All posts by Dominic Agnelli

The Ease of Excellence

Sports, Virtue, , , ,

Last year, I was at a baseball game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Texas Rangers. At that game I had the pleasure of watching Elly De La Cruz run. I will avoid shaming those who do not keep up with the sport as that is not the point of this post, but for those who do not, De La Cruz is one of the fastest players. Some of his best work can be seen here. The most amazing part about watching someone who is really fast run, is that it does not look like they are trying that hard. This was also what was so enjoyable about watching Usain Bolt run. It would look like he was just getting started by the time he crossed the finish line. One of the reasons we are so drawn to sports is because we get to collectively watch someone chase after excellence. We watch as someone tries to throw, hit, or kick a ball faster or further than it has ever gone before. And, impressively, it often looks almost effortless. While sports may be the area where this sort of excellence is most obvious, it is far from the only place we can see this phenomenon at work. Watch any skilled craftsman or artist, and you will quickly realize there is almost something effortless about their work. There is a paradox in the fact that an unskilled carpenter seemingly exerts himself more than the skilled one to try and get all the right angles. It is as if the excellence merely flows forth from the skilled craftsman rather than coming about from the magnitude of his effort.

Virtue as Excellence

Thus far, we have merely talked about excellence in terms of physical skill. No doubt, it is necessary that we become physically excellent in certain areas, however, there is a higher form of excellence. Anyone who regularly exercises knows that it engenders a certain discipline. However, spiritual excellence must take precedence over the physical. Plato makes exactly this point in The Republic, “It doesn’t look to me as though it’s a sound body that by its virtue makes the soul good, but the opposite: a good soul by its own virtue makes the body as good as it can be.”1 For Plato, both education in the physical skills (gymnastics) and intellectual education were important, but the physical could only come from the intellectual. We are both body and soul, so we must be excellent in spiritual things as well. Becoming excellent in spiritual matters consists of becoming virtuous. Aquinas argues2 virtue is the perfection of some ability that we have. For example, we have an ability to talk with one another and the perfection of this ability is realized in the speaking of the truth. Thus honesty, in part, is an excellence in speaking the truth. There is often a certain virtue in becoming excellent at physical things. Therefore, the question now is not only how do we seek excellence, but how do we seek virtue?

group of man running on the field

Further In

Oftentimes, our exterior lives mirror the interior one. For example, a therapist may begin by examining a person’s exterior habits and circumstances in order to help them work through an interior issue. When our lives become filled with stress and angst, our external environment usually reflects that, and many times the act of setting that external environment in order can help set our interior in order. This matches the intuition of building virtue. A person who is building a virtue, for example diligence, will do best to order his environment to be conducive to diligent action. One is not likely to gain diligence in an environment filled with distraction. However, as discussed above, virtue is not in the external environment, but in the disposition of the soul. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle gives the practical advice that when a person is inclined towards a particular vice, virtue must be gained by exerting ourselves in the opposite direction, “as we straighten a bent stick by bending it the other way.”3 Thus, in the beginning, virtue requires a great deal of effort. But what of the stick once it is straightened? Virtue cannot be in the mere force of the will either. If the average man exerted himself to the fullest extent in a race against an Olympic sprinter, he would still lose, because he is not an excellent runner. A dishonest man may try his hardest to be honest, and yet, he will still be less honest than an honest man. Often, virtue is called character, which is an apt name because virtue really is something that flows forth from us. Once gained, it is almost effortless.

Lose Yourself

We will end by turning back to sports. A man who is trying to develop a good golf swing may begin by breaking his swing down into its different components, but a swing must integrate all these components into a fluid motion to be good. Every sport has examples like this. In order for the athlete to achieve excellence, there has to be a certain forgetting of self. So it must be with virtue. This is seen most clearly in the first of the virtues, courage. G.K. Chesterton once said of courage that it “is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.”4 In courage, there must be a certain denial or letting go of self. Any excellence or virtue requires the same thing. A truly honest man does not have to stop and think if what he is saying is true, the truth merely flows from him. Ultimately, virtue calls us out of ourselves. Perhaps it is better to think of the pursuit of virtue not as a great effort, but a great letting go.

  1. The Republic 403d ↩︎
  2. ST I-II Q. 55, Art. 1, co. ↩︎
  3. Nicomachean Ethics Bk. II, Ch.9 ↩︎
  4. Orthodoxy “The Paradoxes of Christianity” ↩︎

Artificial Intelligence and the New Paganism

Artificial Intelligence, Christianity, Culture, Paganism, , , ,

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth… God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:1, 26) Aside from telling us that it was God who created the world, there is another important truth conveyed in the opening lines of Genesis. Namely, the truth that it is us who are created in the image of God, and not the other way around. Since the fall, a constant temptation for humanity has been not only to worship ourselves and our own image, as I have talked about in other places, but also to worship creation as if it were a god. Whether it is the nature worship that the prophet Elijah battled, or the golden calf in the desert, humanity has long had a desire to create its own gods. It is a mark of particular hubris that we tend to think we are somehow better or different than those who came before us which C.S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery”. However, the truth is that we are not. Technology may have changed, but we have not. The same proclivity that plagued our forefathers still plagues us. In this article, we will examine the latest manifestation of that proclivity: artificial intelligence.

