1. The Art of Human Reasoning
God made man into His Image and Likeness. What made man like God? The fact that he has an intellect and a free will. The intellect is akin to God the Son. While the free will is akin to God the Holy Spirit. Thus St. Augustine took effort in showing that man with his intellect and free will is akin to God the Father with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This is referred to as the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity whose image and likeness is reflected in man.
So man, himself, is the proof that there is a God with three persons and that the God of the Catholic Church is the true Church because its God is the only true God. Both proofs being within man himself. No other proof is needed to prove which is the true Church and which is the true God.
As the saying goes; if you want to know the true Church and the true God, which always go together, just look at the mirror. There is the proof. Unless the mirror is blurred, stained and distorted. This is what happened because of original sin.
Though original sin caused great destruction in man, God saw to it that his intellect would remain unscathed. Man can, still, think rightly and slowly rediscover the way to perfect truth and the perfect good.
2. Common sense and the intellect.
This unscathed intellectual faculty can be seen in the functioning of the ‘common sense’ or its more sophisticated term ‘Philosophy.’ Philosophy and common sense are identical; Philosophy uses more sophisticated language to give the impression of being sophisticated.
All men had been endowed with common sense or this unscathed intellect. And with this faculty alone man can know all natural good and the true God of nature, the true natural religion and get a hint on the way to go to heaven. Not to know these natural things is utterly inexcusable.
3. So why are so many people in the wrong?
Many are in the wrong religion, in the wrong church and doing everything wrong because they refuse to think. Gilbert Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc had clearly seen this during their century; that no one is thinking right.
Not to think right is the punishment for all who do not have the supernatural virtue of Faith. Without Faith everything done is sin, St. Paul wrote. To think badly and wrongly is the punishment for being proud and being in the state of mortal sin.
Faith can be attained by having the right disposition, a disposition that is naturally attainable through a mature act of the intellect. The road to Faith is to think rightly, which all man can do.
4. An example on how to think right.
A man is riding a car and somewhere ahead he sees a ‘closed road’ sign blocking the road. Now, let us see the behaviour of a thinking man.
First, there is a sign giving a command; ‘to stop’ because the road is closed.
Secondly, it does not give a reason ‘to stop.’ But the intelligent man will say, ‘there is a reason for the instruction to ‘stop.’ So he will stop and then find out the reason for stopping. Maybe there is a large sink hole in front of the road that could cause his death. He does not know the reason and because he does not know the reason he uses his intelligence and stops.
Thirdly, he tries to find out the reason for the ‘stop’ sign. He should. He cannot just remain motionless in the road, otherwise he will not reach his home. He does this by walking and looking around or he may ask someone around in the know why the road is closed. But the intelligent man will find out the reason why the road is closed.
Fourthy, if he finds the reason for the ‘closed road’ he will now find out if the reason is reasonable or not; is the reason for the ‘closed road’ valid enough to make him stop. Or is it invalid and that he should go through the sign. The reason for stopping is valid if there is a large sink hole ahead. The reason is invalid if the sign was just placed there by some drunkard who thought the road led to hell.
Fifthly, then the intelligent man should make a conclusion. If, indeed, there is a large sink hole then he should turn and take another route home. If, on the other hand, there is no sink hole and the sign was just placed there by a drunkard who thought the sign was a fired hydrant, then he can continue on his journey ahead towards his home.
Sixthly, he will continue ahead the same blocked road if he is convinced this road is better than if he took another detour route on his way home. But if he is not convinced that a drunkard put up the sign and that there is still a danger that the large sink hole is further ahead and cannot be seen or checked, then the wiser thing to do is play save and take the detour road him. The latter is the wiser decision.
5. I think all would agree that this is an intellectual decision. Now, let’s see the behaviour of an unthinking man. And this is important because this is how all men are behaving today according to that monster Chesterton-Belloc, who like to eat up unthinking men.
First, he is driving home and sees a ‘closed road’ sign. And he says, I am going home, this sign will not delay me. I am going through. Unthinking he crashes through the sign and ends up in a sink hole or running over a drunkard. Now, he has plenty of time to think……. in jail.
Secondly, the driver sees the sign; he looks around and sees no reason for the sign. He, also, sees no police to flag him down so he goes through the sign in his desire to reach home on time for the basketball games. Because he is not intelligent enough to look for reasons for the ‘closed road’ sign, he thinks he is so intelligent. I do not see any reason so there is no reason. Fine, until he sees himself in the sink hole being buried alive or he sees the face of a man flat on his front windshield, well there is the reason but it is too late. Now he knows but it is too ate.
Thirdly, the driver sees the sign but the sign does not give a reason for stopping. He looks around and cannot find any reason either. So he says; if I do not see the reason, therefore, there is no reason! He is acting believing that other people do things without a reason, like the one who put up that sign. He refuses to wait and goes ahead. After a few feet he finds the reason, whatever it is. But it is too late.
