Stop Blaming Adam and Eve

Copyright © 2018 John P. Foley.

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Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-1464-7 (sc)

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WestBow Press rev. date: 01/25/2018

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter One Stop Blaming Adam and Eve

Chapter Two Don’t Kill the Messenger

Chapter Three Why Me, God?

Chapter Four Thanks for the Gift

Chapter Five Getting to Know You

Chapter Six The Price of Love

Postscript

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My primary acknowledgement is to Donata Ardito Foley, my bride and joy. Without her love, friendship, and support for the past fifty-nine years, I would not have finished college, taught theology and philosophy for half a century, or more importantly, would not have been the father of five children and grandfather of eight; so thanks Babe…and thank you, Lord, for leaving us enough clues to find each other. Thanks also for our parents who first opened our eyes to see the wonder of life.

Thanks to our five boys and their wives and our eight grandchildren for filling our marriage with life, laughter, hope and happiness.

Thanks to the students and colleagues of Xavier High School, NYC, and Saint Peter’s University, Jersey City, NJ, for fifty years of challenges, opportunities and growth as a man of faith, hope and love. You have made the Jesuit principle of cura personalis – care of the whole person – a reality in my life and have helped me to find God in all things.

Thanks (for the past forty-four years) to the community of Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Brooklyn, NY. Your friendship and your faith have confirmed our marriage and parenthood, my teaching vocation, and life.

Thanks to the five former Xavier students who regularly pushed me to publish: Rich Nolan ’83, Joe Pierce ’94, Greg Casimir ’95, Anthony Sapporito ’97 and Hani Sarji ’98.

Finally thanks to my Bride, my granddaughter Micaela, my dear friends, Sister Liz Kelly CSJ, Mary Tesoriero, and Bob Brady. Their concern, corrections, and comments helped to shape the book in the form it appears.

PREFACE

This is a book about humanity – the significance of humanity in a world that far too often treats humanity as a prop, or a plaything to be seen as something amusing or somewhat useful at times. This taken for granted view of humanity sees as its importance whatever certain individuals or groups suggest is important. This relativistic view tends to categorize or stereotype humanity by gender, race, creed, color, physical or mental capabilities, or social, political and economic situations, arbitrarily assigning levels of importance to the different man-made categories. It overlooks the reality that humanity is primarily a gift…of life. This gift is bestowed on everyone who embraces humanity regardless of gender, race, creed, color, physical or mental capabilities, or social, political and economic situations. Humanity is a gift that transcends labels and categories. And the Life-giver is always involved in our gift of life.

I have taught in Jesuit schools for fifty years—twenty-nine as a tenured Religious Education teacher at Xavier High School in NYC and for fifty years as an adjunct professor in Philosophy at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, NJ. My mantra has been the insight of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates that "the unexamined life is not worth living. I subscribe enthusiastically to the Jesuit educational principle of cura personalis—the care of the whole person—because I believe that the human person is the most significant expression of God’s creation—and to the Jesuit principle of finding God in all things"—because I believe that God is the author of all life and seeking Him in tradition, innovations, and surprises makes life worth living.

My approach to teaching is to bother students to think by drawing primarily upon what I have learned—my Christian convictions, marital adventures with my bride and best friend, Dona, my experience as son and brother, father, grandfather, friend, neighbor and NY Giant football fan. (The latter keeps me humble, but, thanks to my niece, I did attend Super Bowl XLII and we weren’t the team that was humbled.) I love the classroom because in it are people seeking to grow in wisdom and knowledge, people who resist growing, people who struggle to grow, and people hoping to skate by with minimal effort. It’s the world. It annoys me when I hear graduation speeches that tell students they are going into the real world. That’s nonsense. Their high school and college years are prime times during which their life experiences, their developing of knowledge and understanding [apart from transcript grades], and their personal interactions will tremendously influence and deeply contribute to the persons they will become in life. This is because they are building on what their family upbringing has offered them, or they are rearranging what will evolve as their priorities. Through reflection, students become aware that most learning occurs after the classes are completed. People come to realize that what was really being taught were not simply various disciplines such as math and history, or literature and psychology, but how to deal with and appreciate what life will present by prioritizing what is important. It is the process through which teenagers, later on in life, come to realize that sometimes their parents really are smart. After all, humanity is a work in process.

