Sounds pretty good until ....

I was recently revisiting some lectures on Aristotle and am always amazed at how good his philosophies sound at first glance. Now, don't stop reading because you think classical Greek is boring, too sophisticated or irrelevant. When you stop and hear what Aristotle says about "the good life," you may find you have a lot in common. You likely will see he simply can say well what a lot of us think. After all, he is likely the most influential thinker of the last 2500 years.

Let me see if I can give a brief, but thorough, recap of Aristotle's view of the human life. Then, I will offer an alternative point of view you may or may not feel as comfortable with. You should find this quite insightful.

1.  What makes something "living" are certain powers. The power of nutrition (feeding oneself), the power of procreation (reproducing one's self), the power of locomotion (relocating one's self), and the power of the senses (perceiving for one's self).
2.  What separates the human from all other animal and plant life is the addition of intellect (the power to reason for one's self).
3.  The end of all intellect is knowledge and to know something is to know its cause.
4.   There are four types of cause
       material (from what does it come)
       model (what form does it take)
       making (the act of creating)
       maker (the purpose of the designer or creator or the "final cause")
     the famous statement about cause, "if the art of ship building were in the wood, we       would have ships by nature"
5.  humans are artistic objects of a self defining, self creating nature
6.  why would anyone wish to live a virtuous life?  the end game of the human life is         the pursuit of happiness. humans can only pursue the goal, they can never attain it.
7.  happiness is only available from a virtuous life
8.  purpose and enjoyment (intrinsic motives only) are the highest form of bliss
9.  man's sense of purpose is not self serving (hedonistic or narcissistic), but directly         connected to his/her "street address" (an identity of residence)
10.  the law, universal principles of justice found in human nature, inclines us to                harmony with our surroundings, not threatens us with punishment.

Of course this is only a snapshot of Aristotle, but it is the foundation of his view of life. It actually sounds pretty good. It has stood the test of time. Some believe it forms the foundation of Islam, Catholicism, and the US Declaration of Independence.

So, why did Jesus take dead aim at Aristotle when He proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven?
Jesus contrasts key Aristotelian points about the law and attaining the perfect life. Jesus gives a different picture of intrinsic motivation of the Kingdom dweller, and what puts the soul in a blissful state.


But mainly Jesus presents us with the idea of knowing the Creator rather than seeking the cause of outcomes through our own intellect.

Aristotle makes some good points about the notion of power. The bottom line lies in our assumption of who has the power. Is the power that makes us human found in our own sensory perception, or is it in the hands of a Sovereign God, who chose us to be with Him? The Bible claims God gave us the resurrection power of Jesus, which comes only through an unobservable evidence He provides to us called faith.

The question for each of us is, "who do we trust to explain the human life?" Two cases for the source of power. Each sound pretty good. So, whose power should we ultimately rely on?

Aristotle makes a lot of sense, but God makes a lot of sense, too. In the end, its not what we know, or what makes sense, but who we trust. Trust is grounded in the bias we rely on.

There are ONLY TWO, and we cannot trust both.