I have neglected all three of these aspects at different points of my life and one thing I can safely say from experience is that neglecting one will negatively affect the other two. Your spiritual, emotional, and physical components are all intertwined so that if one component is affected, all are. It saddens me when I see a Christian who strives to live a spiritually pure life but doesn’t take care of his body. Job is a good example of a guy who learned the hard way how much his physical life influenced his faith. Would it have been easier for Job to believe that God was good if his physical status was in good condition? Scientific studies have proved over and over again that when we are physically healthy we feel better. When we feel better it is easier to spiritually and emotionally strengthen ourselves.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Christian hedonism is the somewhat controversial doctrine which can be traced back to the theologian Johnathan Edwards. It has been made popular within many evangelical circles due to John Piper who summarizes this philosophy by stating “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”.
It’s the genius of God’s creation to make Himself supreme while satisfying us in that supremacy. So that our happiness and God’s glory do not compete since our happiness is in His glory, and enjoying God’s glory makes God’s glory all the more glorious.
One of Jonathan Edwards resolutions was the following “Resolved, To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of.”

CS Lewis states that: “It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can.”

This does not mean that out happiness is the highest good, rather that pursuing the highest good will always ultimately result in our greatest happiness.

Now, those who disagree will many times claim that we should do the good because it is good and that ones motivation to seek joy or reward corrupts the act. Immanual Kant the philosopher argued against Christian Hedonism by stating “An action is moral, only if one has no desire to perform it, but performs it out of a sense of duty and derives no benefit from it of any sort, neither material nor spiritual. A benefit destroys the moral value of an action. (Thus if one has no desire to be evil, one cannot be good; if one has, one can.)”

A good and righteous man in Scripture is not the man who dislikes doing good but toughs it out for the sake of duty. A good man loves kindness (Micah 6:8) and delights in the law of the Lord (Psalm 1:2), and the will of the Lord (Psalm 40:8). Kant loves a disinterested giver. God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7)

So what position do you take on the issue? Are you a Christian Hedonist?

Some of these points are taken from here on Piper’s Blog

Edwards Quote: Resolution #22 in Edwards’ Memoirs in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), p. xxi.

CS Lewis’ Quote: From a letter to Sheldon Vanaukehn in Vanauken’s book, A Severe Mercy (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), p. 189.

Immanuel Kant’s Quote: Ayn Rand, For the Intellectual (New York: Signet, 1961), p. 32.

What sort of goals do you have for this semester?

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Just a random thought.

Knowledge is in its most basic form justified true belief, and like everyone else Descartes was just your ordinary philosopher/mathematician/genius trying to show that he was justified in believing what he did. Descartes was not satisfied with dogma, or common beliefs; instead, Descartes wanted 100% certainty that what he believed was justified. To do this he developed a systematic method by which he could doubt everything. If there were beliefs which could not be doubted, then they could serve as a foundation for more beliefs until everything that was true, was justified. The Cartesian Method of Doubt relies heavily on the epistemic closure principle which states that I know that X happens, and I know that X happening entails Y happening, then I know that Y happens. By using this principle Descartes makes what was a pretty profound argument for skepticism. In his first meditation descartes states that: P1. If I know that the external world exists than I know I am not dreaming. P2. I do not know that I am not dreaming. C. I do not know that the external world exists. (side note: Descartes is not arguing that the external world does not exist, he is merely pointing out that we can doubt its existence.) Now you can substitute many things for his example of dreaming. In fact, Descartes himself gives similar arguments using different examples (the Evil Demon, Distorted perception ect.). Basically to understand his argument all you need to do is understand that since we do not know that we are not dreaming, how can we know the world around us is real? Life could be illusory and we would never know it. Since dreams distort our perceptions and senses why couldn’t our perception of the external world be a false reality? Using the example of the evil demon: maybe our minds are simply being controlled by a malevolent demon who cruelly decided to give us a false sense of reality. Since we do not know that this is not the case, we do not know that our perception of the external world falls in line with reality.

After he figured out things we cannot know (according to his view of justified true beliefs). Descartes continued his quest for justified belief in his second meditation by finding that in which we can know, and cannot doubt. This is where Descartes uses the famous phrase “cogito ergo sum” roughly translated “I think, therefore I exist” to demonstrate his main point. Descartes cannot rationally doubt his own existence. For if there is doubting, then their is one doing this doubting. He does not try prove that he exists, only that it is irrational to doubt his existence. If he does not exist, than their is nothing doing the doubting ect.

Now that he had this foundational belief which could not be rationally doubted, Descartes set out to build on this foundation. Most philosophers agree that he was unsuccessful in his later meditations, trying in one to prove that God exists, and that this God (being omni-benevolent) would not give us a false sense of reality. Regardless of the soundness of his later works Descartes’ work serves as a great foundation for skepticism, and epistomology in general.

Reilly, an alternative rock band  had a unique sound which was partly due to the fact that they incorporated violin into their songs which made their music  almost symphonic. They have some amazing talent and well thought out lyrics.

