My Philosophy for Life

Philosophy and Psychology cross paths when they attempt to give identity and purpose to one's existence. Our Philosophy can be how we understand and relate to reality externally. Psychology is can be how we understand and relate to reality internally. 

For a contented and satisfying existence we need to understand reality (both external to us, and internal to us) in terms of Natural laws, so that we embrace values and act consistent with the way the universe works.

A very simple but true example involves our relationship to the physical phenomenon known as gravity. 

Philosophically we can accept or reject gravity's existence. If we reject gravity we will ignore the practical laws of living with gravity, and we will walk off a cliff, fall, and kill ourselves. If we accept it, we will be aware of the practical laws of living with gravity and stay away from the edge of cliffs. 

Psychologically we can find gravity assuring or threatening. If we understand gravity as our ally, we will be able to walk, jump, sit, and lie down with confidence and be at peace with gravity's attributes. But if we understand gravity as a threat, we are likely to curl up into a fetal ball and become, literally, useless, and die of inaction.

A "philosophy of life" can embrace both outward and inward perspectives of who we are and what we are to be. In our sophisticated, modern world, there are many different models of how to understand human life. There are religious models: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. There are psychological models: Maslow's hierarch of needs, Freud's theory of the ego and id, Jung's Analytical concepts, and Jordan Peterson's Rules for Life. There is also the work of the Greek physician Hippocrates who describes what we call today as the Four Temperaments: Phlegmatic, Choleric, Sanguine, and Melancholic; an outcome of that ancient work is also famous Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

All of these are ways of understanding reality and how we might, through our free will, balance our lives to find purpose and satisfaction in our thinking and our actions. And studying about all of these, or some of them at least, can help us understand how to think and discuss ways of looking at the world around us, and understanding ourselves inwardly. For example, as a teenager, I wanted to understand both the world and myself, so I spent several weeks one summer categorizing the premises in the Book of Proverbs: "A wise man will hear, and will increase in learning." "The fool has said in his heart there is no God." "If sinners entice thee, consent thou not." etc. 

Philosophically and psychologically, I was raised as an Evangelical Christian. Today I'm a Catholic Christian, and by association I have a lot of respect of Judaism. One concept in Judaism revolves around three actions: Study, Work, and Doing Good for Others. In Catholic Christianity there are the 7 Corporal Works of Mercy, and the 7 Spiritual Works of Mercy. In the Pauline Epistles we find the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit. In the teachings of Jesus, we find the Beatitudes. 

All those things are focused on others, not yourself. The epitome of being others centered is the life and death of Jesus Christ. Psychological research reveals that people who help others are the happiest. People that focus on themselves to the exclusion of others lead unhappy lives at best, or at worse end up killing themselves. There is no transcendence in their lives, they are lost looking for meaning in their very limited sphere.  Thus, knowledge of all these models is helpful. But if you turn it all inward, it is destructive. Life is not about us, but rather about others. If we constantly turn inward, we become selfish and self-centered. 

My advice is to develop a Personal Life Mission Statement that is other's centered. Laurie Beth Jones' THE PATH is the best resource for developing such a statement.  I worked on mine for over a month. It is this:

To discover and promote divine truth to those within my sphere of influence.

It’s short, pity, and applies to everything I do, or it eliminates things I think about doing but shouldn’t if I want my actions to have purpose. If my values and actions do not benefit someone else, then they won’t benefit me and my mission or purpose. 

Are 2,000 Year Old Bible Stories the Only Important Ones?

ARE YOU CAUGHT IN THE PAST?  

Or, Do You Exist in the Present?

Some of my 50 years of Prayer Diaries

Several days ago I heard a religious speaker trying to help his audience make sense of the chaotic 2020 presidential election.

He recounted the Biblical story of Jacob and how Jacob's faith was effected by the events the patriarch had experienced and how we should do the same. 

I was lost. 

I could not fathom how anything that had happened (supernatural or otherwise) to a tribal nomad living thousands of years ago in the Middle East wilderness, had anything to do with me or anyone else in the United States in 2021. 

Why do priests, pastors, and spiritual influencers spend their time telling us Bible stories about the miraculous things God did 2000-4000 years ago?  Do they think Bible events are the only things that matter...or that ever happened to people to change their lives? How are people living in a sophisticated, Internet connected society to relate to Moses? Noah? Jacob? Jeremiah? or even to Jesus living in Romanist Palestine? 

Granted some parallels can always be drawn from Old and New Testament times. And yes, there are eternal truths that can be identified for all people, in all places, at all times. But if we're honest, the culture, language, science, politics and problems are much, much different. And then there's the little fact that Jesus was God...and we never will be.  

But here's the important question:  Has nothing important happened SINCE the Bible was written that can strengthen our faith? 

Click Image for Info

Of course there has.  

Most Christians do not have faith in God because of something that happened 3000 years ago. They have faith because of something that happened 3 days, 13 weeks, 3 months, or 30 years ago...to THEM....in THEIR lives...that THEY either experienced or to which THEY were an eye witness.

To bolster MY faith I've kept a prayer diary. I've kept it since I was a teenager. The picture above is part of my shelf of those diaries. Reading from these pages strengthens my faith tremendously, because they contain events that happened to ME and MY family, and were (in part) the consequence of MY prayer life. 

A while back I wrote a memoir that dramatically recounted hundreds of those stories. I wrote it to confirm my faith, for me, for my family (for those that were brave enough to read it). Sure, there are references to the Bible in it. It's a faith memoir. But it's all about the events that strengthened my faith "today" and not what happened thousands of years ago. 

