and dying in this world without God they're exposed to ultimate despair. Therefore, to procure the glory of God and the salvation of all these."  

This statement adds to Martin's urgency:

So whose salvation is the Church concerned about  here? People who haven't heard the gospel, but maybe they're not sincerely seeking God, maybe they're not really living according to the light of their conscience but they're living according to the brainwashing of the culture or the rationalizations of  their own disordered desires from original sin. So these people the Church is concerned about as to their salvation.

Now what's being said here is that we're not living in a neutral environment, that all of us have been deeply impacted  by original sin - believers and unbelievers, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, atheists - we've  all been deeply impacted by original sin and have disordered desires and a tendency  to do things that aren't right, and a weakened will and we're all  susceptible to the deceits of the devil and we know that the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he can to devour.

All day long he's firing fiery darts into the soul of every person on the face of the earth and if we don't have the explicit help of Christ and the Church, the explicit help of knowing exactly what God's will is what we must do to be saved that we find in sacred scripture, the tradition of the Church and the magisterium; if we don't have that, it's so easy to be deceived, it's so easy to give in to disordered desires, it's so easy to believe the lies of the devil.

The original Latin [of Lumen Gentium] says, "very often", yes “very often” people are deceived by the evil one and so give into disordered desires. So it's urgent that we preach the gospel.  

Sometimes people say “wouldn't people be better off if they don't hear the gospel, then they won't be culpable for the response they make or the lack of response they make?”

No, not at all. People who haven't heard the gospel are in tremendous danger. It's a fact as the Church says here: "Very often they become deceived by the evil one and exchange the truth of God for a lie and become foolish in their thinking." 

That is sure true of the environment that we're living in today. So we should take every opportunity through prayer, through fasting, through personal witness, through invitations, through sharing books, inviting people to watch YouTube videos, to invite them to faith because they're in tremendous danger.

Even though it's possible for people to be saved without hearing the gospel it's very difficult and people are far better off to explicitly come to faith in Jesus Christ and life in the Church.  

Everyone needs the Church because of the assistance given to each pilgrim through the spiritual gifts Christ pledged to its members when creating the sacraments, and in granting it the authority to guide the world on its journey to a completeness in their intended relationship with a God who is love. The glory of God is our goal.

But Catholics will be judged all the more severely because of neglect of the treasures that are open to them. In this, there are two scriptural messages that have a bearing on the outcome when a person comes before God for judgment:

Two things I ask of you, O Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, `Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God (Proverbs 30:7).

and how a person has used "the seed", the gift of God, who is the sower:

Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy.  But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted! (Matthew 13:18-23 NLT).

In conclusion, like all kindred pilgrims who count on God’s mercy and inexhaustible patience, Catholics have to evangelize and pray for family and friends that they will all enter into everlasting fellowship with God. Second, we have to beware of the brainwashing within society or culture. Feel the urgency!

 Ω Go here as Ralph Martin expresses concern about Catholic confusion on who is saved.  

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Enchanting music rendered beautifully

Two pieces that have given me a great deal of enjoyment over repeated listenings in recent weeks are the Danish  National Symphony Orchestra's performances of Vangelis' Blade Runner Suite and Hans Zimmer's Interstellar Suite. The second piece has a Tubular Bells quality to it, bringing back fond memories. Overall, the orchestra is highly successful in conveying the atmosphere of the movies. From both there's a spirit of enjoying the music-making.

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The basics: Evidence for the spiritual

1 The Transcendental Desires 

This is the basic argument for a soul from Plato to contemporary Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan:

(1) we have five transcendental desires for perfect truth, love, justice/goodness, beauty, and being;

(2) we must have an awareness of what we desire; therefore, we have an awareness of each transcendental;

(3) we have the capacity to recognize every imperfection in experiencing these desires, which would not be possible unless we were aware of their perfection;

(4) the source of our awareness must itself be perfect truth, love, justice/kindness, beauty and being. This leads to the conclusion that this source (i.e. God) is present when we are aware of imperfection in these “transcendentals”;

Therefore, we are transcendent.

