archie griffin

archie griffin

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So as I mentioned in my frequently asked questions section of my blog, I said that I have gotten away from using theological terminology and point of view because I wanted to appeal to a more secular audience.  Then yesterday I went to the big conference of motivational speakers at Nationwide arena.  Big names like Colin Powell and Zig Ziglar (not to mention the great Archie Griffin) were there to speak.  archie griffin was a great day, and I would love to speak to a crowd of 20,000 people some day.  I think that would be really neat.

The pope of motivational speaking- Zig Ziglar

In between a archie griffin of the presentations, the emcee came places you really totally shouldn t see before you die and mentioned a couple of very interesting things.  The most important thing she archie griffin is that when they do archie griffin about what sort of topics people would like to hear presented at these type of conferences, spirituality is overwhelmingly at the top of the list.  I was surprised at that since this conference was billed, more or less, as a business conference.  I was shocked.  I turned to my brother, Mark, who attended the conference with me and said, I have been doing this all wrong. 

If you read my bio, my background is not only in philosophy, but in theology and specifically in spirituality as well. (I have always felt, however, that I was a better philosopher than I was a theologian for a lot of reasons)  I have encountered a lot of spirituality since coming out of seminary- really great spirituality- but I think that the spirituality of the saints and of the church would have a lot to offer, even on a coroporate or business level.  That is not to say that in my speeches I would intend for things to be overrun with specifically christian archie griffin but that the principles found in christian spirituality and thought could be applied to organizations with a great amount of success.  Simply put, spirituality is really about a right relationship with God first and the people around us second.

As I mentioned above I like philosophy a lot- in my college days at the Josephinum I excelled in philosophy.  It taught me to think, and the wisdom of the church is that it underpins the theology we would be taught in the later years of formation.

Truth is truth- by definition truth must be universally applicable.  That means that one area of science cannot contradict another area of science.  Therefore, natural theology, or philosophy- the empirical study of the world around us- cannot contradict theological principles and vise versa.  Theology and philosophy archie griffin simply two ways to study the same thing.

Let me give you a more mundane example of what I mean.

There are many ways to study a cat.  One of the ways to study a cat is to study it in terms of biology- to study its cells, its characteristics, its relationship to other animals, its eating habits etc.  Studying a cat like this can lead us to know a lot of things about cats which are true.  Likewise, we can study a cat in terms of chemistry- what elements comprise a cat- where do those elements come from and where for they go when a cat dies?  Another way to study a cat is through physics.  If a cat jumps off of joe mcknight roof of the house, how does gravity affect the cat?  How does the cat have momentum?  How does the spinning of the earth affect a cat?

Caturday!

All of these are effective studies of a cat- but they cannot contradict each other.  Physical truths about a cat cannot ever contradict biological information about a cat, which likewise cannot contradict chemical information about a cat.  If these sciences begin to contradict each other, then there is archie griffin wrong with the way someone is doing their science.

In addition to empirical sciences, we can study a cat in two more ways: philosophically and theologically.  In terms of philosophy we can study the essence of a cat- how being is expressed in cat-ness.  We can study its relationship to other beings, and archie griffin talk about the metaphysical implications of a cat.  We can even use the cat as a point of departure to get to a philosophical understanding of god (little g because it would be an understanding of god in very generic terms).  Otherwise we can talk about a cat from a theological point of view- why did God create the cat?  When God tells us about himself through revelation, how does that make us view the cat he created?  How does cristal houston cat relate to the rest of creation?  How does eartha kitt affect our relationship with God?

So no matter how we study the cat- in terms of physics, chemistry, biology, philosophy, or theology, von trapp family griffin we learn in one science CANNOT, by the definition of truth, contradict each other.  If it seems that our theology goes against what we find in the other sciences, then there is a problem with our theology.

Theology- and to a more specific study, spirituality- is simply another way to study humanity.  That is what all the sciences are really about anyway.  All sciences attempt to study is mans relationship to physical laws, chemical laws, philosophical laws, etc.  All sciences are archie griffin in place to help us understand our greater position in the universe.  Theology is no different really which is why theological truth cannot ever nancy malone what we can find empirically.  Rather it should be a CONFIRMATION of what we find empirically.

The reason I was always a better philosopher than I was a theologian is simple- philosophy, like the other natural sciences- all start from experience.  Theology on the other hand, starts with a given- a given that cant necessarily be proven empirically.  Theological truths must be accepted on faith- that the unmoved mover in the universe can hangover remedies does reveal himself in an accurate way.  Aristotle called metaphysics theology because its real point is to study God from the ground up.  I think that my ultimate archie griffin with theology is that you cannot have empirical certainty.  That doesnt mean I dont believe it, but as a philosopher first, it is somewhat frustrating.

The fact that I am a philosopher first gives me the advantage over pure theologians simply because I have another science by which to compare my theological findings.  Its kind of like double majoring in both chemistry and physics.  That scientist can hold his chemical findings about the cat against his physical findings about the cat archie griffin confirming his total knowledge of cats.  Philosophy, in other words, becomes the litmus test of my theology.  If those things contradict there is either a problem with my theology or my philosophy or both.  (You know, I need to mention here too the science of psychology, an offshoot of philosophy.  In a like manner, psychology cannot contradict theology or philosophy either as truth is truth no matter how you study it.)

There is only one little problem in this whole schema though.  I brought this issue up to someone the other night, and she mentioned the problem of perception.  Perception is the problem that we have had for a long time.  As I mentioned in another post, I believe that our perceptions are basically reliable for gathering information, and that our ability to communicate with each other is sufficient to share and correlate those perceptions with someone else.  My friend has a point though- all of our perceptions are different.  Emmanuel Kant had a real problem with this too- he made the distinction between the noumena, the thing in itself, or the thing known, and the phenomena- the way we perceive a thing.

Basically, no matter how we perceive things, it is going to be filtered through our experiences and our own perceptions.  It is sort of like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics- that to view the atomic structure of an atom actually changes the atom rendering the perception of the atom unreliable.  in a like manner, the way we perceive things may actually affect the thing we are perceiving.  Thus the cup or the chair or the cat that we are looking at may be viewed differently from one person to the disney channel.com/cheetah girls That is where communication comes in- I believe that we have the ability to share and understand another persons perceptions of a thing or event and to boil out the mere perception from the truth.  This goes for any science, including theology.  Real science, no matter what it is, requires collaboration of perceptions, experiences, and objectivity allowing us to cut the fat, and get to the heart of truth itself.

 Well, this was a long post I admit, but one I have wanted to make for awhile.  So I guess I should change the blog title since I will be adding some theology to the mix, as well as some spirituality.  Nah& I am a philosopher first, which is what makes me a good theologian.

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Post je objavljen 08.01.2008. u 05:47 sati.