Ever since their invention, computers have been anthropomorphised. Even the word “computer” itself has its origins in the Latin word computare which is related to the concept of thinking. Used as an analogy, there is some truth to this idea since computers aid in our thinking and calculations. On the other hand, as computers become more sophisticated there is an increasing risk that we stop viewing this sort of language as an analogy. In many ways, this risk has been evident since the beginning. Alan Turing, a major pioneer in modern computing, famously put together an evaluation system for the question of whether or not computers can think, which he called the “Imitation Game”, and it has come to be known as the Turing Test. Aside from the question of whether or not imitation of thinking is thinking, the point here is that the temptation to view computers in our own image has been there since the beginning. Unfortunately, artificial intelligence seems to follow the same trend. If we take the meaning of the words literally, artificial intelligence means man-made understanding. Once again, as an analogy there is some truth to this idea. Insofar as A.I. aids in our understanding it is a man-made tool for understanding. However, there are many who do not take this idea as an analogy.

Mathematicians and technologists have long talked about the concept of the singularity. This hypothesis states that at some point in the future the capacity of A.I. will surpass our own and will become uncontrollable. Though the dates seem to vary quite widely for this hypothetical singularity, many in the field of A.I. agree that it is coming at some point in the future. There are even some in the technology space who take this idea to mean that we are creating a god out of A.I. One such example, is when renowned computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, speaking about A.I., stated in a documentary, “Does God exist? Well, I would say, ‘not yet’.” In recent years, the odd religious habits of Silicon Valley have been documented in places like Carolyn Chen’s Work Pray Code so it should come as little surprise that some have turned to not only anthropomorphizing A.I., but deifying it. The most striking example of this is a former Google executive who founded a church to A.I. called “Way of the Future”. A.I. is quickly becoming our golden calf.

At this point, it is worth further examining the concept of the singularity as it resembles a religious system of beliefs. First, it gives the believer an eschatology. Stephen Hawking once said in an interview, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”, and while some are not as pessimistic, what seems to be universally agreed upon is that the singularity will signal some sort of fundamental shift in humanity. This brings us to the next religious belief: apotheosis and the promise of eternal life. Apotheosis takes on a different meaning depending on the religion, but it is broadly the idea that human beings can become divine or come to share in the divine. In Christianity, this belief is typified by St. Athanasius’ famous line, “God became man so that man might become God.” However, in pantheistic religions this belief refers to the idea that we simply merge into the divine. The singularity refers to apotheosis more in the pantheistic sense. In a 2001 essay, The Law of Accelerating Returns, Ray Kurzweil stated,

Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity — technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light.

Not only do we see a sort of end times prophecy here, but also a promise that on the other end there will be eternal life in the form of “immortal software-based humans”. In other words, eternal life is achieved through a kind of apotheosis with the machine. Much in the same way that Christianity can respond to suffering with the cross, this belief becomes a justification for the suffering created by the singularity. This might help to explain why people like Elon Musk continue to work on advancing A.I. despite continually saying that its advances are “concerning”.

So the question now is what are we to do about this? Should Christians simply retreat from the space of A.I. and technology completely. Is A.I. intrinsically wrong for the reasons I have described above? Ultimately, the answer is no. A.I. is no more intrinsically wrong than building a tower is, and yet the Tower of Babel wreaked havoc and division on humanity. A.I. is a powerful tool that, perhaps, will surpass some of history’s greatest inventions like the Gutenberg Press. And just like the Gutenberg Press was used to widely distribute the Bible, A.I. could be used for tremendous good. Unfortunately, the fall of the best is the worst, so the flip-side of that is A.I. could be used for tremendous evil. It could and already in many cases has, fool man into thinking he can make his own gods and elevate himself to that status. Humanity has proved over and over again throughout history it is perfectly capable of falling into this error with far less powerful technology, thus, as usual, the problem is us. So, how do we avoid this trap? Since this is a religious problem, it demands a religious answer. That answer lies in Christianity. Paganism, new-age religions and philosophies, and even technological worship all assume that the divine is something we must seek after. If one follows the right path or set of principles then he can come into contact with the divine. However, Christianity tells a completely different story, a unique story. It is a love affair where God seeks after us. We must allow ourselves to be continually transformed by God through the sacraments, prayer, and scripture. Paul’s words to the Romans still ring true today, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2) Even if we avoid the problem of A.I., unless we truly heed Paul’s words, then there will just be some other false god we seek after.

The Folly of Mind Over Matter

Culture, Sin, , , , , , ,

In Book I of Paradise Lost, Satan, examining his situation in hell, remarks that “the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” On its face, this line expresses a profound truth about the nature of the mind. Often when someone has a totally different worldview than us, one might say that “they live in a different reality.” The truth is that we all are tempted by this sentiment in the same way that many naive readers, such as Saul Alinsky, are tempted to read Satan as the heroic figure in Paradise Lost. After all, perhaps we are like gods, and perhaps, therefore, we do have the right to define heaven and hell for ourselves. It seems to be the conclusion that many have reached, so we should at least spend some time giving it thought.

What we will examine in this article is not just the idea that our minds can help us cope with or even heal suffering, as seen in the placebo effect, but, instead, the philosophy behind the saying “mind over matter.” Namely, the idea that by becoming arbiters of our own experience we can become arbiters of reality.

Giving the Devil His Due

In the spirit of intellectual honesty, we will begin by looking at the truth of “mind over matter.” When faced with extreme circumstances a man’s attitude towards those circumstances makes a world of difference. As Viktor Frankl observes in Man’s Search for Meaning, one’s attitude towards the brutality of the camps were what made the difference between a saint and a monster. It is rather astonishing that the same set of circumstances produced saints such as St. Maximilian Kolbe, and monsters such as the kapos1 who were often crueler than the guards themselves. For Kolbe and the countless other heroes and saints of the concentration camps, the suffering was seen as something that could be received with courage and could even be sanctifying. However, for the prisoners who became cruel, the suffering became a justification for them to behave as they pleased. While their minds did not change the reality of the circumstances they found themselves in, for the heroes of the camps it was their mindset which changed their experience from tragic to sanctifying.