2 God’s Presence to Our Consciousness

The evidence for our interior awareness of a transcendent reality can be correlated with the experiences of thousands of others in different cultures and religions in 3 particular ways:

(1) The numinous experience—in which the numen presents itself as mysterious, daunting, fascinating, good, and empathetic, and invites us into itself;

(2) religious intuition—in which we sense that the sacred transcendent reality has broken into the world, inviting us to draw closer to the sacred reality through sacred place, ritual, and myth;

(3) conscience—through which an omniscient, invisible, searcher of hearts bids us to do good and avoid evil.

3 Human Intelligence vs Artificial and Animal Intelligence

There are 4 ways in which humans are connected to the transcendent that artificial intelligence is not: (1) the five transcendental desires as in 1.

(2) the formulation of conceptual ideas, such as abstract inter-relational ideas;

(3) self-consciousness, experiencing of experiencing, and the experience of inwardness—David Chalmers’ hard problem of consciousness;

(4) transalgorithmic mathematical thinking, manifest by Gödel’s theorem.

Furthermore, studies by philosopher of language Noam Chomsky reveal that humans are categorically different from primates in linguistic capabilities and in their capacity to formulate conceptual ideas in language, logic, mathematics, natural science, social science, and philosophy.

4 Free Will and Original Sin

Free will can only arise out of capacities found in our transphysical soul (see the 12 Capacities of the Transphysical Soul below). For example, at the center of free will is our capacity for self-consciousness enabling us to not only to grasp ourselves, but also to choose the powers and desires that will ultimately define the “self” we grasp. We are confronted from childhood by two fundamental options: the option to aggrandize ourselves and to possess others and the material world, or the option to pursue relationships with God and others and to submit to the requirements of conscience and empathy/love.

5 Near-Death Experiences

There is a growing body of legitimate research around near-death experience reports, and peer-reviewed scientific journals have published a number of actual medical studies on the subject. While an NDE is a subjective experience, what we do know is that tens of thousands of people report having one, and similar characteristics are reported across the range of individual experiences.

Additional “evidence” is the report of veridical data, and the fact that 80% of blind NDErs report being able to see during their experience. The most conservative interpretation of NDEs is that some aspect of human consciousness is non-physical and continues after physical death. We call this a soul.

See more information on this argument here. Source: Magis Center

The 12 Capacities of the Soul

1. The capacity for self-consciousness (inwardness)—allowing us to experience and apprehend ourselves and to create a private inner world.

2. The capacity for conceptual ideas—allowing us to have abstract thoughts, syntactical control, and conceptual language

3. The desire for perfect truth—enabling us to recognize all imperfections in our knowledge, causing us to ask questions indefinitely until we reach perfect truth.

4. The recognition of the spiritual-sacred-numinous-transcendent reality (God)—causing fascination, worship, awe, and obedience, which draws us to enter into a deeper relationship with Him, bringing us to his transcendent, eternal, and sacred essence.

5. The desire for perfect home—enabling us to recognize the imperfections of our worldly existence, causing us to pursue the sacred and Its source until we have reached our perfect home.

6. The capacity for empathy—which recognizes the unique goodness and lovability of the other, creating the desire to care about and care for the other even to the point of self- sacrificial love.

7. The desire for perfect love—enabling us to recognize all imperfections in love, causing us to pursue deeper and more authentic love until we have reached perfect love.

8. The capacity for moral reflection originating from conscience—which is God’s moral presence to our self-consciousness.

9. The desire for perfect justice/goodness—enabling us to recognize all imperfections in justice/goodness (in groups, organizations, and community), causing us to pursue more perfect forms of justice and the common good until we have reached perfect justice/goodness.

10. The capacity to appreciate and be filled by the beautiful in nature, music, art, architecture, literature, intellectual ideas, love, and goodness—causing us to seek ever greater forms of beauty until we reach perfect beauty-majesty-splendor itself.

11. The desire for perfect beauty—enabling us to recognize all imperfections in beauty, causing us to pursue ever greater beauty until we reach perfect beauty itself.

12, The capacity for free will—self-consciousness’ orientation toward either itself or toward others and God (in goodness and love.

Our transcendental capacities are so great that we can be satisfied only by Him, who is perfect truth, love, justice/goodness, beauty, and home. As Augustine noted at the beginning of the Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

See more on this topic here

See also this article, which develops the topic more comprehensively  

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Ω Source of this material - go to the Magis Center here

Suffering leads to growth. So embrace it!