This book is an appreciating of my own life’s journey. It is a series of essays about topics upon which I have reflected and taught for years. I invite you to see how these same topics may relate to your own life. After all, we do share life together; so we can learn from one another. Over the years students have encouraged me to write on some of the ideas of which we have spoken and studied in class. The reason I have undertaken this challenge now is because, I believe, there is an increasing number of people, throughout the world, who have lost or who ignore the significance of the gift of our shared humanity. The gift of humanity, life, is the same for each one of us who receives it. The expression of each individual’s humanity reflects the appreciation or the lack of appreciation for this generous freely bestowed gift.

Each essay, or chapter, is a self contained unit, but there are connections. Chapters four, five and six are an attempt to develop the ideas originated in chapter one, two and three. [Chapter 1] Humanity is a gift with a purpose. [Chapter 2] Because we are distinctively individual while simultaneously being social by nature, it is necessary for us not only to hear but to listen to those messages which are supportive and to those which are disruptive in our earthly journeying. [Chapter 3] Our humanity recognizes life includes strengths and weaknesses because the world is in process. [Chapter 4] Humanity and Divinity are related. [Chapter 5] God is not only creator but also a messenger. Will we listen? [Chapter 6] Life has not only an origin, but a goal as well. Are we up to responding to the invitation to appreciate the beginning and pursue the goal?

I have always viewed the educational process as primarily a positive experience. Towards encouraging such an experience, in the classroom I introduced exercises in reflection’ or invitations to be great"—challenges to students to share their understanding of what they had been offered. As a teacher you can only invite students to learn and every invitation can be accepted or rejected. Through these essays, I invite the reader to reflect upon what is presented—courtesy of many people; family, colleagues and students who have contributed to my own educational and personal process—and judge how it may, or may not, contribute to one’s own appreciation of being a human person. As a Christian, I think humanity, will all its bumps and bruises, is the greatest gift we have received because it is a gift which every human person shares.

I am a teacher; so throughout this book I will be passing along what scholars and non scholars have thought about the human person, God, good and evil, necessities and possibilities…in short, about life. My back drop, or point of departure, for the initial three chapters is primarily Old Testament scriptures. I will use historical figures as well as imaginative and contemporary figures to help us understand how origins are important and what they can lead us to discover. The first essay, Stop Blaming Adam and Eve, begins with origins of life acknowledging both evolution and creation. Philosophers rely on reason, on thinking things through, and theologians rely on studying our link to God and trying to explain why God would want to hang out with us in our contemporary Garden of Eden. The basic premise is we are guests in the land God created. In chapters two and three of the Biblical Book of Genesis, we deal with original grace and original sin. Finally we will deal with the act of faith that is Genesis one, the preface to the Bible, which was written four hundred years later. I address two perennial excuses we use to dodge responsibility for our actions throughout life. One is the I am only human copout which suggests that I don’t know everything; so I shouldn’t be held accountable for anything. That is disingenuous because my humanity is everything. I can’t use it simply as a convenience or an excuse…I am my humanity. It’s all I am! The second dodge seems to have begun in the Adam and Eve story. We know it as passing the buck or excusing our responsibility and shifting it to someone or something else. Is human nature an incredible unsolicited and generous gift or a taken-for-granted state in the process of life? We will have insights and images, both ancient and modern to help us to appreciate that the Garden of Eden is still with us today.