The Limits

There is, however, a limit to this power. One’s mind can determine attitude and experience, but it cannot change the reality itself. There is tremendous danger in thinking so. Modern thinking has become infected with this idea. Take for example the use of the term “manifesting”. While this term is often used in an ironic way, there are, unfortunately, far too many examples of people who take it seriously. On a more serious note, the contraceptive pill represents a far more established version of this same fatal idea. It is “medicine” that no longer attempts to restore the body to its natural function, but instead is man’s attempt to determine how the body ought to work for himself. The debates over gay marriage and transgenderism suffer from the same problem. Oftentimes, those who oppose either of these are called bigots, but that misunderstands the argument. We are not arguing that we would prefer gay marriage, and transgenderism to not exist, but that the terms do not describe reality. Marriage is the exclusive, permanent, and procreative union of a man and woman regardless of what anyone says, and we simply wish to recognize that. Similarly, transgenderism is not a word that describes a real phenomenon, because transgender is not a real category. This does not mean that people who claim to be transgender do not exist as activists will often say we are claiming, but that these people are, sadly, mistaken about who they are.

Reality Reasserts Itself

These attempts to alter reality with one’s mind do not just affect the individual either. They have real consequences. Babies are sold to “married” men to grow up without mothers. Women alter their hormones to such a degree that it changes who they are attracted to. Children are handed over to butchers, otherwise known as gender-affirmation surgeons, to affirm the delusions of adults. Language itself is no longer a means of communication, but is simply a vehicle for imposing one’s own mind. I do not mean to point these realities out in a hyperbolic way, but far too often we euphemize grave evils away.

Returning now to Paradise Lost, one may be tempted to think that Satan’s words in Book I represent the triumphant spirit of a rebel, but that would require neglecting his tragic observation later in the poem. In Book IV he realizes that the mind cannot make hell into heaven, and that hell now follows him wherever he goes: “Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell.” In many ways, this is the tragedy of human history. Since the beginning, man has tried to set himself up as a god, and the consequences have always been disastrous. The truth is that God is God, and we are not. There is no amount of technology, wealth, or power that will change that fact. Reality must be accepted, or it will impose itself. It is not optional. The mind that thinks it can impose itself on reality is driven to madness, as is evident from the paragraph above. God bestowed a beautiful gift and dignity on humanity by giving us minds, but if we wish to usurp Him with those minds we will not find enlightenment and intellectual freedom. Instead we will find madness and despair.

  1. Prisoners who collaborated with the guards ↩︎

On the Uniqueness of Christianity

Incarnation, New Age, Paganism, , , ,

Living in a culture that has been largely shaped by Christianity, we often miss just how radical its claims are. Even for those who are regularly engaged in the faith, the readings at Mass can become mere stories or wise teachings. Ultimately, Christ Himself can become another mythic figure. The goal can become to learn a lesson, and take this lesson into our day to day lives, much like we would by reading any other great work of literature. And this is okay as a starting point, before Christ came the law, and before we can go deeper in our faith there are “lessons” that we need to implement in our lives. The problem is that the lessons and teachings are not the central claim of Christianity. We must never forget that a man who came and lived among us some 2,000 years ago, suffered and died a brutal death, and rose from the dead. That same man, the Son of God, calls you to follow Him and to be like Him. If we forget this claim, then Christianity becomes just another religion. This is to say nothing of the truth of Christianity or any other religion, but it is fundamentally this claim that makes Christianity unique.

And the Word Became Flesh…

There is one word that sums up the uniqueness of Christianity: divinization, or as it is also called theosis. Rather tragically, this word may be unfamiliar to many Christians. Divinization is what lay at the heart of Christianity’s uniqueness. The claim that, as St. Athanasius says, “God became man so that man might become God” is a claim so wonderful and incredible that it seems unlikely any human mind would have ever thought it up. Indeed, this is what we see when we look at many other religions. The Pagan myths contain gods who were like man. They were superhuman, but all the traits they possessed were human. For the Pantheistic religions, man does not become like God, but is absorbed into God. Even the new religion of artificial intelligence promises that man will create God in man’s own image. But no other religion has a God who creates man so that man may share in his divine nature as the opening lines of the Catechism state,

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.

Again, it is necessary for us to understand this idea. Christ came and died for us so that we could share in His own divine nature. God is not an idea, or force. He is not even someone we really find. God came and lived among us, so that we might know Him. This is one of the reasons for Christ’s Incarnation that St. Athanasius gives in On the Incarnation, that even though we can know the existence of God through our reason, Christ came to live among us that we might see and know God with intellects darkened by sin. After all, Christ says, “whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

So What If It’s Not a True Story?

To conclude, it is important to point out the danger of losing sight of who Christ is, and what He did. It would seem that the man who says that it is not important that Christ actually did the things written about Him, and that only the lessons and morals are important is not far from a sort of Gnosticism, if he has not already fallen into it. If the physical world is evil, then it would follow that it does not matter if Christ actually came in the flesh or actually rose from the dead. What would matter is the teachings or knowledge that can free us from the prison of this world. However, such a view cannot be considered compatible with Christianity which has recognized the goodness of God’s creation from the very beginning: “God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good.” (Genesis 1:31) Thus, we must hold firm to the fundamental truth of Christianity: that Jesus became man, suffered, died, and rose again on the third day, and in doing so ensured that man could share in the Divine Life. If Christ did not do these things, then following Athanasius’ reasoning man cannot become God. Christianity then becomes another exercise in man trying to find God, rather God, like in the parable of the lost sheep, searching for man.