For Rhian Mannings, a double blow of the death of a one-year-old child and the suicide of her husband threw her into a state of trauma. When a police officer told her of her husband's death..."my whole body went. I wet myself, I started dribbling and being sick down myself. It went on for days and days, and I couldn’t lift my head off my chest.”

Nine years later she says: “I went through all this trauma. I was knocked off my feet to a place that I never want to experience again. I went right downhill, but then I came back up. I know it’s made me a different person, a better person.”

In that time Mannings developed from a life as ordinary wife, mother and physical education teacher in Wales to be the leader of a charity that supports families who lose young ones, and she has been recognised with the national MBE honour, and last year, the Pride of Britain award for her service to the community.

Mannings could be regarded as a case study for the body of research that shows suffering, even to the extent of trauma, as a result of, to offer some examples, unemployment, bereavement, a car accident or a natural disaster, often leads to personal growth. This post-traumatic growth means “the positive changes that occur in the aftermath of a trauma as a result of the process of a struggle with these traumatic events”. 

Richard Tedeschi, distinguished chair of the Boulder Crest Institute for Post-Traumatic Growth, lists five areas of growth that people speak of in the aftermath of their suffering: increased personal strength; increased connection with and compassion towards others; greater appreciation and gratitude for their life, especially the small things; they might find a new mission in life; and they undergo an existential change, engaging with questions about the purpose, meaning and value of their life. Studies suggest that 58-83% of trauma survivors report a positive change in at least one area.

Tedeschi explains:

 “Post-traumatic growth is not happiness. It often coexists with distress.” It is an experience of loss and mourning so profoundly painful that it changes you for ever. “It’s hard-won wisdom. It’s knowing things viscerally or in your bones. It’s easy to say: ‘Appreciate life!’ or ‘Treat other people well!’, but doing that in the aftermath of a transformative trauma is a different way of understanding. It’s living it, having it in your gut.”

It's interesting the prominence given to a person's core belief systems in predicting a positive outcome when dealing with trauma. This is brought out in this excerpt from the source report:

 Tedeschi’s definition of trauma is interesting. “We don’t define it in terms of a list of traumatic events,” he says. “Instead, we define it in terms of the impact of events on the core belief system that people have.” Most of us probably aren’t aware this core belief system exists, until it shatters, as Mannings' did.

Those with a well-formed core belief system often have a resilience "where people bounce back from adversity, and go back to how things were before." But we have also to recognise that people are sometimes in circumstances that batter them down to a state it's hard to recover from. So the community has to be ready to respond, and that is what Rhian Mannings and her charity do.

Developing a mindset that can prepare a person for suffering large and small is a big area of Buddhist teaching, but here is a preferred selection from the inspired word of God (English Standard Version):

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18 

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. Proverbs 17:3 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7  

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 

Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Romans 5:3-4

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 1 Peter 4:12 

Therefore, in this treasury of Christian insight - signifying a powerful belief system that invokes a relationship with our Creator - there is the understanding that suffering is part and parcel of life. That idea encourages discipline, respect for others as we're all in this together, and strength of character. 

Moreover, these quotations emphasise that suffering is a valuable part of life because of the reassurance that we are not alone in our misery, because of the attributes it develops in us, and because it motivates us to surmount the inclination to avoid suffering and to press on in serving the greater good of those around us. 

To take up one theme of this blog, parents have a great opportunity in this area, They should further their children's social and psychological maturing by modeling a spiritual dimension in the handling of their own tribulations in this "vale of tears". 

At the other end of this earthly season, old people should rejoice in the difficulties of their life, the usual aches and pains, even serious disease and loss of capacity to cope independently. It's a matter of regarding life still as an opportunity to grow and not give up like cowards before the journey ends. The best advice from the trauma specialists is to enjoy the little things that can lessen the torment of the road. 

For us all, this saying may have some value:

Pain is the door through which God enters the heart. It is the bonfire to purify the soul.

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Dawkins in trouble again over 'Abort it' reply

Richard Dawkins, the British scientist, writer and strong adherent of the cult of atheism, has just shown an aspect of his thought that smacks of eugenics.