In the second chapter, Don’t Kill the Messenger, I deal with the messages we receive and send throughout our lives, which are shaped by traditions, new adventures and the unknown. The messengers may be persons, events, nature, or the divine. Musical shows, atheist and theist philosophers, economists, fantasy characters as well as some of my college professors will help to appreciate messaging. The Tower of Babel story, the last of the Genesis creation myths, highlights the importance of not simply hearing the sounds people make, but listening to what they say. If our society is to function as it ought, we have to understand the messages. Babel or babbling is a contemporary reminder of the political and social unrest we are currently witnessing streaming from people not willing to listen to each other. In this essay we will distinguish between free will and freedom, teaching and preaching, between faithful believers and blind followers. I share the idea of the four great No’s in life which have been included in the classes I have taught and will emphasize the significance of the individual. The prophets were probably the first people who preached tough love and weren’t always appreciated. We are subject to many messages in life, often conflicting, but all of them necessary for our growth, individually and socially, and it is amazing to discover where we find God in some of them.

The third selection, Why Me, God? focuses on the reality that life is not [always] a bowl of cherries—even though at times it can be. The spirit of the sport of Rugby with its motto no pain, no gain is a companion to the Book of Job in which there is lots of pain before eventually there is plenty of gain. (I thank our rugby playing sons for this insight.) The eye-opening scene shows God betting on Job and Satan betting against him. What are the odds? Harry Potter helps us to understand Job’s dark night of the soul. The Chronicles of Narnia along with the Book of Ecclesiates and Psalm 139 help us to appreciate what unfolds. Referring to [Chapter 1] which identifies life as a process, I conclude that life is incomplete, not yet finished, not yet perfected, but still perfect as created. There is hurt including the pedophilia scandal in the Church that I love. Job’s three friends begin with compassion for his plight, but end with condemnation. What happened? Three movies are considered which involve suffering, and how the characters address it. There are three personal experiences involving family, society, and a friend. Finally there are three lessons to be learned from the epilog to the Book of Job and to the psalms.

For the final three chapters, I include theological observations which should help to more easily understand the implications of the infancy narratives of Jesus (in Matthew and Luke’s gospels), and His public ministry and the passion accounts in each of the four gospels.

The fourth essay, Thanks for the Gift deals with the surprise Christmas birthday party God throws for us with the Good News that He loves us so much He becomes like us. He embraces our humanity giving us a significance we would never have enjoyed. The promise of a Messiah, a savior, led people to expect a new David, a warrior king who would drive out the enemy, currently the Roman oppressors. But Jesus comes as Emmanuel, God become man. What an acknowledgement of the significance of humanity! But, for some, over the years, this is news that is too good to be true. For others, it’s an eye opener…God became man! God became like us. How can that not be wonder-filled, and to use the word correctly, awesome? Thanks to St. Francis of Assisi, we have the Christmas crèche, or stable, which weds the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke. We also have artists who help us to appreciate how wonderful an event this is, as well as Grinchs and Scrooges, and Christmas movies urging us to celebrate the wonder of humanity as God’s greatest gift. Over the years, so many shepherds and magi, writers and artists and believers, have helped us to appreciate this holy night.

There’s a wonderful song from the musical show The King and I in which a teacher is trying to know her students from a different culture. Getting to Know You is the song and title of this fifth chapter. The basic premise is to teach is to serve. However, instead of the students as the object of the learning process, we will get to know Jesus, the Teacher. I selected eight scripture passages as messages which reveal Jesus’ vision of life, His storytelling ability, His range of friends and what He expects of them. There are also His ideal of a religious person and the notion that actions speak louder than words. Calling upon Saints Augustine and Paul, I will deal with how Jesus manifests the virtue of hope. Finally, I will comment upon Jesus’ friendly advice. Included are some questions Jesus might have asked in order to bother us to think…and to act…and to appreciate our humanity.

The final essay is entitled The Price of Love. It begins with There are contemporary movies and songs which claim that ‘love means never having to say you’re sorry! Au Contraire! The greatest expression of love in human history is Calvary’s Cross, and sorrow is certainly at the heart of that scene. Maybe the deeper question ought to be: if love is associated with joy, with happiness, with friendship, then how can sorrow, or hurt, or pain or suffering be related to love?"

