Religious Philosophy Is Just a Waste of Time - Change My View

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Julius_Caesar said:
One is of the flesh; the other is of the Spirit.
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By that logic, the Vatican should suppress the Dominicans, dissolve all colleges in its universities that aren’t theology, and all of its bodies involved in researching science. Oh, and it should denounce St. Albert Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, and the findings of Fr. Le Maitre on the grounds that their philosophical/scientific pursuits were just worldly pursuits of the flesh.

After all, science is just “of the flesh”.

Except that would be ridiculous. Truth, no matter its source, is not of the flesh, but of God. Calling it “flesh” then is ridiculous.
 
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Fauken said:
Oh, and it should denounce St. Albert Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, and the findings of Fr. Le Maitre on the grounds that their philosophical/scientific pursuits were just worldly pursuits of the flesh.
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The same Aquinas who experienced something of the absolute and said that everything he wrote was straw?
 
Julius_Caesar said:
The same Aquinas who experienced something of the absolute and said that everything he wrote was straw?
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Philosophical truths are not God, and thus do not have the same splendor as Him, but that’s entirely different from calling them “flesh”/of the world.
 
Fauken said:
Philosophical truths are not God, and thus do not have the same splendor as Him, but that’s entirely different from calling them “flesh”/of the world
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And that’s what Athens is.

Using Athens to explain Jerusalem has never worked. Paul had first hand experience with that.
 
Julius_Caesar said:
And that’s what Athens is.

Using Athens to explain Jerusalem has never worked. Paul had first hand experience with that.
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Catholic philosophy does not pretend to replace theology or God with it. It’s a tool, just like science is.

It is not flesh.
 
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Fauken said:
Catholic philosophy does not pretend to replace theology or God with it. It’s a tool, just like science is.
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You mean Western Catholic theology.

Ultimately, whatever philosophy that tries to understand God will prove to be straw.
 
Julius_Caesar said:
You mean Western Catholic theology.

Ultimately, whatever philosophy that tries to understand God will prove to be straw.
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That does not make it useless or the flesh. By that logic we should not advance any sort of knowledge outside theology (and even theology I suppose then is debatable since the work that said it was the most sublime of the sciences is “straw”). All of it is straw since it’s a pale imitation of Truth Itself, from philosophy to medicine.
 
Fauken said:
That does not make it useless or the flesh. By that logic we should not advance any sort of knowledge outside theology
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What you are addressing, is, a strawman. (Pun intended)

Notice how I said “any philosophy that tries to understand God.”
 
Contrary to what some would have us believe, Love and Wisdom have little to do with intelligence. There is a huge difference between knowing God and knowing about God.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

I will know that they love me because they follow my commandments.
 
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And then there’s this…Romans2:12

Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect
MikeInVA said:
Feeding the hungry will not get them in to heaven
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Yeah I think the image of Christ the King has been diminished in favor of Jesus the social worker. We need to remember…‘every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess’…
 
Julius_Caesar said:
Using Athens to explain Jerusalem has never worked.
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Combining natural law (Athens) with Revelation (Jerusalem) underpins Western Civilization, the scientific revolution, modern democratic political systems, and economies that raised millions out of poverty. I’d say it worked pretty well.
 
o_mlly said:
Combining natural law (Athens) with Revelation (Jerusalem) underpins Western Civilization
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The same civilization that’s has consumerism, exalts science over God, emphasizes the individual over the community.
Yeah. Athens still has nothing on Jerusalem.
 
Julius_Caesar said:
Ultimately, whatever philosophy that tries to understand God will prove to be straw.
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Philosophy will never be able to understand and know God fully, and the great Catholic philosophers (such as Aquinas and Bonaventure) understood this.

That does not, however, mean that philosophy cannot help us to understand some aspects of God and his creation. Philosophy is a helpful tool, but not the end all be all.
Julius_Caesar said:
The same civilization that’s has consumerism, exalts science over God, emphasizes the individual over the community.
Yeah. Athens still has nothing on Jerusalem.
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Any proof that western scholastic philosophy has anything to do with this?
 
Again.

What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?
 
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Julius_Caesar said:
The same civilization that’s has consumerism, exalts science over God, emphasizes the individual over the community.
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Your first two criticisms evidence Athens w/o Jerusalem. The last reflects the combination and Catholic social thinking: the community exists to support the individual.
 
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