The Death of Leisure and the Rise of Utilitarianism

Culture, Leisure, Work, , , ,

A familiar feeling for many is the anxiety that comes at the end of the weekend. Believe it or not there is a sociological term for this phenomenon: “The Sunday Scaries”. As silly as it might sound, it is, unfortunately, an all to real phenomenon that many people identify with. A simple Google search reveals dozens of articles written on the subject. One article goes so far as to suggest that they may be a connection between suicide and “Sunday Scaries”. This problem, trivial though it may be, is symptomatic of a deeper sickness in our society. It is symptomatic of a society that does not know how to rest. By rest, I do not mean the absence of work. Rest is not, as talked about in a previous post, lying in front of the TV while mindlessly consuming the newest show. It is also not catching up on chores that we did not quite have time to get to during the week. Rest is leisure. The latin word for leisure is otium, and the word that is used for business is negotium, literally, “not leisure”. Negotium is where we get the word negotiate from. So in antiquity, leisure was not the absence of work, but work was the absence of leisure. Leisure, especially contemplation, was seen as necessary for a good life as I point out in another post on the nature of happiness. Aquinas even states that leisure and contemplation are necessary for the perfection of society. So what happens to a society when leisure is thrown aside? Isn’t it just a luxury?

The Utility of Life

Leisure is an activity sought as an end in it of itself. It is differentiated from work which is a means to an end. While work is productive, leisure is creative. It is certainly no accident that a society which has forgotten leisure, has also forgotten the goodness of having and raising children: man’s most creative act. Without leisure man’s life just becomes a series of means to an end. Even the time he does spend resting is spent so that he may be rested for work. Academia becomes glorified job training. Entertainment becomes advertisement. Life itself becomes all about efficiency.

Such a society will find that even its morality is infected with this spirit. An act is no longer right or wrong on its own merit, but instead is judged by the goal of the intention. Every act is judged by its usefulness in reaching the desired end. In a sense, morality itself becomes a game of efficiency. Ultimately, morality becomes utilitarian. And the ends themselves will only remain good for so long, because without leisure man forgets his nature and purpose. Worse still, people become justified to a society based on their usefulness. The unborn become discardable, and the elderly become a burden. John Paul II makes the same observation when he speaks about the culture of death in Evangelium Vitae when he says, “This culture [the culture of death] is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency… a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden.” A society which forgets leisure is doomed to utilitarianism.

Reclaiming Leisure

Leisure is a preparation for the eternal. It is a preparation for Heaven. It is as Jesus tells Martha, “the better part” (Luke 10:42). Leisure is a fundamentally human activity because it is an abstraction from the day to day tasks of our lives. So how can we return to it again? First, it is necessary to take the 3rd commandment seriously again. When God rested on the seventh day, it was not just a lack of work. As John Paul II points out in Dies Domini,

It would be banal to interpret God’s “rest” as a kind of divine “inactivity”. By its nature, the creative act which founds the world is unceasing and God is always at work… The divine rest of the seventh day does not allude to an inactive God, but emphasizes the fullness of what has been accomplished. It speaks, as it were, of God’s lingering before the “very good” work (Gn 1:31) which his hand has wrought, in order to cast upon it a gaze full of joyous delight. This is a “contemplative” gaze which does not look to new accomplishments but enjoys the beauty of what has already been achieved

Thus, Sunday should be a day spent in “joyous delight”. First, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and then in the truth, beauty, and goodness of creation. There will of course be those for whom it is not possible to make Sunday a day of leisure because of extenuating circumstances, but this is the exception and not the rule. Sunday should not be a day to catch up on work, instead it should be a day dedicated to becoming human again.

Second, to reclaim leisure, we must be intentional. This is all the more necessary in the age of laptops and smartphones which mean that our work can follow us everywhere. Leisure must be a priority, and not just another item on a to-do list. On the other hand, we must also be mindful of our free time as we live in an age with seemingly endless distractions. While leisure need not be productive and perhaps ought not be, it is not just a distraction from life. It is the place where we can see meaning and beauty in life. So, as we move into 2025, let us struggle to reclaim leisure in a culture that is constantly demanding our attention.

The Danger of Theory

Economics, Politics, , , , ,

Theory has been the realm of significant progress throughout history. Every great invention, system of government, philosophy, etc. began as a theory. There is little doubt that theory is one of the marks of the human genius, since we alone are able to make abstractions. However, theory carries a certain danger with it. Because theory is an abstraction it always has the possibility of becoming disconnected from reality. When it becomes disconnected from reality the consequences are often dire. If theory is connected to reality then it is also subject to feedback from reality. In other words, it is subject to falsification. Suppose a man thinks that it is possible to fly. If he goes onto a roof and walks off then he quickly finds that reality is not as he supposed.

Unfortunately, not all theories are so easily subjected to reality. Oftentimes, theories are isolated from reality by moving the predictions. This can be seen in cases like the many Malthusian predictions that we have all heard from population and climate alarmists over the years. Famously, and perhaps somewhat controversially, the early response to COVID-19 suffered the same problem. The “two weeks to slow the spread” theory turned into a months-long lockdown with hardly any acknowledgement at the time that the theory was wrong. When theory becomes isolated from reality it becomes ideology. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spoke of the horror of ideology in The Gulag Archipelago when he said,

Ideology—that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others’ eyes, so that he won’t hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.