For the balance of the chapter, I try to shed some light on this phenomenon. There are three acts in the chapter: joyful, sorrowful, and glorious. The joyful act celebrates the family, mealtimes, hospitality, table fellowship, the Last Supper, the Eucharist. The sorrowful act identifies betrayal, abandonment, cowardice, torture, injustice, [both past and present] the crucifixion, and Jesus response: prayer and forgiveness. It includes Jesus acceptance of our sins in the utterance of Psalm 22: My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? It includes an ignominious death and the original Pieta scene where Mary holds her Son’s broken and defiled body in her arms…just as she held Him in Bethlehem. The glorious act deals with the Father’s acceptance of His Son’s sacrifice so that we may be saved from ever being alone and for sharing our humanity through loving and being loved. It includes how the disciples, including us, put our acts together with and through His love. Fulton Sheen, Lumiere and Cogsworth from "Beauty and the Beast,’ Aslan from Narnia and Saint Iraneus help to appreciate how to do this.

In life there are financial, political, social and religious distractions. There are individual character flaws that we feed rather than eliminate. Some are annoying and others frightening because we don’t know what will happen or how those we love will be affected. Some seem beyond our ability to change, but all distractions can be addressed and, at least, made bearable. Some offer opportunities to advance and deepen our appreciation of life. This is true of history as well. There have been times of war and peace, times of famine and plenty. I wrote in the second paragraph (above), "I believe that the human person is the most significant of God’s creation." We enter this world with the gift of life and are called into the covenantal friendship with God and given the responsibility to be the world’s caretakers. We are the very special guests of a life giving God. How should we respond to show the incredible significance of our humanity?

In the fourth paragraph, I wrote that [today]…I think there is an increasing number of people who have lost the sense of how significant our humanity really is. History can teach us about distractions and attractions throughout life, but the bottom line is that our contemporary experience will lead to fulfilling or failing as individual human persons. How can we not realize the significance that Christmas gives our humanity? God became like us and gave Himself for us in the Crucifixion so that we would always know there is nothing that gets in the way of God’s love for us…except our refusal…which is a refusal to accept the significance of our humanity.

The Life-giver is involved in the life-giving gift of humanity. As an exercise in reflection I invite you to explore this statement throughout this book. Thanks.

CHAPTER ONE

Stop Blaming Adam and Eve

Y ears ago, I worked in the import-export business. All shipped products had to be marked with the Country of Origin. The origin of any product offers information for the recipient. Products from certain countries or areas were considered to be of higher value than similar ones from other regions. Some countries or areas would be on restrictive lists, and therefore subject to closer legal and consumer inspection. The label served as both an evaluation as well as a warning about the product. Origins are important, primarily because they are informational.

When I was growing up, one of the initial questions upon meeting someone was: so, where are you from? You would answer with the city, or the neighborhood, or, in cases of Catholic or Christian people, the parish, which was located in a particular area. I grew up in Saint Rose of Lima parish in Washington Heights in New York City. Most parishioners would be blue collar families, of primarily Irish or Italian immigrants. Then the other person knows something about you. Your origins may reveal religious, economic, social, political, or even ancestral insights. It may be misleading or it might be insightful and useful information. We are cautioned about allowing first impressions to be lasting impressions. This is true because all our human judgments are subject to change based on further knowledge. This more developed, or new knowledge may result in changing your mind from being turned off by the person to gradually coming to see his or her attraction and accepting that person. That change will eventually result in either a closer bonding or an eventual rejecting of the other person.

If I were raised in a religious or social environment that viewed abortion or capital punishment as immoral, then I have been influenced by a particular moral viewpoint. If I study the issue by reading about it and speaking to others and become more firmly convinced that abortion or capital punishment are immoral, then my moral viewpoint has changed. It has deepened. Or further study may cast doubts on the influences of my upbringing and I may become convinced that abortion or capital punishment might be acceptable decisions in some instances. My moral perspectives have changed. Change, whether we are speaking about persons or issues may involve a deepening of past viewpoints, or substituting previous viewpoints with opposing ones.