Fourtly, the non-intellectual does not look for reasons, so he cannot evaluate if the reason is valid or not. He does not reach this stage of reasoning. This stage is important in evaluating dogmatic and moral issues. This stage is reserved for a very few naturally intelligent people. Even in Greece, only a handful were able to reach this stage. The majority of men are not-intelligent that is why Democracy is the rule of the unintelligent majority.
Fifthly, everybody makes a choice but not according to the wise workings of the intellect. Man with his fallen nature always chooses what he likes no matter how stupid the choice is. Thus the unthinking man who is in a hurry to watch the games will rush through the ‘closed road’ sign. While the drunkard will, also, rush like the unthinking man except he will crash through the ‘closed road’ sign. No difference.
Sixthly, so finally, the unthinking man is one who does things, like changes, without thinking if the change is for better or for worse.
6. The sin of the world.
St. Thomas of Aquinas wrote that the most common sins of men are ignorance and pride. The two go together. Man, because of pride, thinks he knows everything when he really knows nothing. What a death dealing combination for the soul
In an age of mass easily available information? Well, man knows all the ‘curiositas,’ i.e. informations that purely satisfies the curiosity of man, like, are there people in Mars? But nothing of the information of what is essential, the object of ‘studiositas,’ like the salvation of his soul. Ignorance of what is important is a grievous sin. With pride it is a deadly mortal sin.
Of the six stages of reasoning, man is unable to do even the FIRST. Like the unthinking or drunken driver, they do not even stop at the stop sign. The only difference is that the unthinking man drives around the sign while the drunken driver goes through the sign.
CHANGE! This is the cry of politicians and this is what makes people vote. For change. Without first finding out the reason for the first sign saying ‘closed road.’ And they want a change and go through. Sign of the times; both political leader and voters do not think. Where will they end? The bottom of the sink hole.
The ten commandments of God are stop signs saying ‘stop worshipping idols’, ‘stop telling lies,’ ‘stop committing fornication,’ ‘stop committing adultery,’ etc..etc. See how everybody just goes through the signs and worships money and high positions, tells lies in national TV, commits fornication and gets killed in bed, changes wives and children as if they were socks. And they are encouraged and led by Pope Francis in his ‘Amoris Laetitia’ and followed by leaders of Bishop’s conference like in the Philippines; as they have just announced.
7. Sins of religious congregations.
In the Catholic religion, there are many ‘closed road’ signs. Adultery, receiving Holy Communion in mortal sin, same sex marriage, Pride, ……..these are all ‘closed road signs’ that Catholics cannot enter.
In the religious life too much talking , visiting relatives, having worldly visitors, owning your own things, gossiping, masturbation, talking off the religious habit, dressing like laymen, …….all these are ‘closed road’ signs religious should not enter. And they are all going through these signs. Pope Francis is crying out; take out all ‘closed’ signs, remove barriers leading to cliffs, open doors to the devil and new religions. And this is echoed by Bishops like Tagle and Villegas.
They call it freedom to drive your car anywhere you want, including to sink holes with large signs ‘Do not enter’. Today, almost all religious orders have disregarded the ‘close road’ signs of their Holy Rules. So that, today, no Catholic religious order have the four signs of the Catholic Church mentioned in the Nicene Creed. None of them is Catholic.
Religious change their Rules without asking the true reason for the rule; why it is there in the first place. And cannot prove that the change is better than the original reason given by the Holy Rule. Is is change, change, change, …for the sake of change. The same goes with Pope Francis and other bishops who came from these seminaries.
8. Sins of Pope Francis and the Bishops.
Pope Francis did not even stop. When he became Pope he just rushed without even reading the ‘stop sign’ leading to adultery made by God, Himself. He, also, did not know God’s reason for putting up that sign. He did not go neither through the first nor second stages of thinking.
Bishop Villegas, in his opening remarks at the 2016 Bishops Conference in Pius XII centre said that the ‘old religion’ of St. Augustine and St. Thomas of Aquinas is old, feeble and sickly. But he gave no proof to it. Then said that the new protestant sect of Pope Francis is better without proving it either. That conclusion is supposed to be the sixth step and yet he did not go through the six steps of reasoning. Most of the bishops did not object to the irrationality of the statement.
They don’t think. They are reckless drivers at the expense of thousand of souls. They have not even done the first step of common sense or Philosophy. And still show pride as if they are right and knowledgeable. Not realising that because of their absence of Faith, which is the first step after the six stages of thinking, all their decisions are wrong and bad. This is a punishment of God for their pride and ignorance.
What do we do in a situation where both Pope and Bishops don’t think? Well, we have to think. We have to, because Faith, the first supernatural virtue needed for salvation is an Act of the Intellect. Nobody goes to heaven without using their heads. In the event that our spiritual heads are not using theirs we have no choice. We must use our heads and reason out………correctly. Use our common sense or a sound philosophy. It’s ‘common’, so you and I have it. No excuse.