No cause, just effect ...

 Built deep within the human condition is the idea of cause and effect. Have you noticed whenever something happens in the world the media immediately starts "guessing" what caused it to happen? Aristotle's model of causation is fundamental to reasoning. Thomas Aquinas used this model in his famous proof for the existence of God.

Maybe every effect in our lives doesn't have a cause. That idea kinda blows the mind, doesn't it?

There's evidence of this everywhere, however. Just open your eyes.

Yesterday I was going to play golf an hour away. It's something I do regularly, so it's fairly routine. This time there was an "effect" I can't explain. I was heading to get into the car. RANDOMLY I saw the garbage needed to be taken out. Since we are in an apt right now, I must take it to the dump in the car as I leave the complex. I usually put it in the back seat for ease of access. BUT, this time I had the RANDOM thought that the bag was a little messy. So, I went to put it in the trunk. As I opened the trunk, guess what? NO GOLF CLUBS!

 After a brief moment of panic, I remembered I had left them at the AU Club when I played Wed. Why had I not put the clubs in my trunk as I have every other time? What caused the effect of no clubs? RANDOMLY I had received a text from my cousin about having dinner at the club that night. So, I put my clubs at the bag drop and went in to make a reservation. My whole routine after golf had been affected by RANDOM events. 

Where was the cause for no clubs in my trunk on Fri morning? Had I not decided to take the garbage, had I not decided to put garbage in back seat, had I not put clubs at bag drop instead in my car after golf, I would have arrived 1 hr away from home to play golf with NO CLUBS, an effect with no cause.

Just the previous night my son had given me an account of how he tried to make a last minute change of QB's on his fantasy football team. He went into the system to put Tannehill in place of Carr. Tannehill was playing Thursday night so it was a last minute decision. As he was making the change, his daughter RANDOMLY called. He got distracted. He forgot to hit "save." His attempt to change QB's didn't happen. As he starts to watch the game, Tannehill is on fire. Bang, bang, bang, completion after completion and then a TD. My son is feeling great until he notices Carr is still in his lineup. "What happened?" he thought. Then he remembered he must have forgotten to hit "save" when he made the change, an effect with no cause. To make a long story short, that was it for Tannehill that night. He ended up doing nothing more and had the worst game of his career. My son's thwarted attempt to play Tannehill worked best for him. Randomness worked against his plans FOR his benefit.

How often do things like this happen in life? Over and over it seems. Positive effects in our lives from RANDOM events. 

Yet, the human condition cannot handle randomness. We must have a cause for every effect.

Sometimes the effects of RANDOM events are not positive for us (or it seems). We then feel guilty or look to blame something outside ourselves. 

This may be the source of mankind's natural tendency to misunderstand Sovereignty? Sovereignty is effect without cause. Now, that' something to ponder ....
 

and the problem is ...

One of the problems many educators face is, "how do we teach kids to solve problems?" Critical thinking is at the top of the list in qualities businesses are looking for in new hires. Its been quite common in my work with students and employees to help them learn to solve problems rather than treat symptoms. Obviously, this is what we want from medical physicians when we are sick. Don't just give me something for the fever, get rid of the infection.

This is not new. Over 2500 years ago when the Greeks began the work of philosophy, they were trying to solve three problems. These were

1.  the problem of knowing (how do we know what is?)

2.  the problem of behavior (what is the right thing to do?)

3.  the problem of governing (how do we treat each other?)

Since 400 - 500 BC, humans have relied on the findings of Socrates, Plato, and especially Aristotle for the ways in which we should solve these three problems. First, we know "what is true" by reasoning what we see. This is the basis of science and works fairly well with knowing the physical world. There has been serious disagreement over the years about how we reason truth about invisible objects. Science evolved to support knowing the world we see. Scientific inquiry then became the way to try and solve the problem of knowing what we cannot see. For instance, Thomas Aquinas, the 13th century Christian philosopher, used Aristotle's model of reasoning cause and effect to prove how to know that God exist.  

From Aristotle's work on "knowing" came the idea of virtue, universal principles we can reason about the right way to be and do. Be fair. Be kind. Be courageous. Be free. and so forth. This solves the second problem, "how do we behave?"

The problem of governing became one of ethics and morality. There are universal codes of conduct that we can reason from observing the world over time. These suggest the best way for society to operate for the benefit of all its occupants. Those in charge of others should be moral and expect all other citizens to be also. Government should put into law these principles. Much like Aquinas, the founding fathers of the US took Aristotle's model and applied an assumption that God's Word provides a script for moral governing. Thus, the third problem was solved for the US by the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

The prevailing notion that the US is a Christian nation was established and has been the basis for political advocacy of evangelical Christians ever since. Christians push forward the idea of Christian morality and values. But, is this how Jesus advocated solving these three problems?

It might be noted that we have no recorded words from God between the time of Aristotle until Jesus came to earth. Four hundred years of God's silence. Aristotle's views ran rampant. Why?

Suddenly Jesus appears. Jesus arrives on earth and teaches about God's Kingdom. Of course there is a lot to Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. However, one thing He did was to give a totally different view of solving these three problems than Aristotle and his cohorts did. I find the Sermon on the Mount to be a fairly direct rebuke of Greek philosophy. 

What are Jesus' answer to these three problems?

1. How do we know? Jesus uses a different word for knowing than the philosophers used. Jesus spoke about "knowing" without observing physical evidence, gnosis. This involves revelation. Words given to us from an unseen source outside ourselves.

2. What should we do? Instead of virtue, Jesus spoke about faith. That is, trusting what we receive from this unseen source of "knowing." Acting on the unction of the Holy Spirit is Jesus' answer to the second problem, not an internal drive and set of principles to pursue virtue.

3. How should we treat each other? Jesus advocates humility and service. Jesus had His harshest words for the moralists. Seeing the provisions and privileges of the Kingdom of Heaven is God's way to work in unity to glorify Himself. Seeking the rights and rewards of a "proper" or lawful path in the physical world is what mankind inherited from Adam.

Jesus did not bring a new set of problems to solve. The Greek philosophers and all that followed from them, including many Christian philosophers, had the right set of problems. Jesus brought a totally different way to solve them. Repent, metanoia, is a call to this different way to solve the same problems.

That is what it means to "be not conformed to the ways of this world (solving problems like Aristotle), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (solve problems like Jesus)."

They don't teach critical thinking like this in school I don't believe ......