Apologetics

The Profound, Superlative & Joyous Attraction of Truth, as Articulated by Dr. Peter J. Kreeft

“The reason I was born, the reason I came into the world, was to bear witness to the Truth. All who are on the side of Truth listen to My voice.”

“I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one reaches the Heavenly Father except through Me.”

Jesus of Nazareth, the historic figure who walked the face of this earth some 2000 years ago, and who spent the first 30 of his 33 years of life working as a carpenter, carried out, in three short years, the most astonishing feat that any human person or group of human persons has ever carried out. As the “Way,” Christ answered humanity’s question, “How ought the human person live his/her life, in a manner that is upright, moral, and even perfect;” as the “Truth,” Christ answered humanity’s question, “What ought I believe and know, with certitude, regarding the existence and essence of my Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, and what can I know, with certitude, about the purpose of my own existence and my own ultimate vocation, as a human person, created in God’s image and likeness;” finally, as the “Life,” Christ, in laying down His own life for us, becomes the edible means by which we become “partakers of the divine nature” of the Triune God, Himself. For, “unless you eat of the flesh of the son of man and drink of His blood, you have no life within you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

Truth is irresistible to the human mind and spirit. If we are honest with ourselves and are earnestly open to the Truth, we will find ourselves irresistibly attracted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; for, Christ is, indeed, the “Way, the Truth and the Life.”

Few persons alive today are as intellectually gifted as Dr. Peter J. Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. We can count on one hand the number of individuals who have had the courage to debate Dr. Kreeft on the topic of God’s existence, the divinity of Christ and the authority of the Church. It is my sincere hope that in posting these marvelous and incredibly thought-provoking videos of Dr. Kreeft doing that which he does so very well, you, the viewer, might be spurred on to seek out more of the myriad video and audio recordings of Dr. Kreeft, available entirely free of charge courtesy of the many generous YouTube users who have recorded Dr. Kreeft’s lectures, and have uploaded them to YouTube for all to enjoy. May you be open to the stirring of the Spirit of Truth Who, through the razor-sharp logic of Dr. Kreeft, will hopefully leave you surprised by Truth.

Dr. Peter Kreeft Presents Incontestable Philosophical Arguments for God’s Existence

The “Five Ways” of Aquinas Revisited

“Thomas Aquinas Confounding Averroes” – Attribution: Giovanni di Paolo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Jayson M. Brunelle, M.Ed., CAGS

In Question two of the First Part of the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas proposes arguments or proofs for the existence of God in what are commonly referred to as the “Five Ways.” These “Five Ways” have been used by apologists for centuries in an effort to demonstrate that God’s existence can, indeed, be philosophically or logically proven. Note that these are logical proofs, not scientific ones, for God is pure spirit and therefore not subject to the scientific method. This reality, however, is only a problem for those who subscribe to “scientistism,” which, ironically enough, is a belief system whereby its proponents place what is tantamount to a “religious faith” in science as the only valid source of knowledge, and the “scientific method” as the only viable means of conveying authentic or trustworthy knowledge. This philosophical conviction is also referred to as logical positivism, and, as will be demonstrated, is entirely self-inconsistent. For, it is entirely impossible to scientifically prove that one ought only to believe that which can be scientifically proven. Thus, science cannot prove itself, and there certainly are other ways of arriving at true, authentic knowledge. This is not meant to belittle the scientific method as a valid source of human knowledge. Rather, it is to say that science provides but one of many ways and means of knowing and attaining truth. Examples of other valid sources of knowledge are logical, deductive and inductive reasoning; authority/historicity; faith; intuition; etc. Moreover, the “proofs” for God’s existence might meet with the radical epistemological skepticism of those who claim that it is impossible to know anything. Of them, one might ask, “But you claim to “know” that you cannot know. How, then, can you know that?” For, any time an assertion of any sort is made, the human mind’s ability to ‘know’ is presupposed. Further, some might assert, “There is no such thing as truth.” Yet, it is clear that the one making this assertion believes it to be true, otherwise, there would be no point in making the assertion at all. Yet, if any assertion is true, including this particular assertion, that “There is no such thing as “Truth,” then there is, in fact, such a thing as truth. Therein lies the self-inconsistency. (more…)