Change is a staple in life and changing one’s outlook on issues, or about people, influences how we come to view and value life. And yet, there are first impressions of both people and ideas and those impressions are shaped by our background and our upbringing. After all, we are social by nature. We can’t really ignore them; so we should explore them. By the way, first impressions may be correct or may not be correct. Only time and the developing of knowledge will tell. You may really be the offensive person I thought you were when we first met. Or you may be the decent person I thought you were when we first encountered each other. I eventually learn that what I had thought, positively or negatively, can change over time. In any event, introductions to people or to issues are interesting whether or not they change as time passes. Human knowledge, like the human person, is always in process, and this process can lead to an ever deepening certainty about what is important in life. It can help to adjust our understanding; so that we are able to appreciate more fully the wonders we can discover on life’s journey.

Both the theory of evolution and the Genesis Creation myths are stories about beginnings, our beginnings as human persons. Both seek to appreciate the significance of our origins. Darwin’s work is found in his Origin of Species. The Bible begins with the words, In the beginning… The authors of each theory or story claim that trying to understand beginnings are important, and yet there were neither scientists nor theologians present at the beginning. The scientific theory of evolution eventually formulated by Darwin speaks of the developing of plant and animal life by hereditary transmission with slight variation from generation to generation. The surviving forms become those that are best adapted to the environment; hence, the idea of survival of the fittest. This phrase was originally coined by the Sociologist, Herbert Spencer, and eventually wed to Darwin’s notion of natural selection. The scientific theory of evolution looks backwards to our roots as animal life adapting to the earth’s environment. It identifies human expression as following from biological forms of life which preceded us. The religious story of Genesis looks at the source of all creation, including human life, involving a pre-existing God, a Divine Being, Who freely willed all other beings, human, animal, plant, and mineral into existence. Adapting to the environment in which we live and having a purpose to living life are both necessary and real concerns for anyone on life’s journey. I think that purpose is the more important consideration.

Philosophically or reasonably we think of some life forms having a greater significance than others. Initially there is mineral life, inert life, which requires whatever happens to it to be done from outside; a source other than itself. We see this happening in our back yards. Rocks are simply rocks. We might move them or chisel away at them, or paint them, but they need an external agent to move them. Plant or vegetable life includes not only existence, but also the power, or potential, to grow and to reproduce. We plant seeds and look forward to reaping the benefits of what we have planted and what we have nurtured with our care and concern. Some plants survive and others don’t, because after all, Mother Nature is involved and she doesn’t always seem to be on our side, or to be very consistent from year to year. In this sense, I believe that plant life is higher on a scale of existence than is mineral life and yet both are life forms, whether one is a scientist or a theologian, or a gardener who is removing rocks in order to dig the soil and allow for plants to take root and grow.

The evolutionary process progresses from the plant to the animal kingdom in which the animal inhabitants not only grow and reproduce, but also are instinctive. They know how to respond to surroundings by accepting or rejecting what is offered. They respond to commands and acknowledge affection and react towards fear and danger. They adapt to their environment. They allow themselves to be exercised and fed, to be pampered and to develop a sense of belonging. I think that dogs and cats are among the more intelligent of the animal kingdom, and yet, I would not go out on a date with them, or go to a ballgame with them, or engage them in discussions about origins. Yet for many of us, as pets, they are of very special concern in our lives, far more than either minerals or plants. Whether looking at the evolutionary process or the religious understanding, humanity stands atop the pyramid of created beings. Dogs are not our best friends, other people are and that’s why we differentiate between pets and friends.