Further, in his book Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky shows us the hideousness of theory divorced from reality in Raskolnikov. He is so caught up in his theory of the world that he struggles to face the reality of the crime he has committed. Ultimately, theory divorced from reality makes the worst of evils permissible simply because the evildoer need not confront reality.

The Ideology of Man and Economics

Socialism is an illness, which has devastated many societies in the last century, that represents theory disconnected from reality. On the economic side, central planning suffers from this problem. In theory, central planning appears to be tenable. A group of well meaning experts get together and decide the best allocation of resources for the community. Setting aside the questions of subsidiarity and corruption, in reality, central planning is impossible. Leonard Read’s essay I, Pencil exposes the absurdity of central planning by simply detailing the journey of a pencil through its manufacturing process. If the individuals involved in the making of something as simple as a pencil cannot fully understand the entire process, then how can we expect that an entire economy can be understood by a group of experts. One of the reasons this theory can so easily turn into an ideology is because the central planners are almost never the ones to suffer from their lack of knowledge. For example, in the Soviet Union there were issues with wheat production that were hidden by the government in order to protect the reputation of their central planning system. It is almost guaranteed that the central planners themselves were not the ones to suffer the consequences of the underproduction.

The Model Says…

Another area that theory divorced from reality has affected is modeling. Many of the researchers who work with models fail to recognize what a model actually is. A model is not merely a mathematical construct. It is a representation of reality. This view is lost, however, when one only focuses on the theory behind a model. The theory behind a model being correct does not make the model correct. In fact, all models are wrong, it is just the case that some are useful. Especially with the advent of AI and machine learning tools, models are more easily abused because people assume that as long as they use the “right” model the answer will be meaningful. This is not the case. What makes a model’s results meaningful is dependent on how good of a representation of reality that the model is. This is determined by the validity of the assumptions made by the modeler. The modeler must be open to feedback from reality or else the model just becomes a surrogate for ideology.

Avoidance of Reality

In the end, this comes down to a question of what reality is. Is reality optional? How far can a person insulate themselves from reality? Reality can only be avoided for so long. Eventually, every person must confront it. The most stark reminder of this is the reality of death. Kings and peasants are equal in the graveyard. No one can escape reality. Now, the question becomes what should our response to this fact be? As talked about in a previous post, there is good reason to think the best response is acceptance. Beyond conversations about reality in general, we should bear in mind that human nature is as immutable as reality itself. We may wish to change it, but that is like wishing the law of gravity to no longer exist. As the Roman poet Horace said, “You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.”

Happiness and the Good Life

Faith and Reason, Virtue, , , , , ,

Happiness is one of the most enduring ideas in the history of the world. One could go all the way back to the ancient Greeks and their idea of happiness as human flourishing, or eudaimonia. In our time, happiness is still a fundamental idea in the lives of ordinary people. You would be hard pressed to find a person who does not want to be happy. In fact, since the human will is inclined to work towards the good that it perceives, a man cannot help but act towards his own happiness. Or, at the very least, his perceived happiness. Herein lies the issue in many of our modern day conversations about happiness, for as much as it is talked about it is almost never defined. Postmodernists did away with the idea that there was any uniting narrative for humanity, and it seems that as a consequence the idea that happiness had any objective basis was thrown out as well. The prevailing notion in our age is that the question of what makes a person happy is up to each individual to decide for him or herself. So what is happiness? And how should we go about obtaining it?

Happiness as an Activity

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines happiness as an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. Thus, happiness is not merely a feeling or something that can be subjectively defined. It is an activity which we participate in. A person is happy insofar as they are virtuous. This view is more robust than our modern conception of happiness. Our modern conception of happiness is based around how a man feels about his life, or the external circumstances of his life, but if we view happiness as an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue then it is not dependent on the external circumstances of one’s life. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, makes the case that meaning and happiness are not found in one’s external circumstances. He observes that those who were able to survive the concentration camps were not necessarily the most physically fit, but the ones who had a strong interior life. This fits with Aristotle’s further commentary on happiness in Book X of Nicomachean Ethics. He writes, “If happiness is activity in accordance with virtue, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest virtue; and this will be that of the best thing in us… That this activity is contemplative we have already said.” So for Aristotle, happiness is a contemplative activity. This does not mean that in order to be happy we need to withdraw from society and go live a life of contemplation in the wilderness. We are social creatures, we need relationships to flourish, and have obligations to our families and society. However, true happiness cannot be found unless we take intentional time to spend in contemplation and reflection. The man who lives only for his shallow external circumstances will find that his happiness is not enduring and can be stripped away in a moment’s notice.

Man’s Final End

Aristotle’s vision of happiness is a natural happiness. It is a happiness that we can achieve by our own nature. However, there is a happiness promised to us as Christians that we cannot achieve by our nature: supernatural happiness. For Aquinas, this supernatural happiness finds its completion in the Beatific Vision which is the vision of God enjoyed by those in Heaven. Christ speaks of this happiness when He says, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (Jn 15: 10-11). Natural happiness is not a complete picture of human happiness. We were not created for this life alone. The beginning of the Baltimore Catechism sums this up well: “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” Supernatural happiness cannot be achieved separate from natural happiness. Grace perfects nature and does not destroy it as Aquinas famously stated. We ought to seek virtue in this life, and by cooperation with God’s grace and the sacraments obtain everlasting happiness in the next. Any other view of happiness will be incomplete.

