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Here is a quotation from On Loving God by Bernard of Clairvaux. I was reading it this morning and this quote caught my attention.

"For man, being in honor, if he know not his own honor, may fitly be compared, because of such ignorance, to the beasts that perish. Not knowing himself as the creature that is distinguished from the irrational brutes by the possession of reason, he commences to be confounded with them because, ignorant of his own true glory which is within, he is led captive by his curiosity, and concerns himself with external, sensual things. So he is made to resemble the lower orders by not knowing that he has been more highly endowed than they."

Pure Cause of Virtue

"For virtue is nought else but an ordained and a measured affection, plainly directed unto God for Himself. For why? He in Himself is the pure cause of all virtues: insomuch, that if any man be stirred to any one virtue by any other cause mingled with Him, yea, although that He be the chief, yet that virtue is then imperfect."

The above is from an English book called The Cloud of Unknowing. It is an anonymous work written in the fourteenth century. The main point of the book is that one should focus his or her affections upon God himself and not on his gifts or on various issues that tickle one's intellect or imagination. It is definitely a work that people should read today, but I'm afraid that it is a little inaccessible to the average evangelical today, seeing that it is so old.

This quotation is especially good I think. It counters a common idea that one often comes across when talking with people about the subject of belief in God. People often say something to the effect of, "I am a pretty decent person. I try to be a nice neighbor and not litter, and sometimes I give some money to charity. So what use is there for me to love some God? Isn't my own behavior honorable enough? Why do I have to love this great being?"

The message that this quotation has for us is that God is in himself Pure and Perfect Virtue. That is not to say that he is not personal, of course. He is Pure Virtue and personal. But if he is Pure Virtue and the cause of all virtue, then if one loves virtue perfectly, then he will love God. If there is a complete desire for moral perfection according to God's standard, he or she will be a lover of God. If the person does not love Pure Virtue, there must be a part of God's moral standard that he or she has not submitted himself or herself to.

Now the last part of this quotation I don't know that I agree with. It says that if you are moved to virtue for any other cause than for the love of God, then that work is imperfect. But I would think that if I do something nice for my wife for the love of God and for the love of my wife,the goodness of the action would not be lessened because I enjoyed seeing my wife's enjoyment. I would agree with the statement if the writer meant that it is not virtuous for a crook and a cheat to stop stealing and cheating mainly so that people will be friends with him. (This example reminds me of Simon the sorcerer offering money to Peter to be given the Holy Spirit.) But I don't know that I would say that the crook and cheat should have no self interest. Didn't Augustine say "it is the decided opinion of all who use their minds that everyone desires to be happy"? Is it possible to do something right without any thought for the enjoyment that goodness brings? I don't think so. Surely the love of God should be the chief cause far above all other causes.

The Mote and the Beam

I came across a rather humorous exchange today while I was listening to a conversation between Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss on iTunes U from the Aurora Forum at Stanford University. Their topic of conversation was science education, meaning, of course, the teaching of evolution.

The exchange was a real hoot in light of recent complaints in America about scientists being fired for being sympathetic to and/or tolerant of the ideas of intelligent design.

Krauss said that something scary happening in America was that some teachers are feeling intimidated not to talk about the theory of evolution. He said that his daughter's biology teacher would apologize to the students whenever he talked about evolution.

Dawkins replied, "That's a major evil. What are we going to do about it? It's terrible. That's absolutely terrible that teachers are being intimidated." Then he asked the audience if there were any teachers there who had been intimidated not to talk about evolution. At least one person raised his or her hand and said that he or she was intimidated by parents to not teach evolution.

"Well, you know what . . ." Krauss said (talking like I tend to do with so many "um"s and pauses and digressions that nobody knows what he is or I am trying to say). "It's even more . . . What happened in Texas. So the school board official recommended that there was an event on evolution. A bunch of interesting speakers. And the school official sent out the notice that this was happening. And she got fired. Because she didn't present the other . . . you know, she didn't talk about the other side. Can you believe that? But that's the kind of intimidation that actually happens. And it's really scary."

An attempt at adding more pictures

Ok, this was supposed to be an entry with more baby pictures, but it will not work this time. Internet service can be a little spotty here at my house. I was able to post the other pictures and then ten minutes later couldn't post the others.

Maybe I will tell some details about the baby's delivery later. It was a really stressful time. It was wonderful that the baby was born, but several things happened that were tough to deal with. It is all in the past now, and now I have a beautiful baby. So all things considered, we are happy and blessed now.

I would like to make a couple posts later about the issue of ethics in philosophy. It seems that this is a big area about which secular philosophers are, generally speaking, pretty muddleheaded. Otherwise, maybe I am muddleheaded about it. (After all, I am pretty tired now, seeing that I have a baby to keep me up at night.) After I make my posts, then you can decide for yourselves who is confused.

Finally, I would like to share with you my grief with a popular concept regarding the will of God. The idea I am thinking about is confusing, unhelpful and unbiblical. Further, there are no precise words used to describe this idea--it is more of an attitude--so it is a little hard to talk about. Hopefully I will not completely obfuscate the issue when I get around to writing about it.

Baby Pictures

My son was born at the beginning of May. Here are some pictures of my wife, my baby and my wife's parents.