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Lesson 1a: Rationality and St. Thomas Aquinas’ Five Way Path

Philosophy, however, is more about the methodology behind deriving answers than it is about
the answers themselves.

Doing philosophy involves asking the right questions, critically examining the work of previous
philosophers, truly understanding the works and the reasoning behind the works, and possibly
building on the works of previous philosophers by expanding or testing this methodology.

Rationality- is the habit of acting by reason, which means in accordance with the facts of reality.

Many people, both Christians non-Christians, think that science and Christianity are
irreconcilable kingdoms of thought.

magisterium- is a realm of authority or teaching.

Dr. Gould meant well, but it's simply not possible to neatly divide reality into two
"non-overlapping" realms of Truth, one factual, the other purely spiritual and moral.

Our world is a rational world, our faith is a rational faith, our God is a rational God, and we are to
approach spiritual reality with the same inquiring, reasoning intelligence that we would bring to a
science lab.

The Truth of God's Word can be logically defended. The Bible is not an irrational document.
From Genesis to Revelation, God's Word makes good sense.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the desire for God is written on every human
heart.

St. Thomas Aquinas(1224-1274)- One of the greatest theologians of all time.

The First Way (The Unmoved Mover)- St. Thomas observes that the world is in constant motion.
His definition of motion is broad and includes change in any object, inanimate or animate.

The Second Way (The First Cause)- Everything in existence Was caused by
something else and did not just appear out of thin air. This is the cause and effect way in which
the universe operates.

The Third Way (Contingency or Necessary Being)- It is not necessary for anything in the world
to exist at all. Anything animate or inanimate in the world can cease to exist at any time,
whether by death or time, destruction. When something stops existing, the rest of the world
keeps going. It is also true that nothing and no one exists forever.
The Fourth Way (Gradation)- Something has to be the standard by which we judge all other
things. So there must be something which is perfectly good, perfectly true, and perfectly
beautiful. That standard by which everything else is judged is God.

The Fifth Way (Design)- St. Thomas observed that there is an intelligent design to the way the
world works, particularly in the forces of nature and science.

Lesson 1b. Trinitarian God (Insight and Discernment)

Christians believe that there is only one God, who is the creator and sustainer of the world.
They believe that God is three Persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - known as the
Trinity.

Trinity- refers to the idea that God is one, but exists in three different Persons.

The word ‘trinity’ means ‘three’ and ‘unity’ meaning ‘one’.

God the Father - the creator sustainer of all things

God the Son - the incarnation of as a human being, Jesus Christ Earth

God the Holy Spirit - the powe God which is active in the we drawing people towards God

Christians refer to God as the Father. God the Father is the creator of all things. This means that
he was the creator of the wo and everything in it. He is the father of universe.

God the Son refers to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For Christians, this is Jesus as God in
human form, who was sent to save humanity.

The Holy Spirit is the power of God at work on the Earth. In the scriptures it is often depicted as
wind, fire or in the form of a dove.

In large part, it describes the interior search for an answer to the question of one's vocation,
namely, determining whether or not God is calling one to the married life, single life, consecrated
life, ordained ministry or any other calling.

Christian spiritual discernment can be separated from other types of discernment because every
decision is to be made in accordance with God's will.

Christian Discernment also has an mphasis on

Jesus, and making decisions that align with those of Jesus within the New Testament
Lesson 2: Theistic Approach (Opinion and Truth)

Philosophizing- means to think or express oneself in a philosophical manner.

opinion- is a judgement, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather than facts, which
are true statements.

Theism- is a belief in the existence of at least one god - nothing more, nothing less.

Theism has come in several varieties over The millennia: monotheism, polytheism, pantheism,
and several more that many haven’t even heard of.

Many seem to believe that religion and theism effectively the same thing, such that every
religion is theistic and every theist is religious, but that's a mistake that's based on number of
common misconceptions about both religion and theism.

The idea of a "burden of proof" is important in debates because whoever has a burden of proof
carries an obligation to "prove" their claims in some fashion.

Theism doesn't mean very much, at least not inherently, since it doesn't mean anything more
than believing in the existence of at least one god of some sort.

The Sacred Scripture- It is in this book that we can understand the important event in history of
our forefathers and how they had started to grow as a community of believers and how they
have sacrifice for the sake of their faith and following God's will and purpose.

Why Read the Bible?

It answers important questions:
• Who am I?
• Where did I come from?
• Why am I here?
• Where am I going?

Two Parts of the Sacred Scripture

1. Old Testament:
-composed in Hebrew and translated in Greek circa 2nd and 3rd BCE
-a Covenant between God and man with 46 books
-sacred writings of Judaism
-Pentateuch, Historical, Wisdom & Prophetic sections
2. New Testament
-Approximately six centuries, separate the writing of the Old and N Testaments.
-new covenant through Jesus Christ
-27 books
-The New Testament is a book about life in Christ, life lived according to Gospel. The "Good
News" is that God has become man in Jesus Christ our Li who came to save us from our sin
and bring us to fullness of life

The Old Testament

Genesis - origin of mankind and the Jewish people

Exodus -life of Moses Leviticus & Deuteronomy detail divine law as I Yahweh, one of the Jewish
names of God;

Numbers- contains statistical information about the Hebrews.

Joshua, Judges and Ruth - books which bridge Moses and the Jewish monarchy

The New Testament

Gospel- originally meant the Christian message, but in the 2nd century it came to be used a so
for the books in which the message was set out; in this sense a gospel can be defined as a
loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth, culminating in his
trial and death and concluding with various reports of his post-resurrection appearances.

1. Mark (ACE 65)

• appeared after martyrdom of Peter & Paul
• 1st writer of the life of Jesus Christ
• focuses on Jesus as the Messenger of God, The Healer, the savior

2. Matthew (ACE 80)

• Tax Collector
• originated in Rome
• target audience - nonJewish Christians
• framework - Mark (2x longer)

3. Luke -
• also wrote Acts of the Apostles
• target audience - Greek-speaking communities
• do not need reassurance about old Testament,
• need to know their own Christian faith

4. John (ACE 90)

• Ephesus (John & Mary), countered false teachings the Jesus had not really become man.
• Jesus "became flesh,"
"Bread of Life" to his followers
• no repetition (except in the passion account)