Aristotle correctly posits that in order for happiness to be our final end it must be self-sufficient and not lacking. However, if we restrict our happiness to things of this life we will run into the problem of desire which C.S. Lewis speaks of in Mere Christianity when he says, “I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy.” Therefore, seek virtue and happiness in this life, but never despair of our ultimate happiness in the next. Let us always keep in mind the closing lines of the serenity prayer: “Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever.”

Why Suffer?

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As discussed in the last post, suffering is a tragic part of the human experience. It is a reality that we all must face. It is uniquely human. All animals can feel pain, but only we can suffer. As John Paul II points out in Salvifici Doloris,

“Nevertheless what we express by the word “suffering” seems to be particularly essential to the nature of man. It is as deep as man himself, precisely because it manifests in its own way that depth which is proper to man, and in its own way surpasses it. Suffering seems to belong to man’s transcendence: it is one of those points in which man is in a certain sense “destined” to go beyond himself, and he is called to this in a mysterious way.”

Suffering is not merely the experience of pain. It is an awareness of a deficiency. The man who suffers does not suffer merely because of the pain, but because that pain is a reminder of what is lacking in himself and in the world. Suffering arises from the experience we all have of looking at ourselves and the world, and thinking “it should not be this way”.

So, what are we to do with the fact of suffering? Many have tried to run from it in the pleasures and comforts of the world only to find that these things are vanities. Ultimately, we are left with two options to deal with suffering. There is the Way of Mephistopheles, or the Way of the Cross. A middle ground does not exist. Everyone suffers, there is no choice in the matter. However, each person can choose how they will respond to it.

Suffering and Resentment

The Way of Mephistopheles, is named after the demon in Faust, and his line: “for all that comes to be / deserves to perish wretchedly”. This response is characterized by its bitter resentment. This resentment fills a person with rage, and is a quick path to misery. And, as they say, misery loves company. Those who suffer may become envious of those they perceive as suffering less. This envy, prodded by their resentment and misery, forms the basis of the justification to inflict suffering on others. Not so that they may suffer less, but so that all will suffer as they do and “perish wretchedly”. While this is certainly a grim outlook, we would be foolish to deny that our own hearts do not have the capacity for this kind of resentment. We have all seen it in small forms, like losing our cool with a family member because we are having a bad day, or maybe even in larger forms like celebrating murder. This approach to suffering ruins lives and relationships. Despite what our culture says about the compassion behind abortion and euthanasia, it is this view of suffering that drives these things. Abortion pits a mother against her child, and justifies the evil done to the child in light of the suffering or potential suffering of the mother. And with respect to euthanasia, in Canada for example, it did not take long before assisted suicide was offered to those who are suffering and did not ask for it. The contempt for suffering can drive us towards moral abominations. Indeed, in the final analysis, there may be no real difference between resentment towards suffering and resentment towards those who are suffering.

The Death of Suffering

Now that we have seen the bitterness of the Way of Mephistopheles, let’s take a look at the Way of the Cross. The path is characterized by the acceptance of suffering. Rather paradoxically, this is the only path out of suffering. Any athlete or musician knows this. In order to be excellent at something, one must suffer through long and grueling hours of practice. However, once a sort of excellence is achieved, the suffering decreases even if the practice is just as long and grueling. The symbol of the cross itself shows us the truth of this paradox. The cross has gone from a symbol of suffering so severe that it struck fear into the heart of every Roman to a symbol of hope for untold numbers of people throughout history, and all because of Jesus’ willingness to accept suffering. In the end, the problem of suffering cannot be solved without Jesus. Yes, as is laid out in this article, there is good reason to take the Way of the Cross without an explicit appeal to religion, but suffering itself cannot die unless we are willing to unite ourselves with Christ and accept the will of God the way He did in Gethsemane. As St. Paul explains in Philippians 3, by sharing in the sufferings of Christ, we can also share in his resurrection. When we learn to fully accept God’s will, suffering becomes a gift. There is no longer a reason to say, “it should not be this way”. Suffering takes on a whole new character. It becomes redemptive. Perhaps the truth of suffering is that it is destined to become either the means of our salvation or of our eternal ruin.

In Defense of Honor

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In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke comments on the loss of honor that came as a result of the French Revolution. Concerning Marie Antoinette, Burke writes,

Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprize is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

Honor once lost, like any other virtue, is not easily regained. It is especially hard to regain in a culture that is actively hostile to it.

Honor, as St. Thomas Aquinas defines it, “is the reward of every virtue… it follows that by reason of its matter it regards all of the virtues” (ST II-II Q. 129 Art. 4). Thus, it is clear that honor comes from virtue. In order to be truly honorable, a man must be virtuous. Our culture has, in large part, rejected the traditional idea of virtue. There is much talk about rights and what we are owed, but little discussion about duty. Men are encouraged to extol the virtues of kindness and inclusivity, and women, on the other hand, are told that expressing traits like “nurturance” and “family-oriented values” are just mere preferences and not virtues. As always, the devil is in the details. A man should be loving and caring, but if he places kindness and inclusivity above all other virtues then the family and, by extension, society, will suffer. Certainly, kindness and inclusivity would not have saved Marie Antoinette from the guillotine. And families do not need women who prefer to be nurturing and selfless, but women who are nurturing and selfless. There will be, however, some who will object to this and say that traditional notions of honor and virtue are outdated and bigoted. So, naturally, the question becomes, “Why should we care about honor, aren’t we better off without it?”.