During a radio interview he was asked about a statement he made in 2014 on Twitter in answer to this question put to him by one of his 2.9 million followers: 'I honestly don't know what I would do if I were pregnant with a kid with Down Syndrome. Real ethical dilemma.'

Dawkins pinged back: 'Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice.'

It's revealing that both parties recognised that they were talking about a human child, but only the questioner seemed to have any qualms about killing the child. 

Prompted by Brendan O'Connor of RTE Radio in Ireland in early May, Dawkins tried to rationalise his Twitter response, specifically why it would be "immoral" to have a baby with Down's Syndrome. He told listeners:

Given the amount of suffering in the world probably does not go down — probably goes up — compared to having another child who does not have Down's Syndrome, that's what I meant.

The scientist was then asked how knew 'it increases the amount of suffering in the world'. His reply:

I don't know for certain . . . it seems to me to be plausible that if a child has any kind of disability, you would probably increase the amount of happiness in the world more by having another child instead.

O'Connor asked what his evidence was for that. He could respond only with: 'I have no direct evidence, no.'

British newspaper columnist, Dominic Lawson, who has a daughter with Down's Syndrome, gives some factual information that makes plain how scientists tend to over-reach in their declarations:

If Dawkins had bothered to do any research, he would have come across a peer-reviewed paper in the October 2011 issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics, which surveyed 300 people with Down's aged 12 and over. It concluded: 'Nearly 99 per cent of people with DS indicated that they were happy with their lives, 97 per cent liked who they are and 96 per cent liked how they looked.'

That's a weird kind of 'suffering'.

But, Dawkins might retort: what about the families of children with Down's? Here again, the American Journal of Medical Genetics has done the work. Five years ago, it published three surveys covering more than 2,000 families and concluded: 'All three had similar positive findings, with parents/guardians and siblings overwhelmingly expressing love and pride for their family member [with Down's].

This is certainly true of my family: our younger daughter Domenica has Down's Syndrome and, at the risk of sounding soppy, she is a whirlwind of joy.

Tomorrow she celebrates her 26th birthday; her friends will come for a picnic at our house to join the family for that special occasion. Such moments — and, indeed, lives — defy the glib generalisations of Richard Dawkins.

Although it has now been forgotten, the person who asked Dawkins for advice about Down's followed up with another question via Twitter: 'What about people on the autistic spectrum? Where would you draw the line?'

Dawkins answered: 'People on that spectrum have a great deal to contribute, maybe even an enhanced ability in some respects. DS not enhanced.'

This suggests that his real objection to the idea of voluntarily having a child with Down's is not so much a horror of 'suffering' but an unspoken disapproval of people with no 'societal utility' — as if those with below average intelligence are incapable of "contributing".

It is perhaps no coincidence that Richard Dawkins is a man whose most well-known works are a development of the insights of Charles Darwin. The great Victorian scientist had strong views about the risks of overbreeding among 'inferior' types.

These were turned into full-blown eugenicism by [Darwin's] cousin, Sir Francis Galton. That doctrine had terrible consequences in the 20th century, not just in Germany, where it led to the compulsory euthanasia of tens of thousands of children then termed 'handicapped', but even in supposedly civilised Sweden, where forced sterilisation was practised until 1975.

I am not accusing Dawkins of any sympathy for such policies. But I still feel some anger at his opinion that to bring a person like my daughter into the world is 'immoral'. To be precise: I am angry about his ignorance rather than about any insensitivity, in asserting that people like my daughter are a net addition to the world's misery. 

Lawson also refers to the Scottish mother, Lynn Murray, whose daughter Rachel has Down's and who runs the Don't Screen Us Out campaign. Murray and Rachel are on the right of the picture at the top of this post.

Murray said Dawkins' comments were absurd: 

By saying what he has about people with Down’s Syndrome, Richard Dawkins is offending a whole social group in one fell swoop, perpetuating old stereotypes. His opinions by his own admission are uninformed.

My daughter has Down’s Syndrome, she is 21 now and it’s been a privilege to see the positive effect she has had on so many people over the years. She has enriched lives.

He upset myself and many other people in 2014 when he said it was ‘immoral’ to give birth to a child with Down’s Syndrome.

Years later, when he has had much time to consider his opinions, he still persists with his discriminatory, inflammatory narrative, declaring that a specific group of people, just by their very existence make the world a worse place.

