What is the Meaning of Life?

Posted by our Chronicler, Jaron B.

Is the meaning of life to prepare us for life in heaven and to behold God in a second life in heaven? Or is it to find our full potential?  Or both?

Well without God there is no purpose for life.  But we all have purpose in life!  Some think the purpose is to be happy.  Happiness can be realizing that you are unique and amazing and lovely!

 

 

 

 

We all decided that this was NOT the meaning of life:

 

 

 

Life comes with lots of choices, responsibility, and decisions.

 

We also agreed that we find meaning when we "detect" our mission.  We disagreed with this quote as we felt that we do not "create" our mission - God does that.

 

 

 

 

 

We also asked "Are Happiness and Meaning the same thing?"

 

We discussed the different meanings for the following terms:

 

Deist (everyone in our group is a deist):  someone who believes that a Supreme Being created the world and left it alone.

 

Theist:  someone who believes in a Being Who exists beyond or outside the natural world, yet Who is able to be involved in the course of human events.

 

Agnostic:  someone who believes that we can never attain adequate answers to profound questions such as the existence of God or the meaning of life.

 

Atheist:  someone who believes that there is no such thing as God.

 

Nihilist:  someone who does not believe that life is meaningful at all.

 

One of our philosophers for the day was St. Thomas Aquinas

 

 

            1225-1274

•      Medieval Italian philosopher and Dominican priest

•      Famously illustrated with the church in one hand and Aristotle’s writings in the other

•      His views were often attacked in his lifetime but soon came to dominate Catholic philosophy

•      Canonized in 1323 and made Angelic Doctor in 1567

•      His greatest work was the Summa Theologica (summary of theology)

•      He believed that our essence is what we really are and existence is what we do throughout our life

 

Our second philosopher for the day was Jean-Paul Sartre

 

 

 

            1905-1980

•      20^th century French philosopher

•      One of the most famous atheist philosophers  - was an existentialist

•      He believed that free choice is the defining characteristic of human existence

•      He did not agree that God is needed to make human life meaningful.

•      He turned Aquinas’argument upside down:  he asserted that human existence precedes human essence

•      He thought that self-creation is what makes humans responsible for the way they live their lives

 

This is my last Chronicle!

 

 



What is Suffering?

Posted by our Chronicler, Jaron B.

Is suffering something we physically feel such as pain or is it something that we feel mentally, or spiritually?

 

Well let’s break it down with Socrates' four causes that we learned about a couple of weeks ago.

1. Formal:  What is it?

 2. Material: What's it made of?

3. Efficient:  Where did it come from?  Who made it?

4. Final:  What purpose does it serve?

Let’s start, so what is suffering? The definition of suffering is bad or unnecessary and unpleasant.

What is it made of what’s in it, or what is the content of it? Well suffering is something that we feel when were hurt in a couple different areas physical, mental, spiritual, or emotional.

Where did it come from? Who made it? Well, some people think God made suffering for all the reasons above.  Many of us agreed that God did not create suffering but allows it.  We create our own suffering.  When we hurt others, we hurt ourselves in the process.

What is it for? Some think it is to bring us closer to God, it makes us stronger and is what makes us who we are in this present moment.  It makes us strive to do better.

So the question becomes:  "How can you believe in a loving God with all the suffering that there is in the world?" Some people say the following.

If God is all-powerful, He could do something to prevent or end suffering.

If God is all-loving, He would want to prevent or end suffering.

There is a tremendous amount of suffering in the world.

Therefore, God either is not all-loving or not all-powerful.

Of course, as we are theists (people who believe in a Being Who exists beyond or outside the natural world, yet who is able to be involved in the course of human events), we do not agree with these statements. We acknowledge that God is all-loving and all-powerful and that he allows suffering in the world and makes all things good.

There are those who are deists so believe that God created all things but then left it alone.  They do not believe that God has a plan for us or interacts with us in any way.

Viktor Frankl, concentration camp survivor, once said "Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds meaning, such as the meaning of sacrifice."

This week's philosopher was St. Augustine.  He had a powerful conversion later in his life through the prayers of his mother, St. Monica, was a prolific writer and was eventually named Doctor of the Church.  He believed in the perfect connection between faith and reason.

What is Art?

Posted by our Chronicler, Jaron B.

We talked about what art is. So what is art? Is it a way of showing feeling, expressing yourself, or just for the sake of doing it. 

Look at the object below.

Is that art?  It looks like art, don’t you think? Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher agrees that anything that represents something is art. He came up with the idea that if it represents something than it is art.

Aristotle

• Philosopher from Ancient Greece  469-399 BC
• Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great
• He and Plato were great friends despite their disagreements
• Aristotle was interested in the physical world and focused on scientific study
• He promoted the representationalist view of art in which art imitates nature
• He wasn’t an artist but wrote about art in Poetics

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher but he disagreed with Aristotle's representationalist theory.  He felt that art was meta-physical (beyond the physical) and should go beyond the literal representation of the world around us. He thought that tragic myths are art.  His theory is that experiencing unhappiness is good for humans and he thought that it forces us to have courage and strive toward greater accomplishments.  He is also famous for saying "God is Dead".

                                                      We thought this was funny!