There are a couple of approaches one could take towards answering this question. The first would be to ask what will replace the role that honor had in society? What is beyond honor and virtue? Alasdair MacIntyre explores this question in his book After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Of a society that has lost its vision of honor and virtue he writes,

In a society where there is no longer a shared conception of the community’s good as specified by the good for man, there can no longer either be any very substantial concept of what it is to contribute more or less to the achievement of that good. Hence notions of desert and of honor become detached from the context in which they were originally at home. Honor becomes nothing more than a badge of aristocratic status, and status itself, tied as it is now so securely to property, has very little to do with desert.

A society that abandons honor does not get egalitarianism. Instead, it gets aristocracy and credentialism.

For the second approach, one might ask if tearing down virtue and honor would also threaten other societal goods. Failing to examine this question would be like removing a wall in a house without first determining if it is load-bearing. Unfortunately, leaving honor in the past has not been without consequence. Honor is the basis for magnanimity. Aquinas identifies this connection: “Now a man is said to be magnanimous in respect of things that are great absolutely and simply, just as a man is said to be brave in respect of things that are difficult simply. It follows therefore that magnanimity is about honors” (ST II-II Q. 129 Art. 1). In 2020, Ross Douthat wrote a book called The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success about how and why our society has, in many ways, stopped advancing. While his hypothesis is beyond the scope of this article, the phenomenon he is discussing is germane to the point. There has been a societal decline in the desire to do great things. This stems directly from a change in societal value. As MacIntyre pointed out, society values the vain status associated with honor rather than the virtue from which honor is derived. Not only is magnanimity a virtue and therefore necessary for human flourishing, but society needs it. Magnanimity landed on the moon, it sailed to new worlds, it wrote poems and epics, it built planes, and made countless discoveries and inventions. So rather than resent success and laugh at honor, we should have the courage to ask ourselves if we are here on this earth for something great. Perhaps there really is something great in store for each and every one of us if we would but have the courage and magnanimity to pursue it. And even more terrifying is the possibility that part of the greatness God wishes to bring to the world can only be brought through you. Sure, God can bring goodness out of anything, but there may be good that never comes if you abandon honor and magnanimity. In closing, I would like to turn to Pope Benedict XVI who so eloquently reminds us of this truth: “The ways of the Lord are not easy, but we were not created for an easy life, but for great things, for goodness”.

Bias: A Progressivist Slur

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Many of us have been subjected to implicit bias trainings that have become part in parcel of the human resources department of corporations and academic institutions throughout the country. While many of the ideas behind these trainings seem absurd, they have inflicted grave harm on society nonetheless. Take for example the idea that institutions must embrace equity in order to “correct” for these biases. Evidence suggests that Asians applying to Harvard needed to score 270 points higher on the SAT than Hispanics, and 450 points higher than African Americans to have the same chance of admission: bitter fruit indeed. It was statistics like this that, in part, led to the 2023 SFFA v Harvard Supreme Court case. Though it would be an interesting article to cover the topic of implicit bias trainings and their connection to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology, that will have to be an article for another day.

What will be dealt with here is the larger issue of bias. Bias is a term frequently thrown around by both sides of a debate, but rarely defined. At one point or another we have all probably received the retort “Well you just think that because…” or “You are just biased”. In many cases this is just a simple ad hominem or genetic fallacy and nothing more. However, there is a particularly pernicious use of this attack that is worth examining in-depth. This is the progressivist accusation that the ideas of the past are no longer valid because they are biased, either by their bigotry, racism, sexism, or whatever other pejorative one can think of. This attack is at best ignorant and at worst hypocritical. Bias, per se, is not a reason to discount any argument or idea. In fact, it is unavoidable.

The Progressive View

Before discussing the absurdity of the progressivist charge of bias, it is necessary to talk about the philosophy behind this attack. When I speak of progressivism I am not merely speaking of a political movement, but of a philosophy. It is a philosophy rooted in the belief in inevitable progress towards a more fair, more just, and more enlightened society. Rarely do the proponents of this philosophy argue explicitly that society is inevitably progressing in a positive direction, rather it is assumed. With each advancement in society, progressivists are usually quick to point out that it is a sign of progress, but what is rarely asked is “Progress towards what?”. If the progress is inevitable then the question would not even be worth asking. In an 1853 sermon called “Of Justice and Conscience” Unitarian minister Theodore Parker said, “Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice”. This statement has been famously quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. While there is truth in this quote, after all we do and should long for justice: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Mt 5:6), it is just too simple. Simple narratives of history should be treated with extreme skepticism. An honest reading of history reveals anything but a simple narrative. History is filled with successes and failures, suffering and triumph, heroes and villains. It is not one long “progressive triumph of the right”, but rather a struggle in which there is both progress and regress.

On a societal level, progressivism leads to the view that tradition is foolish or even a burden as a recent presidential candidate frequently pointed out. On a personal level, this can lead to a deep resentment of one’s ancestors. Progressivism is implicitly opposed to the fourth commandment, “honor and obey your father and mother”. If the progressivist reading of history is correct then what is there to honor in your parents? After all, they are less enlightened than you. Sure, there is a certain degree of gratitude one still owes to their parents for taking care of them and giving them life. But at the end of the day, society has moved on from their honor. What was honorable in their day has been replaced by the “continual and progressive triumph of the right”. There are sobering examples of how resentful progressivism can make people towards their ancestors, including their parents. Take this woman for example. Further, there is research showing that an increasing number of children are cutting their parents off. While there are certainly other factors at play, progressivism has not helped this problem.