You can visit them online at their website here 

Here is their newest music video, a great song called Sunlight

Next Lecrae got up and knocked the concert out of the park. 

Lecrae’s songs are sermons put to music. Well, not really, but they are very sound as far as doctrine is concerned, and his beats are out of this world. He gave his testimony and shared the gospel at the end which was really awesome to hear. The guy has serious talent and he stays so humble. He gives God the full credit for all that he does which was really cool to see. 

Here is his latest video “Dont Waste Your Life” based off of on of John Pipers books.

 

P1: It is greater to be the standard of morality than to conform to it
P2: If God is the greatest conceivable being then he must be the standard of morality.
P3: If God is the standard of morality His nature is necessarily morally perfect.
C: Therefore since His nature is necessarily perfect, God can serve as a foundation for objective moral truths.

P2 must be accepted by the one posing the dilemma as discussion can only occur when the poser evaluates a certain view of God and His relation to morality. The burden of proof is on the one posing the dilemma to find a flaw in a proposed solution, as the dilemma is a positive assertion.
P1 is philosophically solid as it is a greater thing to be the paradigm of goodness than to conform to an external standard, for if one conforms to an external standard that one is subject to a thing greater than itself. Since P2 defines God as the greatest conceivable being, by the theist’s own definition this God is necessarily the standard of morality. Since he is the standard of morality there is no other standard by which he can be judged making his nature necessarily morally perfect. The moral nature of God is an essential property of Gods meaning that there is no possible world in which God according to the theist’s definition could have existed and yet lacked that property. This must not be confused with accepting the second horn of the dilemma, for if God was not necessarily morally perfect then morality is subjective. Since God is necessarily morally perfect according to the theist’s definition the theist sees no problem is claiming that this deity can serve as a foundation for objective values. God is moral neither because of the way He happens to be nor because of His fitness with reference to an external standard of morality, His moral nature is an essential quality of His which if existing according to the theistic definition must make him the moral standard.
The solution proposed is not without its objections. One common objection is that if goodness is what God must be, why call bother calling Him good? Calling God good is merely saying that God is consistent with his nature. Regardless of its truth, this argument is irrelevant to the discussion at hand, for to argue this would be to confuse moral ontology with moral semantics. Christian philosopher William Lane Craig states that “The claim that moral values and duties are rooted in God is a meta-ethical claim about moral ontology, not moral semantics […] It is fundamentally a claim about the metaphysical status of moral properties, not a claim about the meaning of moral sentences” (pg. 212). In addition most theists see no problem in accepting that goodness and morality are merely words used to describe God.
Another objection might be that the theist is begging the question when he or she assumes P2. Since God’s perfect goodness is part of his greatness, the theist is assuming that God is the standard for objective morality before the argument is made. It must be reiterated that all the theist is attempting to accomplish is show a possible state in which God can serve as a possible standard for objective moral truths. All the theist must do to solve the dilemma is to offer a view of God who is the perfect standard of absolute morality by virtue of His existence. If any being is perfect by definition, then if that being exists it has the power to be a standard by which others can be measured to. The theist can simply say that they believe God to be necessarily perfect in every regard, which would render the dilemma useless against this particular definition of God. God, described as the greatest conceivable being, if existing is the standard for objective morality by very definition. The solution is not stating that God is the objective moral standard because theists believe God to be the objective moral standard, for this would be tautology and circular reasoning; rather the argument is that God can be the standard for objective morality because of Gods necessary moral perfection.
While this dilemma posed a formidable problem for the polytheist who like Euthyphro believed the gods to be a group of limited individuals, the modern day monotheist can avoid this dilemma by using the modern day concept of God as a maximally great being. To answer the dilemma the theist can offer a third solution rendering it a false dilemma, and state that acts are deemed either moral or immoral based upon their conformity or lack thereof to Gods moral nature, which is essential to His being.

Craig, L William “Philosophy of Religion”
Rutgers University Press (2002)

Russell, Bertrand “Why I am not a Christian”
Taken from a lecture given on March 6, 1927 to the National Secular Society.

Enjoy and have a great Easter!

Classes right now seem overwhelmingly difficult, it seems as though I am working 4x as hard and getting worse grades than last semester. I had some recent good fortune with a math and philosophy exam, That aside my bio insect and com sci classes are ridiculously hard. I was feeling uber stressed anxious and worried about my future which has been why I have been working (almost non stop) the last week. I am stressed to keep I came across these verses last night which were encouraging.

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 

So do not worry about tomorrow; 
for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4 

I lift up my eyes to the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
Proverbs 3:5-6 

An anxious heart weighs a man down….
Proverbs 12:25 

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life.
Matthew 6:25-27 

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Psalm 62:8 

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.
Psalm 55:22 

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1

 ”Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God”

John 14:1 

 Surely God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
Isaiah 12:2 

whether it be work, school, relationships, or life in general, what do you guys do when you feel overwhelmed?

comment and let me know