Being able to think, to choose, to laugh, to decide, are among the qualities which characterize human being as distinct from other earthly life forms. These are among the reasons I believe that humanity is the most significant of the forms of life in our world. We have the greatest gifts, and with these come the greatest obligations, or responsibilities, not only for our human life but for all life. The consequences of using or misusing our gifts will change mineral, plant, animal, and our own human life, either for better or for worse. We are responsible for using as well as abusing nature’s resources, and how all other created beings are affected. Man’s responsibility for all created life is an ongoing challenge. Scientific application to nature’s growing processes, for example, genetically modified plants, have clearly given rise to meaningful increases in world food production. Long term effects of genetically modified organisms, which are currently unknown, have also raised questions regarding how safe they might be. There are some concerns regarding human experimentation in nature’s role in the food chain arena. Technological advancements have revolutionized the manufacturing of goods and services for all people. At the same time, they have produced worldwide economic difficulties which must be addressed. Then there are the dramatic shifts in weather patterns, brought about by manufacturing activities, which create climate changes affecting the quality of life for many people in many areas. Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, is about our responsibility for taking care of our common home, the earth and her resources. Humanity is clearly the most important of created beings because we can create, alternate, and eradicate aspects of the world [-] mineral resources, plant life, the animal kingdom, the human condition and the temporal and spatial boundaries which constitute the universe into which we have been invited.

To look at where we might have come from offers insights into life. I do not see the theory of evolution, which I reasonably accept, being the more significant of the human explanations of origins. If my significance is that I evolved from a lower form of life and that is my claim to fame, then I am not sure if I can claim much more than I lucked out when distinguished from the form which preceded me. And there still remains the difficulty of the origin. How did the beginning begin? If life as we know it began with the Big Bang then who is responsible for the original particle that was present for the expansion of the universe as we know it? It doesn’t make sense that some-thing, the universe as we know it, comes from no-thing.

On the other hand, if my origin stems from a creating Being, from God, Whose concern is that I embrace the creation that has been made for me, then, I think, there is a greater significance for humanity. I have a value that stems from who I am and in what I do and eventually in who I choose to become, not simply into what I evolved. I contribute to shaping my evolving as a person. The Genesis Creation stories begin with the theological or religious explanation of the origin of life and looks forward to what unfolds. There are two distinct biblical creation accounts of creation and we will explore both which speak of our purpose and our special relationship with the Creator of all life. Both tend to look forward to what the human relationship to God could become.

This is certainly a simplistic description, but it is not incorrect. A simple explanation can sometimes be the best explanation. It is looking at the same object, humanity, from different perspectives, which don’t cancel each other out, but together offer a broader understanding and appreciation of the nature of the human person. Is the significance of the human person dependent upon how well we adapt to nature or in how deeply we care for nature? For me the initial question is whether or not it makes sense to speak of some kind of being that is not simply natural; that is, a being which is not mineral, vegetable, animal or human? Both the scientist and the theologian must begin with human reason, with one’s ability to think, to engage the world with the intention of developing understanding and drawing conclusions. I do not believe that the ability of the human mind is limited by what we can simply see and touch or what is immediately present to us. I do believe that the human mind is capable of appreciating and understanding, in varying degrees, what lies beyond or behind our sensory experiences. I think that human mind is capable of reasoning to the existence of a supreme being, distinct from nature and who, or what, exists as the source of all that belongs to what we call nature.

Having taught philosophy for many years. I value the gift of reason. To be able to think is our access to meaning. I believe that reason, or consciousness, or the mind allows us to understand and appreciate what we see, hear, smell, taste and touch. A philosophic argument, or proof, for the existence of a being beyond the existence of worldly beings is an exercise in reason. It tries to grasp the idea that time and space are not simply limitations but boundaries…and there is a beyond and a being responsible for what is, for what exists. One such traditional philosophic approach is called the cosmological argument. This argument or proof or evidence for the existence of a Supreme Being looks at the elements of our cosmos, or universe, and intelligently concludes that there is a source for our universe, which, or who, is distinct from the universe. This reasonable exercise, or proof for the beginnings of the world formally originates with Aristotle (384-322 BC.) Others developed and used this argument for understanding cosmic beginnings. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) is acknowledged as the philosopher-theologian who formulated the argument as we know it today. The Five Ways of Aquinas are essentially reasonable attempts to understand, as far as possible, the existence of a distinct Being, apart from created beings, who is also the Creating God of the Old and New Testaments Whom we meet through divine revelation. Is the existence of a Supreme Being reasonable? Does the existence of God make sense? If reasonably, the answer is yes (and I think it is), then we begin the quest to figure out what humanity’s relation to divinity is.