You should do the same. Write a MEMOIR to strengthen your faith,  for YOU, for YOUR family, and for others. 

Tell us stories of what has happened in YOUR life that have bolstered your faith.  Surely, it's not the sermons or homilies you've heard. Rather it's what you have experienced.  It's something personal. Sure, what's in the Bible or in a sermon or homily may explain your experience and give you a deeper understanding. But it's what you have sensed with your own eyes, ears, what you have touched and maybe even smelled, and tasted...not to speak of your sense of balance as you've moved through the dimensions of space and time...  that has changed you and grown your faith. 

Start your story today.

NEEDED 34TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT - JUDICIARY ACCOUNTABILITY

 The Church and the State may be separate, but a nation's success requires both.

The temporal success of the United States, to a great extent, is anchored in its structure, three separate but powerful branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary. If you take one away, we end up with chaos, riots, and war. 

The same is true of religion in public life. Without the influence of religion's teaching on right and wrong, there would be no personal accountability or normal by which to past judgement, and again chaos, riots, and war would be the norm 

JANUARY 6, 2021: THE COURTS ARE TO BLAME FOR BEING A.W.O.L.

Imagine a basketball, football or baseball game without referees or umpires. Regardless of the existence of rules, without a judiciary that both sides agree to follow, fights, riots, and war would result. 

That is exactly what has happened over the past month after U.S. courts (especially SCOTS) refused to hear and adjudicate on the evidence regarding conservative claims of election fraud. 

By the courts refusing to hear the cases, they removed the judiciary from the three equal branches of the U.S. Government. When the executive and legislative branches quarrel and there isn't a third party to adjudicate the disagreements, riots etc are the natural outcome. 

We need a 34th Amendment to the Constitution that provides the mechanics for hearing such high-level cases. Not every case brought by people and institutions to every court in the land need be heard. Many are frivolous, which is why a court can dismiss a claim without hearing it. But when national interest is high, regardless of standing, especially when major branches of the government disagree, there needs to be a court of hearing that is orderly and lawfully conducted.

That is functionally what will solve the problem we've recently experienced.

THE CHURCH IS ALSO TO BLAME FOR BEING A.W.O.L.

On another level, as George Washington stated in his farewell address, the nation cannot stand without religious principle that informs a nation's or individual's morality. Here is the quote in context:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

But during the last months of conflict between liberal and conservatives, both promoting their own perspective of moral truth, where were our religious leaders in their role to publicly spark, enlighten, and encourage religion's role in adjudicating public morality? Where were bishops and pastors in the pubic square proclaiming the need, demanding the need, that what is morally right and what is truth be sought with all efforts?

I claim that the Church (our bishops and pastors), like the courts, were AWOL. They pulled themselves out of society, as if they had no space in the public debate. How utterly irresponsible that is. Religion is the basis of morality. George Washington believed that as do philosophers of any longevity. 

JUDGES NEED TO GET ON THE BENCH and

BISHOPS NEED TO GET IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE

ADDED January 9, 2021 with edits January 10.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION CONNECTION

The storming of the Washington, D.C. capital January 6, 2021 was entirely predictable, logical and reasonable. In the last four years, and especially the last few months, the government of the United States has ceased to function for and by the people. It has failed in many important respects. And the people are demanding justice, fairness, and the following of the Constitution as originally intended. 

The attack was the result of deep frustration by the people. It was justified because those in power were not listening. Pelosi, Schumer, Harris, and Biden all and others made excuses for the summer riots because of the people's pent up frustration over issues they deemed important. But now, when the patriots (and some radical infiltrators) make a stand in the seat of power (WITH D.C. SECURITY FORCE'S PERMISSION) and occupy the capital for a few minutes....oh, it's a terrible thing. 

No it was not terrible. It was reasonable, logical, and needed to wake our legislatures up to how selfish and broken down they are.  And yet, I predict, this is only a precursor of what's coming unless the government starts doing its job.

Aside from the August 24, 1814 burning of Washington D.C. government buildings by the British during the war of 1812, the historical event we need to remember is the FRENCH REVOLUTION.  You remember the French Revolution, don't you?  It was a time when the people got fed up with their government and the church living in luxury and repressing the common folk. 

It got to a point that the common folk rose up and slaughtered the rulers, including  the clergy. It lasted years. Many people today look back on the French Revolution as a time of unrelenting evil against the King and the Church. But it was predictable; it was a time of  Old Testament justice. I'm not so sure God didn't motivate, or allow the French Revolution, to wake the country and the church up to the consequences of evil governance.

The French Royalty and the French Catholic Church were corrupt. Terribly corrupt. Here in the U.S. we're not there yet, but we're close, we're on that track. But this is America not France. We aren't as lazy as the French. So the people aren't going to wait that long. What happened on January 6, 2021 in Washington D.C. was child's play compared to the French Revolution, but the cause was very similar. 

The people of the United States have been continually lied to for decades, and most spectacularly over the last 4 years since the 2016 election of Trump.  Regardless of whether or not there was election fraud during the 2020 election, it was the responsibility of the courts to adjudicate the claims fairly and throughly. And it was the Church's responsibility to promote (in the public square) the moral precepts of pursuing truth and justice and to repudiated lying and repression. 

But the U.S. legislature continued to lie. The courts abdicated their responsibility and walked away. And the church was silent, as if cooperating with the courts and the legislature. The government broke down. It was aided by the media and foreign agents who stirred unrest with false flag social media posts. The people were left with no recourse. And the novenas of Rosaries didn't seem to help. What's left?  Mob Rule.  The Church and the Government need to learn from the French Revolution that it's about the people and their right to a fair and honest government.