All humans are different, we all need support at different times and nobody’s ‘perfect’; that is part of humanity and what makes society rich and what makes life interesting.

What, then, of  Iceland, which is often cited as a country where Down's Syndrome has almost ceased to appear?

The following information is from CBS News, which reported from Iceland in 2017:

Since prenatal screening tests were introduced in Iceland in the early 2000s, the vast majority of women - close to 100 percent - who received a positive test for Down's Syndrome terminated their pregnancy.

While the tests are optional, the government states that all expectant mothers must be informed about availability of screening tests, which reveal the likelihood of a child being born with Down's Syndrome. Around 80 to 85 percent of pregnant women choose to take the prenatal screening test, according to Landspitali University Hospital in Reykjavik.

When Thordis Ingadottir was pregnant with her third child at the age of 40, she took the screening test. The results showed her chances of having a child with Down's Syndrome were very slim, odds of 1 in 1,600. However, the screening test is only 85 percent accurate. That year, 2009, three babies were born with Down syndrome in Iceland, including Ingadottir's daughter Agusta, who is now 7.

Since the birth of her daughter, Ingadottir has become an activist for the rights of people with Down's Syndrome.

As Agusta grows up, "I will hope that she will be fully integrated on her own terms in this society. That's my dream," Ingadottir said. "Isn't that the basic needs of life? What kind of society do you want to live in?"

Geneticist Kari Stefansson is the founder of deCODE Genetics, a company that has studied nearly the entire Icelandic population's genomes. He has a unique perspective on the advancement of medical technology. "My understanding is that we have basically eradicated, almost, Down's Syndrome from our society - that there is hardly ever a child with Down's Syndrome in Iceland anymore," he said.

[CBSNews] asked Stefansson, "What does the 100 percent termination rate, you think, reflect about Icelandic society?" He replied:

"It reflects a relatively heavy-handed genetic counseling," he said. "And I don't think that heavy-handed genetic counseling is desirable. … You're having impact on decisions that are not medical, in a way."

Stefansson noted, "I don't think there's anything wrong with aspiring to have healthy children, but how far we should go in seeking those goals is a fairly complicated decision."

According to Hulda Hjartardottir, head of the Prenatal Diagnosis Unit at Landspitali University Hospital: "We try to do as neutral counseling as possible, but some people would say that just offering the test is pointing you towards a certain direction." Indeed, more than 4 out of 5 pregnant women in Iceland opt for the prenatal screening test.

So, when it comes down to the reasons why Icelanders abort their "suspect" babies the main ones are that there is social pressure to conform, bolstered by the official structures through the testing and counseling regimes, and a certain fear of  the unknown.

 It is clear that, as in many societies, there is no guiding principle in the parents' life - I mean a belief in God's providence - that might lift them out of the mundane and into a  realm of new opportunities for the enjoyment of life in all its variety. In other words, we might say "modern" people lack a sense of the spiritual and of enchantment, which opens up on to a world of joy that the Down's Syndrome families experience. If only Richard Dawkins, in all his brilliance, were wise enough to see what people with Down's Syndrome might teach him!

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Time to confront poisonous US culture

Newsom: "...take a little damn responsibility, all of us". Photo from KCRA 3 video

Two thoughts to start the month of June with: Each age has its over-arching outlook on what is important in life; secondly, to succeed in life so as to be fully human means personally reassessing our goals, digging deep into what guides us in the setting of our ambitions. 

Last week, in a cry from the heart after the shooting deaths of nine workers at a transport yard in California, Governor Gavin Newsom asked: "What the hell is going on in the United States of America? What the hell is wrong with us?"  

Newsom called out the mentality of Americans in apparently accepting the inevitability of gun violence - "It just feels like this happens over and over and over again — rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat." He went on:  "And here we are, in the United States of America, where we're experiencing something that just is not experienced anywhere else in the world."

He highlighted the "numbness" and the "fury and frustration" that builds up within the population as a whole over the deaths by shooting, whether mass shootings or the inner-city toll. "And what are we doing to come to grips with this?... It's time to ... wake up to this reality and take a little damn responsibility, all of us".

Two other signs that all is not well in American society, in fact, that the culture has turned toxic, are the high number of girls presenting as deeply unhappy and wishing to become male, and the rising count of young people with mental health problems.