Briefly, Aquinas acknowledges five arguments, or reasonable ways, beginning with the idea that we can distinguish movement from the source of movement. The world is in motion, not simply local motion from one place to another, but growth in society as it deals with its citizens, or building up relationships in the world, or changing one’s outlook regarding individual habits and values; in other words, all the varying kinds of external and internal movements there are in life. Trains or buses may be the source of local motion as we journey from one town to another. Employment opportunities may be the cause for a particular society to grow or to move forward economically and socially. Family and friends as well as specific talents many be the source of one’s own personal growth. We recognize intellectually, that the source of movement or growth is distinguishable from the actual movement or growth. We experience a world in motion and intellectually distinguish a source responsible for all movement. Aristotle calls this source the unmoved mover. The moving world happens because of the unmoved mover who, or which, is itself not moved by any other thing.

The second argument is based on the idea that for every effect we experience in life, there is a cause which the intellect recognizes as different from the effect. The universe is an effect which reasonably suggests a cause distinct from the effect. This cause which is itself not the effect of anything else is named the uncaused cause. It is the cause of the world, but is not itself an effect of any other cause; hence, uncaused cause. The world in time and space happens because of a being both different and distinct from the world. The world as an effect exists courtesy of a cause distinct from the world – a cause which itself is not the effect of anything – an uncaused cause. We don’t know, at this point, whether the unmoved mover, or uncaused cause, is personal or not.

All of the beings in the world, mineral, plant, animal, as well as mankind, come into and go out of existence. They depend on some being other than themselves for their very existence. We humans are contingent or dependent beings. All earthly beings depend on something else to exist. This third proof reasonably argues that there must be a being who, or which, necessarily exists in order to keep everything else in existence, and it must be distinct from any other being. The universe is contingent, always in motion, changing, dependent on some being which necessarily exists, a being which has always existed and always will exist. This necessary being does not owe its existence to anything outside of itself. I think these are the major reasonable or philosophic concerns in identifying our cosmos and a being responsible for its existence.

Just to round out the traditional approach, or Thomistic expressions, the fourth argument seeks to identify the perfect being, as distinct from all other life expressions in the great chain of being. We are not the source, or cause, of our own existence; therefore, we are imperfect. The perfect being necessarily exists and does not owe his, her, or its existence to any other being. The last proof, or fifth way, is referred to as a teleological, or goal oriented, or purposeful universe. The universe has purpose, which reasonably suggests the designer, the cause, the necessary being is intelligent. It is up to us to identify and appreciate the work of the designer by how the design is accepted. It is similar to viewing the world, the universe, as a work of art which is the result of the artist who is distinct from his work, just as Vincent Van Gogh is distinct from any and all of his paintings, and the sculptor Auguste Rodin is distinguished from any of his works.

I would like to comment on the philosophical arguments from causality (uncaused cause) and from necessity (necessary being.) These make the most sense to me. For every effect, there is a cause distinct from the effect. If reasonably, I view the natural world as an effect, I understand there is a cause for this effect which is distinct from the world. As a religious person, I believe God is the cause for the existence of the world in which I live, but I am also a reasonable person. I have identified what is reasonable to me (there is a cause for the world’s existence) with what I believe (there is a God Who created, or caused, the world.) When I view the natural world as constantly changing, as coming into existence and going out of existence, as living and dying, I acknowledge that the world is contingent, that it and everyone and everything in it, is dependent on something or someone distinct