I Think Therefore I Am Biased

What the progressivist fails to see is that bias is a necessity. No person can avoid it. Bias is the set of assumptions that we bring with us into the world. It is the narrative by which we see reality. I affirm that each of us should examine this narrative, but I do not advocate for getting rid of it. There is no human being who can rid themselves of all assumptions. As G.K. Chesteron points out in his essay “Philosophy for the Schoolroom” all argumentation, and thus all thought, is built on assumptions and dogmas. No one can be a completely objective observer of the facts of this world. For every person there is a value or set of values by which the facts are interpreted. Therefore, the progressivist is no less biased than anyone else. The concern should not be whether or not a person has bias, but whether that bias disposes a person towards the truth. The goal should not be to rid ourselves of assumptions, but to hold true assumptions. So, yes, we should examine our biases to see if they are in accord with reality and truth. The man who wishes to discard all of his bias must reconstruct his entire system of thought every time he has a new thought, lest he be biased by what he thought before. And even that would not remove all of his bias as Chesterton points out. Ultimately, the great irony for progressivism is that in order for society to progress at all we must be biased towards our ancestors. For it is as Edmund Burke said in “Reflections on the Revolution in France”, “People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors”.

Pornography as Self-Worship

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It tends to be that when a society gets their view of God wrong they also get their view of sex wrong. These two things are intrinsically linked. Our worship is closely connected to our view of sexuality. We can see many examples of this throughout Pagan cultures, and even throughout the Old Testament, most notably in the Exodus story of the golden calf. It then should not come as a surprise at all that a culture which is dominated by pornography, contraception, and so called “casual sex” is also a culture that profoundly misunderstands God and worship. Could it be that these deviant sexual behaviors are themselves a form of worship? That would certainly explain why we have lost our ability to understand true worship. In this article, I want to explore just one of those forms of worship: pornography. Further, we will examine the idol behind the worship.

Worship

One might be willing to agree that pornography interferes with our true worship of God, as all sin does, but isn’t it a little bit far to say that it creates an idol? Every year the world’s largest pornography site releases usage statistics for their platform. One chart they release describes the usage for each day of the week.  In three of the last four years in which data was released the most popular day is Sunday.

source: pornhub.com/insights

The fact that the most visited day of the week is the day which is culturally set aside for worship is uncanny to say the least. In fact, as will be argued later in this article, given the worship like nature of pornography there is good reason to believe that we are dealing with an idol here. Furthermore, users of pornography must often make sacrifices to continue their use. To name a few users must often sacrifice their marriages, jobs, and, ironically, even their normal sexual function. Since idols always demand something from their worshippers, it would seem that there is indeed an idol behind pornography.

Idols as Charms

Before the word “fetish” was widely used in a sexual context, it was a term that meant a charm viewed as having a captivating spiritual power. The word has roots in the Portugese word feitico meaning charm or sorcery. One widely discussed effect is that the longer a person engages with pornography the more fetishized the types of pornography that they use needs to be. As Dr. Norman Doidge points out in his book The Brain that Changes Itself, pornography has become increasingly more hardcore and fetishized. Additionally, Mary Harrington describes the law of “erotic entropy” as the tendency for a user to turn to more extreme forms of pornography over time in order to achieve the same arousal. The neuroscience behind this matches up with this law. Pornography stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain, and as the brain adapts to the levels of dopamine more extreme content is required to give the user the same “high”. To bring us back to the point, pornography has moved increasingly in the direction of fetishes which serve as charms and idols. 

Further, engaging with pornography itself is a parody of the center of Christian worship. While I am certainly not the first to point this out, the act of engaging with pornography itself is an inversion of the central words of the Mass: “This is my body given up for you.” Instead, the viewer of pornography says, “This is your body taken by me.” The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is total and selfless act of life giving love, but pornography is the offering of another’s body to the idol of one’s desires. Pornography is the worship of an idol.

Making the Connection Clearer

It has already been alluded to, but it is worth making the connection between idolatry and pornography clearer. It is certainly tempting to conclude that pornography itself is an idol, however, pornography is not an end in itself. Just as the Mass is not what we are worship, but the means by which we worship, likewise pornography is not the true end which the user is seeking but a means to an end. So naturally, the question is what is the end? 

To answer this question I think we must first ask what pornography is. The root of the word comes from the Greek, pornographos, meaning something like “depicting prostitutes”. Interestingly enough, it was also a word used to describe sexually graphic paintings that were put in temples of Bacchus. This brings us to an important connection between pornography and art. Oftentimes, when one walks into a church, especially older churches, he is struck by all the artwork in the church. The artwork is there not because we are worshipping the art itself, but because the holy images elevate our mind to the contemplation of God and His mysteries. On the other hand, pornography is a kind of anti-art. It was not put into temples because they worshipped the paintings, but because it led their minds to the indulgence and elevation of their base desires and fantasies. Thus, while holy artwork is used in the worshipping of God, pornography is used in the worshipping of the self. 

What should be done?

In closing, there are two things that I think are important to point out. First, I would like to make clear why I have written this article. I have written this not to shame those who struggle with this issue. In fact if you do struggle there is a certain sense in which that is a good thing, so do not stop struggling. However, there are many people and even many Christians who sadly have given up on fighting this issue. These people foolishly believe that pornography is not that serious. It is for these people that I have written. Second, we must remember how idols need to be dealt with. As the story of King Josiah from 2 Kings reminds us, idols must be destroyed. They cannot coexist with true worship. We ought to seek to make pornography both legally and culturally unthinkable for the good of both the producers and consumers, but as is argued in this article pornography is not an idol, but the means by which we worship an idol: the self. Ultimately, the idol needs to be destroyed in our own hearts or it will destroy us. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in his book The Gulag Archipelago reminds us of this truth: “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”