Comments on: The Danger of Certitude? http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/ Now This Is The Real World! Where Theology and Real Life Meet. Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:41:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: james horne http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/comment-page-1/#comment-273128 james horne Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:11:09 +0000 http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/#comment-273128 The literary critic and great Southern apologist Allen Tate(he was a Catholic as well) once wrote," In the long run man is a creature who must believe in order to know, and must know in order to do." It is certitude that permits one to act. This is why where there is an advance religion there is culture. The protestant theologian Cornelious van Til said that culture is religion externalized. Thus we come full circle in our thinking- no certitude, no culture. The literary critic and great Southern apologist Allen Tate(he was a Catholic as well) once wrote,” In the long run man is a creature who must believe in order to know, and must know in order to do.”
It is certitude that permits one to act. This is why where there is an advance religion there is culture. The protestant theologian Cornelious van Til said that culture is religion externalized. Thus we come full circle in our thinking- no certitude, no culture.

]]> By: David http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/comment-page-1/#comment-272639 David Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:12:25 +0000 http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/#comment-272639 Raulito - Thanks for the note. If you are not familiar with it, the book <i>Faith and Certitude</i> by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. is a very good treatment of the issue. I would highly recommend that your colleague read it. I think that for believers, Shawn's comments above provide a good argument against falling into the trap of confusing tolerance and humility for uncertitude. Raulito -

Thanks for the note. If you are not familiar with it, the book Faith and Certitude by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M. is a very good treatment of the issue. I would highly recommend that your colleague read it. I think that for believers, Shawn’s comments above provide a good argument against falling into the trap of confusing tolerance and humility for uncertitude.

]]> By: Raulito http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/comment-page-1/#comment-272619 Raulito Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:03:38 +0000 http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/#comment-272619 A fantastic assessment. It is quite providential that the timing of your post may be beneficial to me. I am currently in conversation with a colleague on this very matter of religious certainty wherein my friendly opponent has taken the stance that to claim absolute truth is to put one in league with those who are 'evil' like the Sith of the Star Wars fantasy. Of course, when I pointed out that even the Sith in that confused story do not claim to be purveyors of absolute truth he responded with a rationalistic answer. Keep up the good work! A fantastic assessment. It is quite providential that the timing of your post may be beneficial to me. I am currently in conversation with a colleague on this very matter of religious certainty wherein my friendly opponent has taken the stance that to claim absolute truth is to put one in league with those who are ‘evil’ like the Sith of the Star Wars fantasy. Of course, when I pointed out that even the Sith in that confused story do not claim to be purveyors of absolute truth he responded with a rationalistic answer. Keep up the good work!

]]> By: Mrs Jackie Parkes http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/comment-page-1/#comment-272588 Mrs Jackie Parkes Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:47:20 +0000 http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/#comment-272588 Will ponder more on this later... Will ponder more on this later…

]]> By: Shawn Reeves http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/comment-page-1/#comment-271971 Shawn Reeves Wed, 15 Aug 2007 05:11:19 +0000 http://cosmos-liturgy-sex.com/2007/08/14/the-danger-of-certitude/#comment-271971 If one can never have certainty about God, then religion ceases to be a pursuit of God altogether. Rather, it is left as either the pursuit of a caricature of God or the mere pursuit of one's self. Indeed, if man has no capacity to truly know God with certainty, then man is left with no capacity to truly commune with God with certainty. As St. Augustine posits in De Trinitate when explaining the Trinitarian model of "mind, knowledge, love", "how can it love what it does not know?" (Book ix, n.3) Any relationship is enhanced by deeper knowing of the other and deemed null and void if no such knowledge is ever possible, and so I seriously doubt that anyone retains an authentic sense of need and devotion toward a person that can never be known. In the very least, to practice a religion one must have _certainty_ of the existance of a transcendent being (or a transcendent reality, as in the case of Buddhism). Certainly, Kant's erroneous and unsuccessful promotion of a universal belief in merely the "possibility" of God proved that religion without certainty of God's identity is an empty, unfulfilling, and unloving religion that, in truth, is no religion at all but, instead, a ruse of a religion. If one can never have certainty about God, then religion ceases to be a pursuit of God altogether. Rather, it is left as either the pursuit of a caricature of God or the mere pursuit of one’s self. Indeed, if man has no capacity to truly know God with certainty, then man is left with no capacity to truly commune with God with certainty. As St. Augustine posits in De Trinitate when explaining the Trinitarian model of “mind, knowledge, love”, “how can it love what it does not know?” (Book ix, n.3) Any relationship is enhanced by deeper knowing of the other and deemed null and void if no such knowledge is ever possible, and so I seriously doubt that anyone retains an authentic sense of need and devotion toward a person that can never be known. In the very least, to practice a religion one must have _certainty_ of the existance of a transcendent being (or a transcendent reality, as in the case of Buddhism). Certainly, Kant’s erroneous and unsuccessful promotion of a universal belief in merely the “possibility” of God proved that religion without certainty of God’s identity is an empty, unfulfilling, and unloving religion that, in truth, is no religion at all but, instead, a ruse of a religion.

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