On the first matter, are good summary of the state of affairs is given in the following two paragraphs from an American source:

The vast majority of youth now presenting with gender dysphoria are adolescents who suddenly express revulsion with their sex from birth, and 70% of them were born female. Many of them have co-morbidities such as anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum traits, and depression, Malone explains, which need to be considered.

This newer presentation — which has been termed late-, adolescent-, or rapid-onset gender dysphoria — has now been seen in every gender clinic in the Western world, and there has been a huge surge in the number of cases. One recent US survey found a 4000% increase (over 40-fold) since 2006, and there have been similar large increases in Finland, Norway, the Netherlands Canada, and Australia.

The Malone in "Malone explains" refers to William Malone, MD, an assistant professor of endocrinology practicing in Twin Falls, Idaho.

The "social contagion" of a materialistic, money- and me-focused culture is having a broader impact also. This year's The State of Mental Health in America report from the Mental Health America organisation has as its three top findings: 

Youth mental health is worsening. 9.7% of youth in the U.S. have severe major depression, compared to 9.2% in last year’s dataset. This rate was highest among youth who identify as more than one race, at 12.4%.

Even before COVID-19, the prevalence of mental illness among adults was increasing. In 2017-2018, 19% of adults experienced a mental illness, an increase of 1.5 million people over last year’s dataset.

Suicidal ideation among adults is increasing. The percentage of adults in the U.S. who are experiencing serious thoughts of suicide increased 0.15% from 2016-2017 to 2017-2018 – an additional 460,000 people from last year’s dataset.

What a toxic society these statistics reveal! However, evidence of such a diseased existence appears wherever a family-oriented society loses its willingness to accept the discipline that the exercise of loving mutual support demands. I'm writing from Vietnam, where I see warped Western values beginning to undermine the traditional solidarity of families and of community.

Here is one observer's description of the root cause of where a nation can go wrong in its culture, especially one like the United States that is rapidly revealing its underlying secular lifestyle, and that prides itself in its individualism:

There is so much division in society today, simply because the individual is facing a crisis of meaning and purpose.  Because of secularism, man does not believe in a creator or the existence of the Ultimate, whom we call God.  He has no idea of his own origin, purpose in life or the outcome at the end of this life.  The world teaches us that the universe, and that includes us all, comes from the random interactions of atoms. It is by accident that we were born into this world.  Life has no meaning, no intrinsic value, except to make the most of what this world offers, at the end of which we return to the universe as atoms. This lack of purpose means that we are called to live for ourselves.  There is no reference point, no objective truth or morals to follow.  It is all about me finding fulfillment in this life.  People are important to me insofar as they can enrich my life.  This is what individualism is all about.

That godless, therefore unanchored and atomised, style of living has certainly taken root in American society, in much of the West, and in richer countries elsewhere. The forms of technology that have arisen in the past 50 years have shaped Western culture, as have the loud proponents of today's stunting form of science that, along with corporate greed, debases ethical standards and fertilizes the desire for ease and entertainment as the true ends of life.

It's clear that each nation has a pattern of thinking that is part of its unique culture. However, the carriers of each culture have to take responsibility for what they accept within the inheritance they pass on to later generations. 

Therefore, parents, in the first instance, need to be determined in taking stock of their own lifestyle and to decide on ways to protect their young ones from the poisonous mindset that envelops society as a whole. They have to realise that their family must stand up to the powerful influences of academia, social media and mainstream media. In addition, social structures such as the school have succumbed to the general contagion and so, to preserve what good remains and to rebuild what has been debased, counter-cultural families must work together. To this end, useful resources can be shared, and new communities developed. Resources for such a project include texts as given here and here.

Governor Newsom is right to be worried about the American way of life and in calling for everyone to take responsibility for transforming American culture. That same plea applies to all of us in whatever culture is our own. This is the time to be counter-cultural wherever we are and family by family, in a way that develops the common good. The young especially need to see that we are not redeemed by science but by that wonderful dimension of reality revealed by God, namely a love that is powerful and everlasting. This is the source of meaning and peace of mind. May God give you success in the work of your hands in this transformational project! 

UPDATE: To get an insight into the nature of the contagion we are exposed to, go here.  

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